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)

482

ASCENTS TO CENTRAL COURT AND ROOF

Some-
what
lesser
height of
upper
stories.

Third

landing

below

Court

level.

Flight of
stairs to
roof
terrace.

indication in the somewhat lower height of those of the two upper stories,
accepting Mr. Christian Doll's revised view of the height of the correspond-
ing flights of the Grand Staircase.

In view of the purely artificial support of the third and fourth flights
by means of wooden beams and columns in place of the actual terra firma
underlying the two lower flights, Mr. Doll has been led to the conclusion
embodied in the Section (D) at the end of this Volume,1 that flights 3 and 4
were laid at a lower slope.2 According to this calculation these two flights
would together have occupied a height of only 3-30 metres, in place of about
4-15, for the total height of the lowermost story.

As a consequence of this, the landing of the fourth flight would be
brought down 80 centimetres below the level of the Central Court, which,
according to the system as reconstructed, it actually reaches. In this case four
steps 3 may have led down to the landing, traversing the two outer lines of
wall, which, together, have a breadth of about a metre. This would have
corresponded with the descent to the basements on the Western side of the
Court by steps through the more widely espaced lines of outer walling.4

From the fourth landing,5 as shown in the Section of the Grand Stair-
case (D) at the end of this Volume, a similar flight—the fifth of the series-
led to another landing, beyond which the system of ascent to the upper roof
terrace somewhat changed. The turn Westwards from this fifth landing is
shown to have consisted of four steps which are clearly marked by cuttings
on the great stair-block, here raised into position, very careful drawings of
which by Mr. Christian Doll are given in Fig. 336, a, b, c. Beyond these
four steps, however, the passage-way, as is proved by the absence of step-
marks on that side of the block (Fig. 336, b), did not at once ascend. The
places of the steps in its further course must be fixed, as shown in Mr. Doll's
Section (D), at the points where the great beams supported the gangway.

This further course North, though with a more widely espaced system
of steps, rose to the same height as the fifth flight of stairs (1-65 metres), the

part of the South House {P. of M., ii, Pt. I,
p. 380 seqq.). Its main entrance was probably
from the terrace above on the Palace side.

1 Compare, too, his section given on a
smaller scale in P. of M., i, p. 340, Fig. 247.

! Mr. Doll is of opinion that some of the
step-marks on the side-blocks of the stairs
corroborate the idea of a lower slope. His
careful drawings of these will appear at the
end of Vol. IV of the present work. The pave-

ment level of the Hall of the Colonnades is
approximately 8-25 metres.

3 Four steps would give a rise of 20 cm.
and a breadth of 25.

4 The number of steps here was probably
six, with less rise.

6 A photographic view of this landing, as
restored, with the two first steps of this flight,
is given in Fig. 195, p. 300, above.