DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.811#0011
PREFACE xi
structures, which, as already pointed out, belong exclusively to this Period.
Additional evidence is also afforded in that Palace section by the West
Porch, with the remains of a bull-grappling fresco, and by the Magazines on
that side in their existing state, comprising the bulk of the great store jars.
There is also a mass of fine ceramic evidence from the Western borders of
the building in the shape of large painted vases in the highly decorative
' Palace Style'.
In the concluding Volume of this work must also necessarily be
included some account of the inscribed tablets of the Linear Class B,
which equally mark the latest stage in the Palace history—though in some
cases they possibly go back to the closing phase (b) of L. M. I. The
most important deposits of these are also associated with the Western
Palace region, though they also occur throughout the site. Of these tablets
I hope to give a more complete description in the concluding part of my
Scripla Minoa, but no account of the Palace in its latest stage could be
adequate without considerable reference to these clay archives. Although
the script itself still eludes decipherment, the general purport of many
of the documents is clear owing to the illustrations that they give, of the
objects to which they refer, while the accompanying numeration is also
intelligible. They thus supply a very extensive source of information as to
the contents of the Palace Magazines and Treasury as well as of the royal
Arsenal and Mews at this epoch.
It is impossible for me to give adequate acknowledgement of the
varied assistance afforded me in the present Volume by many kind friends
and fellow workers. I am particularly indebted to my French colleagues,
Messieurs J. Charbonneaux, Fernand Chapouthier, and R. Joly, for enabling
me to profit by the results of their epoch-making discoveries in the Palace
of Mallia.1 For sphragistic records Dr. Doro Levi's supplementary account
of the clay sealings of Hagia Triada and of Zakro has also been of special
service.2 Valuable assistance in the field of Egyptian and Oriental research
has, as usual, been freely given me by Dr. H. R. Hall of the British
Museum, and Mr. E. J. Forsdyke has kindly looked over for me the
1 Three recent publications by these explorers in the Bulletin of the French School
at Athens (1928) may here be mentioned. F. Chapouthier, Une Table a Offrandes au Palais
de Mallia (cf. p. 392 seqq., below); R. Joly, La Salle hypostyle du Palais de Mallia ; J. Charbon-
neaux, L'Architecture et la Ce'ramique du Palais de Mallia.
2 Doro Levi, Le cretule di Hagia Triada e di Zakro, in the Annuario of the Italian School
at Athens, 1929.
structures, which, as already pointed out, belong exclusively to this Period.
Additional evidence is also afforded in that Palace section by the West
Porch, with the remains of a bull-grappling fresco, and by the Magazines on
that side in their existing state, comprising the bulk of the great store jars.
There is also a mass of fine ceramic evidence from the Western borders of
the building in the shape of large painted vases in the highly decorative
' Palace Style'.
In the concluding Volume of this work must also necessarily be
included some account of the inscribed tablets of the Linear Class B,
which equally mark the latest stage in the Palace history—though in some
cases they possibly go back to the closing phase (b) of L. M. I. The
most important deposits of these are also associated with the Western
Palace region, though they also occur throughout the site. Of these tablets
I hope to give a more complete description in the concluding part of my
Scripla Minoa, but no account of the Palace in its latest stage could be
adequate without considerable reference to these clay archives. Although
the script itself still eludes decipherment, the general purport of many
of the documents is clear owing to the illustrations that they give, of the
objects to which they refer, while the accompanying numeration is also
intelligible. They thus supply a very extensive source of information as to
the contents of the Palace Magazines and Treasury as well as of the royal
Arsenal and Mews at this epoch.
It is impossible for me to give adequate acknowledgement of the
varied assistance afforded me in the present Volume by many kind friends
and fellow workers. I am particularly indebted to my French colleagues,
Messieurs J. Charbonneaux, Fernand Chapouthier, and R. Joly, for enabling
me to profit by the results of their epoch-making discoveries in the Palace
of Mallia.1 For sphragistic records Dr. Doro Levi's supplementary account
of the clay sealings of Hagia Triada and of Zakro has also been of special
service.2 Valuable assistance in the field of Egyptian and Oriental research
has, as usual, been freely given me by Dr. H. R. Hall of the British
Museum, and Mr. E. J. Forsdyke has kindly looked over for me the
1 Three recent publications by these explorers in the Bulletin of the French School
at Athens (1928) may here be mentioned. F. Chapouthier, Une Table a Offrandes au Palais
de Mallia (cf. p. 392 seqq., below); R. Joly, La Salle hypostyle du Palais de Mallia ; J. Charbon-
neaux, L'Architecture et la Ce'ramique du Palais de Mallia.
2 Doro Levi, Le cretule di Hagia Triada e di Zakro, in the Annuario of the Italian School
at Athens, 1929.