Pendlebury, John D.: The archaeology of Crete: an introduction (London, 1939)

THE MIDDLE MINOAN PERIOD

155

Burial customs seem hardly to have changed at all in this 2£^m
period. Pithos burials are somewhat commoner and rock
shelters seem to have been abandoned or rather improved so
that at Knossos they can now be termed chamber tombs. At
Isopata only an isolated deposit indicated that the cemetery
went back as far as M.M.m, but many of the tombs at Mavro-
spelio were in use by the earlier part of the period. This
practice must be a purely local one, for elsewhere, even at the
immediately neighbouring sites, pithos burials were found,
several indeed round about Knossos itself.

In the East a few of the earlier built tombs showed later

HOUSE OF THE FALLEN BLOCK5» &
"HOUSE. OF THE SACRIFICED OXEN (J3)
KNOSSOS -MM.1

Fig. 26

deposits, though whether these are burials or votive offerings
it is impossible to say. In the South the circular tombs were
completely abandoned, but tombs of the new period have still
to be found.

The mason's marks visible on the walls of the Palace tend to
be less deeply cut. In M.M.ma they are still easily visible, but
in M.M.IIlA they need the light at the right angle to be seen at
all. The trident, the double axe, the star, and, in the Domestic
Quarter, the distaff, are all typical of the period.

The wall-paintings are more advanced.1 In M.M.ma we M.M.m

Frescoes

1 For the possibility that the ' Saffron Gatherer ' belongs to this
date see above, p. 131, n. 3.