DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1118#0552
902 'THRONE ROOM' SYSTEM: PROOFS OF L. M. II DATE
Abrupt
Intrusion
of
' Throne
Room'
system.
Evidence
of early
L.M. II
date.
Was
represent a revolutionary intrusion, effacing all previous remains. It was
not here a question of engrafting on to an existing system or of raisino- a ne
structure over its remains. What we here encounter is a tabula rasa with
a wholesale invasion of new elements. The earlier basement system on
the South border of this new block was abruptly cut off, including the
Magazine that contained M. M. Ill cists, forming a supplement to those
of the 'Temple Repositories'. This had run North, under what
later the ' Stepped Porch '}
It was in vain that a series of tests were made, under my super-
intendence, beneath the floors of the intrusive block. The-whole sub-soil
proved to belong to the same sub-Neolithic stratum that immediately
underlies the greater part of the Central Court as first laid out, after the
whole of the upper deposits had been cleared away for its formation.
It was only in the course of the supplementary Excavations of 1913
that some data bearing on the chronological place of the new structure
were at last extracted. Underlying the threshold of the first doorway
left of the line of entrances to the Ante-room of the ' Room of the
Throne ' from the pavement level of the Central Court (see Plan, Fig. 877)
was found a painted sherd illustrating the best period of the ' Palace Style'.
Again, under the threshold of the entrance immediately North of this, there
occurred some L. M. I and L. M. II fragments, in the latter case not so
distinctive. The general conclusion resulting from these finds is that the
structures with which we are dealing date from the early part of L. M. II,
when the 'Palace Style' first reached maturity. This, it will be seen,
corresponds with the suggestion already made, that the erection of this
block of buildings specially designed to meet the needs of the ceremonial
functions of the Priest-kings may be taken as a historic landmark of the
full establishment of the authority of the New Dynasty.
The North-East Corner of the Ante-room, for the construction of
which the sherds thus brought to light afford a chronological clue, had been
already laid bare twenty years earlier by local hands,2 but, in view of the
fact that no vases or other relics of value were hit on, the work was broken on-
This, indeed, may be thought to have been a happy accident, since at that
pp. 124-7) and by W. J. Stillman {Appendix
to Second Annual Report of Executive Com-
. \ Exceptionally, however, a Magazine run-
ning West of this seems to have been at first
worked into the later systems. The doorway
giving access to it was afterwards blocked.
' Some account of this and other ' tumul-
tuary ' diggings at that time was given by
B. Haussoulier {Bull, de Corr. Arch., 1880,
mittee of Am. Arch. Inst, 1SS0-S1, p. 47 seW
with a rough plan, omitting the characteristic
reveals of the door-jambs). For a copy of this
imperfect and misleading record see reu ,
Grece primitive, vi, p. 460, Fig. i°2-
Abrupt
Intrusion
of
' Throne
Room'
system.
Evidence
of early
L.M. II
date.
Was
represent a revolutionary intrusion, effacing all previous remains. It was
not here a question of engrafting on to an existing system or of raisino- a ne
structure over its remains. What we here encounter is a tabula rasa with
a wholesale invasion of new elements. The earlier basement system on
the South border of this new block was abruptly cut off, including the
Magazine that contained M. M. Ill cists, forming a supplement to those
of the 'Temple Repositories'. This had run North, under what
later the ' Stepped Porch '}
It was in vain that a series of tests were made, under my super-
intendence, beneath the floors of the intrusive block. The-whole sub-soil
proved to belong to the same sub-Neolithic stratum that immediately
underlies the greater part of the Central Court as first laid out, after the
whole of the upper deposits had been cleared away for its formation.
It was only in the course of the supplementary Excavations of 1913
that some data bearing on the chronological place of the new structure
were at last extracted. Underlying the threshold of the first doorway
left of the line of entrances to the Ante-room of the ' Room of the
Throne ' from the pavement level of the Central Court (see Plan, Fig. 877)
was found a painted sherd illustrating the best period of the ' Palace Style'.
Again, under the threshold of the entrance immediately North of this, there
occurred some L. M. I and L. M. II fragments, in the latter case not so
distinctive. The general conclusion resulting from these finds is that the
structures with which we are dealing date from the early part of L. M. II,
when the 'Palace Style' first reached maturity. This, it will be seen,
corresponds with the suggestion already made, that the erection of this
block of buildings specially designed to meet the needs of the ceremonial
functions of the Priest-kings may be taken as a historic landmark of the
full establishment of the authority of the New Dynasty.
The North-East Corner of the Ante-room, for the construction of
which the sherds thus brought to light afford a chronological clue, had been
already laid bare twenty years earlier by local hands,2 but, in view of the
fact that no vases or other relics of value were hit on, the work was broken on-
This, indeed, may be thought to have been a happy accident, since at that
pp. 124-7) and by W. J. Stillman {Appendix
to Second Annual Report of Executive Com-
. \ Exceptionally, however, a Magazine run-
ning West of this seems to have been at first
worked into the later systems. The doorway
giving access to it was afterwards blocked.
' Some account of this and other ' tumul-
tuary ' diggings at that time was given by
B. Haussoulier {Bull, de Corr. Arch., 1880,
mittee of Am. Arch. Inst, 1SS0-S1, p. 47 seW
with a rough plan, omitting the characteristic
reveals of the door-jambs). For a copy of this
imperfect and misleading record see reu ,
Grece primitive, vi, p. 460, Fig. i°2-