DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1117#0014
xii THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
atlas, it has for the first time supplied a full and accurate account of
Schliemann's discoveries.
Cordial thanks are clue to him for the liberality that has placed me in
possession of these magnificent volumes. But still less can I forget that, at
a time when the Great War had already broken out, and national animosities
were at their height, as a friend and fellow worker in the same field of
research, he had found means to send me the first proofs of the text.
II
To the last the site has been fertile in surprises—the final touch being
the chance finding of a royal signet-ring, leading to the discovery of the
monumental Temple-Tomb of the last Priest-kings. This had been preceded
by the emergence of a wholly new outer enceinte of the Palace itself,
revealing what was originally the main entrance system from the West.
This additional area that thus called for intensive exploration has
been the source of much new material, supplementing our knowledge of the
earlier cultural stages of the Palace history. The two more ' koulouras' or
circular walled pits here brought to light contained masses of painted
pottery, a good deal of it representing novel types and covering the whole
Middle Minoan Age. Below these, moreover, still earlier basements came
to light antedating the construction of the Palace itself. Nearer the Palace
wall, again—of later date, but supplying a singular illustration of the most
primitive religion of the spot—was found a room entirely devoted to the
tending of domestic snakes and containing the full furniture of their cult.1
The shelter provided for these water-loving reptiles turned out to be an
adaptation of a tubular section of one of the usual clay water-mains, while
the 'snake tube' thus evolved became a recurring feature in Minoan
shrines. It is shown to supply later the origin of a ritual object which
was adapted to the use both of the Cyprian Lady of the Dove and of
the Ashtoreth of Philistine Beth-Shan.
In the higher religious stratum to which the Minoan Goddess herself
belongs as Lady of the Underworld—and bearing on the grimmer side of
her worship in that Land of Earthquakes—an almost chance comparison
with the markings on the native adder's back revealed the true source of
her special symbol in that character. This sacred ' Adder Mark' appears
1 See below, p. 13S seqq.
atlas, it has for the first time supplied a full and accurate account of
Schliemann's discoveries.
Cordial thanks are clue to him for the liberality that has placed me in
possession of these magnificent volumes. But still less can I forget that, at
a time when the Great War had already broken out, and national animosities
were at their height, as a friend and fellow worker in the same field of
research, he had found means to send me the first proofs of the text.
II
To the last the site has been fertile in surprises—the final touch being
the chance finding of a royal signet-ring, leading to the discovery of the
monumental Temple-Tomb of the last Priest-kings. This had been preceded
by the emergence of a wholly new outer enceinte of the Palace itself,
revealing what was originally the main entrance system from the West.
This additional area that thus called for intensive exploration has
been the source of much new material, supplementing our knowledge of the
earlier cultural stages of the Palace history. The two more ' koulouras' or
circular walled pits here brought to light contained masses of painted
pottery, a good deal of it representing novel types and covering the whole
Middle Minoan Age. Below these, moreover, still earlier basements came
to light antedating the construction of the Palace itself. Nearer the Palace
wall, again—of later date, but supplying a singular illustration of the most
primitive religion of the spot—was found a room entirely devoted to the
tending of domestic snakes and containing the full furniture of their cult.1
The shelter provided for these water-loving reptiles turned out to be an
adaptation of a tubular section of one of the usual clay water-mains, while
the 'snake tube' thus evolved became a recurring feature in Minoan
shrines. It is shown to supply later the origin of a ritual object which
was adapted to the use both of the Cyprian Lady of the Dove and of
the Ashtoreth of Philistine Beth-Shan.
In the higher religious stratum to which the Minoan Goddess herself
belongs as Lady of the Underworld—and bearing on the grimmer side of
her worship in that Land of Earthquakes—an almost chance comparison
with the markings on the native adder's back revealed the true source of
her special symbol in that character. This sacred ' Adder Mark' appears
1 See below, p. 13S seqq.