Within the palace walls abundant remains of fine polychrome ware of
the Middle Minoan period were found as the season's work went on.
The dungeons of the preceding year's excavations were supplemented
by the discovery of four more, making six in all, and it was shown
that these pits must have belonged to a very early period in the
history of the buildings, for they have no structural connection
with the walls of the Later Palace, which, indeed, cross them in
some places. But the great discovery within the area was that of
the Temple Repositories. As the eastern side of the palace gave
evidence of having been the domestic quarter, so the west-central
part showed traces of having had a special religious significance
in the palace life. Religion, indeed, seems to have bulked very
largely in the economy of the House of Minos, which is what might
have been expected when one remembers the closeness of the relations
between Zeus and Minos as depicted in the legends, and realizes
that very probably the Kings of Knossos were Priest-Kings, and
perhaps even incarnations of the Bull-god.
Near the west-central part of the palace the Double Axe sign occurred
very frequently, and other evidences seemed to suggest that somewhere
in this vicinity there must have been a sanctuary of some sort.
This season's explorations confirmed the suggestion, for, near
the Pillar Room at the west side of the Central Court, there were
discovered two large cists, which had been used for the storage of
objects connected with the palace cult. The cist which was first
opened was closely packed, to a depth of 1.10 metres, with vases; and
below these there was a deposit of fragments and complete examples of
faience, including the figures of a Snake Goddess and her votaresses,
votive robes and girdles, cups and vases with painted designs, and
reliefs of cows and calves, wild goats and kids. In fact, this
Repository was a perfect treasure-house of objects in faience; but
in the second cist such objects were wanting, with the exception
that a missing portion of the Snake Goddess was found, the place
of the faience being taken by gold-foil and crystal plaques.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account