DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1117#0030
PREFACE xxvii
Double Axes'—still surrounds its Eastern end. Enough is still here pre-
served to awaken memories of the great ruler, law-giver, and ' priest for
ever after the Order of Melchizedek', in obedience to whose behest his
craftsman had raised the Palace-Sanctuary.
It can be claimed for this vast structure, of which we have here a
novel glimpse, that, ruined as it is, it has supplied quite exceptional infor-
mation as to its original disposition. The frescoes still connected with many
of the walls give a distinctive character to certain parts, while, not to speak
of the store-jars still ranged in the Magazines, the masses of objects brought
out in the various rooms often throw a light on the uses that they had served.
Almost every department of Art is splendidly illustrated, and the' Sculptor's
Workshop' shows the artist interrupted at work. In connexion with one
Hall we see depicted a religious ritual in the nature of a Communion, while
in the ' Room of the Throne' we seem actually to have intruded on a
Consistory presided over by the Priest-king. The clay archives in the
highly advanced Linear Script give an insight into the everyday business
transactions. Altogether we are enabled here to reconstruct a picture of
the daily life of the inmates such as is not even approached by any other
great building of Antiquity.
Nor, it may be thought, can any other site quite compare with the
vast range of underlying levels, marking successive occupation, here so
clearly delimited by catastrophic strokes due to no human agency. Of
these seismic strata—that thus supply a chronological basis—the Minoan
series go back through six different phases of Palatial history, while others
still relate to stages of comparatively civilized life. Below these again—
for the depth of some seven additional metres to the virgin rock—lies layer
after layer of primitive Neolithic settlements. Thus had the 'Tell' of
Kephala itself been built up, that was later to be partly rased for the
Central Palace Court.
ARTHUR EVANS.
Youleury, Berks., near Oxford,
September lo, 1934.
Double Axes'—still surrounds its Eastern end. Enough is still here pre-
served to awaken memories of the great ruler, law-giver, and ' priest for
ever after the Order of Melchizedek', in obedience to whose behest his
craftsman had raised the Palace-Sanctuary.
It can be claimed for this vast structure, of which we have here a
novel glimpse, that, ruined as it is, it has supplied quite exceptional infor-
mation as to its original disposition. The frescoes still connected with many
of the walls give a distinctive character to certain parts, while, not to speak
of the store-jars still ranged in the Magazines, the masses of objects brought
out in the various rooms often throw a light on the uses that they had served.
Almost every department of Art is splendidly illustrated, and the' Sculptor's
Workshop' shows the artist interrupted at work. In connexion with one
Hall we see depicted a religious ritual in the nature of a Communion, while
in the ' Room of the Throne' we seem actually to have intruded on a
Consistory presided over by the Priest-king. The clay archives in the
highly advanced Linear Script give an insight into the everyday business
transactions. Altogether we are enabled here to reconstruct a picture of
the daily life of the inmates such as is not even approached by any other
great building of Antiquity.
Nor, it may be thought, can any other site quite compare with the
vast range of underlying levels, marking successive occupation, here so
clearly delimited by catastrophic strokes due to no human agency. Of
these seismic strata—that thus supply a chronological basis—the Minoan
series go back through six different phases of Palatial history, while others
still relate to stages of comparatively civilized life. Below these again—
for the depth of some seven additional metres to the virgin rock—lies layer
after layer of primitive Neolithic settlements. Thus had the 'Tell' of
Kephala itself been built up, that was later to be partly rased for the
Central Palace Court.
ARTHUR EVANS.
Youleury, Berks., near Oxford,
September lo, 1934.