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 4,2): Camp-stool Fresco, long-robed priests and beneficent genii [...] (London, 1935)

STRUCTURAL PARALLELS OF ROYAL TOMB, ISOPATA

773

Blind Openings and Corbelled Vault of' Royal Tomb ' at Isopata
paralleled at Ras-Shamra.

But the methods of securing the passage of drink-offerings to the interior
of the vault, illustrated by the Ras-Shamra group, at once explain a feature
in the Isopata tomb that had hitherto remained enigmatic.

Here again, opposite the entrance to the burial vault, a low door-like

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Fig. 752. Plan1 of Inner Chamber and Fore Hall of Royal Tomb of Isopata,
near Knossos. The Main Chamber shows an Opening in the Masonry backed by the
Virgin Rock and the Fore Hall two others of the same Class.

opening was visible in the masonry securing direct contact with what in
that case consisted of the soft ' kouskouras' rock that had been cut into for
the construction of the sepulchral chamber (see Plan, Fig. 752). May not
this, too, have stood in relation to some superficial blind well above, devised
for the passage of libations ? These might well be thought to have trickled
through into the abode of the dead.

This arrangement, moreover, further explains the openings in the
masonry of the side walls of the Fore Hall of the tomb, in this case forming
corbelled arches ending blindly, like the low 'doorway' of the inner chamber,
against the virgin soil. These lateral recesses were later used for a series

Features
in Royal
Tomb of
Isopata
explained.
Blind
openings
on virgin
soil.