DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.811#0203
162
THE NORTHERN ENTRANCE SYSTEM
Traces of
inner
Gate-
way.
Safe-
guarding
measures
due to
con-
sidera-
tions of
police.
The outer gate stood in connexion with a kind of propylon, the guard-
room of which is clearly traceable on its South flank while to the North was,
apparently, a tower. The roadway thus entered on an elongated paved space
about three metres broad with a gradual rise Southwards. It is clear that, at
the epoch to which the construction of the double row of bastions belonged,
the upper end of this entrance space was blocked by a second gateway. The
place of the massive wooden piers of this on either side could be clearly traced,
the gates themselves, opening inwards, doubtless being faced by rounded posts
such as we see indicated in the case of a more or less contemporary tablet of
the ' Town Mosaic' representing a tower,1 and again on the gate of the
besieged stronghold on the silver rhyton from Mycenae.2 Inside this, again,
on the left was a narrow walled recess that seems to have been devised for
a warder of the inner gate. (See Plan A at end of Vol. ii.)
The restored drawing of Mr. Piet de Jong (Fig. 107) shows this inner
entrance and the porticoes above the ascending passage beyond much as
they must originally have appeared.
These triple safeguards—the narrowing of the entrance passage to
about a third of its original size, the construction of the massive bastions
within, and of a tower just outside the inner gateway on its North
side—are curiously characteristic of the builders of the Third Middle
Minoan Palace. There does not seem to be any probability that at the
epoch to which they belong there was any serious outside menace. But
there can be no doubt that in this Age the Priest-Kings of Knossos had
accumulated vast stores of treasure in various materials within its walls, the
evidence of which is to be seen in the ' Kaselles' at that time constructed
in the magazines. It has already been shown that a large section of these
was now shut off from the surrounding area, thus forming the ' enclave of
the Kaselles',3 and access to this was restricted by the construction of a wall
across the Long Corridor with a doorway, the primitive key of which was
no doubt in the hands of a special officer. In view of these interior
precautions we have grounds for regarding the partial blocking of the North
Entrance Passage as due to similar motives of police protection and general
security rather than to any pressing military need.
As a whole, indeed, the successive changes in the arrangement here
present a close parallel with the history of the West Magazines.
The elongated paved space between the outer and inner gates served
itself as the principal light area of a large open Hall with two rows of large
1 P. of M., i, Fig. 226 (facing p. 306), I. 2 See above, p. 93, Fig. 52.
3 P. o/M., i, p. 449 seqq.
THE NORTHERN ENTRANCE SYSTEM
Traces of
inner
Gate-
way.
Safe-
guarding
measures
due to
con-
sidera-
tions of
police.
The outer gate stood in connexion with a kind of propylon, the guard-
room of which is clearly traceable on its South flank while to the North was,
apparently, a tower. The roadway thus entered on an elongated paved space
about three metres broad with a gradual rise Southwards. It is clear that, at
the epoch to which the construction of the double row of bastions belonged,
the upper end of this entrance space was blocked by a second gateway. The
place of the massive wooden piers of this on either side could be clearly traced,
the gates themselves, opening inwards, doubtless being faced by rounded posts
such as we see indicated in the case of a more or less contemporary tablet of
the ' Town Mosaic' representing a tower,1 and again on the gate of the
besieged stronghold on the silver rhyton from Mycenae.2 Inside this, again,
on the left was a narrow walled recess that seems to have been devised for
a warder of the inner gate. (See Plan A at end of Vol. ii.)
The restored drawing of Mr. Piet de Jong (Fig. 107) shows this inner
entrance and the porticoes above the ascending passage beyond much as
they must originally have appeared.
These triple safeguards—the narrowing of the entrance passage to
about a third of its original size, the construction of the massive bastions
within, and of a tower just outside the inner gateway on its North
side—are curiously characteristic of the builders of the Third Middle
Minoan Palace. There does not seem to be any probability that at the
epoch to which they belong there was any serious outside menace. But
there can be no doubt that in this Age the Priest-Kings of Knossos had
accumulated vast stores of treasure in various materials within its walls, the
evidence of which is to be seen in the ' Kaselles' at that time constructed
in the magazines. It has already been shown that a large section of these
was now shut off from the surrounding area, thus forming the ' enclave of
the Kaselles',3 and access to this was restricted by the construction of a wall
across the Long Corridor with a doorway, the primitive key of which was
no doubt in the hands of a special officer. In view of these interior
precautions we have grounds for regarding the partial blocking of the North
Entrance Passage as due to similar motives of police protection and general
security rather than to any pressing military need.
As a whole, indeed, the successive changes in the arrangement here
present a close parallel with the history of the West Magazines.
The elongated paved space between the outer and inner gates served
itself as the principal light area of a large open Hall with two rows of large
1 P. of M., i, Fig. 226 (facing p. 306), I. 2 See above, p. 93, Fig. 52.
3 P. o/M., i, p. 449 seqq.