DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.810#0427
798
NEW FRONTAGE LINE ON CENTRAL COURT
Stylobate
marking
new
frontage
of Court.
Earlier
wall-line
behind.
Rounded
X.E.
corner of
old ortho-
static
wall.
Remains
of earlier
pave-
ment.
opens from this point on the Kairatos valley and the glen below, showing
the house of Said Bey, which was the original head-quarters at the beginning
of die excavation on the site of Knossos. A good idea is also given of the
upper section of the ' South-North Corridor' as restored, showing the replica
of the ' Priest-King' Relief replaced in the position occupied by the
original. (Compare Suppl. PI. XXIX.)
The South-West corner of the Central Court thus entered shows good
remains of its limestone paving slabs, round the inner edges of which
remains of hard white stucco are preserved, which also cover the base of the
stylobate and are rounded below so as to carry off the rain-water from
the wall.
The limestone stylobate itself—traceable along almost the whole
Western border of the Court—is a very interesting structural feature,
marking, as it does, an extension East of the frontage of the West section
of the Palace on this side, which was a most prominent feature in the
scheme of restoration adopted after the great seismic disaster towards the
close of M.M. III^.
At a distance, varying from about three-quarters of a metre to two
metres, West of this stylobate there is visible the line of the original
frontage, consisting of gypsum orthostats on a limestone plinth, which goes
back, like the orthostatic wall that borders the West Court, to the early days
of the Middle Minoan Palace. This Western Palace wall—as being an
exterior wall—was thicker than that which bounded the Central Court,
having a double line of orthostats with a rubble filling between. It was
preceded, however, a little West of it, as already shown, by the still earlier
proto-palatial wall of which the base-blocks still supply a record. It is
possible, indeed, that the frontage along the Central Court may date back
to this early epoch, since its Northern termination shows the same rounded
outline, such as the old base-blocks indicate for what may have been the
South-East corner of the same original Palace insula.
Fig. 521 gives a view of the rounded corner of the older orthostatic
wall on the side of the Central Court,1 showing the lower block of a pillar
on the new stylobate a little in front of it, and the door-jambs of the ante-
room of the ' Room of the Throne '—a later structure—in line with it. The
peak of Juktas is visible in the background.
In the section of the border of the Court that faced the right wing of
the little shrine to be described below, parts of the older pavement were
preserved along the plinth of the orthostatic wall, consisting of thick
1 A view from a slightly different angle is given in P. of M., \, p. T40, Fig. 102.
NEW FRONTAGE LINE ON CENTRAL COURT
Stylobate
marking
new
frontage
of Court.
Earlier
wall-line
behind.
Rounded
X.E.
corner of
old ortho-
static
wall.
Remains
of earlier
pave-
ment.
opens from this point on the Kairatos valley and the glen below, showing
the house of Said Bey, which was the original head-quarters at the beginning
of die excavation on the site of Knossos. A good idea is also given of the
upper section of the ' South-North Corridor' as restored, showing the replica
of the ' Priest-King' Relief replaced in the position occupied by the
original. (Compare Suppl. PI. XXIX.)
The South-West corner of the Central Court thus entered shows good
remains of its limestone paving slabs, round the inner edges of which
remains of hard white stucco are preserved, which also cover the base of the
stylobate and are rounded below so as to carry off the rain-water from
the wall.
The limestone stylobate itself—traceable along almost the whole
Western border of the Court—is a very interesting structural feature,
marking, as it does, an extension East of the frontage of the West section
of the Palace on this side, which was a most prominent feature in the
scheme of restoration adopted after the great seismic disaster towards the
close of M.M. III^.
At a distance, varying from about three-quarters of a metre to two
metres, West of this stylobate there is visible the line of the original
frontage, consisting of gypsum orthostats on a limestone plinth, which goes
back, like the orthostatic wall that borders the West Court, to the early days
of the Middle Minoan Palace. This Western Palace wall—as being an
exterior wall—was thicker than that which bounded the Central Court,
having a double line of orthostats with a rubble filling between. It was
preceded, however, a little West of it, as already shown, by the still earlier
proto-palatial wall of which the base-blocks still supply a record. It is
possible, indeed, that the frontage along the Central Court may date back
to this early epoch, since its Northern termination shows the same rounded
outline, such as the old base-blocks indicate for what may have been the
South-East corner of the same original Palace insula.
Fig. 521 gives a view of the rounded corner of the older orthostatic
wall on the side of the Central Court,1 showing the lower block of a pillar
on the new stylobate a little in front of it, and the door-jambs of the ante-
room of the ' Room of the Throne '—a later structure—in line with it. The
peak of Juktas is visible in the background.
In the section of the border of the Court that faced the right wing of
the little shrine to be described below, parts of the older pavement were
preserved along the plinth of the orthostatic wall, consisting of thick
1 A view from a slightly different angle is given in P. of M., \, p. T40, Fig. 102.