Archaeology Magazine - December 1963 - 51

Minoan

Palace

continued

Immediately behind the façade we found three
groups of storerooms, thirteen magazines and recesses
in all. The southeast group, excavated in 1961, consists of a row of three small recesses or bays reached
from the corridor in front of them. These storerooms
contained five pithoi and about fifty vases, some of
great interest. The second group, comprising four
magazines, immediately to the northwest and accessible by a wooden stairway from the same corridor,
lies at a deeper level; for this reason the walls are
much better preserved, reaching a height of about
three meters. Here twenty-six pithoi and a great
amount of pottery and other smaller objects were
found, apparently undisturbed since the moment of
the final catastrophe. The third group of storerooms,
comprising four or five rooms and five recesses, occupied the central part of the building behind the
main façade. This has been only partly excavated, but
it has already yielded rich equipment, abundant pottery and valuable raw materials.
Adjoining the three groups of storerooms we excavated part of a large square hall (A) with a clayplastered floor which had clay tiles at its center. In the
hall was found some rich equipment, perhaps fallen
from the floor above, together with large plastered
bricks from the walls.
The evidence we have thus far suggests that only
one fourth of the building has been excavated. Considering its valuable contents, it is not impossible that
we have found the fifth palace of Crete, after Knossos,
Phaistos, Mallia and Gournia.
The excellent quality of the pottery recovered in
this area is a good sign that we have to do with palatial furnishings, varied in design and rich in decoration. Many of the large four-handled jars belong to a
bichrome style considered to be intermediate between
Middle Minoan HIB and Late Minoan IA. They are
done in colors- orange with added white on a dark
ground. The decoration sometimes imitates beach
pebbles or shows linked spirals, whorled leaves or
other motives from plant life.
A whole series of particularly beautiful vases of
marine style uses the octopus, the nautilus, the starfish,
the murex shell, etc. Another group with themes from
plant life includes stirrup jars and bridge-spouted
jugs, oval and conical rhyta (libation vessels), tall
cups and so forth. Some of the vases, with their architectonic decoration, are clearly forerunners of the
Knossos "Palace Style."
Many vases bear religious symbols; others are of
types known from ritual or ceremonial representa-

tions, such as the conical samnia with figure-eight
handles. A tall jug with pointed protuberances and
high curving handle was probably also for ritual use.
Innumerable utensils, braziers, fruit-stands, amphoras of all sizes (some with oval mouths), jugs,
bowls, basins, tubs, etc. were found. The large number of cups and goblets included many fine examples
with simple patterns of brown on a light ground or
white on a brown or reddish ground. The number of
vases from Building r is estimated at more than nine
hundred, a fourth of these being of exceptional quality.
Stone objects and tools were found in considerable
numbers, but they were for the most part plain, and
not always well preserved. Among them may be noted
a circular stone table on a high foot. Unique for its
painstaking technique is the top of a black steatite
rhyton with a gilded lip.
Especially significant was the discovery of a number
of bronze ingots, similar to those found at Hagia
Triada, and four elephant tusks, one of them very
large and well preserved. These were found between
rooms E and A, and it seems likely that they had
fallen from the floor above. From these we can see
that unworked bronze was brought from Cyprus and
ivory tusks from the Syrian region to this eastern port.
Some of the metal tools and weapons worthy of
mention are two long saws, four double axes, a pair
of tongs, two long swords with gold studs like those
found in the shaft graves of Mycenae, daggers, dirks
and knives, a hammer, part of a bronze caldron which
appears to have been larger than those found at Tylissos, in central Crete, and a silver goblet with elegant handles and gold ornamentation.
Vast in numbers and varied in form are the many
loom weights and other weights recovered, most of
them apparently fallen from the upper floors. The
fragments of painted walls make up continuous bands
of color but no recognizable scenes. There were also
some plastered tables with three feet- the usual type
of offering tables but, unfortunately, not very well
preserved.
All five buildings appear to belong to the Late
Minoan I A-B period (1600-1500 B.c.) and their
destruction seems to have been simultaneous. In Buildings A and B an earlier phase can be recognized, perhaps Middle Minoan IIIA, as well as a later reoccupation period from which interesting vases have been
preserved.
[The recently concluded 1963 campaign has continued the brilliant success of last year's work. Much
material relating to cult practices has been found, as
well as tablets inscribed with Linear A characters. The
finds are in every way comparable to those of the other
palaces of Crete, in some cases superior. Ed.]
275

Archaeology Magazine - December 1963

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - December 1963