DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.810#0433
804
VESTIGES OF SMALL COLUMNAR SHRINE
Two pairs
of bases
visible.
Com-
partment
between
them
answer-
ing to
Cella.
1901, moreover, the discovery was made, above the red cement floor of the
area behind the Northern part of this section of the stylobate, of fragments
of clay seal-impressions, showing the lion-guarded Goddess on a rocky peak
with a worshipper in front and a two-storied pillar shrine behind. The
further discovery, in a small area North of the Court, of the remains of the
fresco design of the little columnar temple, with crowds of people of both sexes
round it (see above, p. 597, Fig. 371), emboldened me to suggest in my Annual
Report that these remains ' might supply a clue to the site of the miniature
temple depicted on the fresco \* The further evidence, now at our disposal,
has so far borne out the truth of this conjecture in a modified form. It was
not, however, the ' miniature temple' of the fresco itself that bordered the
Court in the section with which we are here concerned, but, as will be seen,
a shrine, of the same general character, with a narrower and one-columned
central Cella.
It was ten years later that certain appearances, gradually brought out
by successive winters' rains, first struck my eye, which may be thought to
offer material for a definite conclusion.2
In the left wing of the section of stylobate in question there appeared
clearly defined disks representing the lower ends of wooden columns, some
traces of their carbonization showing in their partially blackened surfaces.
Symmetrically disposed, again—with the same interval of 40 centimetres
between—on the other side of what seems to have been the central Cella,
two further disks of similar character had also become visible, one sign of
the original position of the columns being in both cases the better protection
of the surface of the stylobate blocks on which they had stood (see Plan,
Fig. 520).
Almost exactly corresponding with the gap between the two pairs of
bases there was a rectangular recess in the wall-line of the adjoining open
lobby of the ' Room of the Column-bases ', which had puzzled us from the
beginning of the excavation, and had the appearance of a small ingle-nook
and chimney. It showed on its right side orthostatic slabs, grooved for a post
supporting an upper structure, and itself seems to have formed a little closet
below with a good limestone paving slab, in which were found remains of
a wooden chest with tablets of the Linear Script B. There could be little
doubt, in view of the symmetrical relation of the recess to the traces of the
two columnar wings of a structure on the stylobate in front, that this nook
was in fact the lower compartment of the central cell answering to a little
1 Knossos, Report, 1901, p. 30 (B. S. A., vii).
5 See A. E., Restored Shrine in Central Court
of the Palace of Knossos (R. I. B. A. Journ.),
1911, p. 249 seqq.
VESTIGES OF SMALL COLUMNAR SHRINE
Two pairs
of bases
visible.
Com-
partment
between
them
answer-
ing to
Cella.
1901, moreover, the discovery was made, above the red cement floor of the
area behind the Northern part of this section of the stylobate, of fragments
of clay seal-impressions, showing the lion-guarded Goddess on a rocky peak
with a worshipper in front and a two-storied pillar shrine behind. The
further discovery, in a small area North of the Court, of the remains of the
fresco design of the little columnar temple, with crowds of people of both sexes
round it (see above, p. 597, Fig. 371), emboldened me to suggest in my Annual
Report that these remains ' might supply a clue to the site of the miniature
temple depicted on the fresco \* The further evidence, now at our disposal,
has so far borne out the truth of this conjecture in a modified form. It was
not, however, the ' miniature temple' of the fresco itself that bordered the
Court in the section with which we are here concerned, but, as will be seen,
a shrine, of the same general character, with a narrower and one-columned
central Cella.
It was ten years later that certain appearances, gradually brought out
by successive winters' rains, first struck my eye, which may be thought to
offer material for a definite conclusion.2
In the left wing of the section of stylobate in question there appeared
clearly defined disks representing the lower ends of wooden columns, some
traces of their carbonization showing in their partially blackened surfaces.
Symmetrically disposed, again—with the same interval of 40 centimetres
between—on the other side of what seems to have been the central Cella,
two further disks of similar character had also become visible, one sign of
the original position of the columns being in both cases the better protection
of the surface of the stylobate blocks on which they had stood (see Plan,
Fig. 520).
Almost exactly corresponding with the gap between the two pairs of
bases there was a rectangular recess in the wall-line of the adjoining open
lobby of the ' Room of the Column-bases ', which had puzzled us from the
beginning of the excavation, and had the appearance of a small ingle-nook
and chimney. It showed on its right side orthostatic slabs, grooved for a post
supporting an upper structure, and itself seems to have formed a little closet
below with a good limestone paving slab, in which were found remains of
a wooden chest with tablets of the Linear Script B. There could be little
doubt, in view of the symmetrical relation of the recess to the traces of the
two columnar wings of a structure on the stylobate in front, that this nook
was in fact the lower compartment of the central cell answering to a little
1 Knossos, Report, 1901, p. 30 (B. S. A., vii).
5 See A. E., Restored Shrine in Central Court
of the Palace of Knossos (R. I. B. A. Journ.),
1911, p. 249 seqq.