The Palace of Knossos : provisional report for the year 1903 / [Arthur J. Evans]. [With] Excavations at Palaikastro. II / [R.C. Bosanquet and others].

  • Arthur Evans
Date:
1903?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Palace of Knossos : provisional report for the year 1903 / [Arthur J. Evans]. [With] Excavations at Palaikastro. II / [R.C. Bosanquet and others]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    square stone pillar. The pillar rests on a rough foundation block of lime- stone, and in its present state consists of six blocks, the lowest of them gypsum, rising to a height of 1-87 metre (see Fig. 2). Against this on the North side was a gypsum block in the shape of a truncated pyramid,1 showing traces of a horizontal ribbed moulding, and provided with a socket above. This object belongs to a class found in the Palace Maga- zines and elsewhere, and which seem in many cases to have served as torch holders. It is interesting to note, however, that on the painted designs of the Palaikastro larnax2 and the remarkable sarcophagus found by the Italian Mission at Hagia Triada,3 stepped bases of a similar kind appear as the stands for the sacred Double Axes.4 The possibility that the present base served a similar religious function cannot therefore be excluded. It seems at any rate clear that there were other means of lighting this Pillar Room, since near its South wall was found a stone shaft, adorned with spiral bands and flutings, which had evidently formed part of the pedestal of a tall lamp (Fig. 3). The material is a purple gypsum, resem- bling porphyry, and the spiral bands bear decorative reliefs of a Late Minoan character.5 This pedestal exceeds in richness of design any other object of the kind found within the Palace, and tends to show that con- siderable importance was attached to this small Chamber. From the foot of the pillar a rough foundation runs to the North wall of the room. Along this wall are ranged a series of stone bases, circular and oblong, for the support of vessels, and near the outside of the wall were found fragments of vases in the Later Palace style. About a metre north of this spot, but in a stratum which also contained some vase frag- ments with a black ground, there came to light an ivory object in the shape of a knot with a fringed border (Fig. 4). This object exactly resembles the two alabaster knots found in the Fourth Acropolis Grave at Mycenae.0 The connexions in which it is elsewhere found show that it had 1 It is 23 cm. high and 30 square at the base. 2 B.S.A. vol. viii, p. 299 and PI. XVIII. 3 A summary account of this is given by Dr. R. Paribeni, Lavori Eseguiti, &c., 1903, p. 30. 4 A small steatite base of the kind, obtained from a peasant at Palaikastro, has been connected with this usage by Mr. Bosanquet (B.S.A. viii, p. 300). 5 Compare the design on a painted vase from Phaestos, L. Pernier, ‘ Scavi della Missione Italiana a Phaestos, 1900-1901.’ Rapporto preliminare (Monumenti Antichi, vol. xii.) Tav. VIII. 3. * Schliemann, Mycenae, p. 242, Fig. 352.