DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.811#0034
N.W.
entrance.
RAMP PASSAGE FROM PORTICO AND LUSTRAL AREA 7
glimpse of a fenced city, perhaps the port town of Knossos, with outer
towers and houses on the wall, in addition to its street facades. If, more-
over, during the later epoch, unified dominion and immunity from foreign
attack led to the comparative disuse of such precautions in Crete itself, there
is no reason to suppose that walled defences were neglected in the more out-
lying districts of the Minoan World. Certain traditions, indeed, of this older
system of fortification clung to both the palatial and the civic architecture of
Crete down to Late Minoan times. The system of successive returns in the
wall line—a survival of projecting bastions such as we see them in early
Anatolian sites like Sendjirli—so characteristic of the West facade at
Knossos, recurs at Phaestos, Hagia Triada, and Gournia, and again in the
early Palace of Mallia.1
Ramp Passage from N.W. Portico and Lustral Area.
It is clear that the ' Early Keep' must have blocked the direct access Ramp
from the North-West Portico to the Central Court. The course of what fro^86
was probably an open ramp may be traced, however, stepping up past its
N.W. angle and thus abutting on a passage-way leading directly to the
' Corridor of the Stone Basin' referred to above and so to the adjoining
angle of the Central Court.2
The access to this passage-way from below was through the double
gateway opening on the 'North-West Portico'. From the inner vestibule,
bordering this entrance on its Southern side, there opens West an elongated
space that must always have been uncovered, of the same width as the
entrance of about two and a half metres, representing the first section of
the original ramp and somewhat overlapping the Northern substructures of
the ' Keep '.3 The ramp, after running a little over four metres West, turned
at right angles South, ascending still till it reached a level answering to the
original level of the Central Court. Up to this point we must suppose it to
have been open, but the passage now passed under cover, debouching by
a doorway into the ' Corridor of the Stone Basin ' above mentioned and thus
gaining access to the North-West corner of the Central Court.
1 See J3, of M., ii, Pt. I, p. 270. sections of the ramp, the pavement had not
2 See Plan A at end of Vol. ii, and cf. Vol. i, been preserved, though there are some traces
pp. 422, 423. of the points where it stepped up. The inter-
3 A fine limestone corner block of the North space that it occupied was to a large extent
wall of the passage-way marked with the 'spray ' excavated to a considerable depth in 1913 in
sign was brought out in 1928. Of the lower tracing the substructures of the Keep.
entrance.
RAMP PASSAGE FROM PORTICO AND LUSTRAL AREA 7
glimpse of a fenced city, perhaps the port town of Knossos, with outer
towers and houses on the wall, in addition to its street facades. If, more-
over, during the later epoch, unified dominion and immunity from foreign
attack led to the comparative disuse of such precautions in Crete itself, there
is no reason to suppose that walled defences were neglected in the more out-
lying districts of the Minoan World. Certain traditions, indeed, of this older
system of fortification clung to both the palatial and the civic architecture of
Crete down to Late Minoan times. The system of successive returns in the
wall line—a survival of projecting bastions such as we see them in early
Anatolian sites like Sendjirli—so characteristic of the West facade at
Knossos, recurs at Phaestos, Hagia Triada, and Gournia, and again in the
early Palace of Mallia.1
Ramp Passage from N.W. Portico and Lustral Area.
It is clear that the ' Early Keep' must have blocked the direct access Ramp
from the North-West Portico to the Central Court. The course of what fro^86
was probably an open ramp may be traced, however, stepping up past its
N.W. angle and thus abutting on a passage-way leading directly to the
' Corridor of the Stone Basin' referred to above and so to the adjoining
angle of the Central Court.2
The access to this passage-way from below was through the double
gateway opening on the 'North-West Portico'. From the inner vestibule,
bordering this entrance on its Southern side, there opens West an elongated
space that must always have been uncovered, of the same width as the
entrance of about two and a half metres, representing the first section of
the original ramp and somewhat overlapping the Northern substructures of
the ' Keep '.3 The ramp, after running a little over four metres West, turned
at right angles South, ascending still till it reached a level answering to the
original level of the Central Court. Up to this point we must suppose it to
have been open, but the passage now passed under cover, debouching by
a doorway into the ' Corridor of the Stone Basin ' above mentioned and thus
gaining access to the North-West corner of the Central Court.
1 See J3, of M., ii, Pt. I, p. 270. sections of the ramp, the pavement had not
2 See Plan A at end of Vol. ii, and cf. Vol. i, been preserved, though there are some traces
pp. 422, 423. of the points where it stepped up. The inter-
3 A fine limestone corner block of the North space that it occupied was to a large extent
wall of the passage-way marked with the 'spray ' excavated to a considerable depth in 1913 in
sign was brought out in 1928. Of the lower tracing the substructures of the Keep.