DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7518#0049
THE PALACE
PLANS 9 AND 3
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 doorway 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. In 1930 during
the excavation of the two westernmost Walled Pits (Koulouras)
traces of two of them were discovered, and the fine rcd-
plastcred floors and walls may still be seen at the bottom of the
central pit (Pi. 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 dis-
covery of great moment in its bearing on the primitive begin-
nings of the cult of the Minoan snake goddess. The 'snake
tubes' here supplied for the shelter of the water-loving reptiles
were themselves modelled on sections of the capacious clay
waterpipes of the Palace.
Turning to the facade of the Palace it is interesting to see
the way in which it reached its present form. The great foun-
39
PLANS 9 AND 3
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 doorway 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. In 1930 during
the excavation of the two westernmost Walled Pits (Koulouras)
traces of two of them were discovered, and the fine rcd-
plastcred floors and walls may still be seen at the bottom of the
central pit (Pi. 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 dis-
covery of great moment in its bearing on the primitive begin-
nings of the cult of the Minoan snake goddess. The 'snake
tubes' here supplied for the shelter of the water-loving reptiles
were themselves modelled on sections of the capacious clay
waterpipes of the Palace.
Turning to the facade of the Palace it is interesting to see
the way in which it reached its present form. The great foun-
39