DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.811#0202
RECONSTRUCTED PLAN OF NORTHERN ENTRANCE 161
marks, such as the tridents, the double axes, and ' broad arrows' cut on the
blocks, absolutely correspond with those of the ashlar masonry of many
parts of the Domestic Quarter, belonging—as shown elsewhere in detail—
to the early phase, a, of the Third Middle Minoan Period. To this may
be added another piece of corroborative evidence : the West wall of the
three bastions on that side forms an integral part of the North-West
Portico beyond, together with the adjoining Lustral Area, which has also
been shown above to gr> back to the same M. M. 111 a phase. The North
line of Bastion B is in fact the continuation of that of the doorways of the
North-West Entrance. The North face of the opposite Bastion on the
East side (B-B) follows the same line.
Many elements are at our disposal for the original plan and elevation Proposed
of the section of the Northern Entrance Avenue that lies below what was struction
once the N.E. angle of the Early Keep and its superstructure. A careful ofN-
study of these has led to a result, at once self-contained and answering to all Passage,
local requirements, which fully explains how this approach was made the
vehicle for the most splendid exhibition of the plastic art combined with the
painters' skill that could have existed in the whole of the Palace precincts.
Nowhere else, certainly, within the building was a place to be found for two
spacious and well-lighted Galleries, facing one another, to do equal justice to
these large compositions. For the structures of which such a good record
has been preserved to us were associated with the remains of great painted
plaster reliefs of bull-catching scenes, fragmentary, indeed, but a single piece of
which—the head of the charging bull—is alone sufficient to place Minoan
art, in this department at least, on a par with the masterpieces of Classical
Antiquity.
The plans and elevations (Folding Plate, Fig. 106) executed, with com-
plete architectural details, by Mr. Piet de Jong, in accordance with my
general arrangement, gradually elaborated, correspond in the most exact
manner with the existing remains and the space conditions, and may, indeed,
be said to prove themselves.
The impressive effect of this avenue of approach was no doubt kept
the more in view owing to this being the chief public entrance of the Palace.
Whether or not the trident signs repeated in the North-Westernmost
bastion conveyed a special allusion, this was the Sea Gate of the building.
The outer gateway indeed opened West, but it clearly stood in relation to
some paved way running almost North, a diagonal connexion with which
is in fact preserved by a narrow causeway starting from above the ' Theatral
Area' and heading towards the North Pillar Crypt and the Royal Villa.
III. M
marks, such as the tridents, the double axes, and ' broad arrows' cut on the
blocks, absolutely correspond with those of the ashlar masonry of many
parts of the Domestic Quarter, belonging—as shown elsewhere in detail—
to the early phase, a, of the Third Middle Minoan Period. To this may
be added another piece of corroborative evidence : the West wall of the
three bastions on that side forms an integral part of the North-West
Portico beyond, together with the adjoining Lustral Area, which has also
been shown above to gr> back to the same M. M. 111 a phase. The North
line of Bastion B is in fact the continuation of that of the doorways of the
North-West Entrance. The North face of the opposite Bastion on the
East side (B-B) follows the same line.
Many elements are at our disposal for the original plan and elevation Proposed
of the section of the Northern Entrance Avenue that lies below what was struction
once the N.E. angle of the Early Keep and its superstructure. A careful ofN-
study of these has led to a result, at once self-contained and answering to all Passage,
local requirements, which fully explains how this approach was made the
vehicle for the most splendid exhibition of the plastic art combined with the
painters' skill that could have existed in the whole of the Palace precincts.
Nowhere else, certainly, within the building was a place to be found for two
spacious and well-lighted Galleries, facing one another, to do equal justice to
these large compositions. For the structures of which such a good record
has been preserved to us were associated with the remains of great painted
plaster reliefs of bull-catching scenes, fragmentary, indeed, but a single piece of
which—the head of the charging bull—is alone sufficient to place Minoan
art, in this department at least, on a par with the masterpieces of Classical
Antiquity.
The plans and elevations (Folding Plate, Fig. 106) executed, with com-
plete architectural details, by Mr. Piet de Jong, in accordance with my
general arrangement, gradually elaborated, correspond in the most exact
manner with the existing remains and the space conditions, and may, indeed,
be said to prove themselves.
The impressive effect of this avenue of approach was no doubt kept
the more in view owing to this being the chief public entrance of the Palace.
Whether or not the trident signs repeated in the North-Westernmost
bastion conveyed a special allusion, this was the Sea Gate of the building.
The outer gateway indeed opened West, but it clearly stood in relation to
some paved way running almost North, a diagonal connexion with which
is in fact preserved by a narrow causeway starting from above the ' Theatral
Area' and heading towards the North Pillar Crypt and the Royal Villa.
III. M