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)

Erro-
neous
popular
impres-
sion of
Palace as
a maze.

§ 81. Further Reconstitution of the 'Domestic Quarter'; General
View of the Upper Story System.

Erroneous popular impression of Palace as a Maze ; True derivation of
name 'Labyrinth '; Maze as sphragistic motive of Egyptian origin ; Regular
and four-square construction of Palace; Scientific planning of ' Domestic
Quarter' ; Comparative isolation of Women's Chambers ; Exceptional preserva-
tion of ' Domestic Quarter'; Surprising discovery of Grand Staircase—
difficult tunnelling; Fallen materials, petrified by gypsum percolations, support
upper stories; Re-stipporling and restoration of floors throughout Quarter
a necessary work ; Reconstitution facilitated by use offerro-concrete ; Flooring
over of Lower Stories of ' Domestic Quarter'; Restoration of floor of' Upper
Hall of Double Axes'; The System of Light-wells ; Light-courts necessary
protection against fierce South-East and North-West winds ; Wind erosion of
rocks due to S.E. blasts—-slits cut in cliffs and Palace wall; Upper Story
System above Great Halls ; Fragment of L. M. LI fresco in situ on wall;
Decorative frieze associated with ' Upper Hall of Double Axes'—contemporary
with spiral friezes of this area ; West Light-tvellofHall; Special facilities for
social inter-communication between Upper and Lower Hall; Partial segregation
of sexes ; Private Chamber (Thalamos) above ' Queen's Megaron'; Windowless
Chambers for Treasury and Archives—These connected zvith a Shrine of the
Double Axes ; Room of Stone Bench; Fragments of Processional Fresco—
belong to partial restoration towards close of L. M. La.; Service Staircase;
Compact planning of inner region.

Some general account of the ' Domestic Quarter', set in the Great
Cutting on the East slope of the site, has already been given in the First
Volume of this work,1 though a more special description of its important
halls was there reserved for later Sections.

The preconceived idea that the Palace that occupies the traditional
seat of Minos was itself of a labyrinthine nature dies hard. In the days
of ruin and desertion, with choked gangways and disordered lines of
walling, with subterranean ducts, along which a stooping man might make
his way, but which were really great stone-built drains, and, above all,
the appearance of girl performers grappling with charging bulls, which in
the portico of the Northern Entrance had kept their place down to the
coming of the Greeks 2—mysterious forms and features such as these, seen

p. 325seqq., § 17.

See above, pp. 190, 191.