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)

DATE OF THEATRAL STEPS AND RUNNEL

of M. M. I, or, approximately, 2100 e. c, and afterwards cut short and partly overlaid at their
Eastern extremity by the successive later systems.

It appears then that in this case the parabolic channel belongs to the
initial phase, a, of the Third Middle Minoan Period, going back at least
to about the middle of the seventeenth century B.C. At the same time the
endeavour to ascertain the exact Minoan stage to which the later flight of
steps here belonged has been fertile in results that illuminate the whole
history of that Palace area, and of which it has been necessary to give
a rSsumJ in this place. So far as the special inquiry is concerned, to which
these investigations were primarily due, these results must be taken to lead
to a very definite conclusion. The cement runnel of which we have here
the remains, together with the steps with which it is organically connected,
proves to be earlier—roughly speaking, by the greater part of the Third
Middle Minoan Period—than the stone examples above described. Whether
channels to which this parabolic system was applied existed at a still earlier
date must remain a moot point.

Results
acquired
— runnel
of M. M.
Ill a
date.

Fig. 172a. View of N.E. Corner of 'Theatral Area', showing Bastion and

Position of Runnel.