DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8074#0035
THE PALACE
The Palace itself is now approached by the path
which runs from the main road past the guard's
house and over a modern bridge into the West
Court.
This court was terraced up by means of a heavy wall,
while to the right of the bridge you can see the approach
that led up to it. When the court was first constructed
(M.M. I, c. 2200 b.c.), the two causeways running
across it from this entrance were laid down. One runs
due east and originally entered the Palace by a door-
way now blocked. The other ran diagonally across
the Court to meet the causeway which skirts the West
Facade of the Palace itself.
In these early days a number of houses clustered
inside the wall; when the court was extended (M.M. II,
c. 2000 b.c.) they were razed to their foundations and
forgotten. Two years ago during the excavation of
the two westernmost Walled Pits (Koulouras) traces of
two of them were discovered, and the fine red-plastered
floors and walls may still be seen at the bottom of the
central pit (PL I).
These walled pits were constructed to receive the
broken pottery and rubbish from the Palace heaps,
and many of the finest fragments of M.M. II egg-shell
ware were found in them.
In a room in one of the Late Minoan houses just
to the north was a deposit of a whole series of vases
connected with the worship and actual tending of
the household snake, a discovery of great moment in
its bearing on the primitive beginnings of the cult of
the Minoan snake goddess. The 'snake tubes' here sup-
plied for the shelter of the water-loving reptiles were
The Palace itself is now approached by the path
which runs from the main road past the guard's
house and over a modern bridge into the West
Court.
This court was terraced up by means of a heavy wall,
while to the right of the bridge you can see the approach
that led up to it. When the court was first constructed
(M.M. I, c. 2200 b.c.), the two causeways running
across it from this entrance were laid down. One runs
due east and originally entered the Palace by a door-
way now blocked. The other ran diagonally across
the Court to meet the causeway which skirts the West
Facade of the Palace itself.
In these early days a number of houses clustered
inside the wall; when the court was extended (M.M. II,
c. 2000 b.c.) they were razed to their foundations and
forgotten. Two years ago during the excavation of
the two westernmost Walled Pits (Koulouras) traces of
two of them were discovered, and the fine red-plastered
floors and walls may still be seen at the bottom of the
central pit (PL I).
These walled pits were constructed to receive the
broken pottery and rubbish from the Palace heaps,
and many of the finest fragments of M.M. II egg-shell
ware were found in them.
In a room in one of the Late Minoan houses just
to the north was a deposit of a whole series of vases
connected with the worship and actual tending of
the household snake, a discovery of great moment in
its bearing on the primitive beginnings of the cult of
the Minoan snake goddess. The 'snake tubes' here sup-
plied for the shelter of the water-loving reptiles were