Evans, Arthur J.: The Palace of Minos: a comparative account of the successive stages of the early Cretan civilization as illustred by the discoveries at Knossos (Band 3): The great transitional age in the northern and eastern sections of the Palace (London, 1930)

8 ' INITIATORY AREA ' AND N. LUSTRAL BASIN

Palatial Function of ' Initiatory Area' and the N. Lustral Basin.

Initia- It has been already pointed out that this passage-way fulfilled a

an"d ' special function in bringing this part of the building—itself, it appears, con-

'Votaries taining more than one shrine—into direct connexion with the entrance

entrance. °

Fig. 2. Revised Plan of ' Initiatory Area ' and Lustral Basin.

The N.
Lustral
Basin:
M. M.
Ilia
date.

system that bordered the N.W. Portico—itself essentially sacral in character.
This entrance system indeed—forming as a whole the ' North-West Bailey '
—seems to have been specially designed to suit the religious require-
ments of pilgrims or votaries entering the Palace-Sanctuary from that side.
As shown in the revised Plan, Fig. 2,1 it centres in the remarkable early
example of a Lustral Basin, free-standing in a separate Court, described as
the ' Initiatory Area', and approached by a kind of Entrance Court, recalling
the Fore-hall of the ' Room of the Throne', which contained a similar
sunken basin on a smaller scale. Within the ' Initiatory Area', in a con-
temporary stratum that covered its North-West corner, there came to light
a series of remains of vessels such as decorative stone ewers and inlaid

' The original plan (P. of M., i, p. 405
seqq., and p. 406, Fig. 291) has been slightly
modified by Mr. Piet de Jong, in accordance

with observations made in the course
work executed in 1928 and 1929.

Df the