DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7519#0188
THE MIDDLE MINOAN PERIOD 153
neighbour, which borders the Central Court on North and
East. This palace also seems not to have been altered before
its destruction.
The following are various points of construction which are
good criteria of date. The column bases are now of gypsum
or limestone instead of the variegated stones of M.M.11. They
are also appreciably lower in proportion to their diameter. The
older style, however, was conventionalized in a curious way.
We see in the frescoes that many of the wooden columns had a
dark band, varying in height, immediately above the base. In
some cases this is painted to represent breccia. For the
columns themselves we now have the evidence of the wall
paintings. They were of wood plastered and painted and two
types can be distinguished. The first and most common has
a round shaft increasing in diameter towards the top, the capital
consisting of a cushion between two mouldings and a square
abacus above. The shape of the columns, which reverse the
usual taper, is known in the rough stone pillars of Minorca and
Malta, and is also seen in the stone supporting pillar built into
the foundations of the stepped portico at Knossos.1 But for
wood there was a traditional and a practical reason for placing
the tree trunks upside down.2 In primitive times there must
always have been a danger of unseasoned timber sprouting,
which would be obviated by planting it upside down. But no
doubt the main reason was to allow the wide capital to throw
drips of water clear of the base which would otherwise rot.
Usually the shaft of the column was plain, but concave fluting
is found quite early and convex fluting in the next period, while
spiral fluting is not unknown.3 The usual colour of the
columns was red or black with counterchanged capital picked
out in white or yellow. The proportion of height to diameter
at base seems from the indication of the levels of different
stories to have been 5:1, though those which have less structural
importance vary considerably. The other type is seen in the
Miniature Frescoes and on the Boxer vase from Agia Triadha.
It tapers upwards and is surmounted by an oblong block
decorated with disks.4
1 P. ofM., Ill, 322.
2 Cf. wooden telegraph poles planted upside down to-day.
3 P. of M., I, 344 f. Ibid., II, 522.
4 Ibid., Ill, 63. They may well be supports for an awning as
there suggested, but one would prefer to suppose that they are intended
to show one pillar behind another, in the Egyptian convention, not
one on top of another.
neighbour, which borders the Central Court on North and
East. This palace also seems not to have been altered before
its destruction.
The following are various points of construction which are
good criteria of date. The column bases are now of gypsum
or limestone instead of the variegated stones of M.M.11. They
are also appreciably lower in proportion to their diameter. The
older style, however, was conventionalized in a curious way.
We see in the frescoes that many of the wooden columns had a
dark band, varying in height, immediately above the base. In
some cases this is painted to represent breccia. For the
columns themselves we now have the evidence of the wall
paintings. They were of wood plastered and painted and two
types can be distinguished. The first and most common has
a round shaft increasing in diameter towards the top, the capital
consisting of a cushion between two mouldings and a square
abacus above. The shape of the columns, which reverse the
usual taper, is known in the rough stone pillars of Minorca and
Malta, and is also seen in the stone supporting pillar built into
the foundations of the stepped portico at Knossos.1 But for
wood there was a traditional and a practical reason for placing
the tree trunks upside down.2 In primitive times there must
always have been a danger of unseasoned timber sprouting,
which would be obviated by planting it upside down. But no
doubt the main reason was to allow the wide capital to throw
drips of water clear of the base which would otherwise rot.
Usually the shaft of the column was plain, but concave fluting
is found quite early and convex fluting in the next period, while
spiral fluting is not unknown.3 The usual colour of the
columns was red or black with counterchanged capital picked
out in white or yellow. The proportion of height to diameter
at base seems from the indication of the levels of different
stories to have been 5:1, though those which have less structural
importance vary considerably. The other type is seen in the
Miniature Frescoes and on the Boxer vase from Agia Triadha.
It tapers upwards and is surmounted by an oblong block
decorated with disks.4
1 P. ofM., Ill, 322.
2 Cf. wooden telegraph poles planted upside down to-day.
3 P. of M., I, 344 f. Ibid., II, 522.
4 Ibid., Ill, 63. They may well be supports for an awning as
there suggested, but one would prefer to suppose that they are intended
to show one pillar behind another, in the Egyptian convention, not
one on top of another.