DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7477#0031
24 THE EARLIER RELIGION OF GREECE
Under a different aspect the recently discovered Temple-
Tomb, South of the Palace, illustrates the same idea. The
upper part of its structure had been a columnar pillar
shrine of a kind of which more than one example exists
in the Palace itself, the Little Palace, and the adjacent
mansions. Beneath it, as usual in such cases, was a crypt,
the stone pillars of which, in this case two, supported
corresponding wooden columns on the floor above. Of
the ritual function served by such pillars there are many
evidences, not only in the repetition of the incised Double-
Axe symbol, but in the actual placing against them of its
socketed, pyramidal stands and by the offertory vessels set
round the base. In the present case the pillars had origin-
ally been covered with painted stucco, of which only traces
remained, but the character of the cult was itself sufficiently
revealed by finely incised Double-Axe signs, apparently,
originally twice repeated on all the blocks of the walls.
From this pillar crypt, standing in immediate relation to
the cult of the Minoan Goddess as carried out in the upper
sanctuary, a portal in the West wall led to the sepulchral
chamber itself, cut in the rock, but provided with a central
pier and brilliantly lined with gypsum slabs and pilasters.
The rock ceiling above, where visible between the huge
rafters, had been painted a brilliant Egyptian blue, to convey
to the departed a vision of the sky.
The burial vault itself, as its sunken pavement and
central pillar indicate, was also a scene of worship, and
a characteristic stone block for libations, which seems to
have drifted into the hall from this inner compartment,
with its five tubular cavities, represents in an almost un-
changed form an early Nilotic cult object. An incense
burner of L.M. II date was also remarkable as having been
painted inside as well as out with bright coloured decoration
for the benefit of the dead. In the last age of the Palace
(c. 1400 B.C.) the vault was again opened for the interment—
probably of some last scion of the House of Minos—in a
corner pit. This, though it had been rifled for precious
Under a different aspect the recently discovered Temple-
Tomb, South of the Palace, illustrates the same idea. The
upper part of its structure had been a columnar pillar
shrine of a kind of which more than one example exists
in the Palace itself, the Little Palace, and the adjacent
mansions. Beneath it, as usual in such cases, was a crypt,
the stone pillars of which, in this case two, supported
corresponding wooden columns on the floor above. Of
the ritual function served by such pillars there are many
evidences, not only in the repetition of the incised Double-
Axe symbol, but in the actual placing against them of its
socketed, pyramidal stands and by the offertory vessels set
round the base. In the present case the pillars had origin-
ally been covered with painted stucco, of which only traces
remained, but the character of the cult was itself sufficiently
revealed by finely incised Double-Axe signs, apparently,
originally twice repeated on all the blocks of the walls.
From this pillar crypt, standing in immediate relation to
the cult of the Minoan Goddess as carried out in the upper
sanctuary, a portal in the West wall led to the sepulchral
chamber itself, cut in the rock, but provided with a central
pier and brilliantly lined with gypsum slabs and pilasters.
The rock ceiling above, where visible between the huge
rafters, had been painted a brilliant Egyptian blue, to convey
to the departed a vision of the sky.
The burial vault itself, as its sunken pavement and
central pillar indicate, was also a scene of worship, and
a characteristic stone block for libations, which seems to
have drifted into the hall from this inner compartment,
with its five tubular cavities, represents in an almost un-
changed form an early Nilotic cult object. An incense
burner of L.M. II date was also remarkable as having been
painted inside as well as out with bright coloured decoration
for the benefit of the dead. In the last age of the Palace
(c. 1400 B.C.) the vault was again opened for the interment—
probably of some last scion of the House of Minos—in a
corner pit. This, though it had been rifled for precious