DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1118#0535
SIGNS OF DESTRUCTION ON OTHER SITES 885
ivr M HI«L. M.'I a tradition. The new Script itself bears a more advanced
1' racter, and, as brought to its full development by the Palace scribes,
■ idles considerable mastery over the Art of Writing. At the same time
, multiplicity of officials, of which the documents give evidence, the
io-natures and counter-signatures—every symptom in short here revealed to
f— points to a highly centralized and autocratic Government.
For the first time a whole series of clay documents appears referring
to armament of the most varied kind—chariots and horses, cuirasses for
the Minoan ' knights ', swords, javelins, and arrows, the numerical indica-
tions attached to which are by no means small. One tablet alone refers to
qo chariot bodies, a consignment of fifty swords is recorded on another,
while a sinole document relating to arrows enumerates 8,640. There seems
to have been a regular 'Armoury', and the great 'Shield Fresco' of the
' Domestic Quarter' is itself a monumental instance of military parade.
Contemporary rulers, either on the borders of the great Mesara plain
of Southern Crete or of the hill sites that overlooked the Argolid plain on
the opposite Aegean Coast, were hardly so simple as to imagine that the
chariots of Knossos were built with a view to driving through its rough,
surrounding lowlands.
That the Priest-kings of Knossos in the early part of this epoch were Signs of
in fact wielding destructive powers in their own Island may be gathered ^onmi"
from the significant break that now reveals itself in the history of other 0,hcr
sues.
Minoan sites that have been recently explored in Central and Eastern
Crete. In L. M. I b the Palace of Phaestos, the great rival of Knossos
on the Southern Coastlancl, comes to an abrupt end, and the Little Palace
of Hagia Triada nearby bears evidence of a contemporary destruction.
On the Northern shores the brilliant career of the Western neighbour of
Knossos, Tylissos, is as suddenly cut short. In the Eastern direction the
Minoan harbour town on the site of Nirou Khani, the great Palace of Mallia
beyond, the flourishing country town of Goumia, with other thriving urban
sites on that side, all break off. In nearly all these cases, moreover, the de-
struction was not of the more temporary kind resulting from earthquake
shocks, but one involving actual cessation, at least through an appreciable
period of years.
Nor was it the other Insular communities alone to whom these military
preparations .were a menace. The clay sealing with the horse superposed
on the ship—an eloquent reference to sea-transport—is itself a highly
suggestive symptom. The chariots themselves were more easily conveyed
°ver sea than the horses that drew them. And there is one truly astonishing
5 M 2
ivr M HI«L. M.'I a tradition. The new Script itself bears a more advanced
1' racter, and, as brought to its full development by the Palace scribes,
■ idles considerable mastery over the Art of Writing. At the same time
, multiplicity of officials, of which the documents give evidence, the
io-natures and counter-signatures—every symptom in short here revealed to
f— points to a highly centralized and autocratic Government.
For the first time a whole series of clay documents appears referring
to armament of the most varied kind—chariots and horses, cuirasses for
the Minoan ' knights ', swords, javelins, and arrows, the numerical indica-
tions attached to which are by no means small. One tablet alone refers to
qo chariot bodies, a consignment of fifty swords is recorded on another,
while a sinole document relating to arrows enumerates 8,640. There seems
to have been a regular 'Armoury', and the great 'Shield Fresco' of the
' Domestic Quarter' is itself a monumental instance of military parade.
Contemporary rulers, either on the borders of the great Mesara plain
of Southern Crete or of the hill sites that overlooked the Argolid plain on
the opposite Aegean Coast, were hardly so simple as to imagine that the
chariots of Knossos were built with a view to driving through its rough,
surrounding lowlands.
That the Priest-kings of Knossos in the early part of this epoch were Signs of
in fact wielding destructive powers in their own Island may be gathered ^onmi"
from the significant break that now reveals itself in the history of other 0,hcr
sues.
Minoan sites that have been recently explored in Central and Eastern
Crete. In L. M. I b the Palace of Phaestos, the great rival of Knossos
on the Southern Coastlancl, comes to an abrupt end, and the Little Palace
of Hagia Triada nearby bears evidence of a contemporary destruction.
On the Northern shores the brilliant career of the Western neighbour of
Knossos, Tylissos, is as suddenly cut short. In the Eastern direction the
Minoan harbour town on the site of Nirou Khani, the great Palace of Mallia
beyond, the flourishing country town of Goumia, with other thriving urban
sites on that side, all break off. In nearly all these cases, moreover, the de-
struction was not of the more temporary kind resulting from earthquake
shocks, but one involving actual cessation, at least through an appreciable
period of years.
Nor was it the other Insular communities alone to whom these military
preparations .were a menace. The clay sealing with the horse superposed
on the ship—an eloquent reference to sea-transport—is itself a highly
suggestive symptom. The chariots themselves were more easily conveyed
°ver sea than the horses that drew them. And there is one truly astonishing
5 M 2