DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.810#0399
77Q THE 'PALANQUIN FRESCO'
mouth is preserved, drinking in the usual way from the upper rim of
a conical ' rhyton '-like vessel.
The 'Palanquin Fresco'.
Fresco In the same basement in which occurred the clay signet with the sacra-
saccl. mental scene described above, and in the same stratum, some remarkable
dotal fijt- fraorments of fresco designs came to lii>ht. Several of the fragments
ures and °m t a a »
paian- exhibit portions of small figures—about one-eighth of the natural size—of
sacerdotal aspect, one of them in a kind of palanquin, and seem to have been
derived from the adjoining chamber West, which is also connected with the
hoard of seal-impressions. There is in any case every reason to believe that
this Section of the South-North Corridor which lies immediately North of
the Staircase landing had here bordered sanctuary precincts.
The fragments, to which it is convenient to give the name of the
' Palanquin Fresco', apparently belonged to a single panel, and from their
somewhat summary execution recall the' Camp-stool' frescoes, to be described
below,1 found on the North-West Palace border. In the case, however, of
the present group the evidence of the finding certainly points to the First
Late Minoan Period.
The most important figured designs on these fresco fragments (Fig. 502, a)
depict the heads and shoulders of two male personages wearing a white
robe with a dark band, recalling the clavus of Etruscan and Roman usage.
From other fragments we see that the robes here worn were of the long class
that characterizes a special group of Minoan figures, often in a ritual or
ceremonial connexion. Long-robed personages of an analogous class are
seen on a series of gems, in one case holding a single-bladed axe and in
another leading a sacred griffin, and others appear, with variations in detail, in
the lyre-player and a female bearer of a libation vase on the Hagia Triada
Sarcophagus. As already shown, a dress like the latter is worn by some of
the figures of the ' Procession Fresco ' at Knossos. There can be little doubt
that such long robes were the mark of more than one kind of priesthood in the
Minoan world, while the columnar object (coloured yellow) in front of the
two figures may be part of a pillar shrine. The ' gaberdines' point to Oriental
influence.
Together with the fragment (Fig. 502, a) representing, according to this
view, two sacerdotal personages, were found others depicting parts of figures
facing in the opposite direction. One of these (Fig. 502, c) is seated on a
kind of folding seat like a wooden camp-stool, illustrated by other Knossian
1 See Vol. iii.
mouth is preserved, drinking in the usual way from the upper rim of
a conical ' rhyton '-like vessel.
The 'Palanquin Fresco'.
Fresco In the same basement in which occurred the clay signet with the sacra-
saccl. mental scene described above, and in the same stratum, some remarkable
dotal fijt- fraorments of fresco designs came to lii>ht. Several of the fragments
ures and °m t a a »
paian- exhibit portions of small figures—about one-eighth of the natural size—of
sacerdotal aspect, one of them in a kind of palanquin, and seem to have been
derived from the adjoining chamber West, which is also connected with the
hoard of seal-impressions. There is in any case every reason to believe that
this Section of the South-North Corridor which lies immediately North of
the Staircase landing had here bordered sanctuary precincts.
The fragments, to which it is convenient to give the name of the
' Palanquin Fresco', apparently belonged to a single panel, and from their
somewhat summary execution recall the' Camp-stool' frescoes, to be described
below,1 found on the North-West Palace border. In the case, however, of
the present group the evidence of the finding certainly points to the First
Late Minoan Period.
The most important figured designs on these fresco fragments (Fig. 502, a)
depict the heads and shoulders of two male personages wearing a white
robe with a dark band, recalling the clavus of Etruscan and Roman usage.
From other fragments we see that the robes here worn were of the long class
that characterizes a special group of Minoan figures, often in a ritual or
ceremonial connexion. Long-robed personages of an analogous class are
seen on a series of gems, in one case holding a single-bladed axe and in
another leading a sacred griffin, and others appear, with variations in detail, in
the lyre-player and a female bearer of a libation vase on the Hagia Triada
Sarcophagus. As already shown, a dress like the latter is worn by some of
the figures of the ' Procession Fresco ' at Knossos. There can be little doubt
that such long robes were the mark of more than one kind of priesthood in the
Minoan world, while the columnar object (coloured yellow) in front of the
two figures may be part of a pillar shrine. The ' gaberdines' point to Oriental
influence.
Together with the fragment (Fig. 502, a) representing, according to this
view, two sacerdotal personages, were found others depicting parts of figures
facing in the opposite direction. One of these (Fig. 502, c) is seated on a
kind of folding seat like a wooden camp-stool, illustrated by other Knossian
1 See Vol. iii.