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Excavations of 1987 on the south front of the palace at Knossos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Nicoletta Momigliano  and
Sinclair Hood
Nicoletta Momigliano
Affiliation:
Balliol College, Oxford
Sinclair Hood
Affiliation:
The Old Vicarage, Great Milton, Oxford
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Abstract

This report describes the excavation of two pits which had been dug into the natural rock, apparently in connection with the storage and perhaps original manufacture of plaster, in the space named after them the ‘Room of the Plaster Pits’. The pits were filled and covered in LM II, and the evidence for their date helps to bring the history of this part of the palace into clearer focus. The Room of the Plaster Pits may be the same as the elusive Lapidary's Workshop described by Evans in his Knossos report for 1901. It is suggested that the lack of observed floors or blocking walls in doorways separating deposits in this area makes it difficult to divide the vases assigned to LM III B here from tablets and seal impressions involved in the final destruction of the palace.

Type
Excavations at Knossos
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 89 , November 1994 , pp. 103 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1994

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References

1 Acknowledgements: the authors wish to thank the Managing Committee of the British School at Athens for permission to reproduce part of the Palace plan as the basis for Fig. 1; Mervyn Popham, for supplying photographs and drawings of the SW Basement seal impressions and for useful comments on drafts of this paper; Ann Brown, the Visitors of the Ashmolean Museum, and the Arthur Evans Trust for permission to study Evans's notebooks and Mackenzie's daybooks of the excavations at Knossos, and to reproduce sketches from them in Figs. 3–6; Don Evely, for comments on the small finds and for the photograph of Plate 18 (a). The original sections of Figs. 7–9 were drawn by SH. William Taylor made the plan (Fig. 2) and the elevation with restored section of Fig. 10. We are indebted to him for the final tracings of these, and of the sections on Figs. 7–9. NM in particular wishes to thank the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and the Knossos Donated Fund for financial support, and the institutions to which she was attached while working on this report (Wolfson College, Balliol College, and the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford). Dr Richard Jones kindly examined the clay and plaster samples. Christina Rushe has undertaken the study of the bones and of the paleobotanical remains.

Special abbreviations:

AE/NB= A.J. Evans, Notebooks of Knossos excavations

DM/DB = D. Mackenzie, Day Books of Knossos excavations.

Evans 1900 = Evans, A.J., ‘Knossos, I: the palace’, BSA 6 (1899–1900), 3–70Google Scholar

Evans 1901 = Evans, A. J., ‘The palace of Knossos’, BSA 7 (1900–1901)Google Scholar

OKT i and ii = On the Knossos Tablets. (i) L. R. Palmer, The Find-places of the Knossos Tablets; (ii) Boardman, J., The Date of the Knossos Tablets (Oxford: 1963)Google Scholar

Popham 1964 = Popham, M. R., The Last Days of the Palace at Knossos: Complete Vases of the Late Minoan IIIB Period (SIMA 5; Lund)Google Scholar

Popham 1970 = The Destruction of the Palace at Knossos: Pottery of the Late Minoan IIIA Period (SIMA 12; Göteborg)

Popham et al. 1984 = The Minoan Unexplored Mansion at Knossos (BSA supp. vol. 17; London)

Younger 1979 = Younger, J. G., ‘The lapidary's workshop at Knossos’, BSA 74 (1979), 258–68Google Scholar

2 See Hood, this volume, p. 102; AR 1987–8, 68–9.

3 DM/DB 1901, 8 Mar.; OKT i. 152.

4 See Evans 1900, 4; Haussoullier, B., ‘Vases peintes archaïques découvertes à Knossos (Crète)’, BCH 4 (1880), 124–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Stillman, W. J., ‘Extracts from letters of W. J. Stillman respecting ancient sites in Crete’, Second Annual Report of the Executive Committee of the Archaeological Institute of America (1880–1881), 41–9.Google Scholar

5 AE/NB 1901, 33, left side.

6 The schoolmaster does not appear to be a double of Minos Kalokairinos, for Evans also records on this page of his notebook the ‘curious building of whi[ch] Minos K[alokairinos] had also a remembrance’. This is discussed as a circular space about 10 m across, surrounded by three concentric tiers of stone seats with three flights of steps at equal intervals leading down through them; it would be fascinating to know what, if anything, lies at the bottom of this story.

7 OKT i. 151–6; ii. 9–13.

8 Evans 1900, 8–9; Evans 1901, 16–20. See also Palmer, L. R., The Penultimate Palace of Knossos (Rome, 1969), 98–106Google Scholar; cf. also Gill, M. A. V., ‘The Knossos sealings: provenance and identification’, BSA 60 (1965), 74–6Google Scholar; Popham 1964, 5–6, 13; id. ‘The palace of Knossos: its destruction and reoccupation reconsidered’, Kadmos, 5 (1966), 17–24; Popham 1970, 57–60; Hood, M. S. F., ‘“Last Palace” and “reoccupation” at Knossos’, Kadmos, 4 (1965), 16–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar; id., ‘The date of the “reoccupation” pottery from the palace of Minos at Knossos’, Kadmos, 5 (1966), 121–41; id., ‘The Last Palace at Knossos and the date of its destruction’, SMEA 2 (1967), 63–70; Kenna, V., ‘The chronology of the sealings in the SW Basement of the palace at Knossos’, Kadmos, 4 (1965), 74–8.Google Scholar

9 DM/DB 1900, entry for 5 Apr.; OKT ii. 9–10, fig. 1. 7. See also Palmer (n. 8), 98–9, fig. 11; Popham 1964, 5–6; 12–15; Hood (1966 and 1967, n. 8 above). Mackenzie (DM/DB 1900, 4 Apr.) mentions that in the region of the S. Basements he was able to distinguish two architectural phases: ‘Two periods are distinguishable in the construction of this region. 1. Earlier—the wall 1 with the two narrow entrances. 2. the later walls hatched with lead pencil on 10.’ (Cf. Fig. 3).

10 Evans 1900, 8.

11 See Evans 1900, 20–1; below, pp. 134–7.

12 DM/DB 1901 vol. 1 (Fri. 19 Apr).

13 See DM/ DB 1901, vol. 1, 24, 25, 26 Apr. For the seal impressions and clay ‘matrix’ see J. Weingarten, below, pp. 151–6.

14 DM/DB 1901, vol. 1 (26 Apr.); cf. Evans 1901, 16 ff.; PM iv. 593–4; OKT i 151–6; ii. 11–12. The red earth floor must be the levelled soft rock (cf. below), which in this part of the site has a reddish colour.

15 Popham 1964, 6, 13, and pl. 7 e; cf. also OKT ii. 20–1.

16 PM ii. 768; 770. See J. Weingarten, this volume, pp. 151–2.

17 Evans always treated the sealings from the two rooms as belonging to a single deposit (cf. Evans 1901, 18; PM ii. 767; PM iv. 593–4), and this seems fully justified. Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to identify those sealings which can be assigned with any certainty to the Room of the Clay Signet: see Gill (n. 8), 98.

18 PM iv. 594; Kenna (n. 8); Betts, J. H., ‘New light on Minoan bureaucracy’, Kadmos, 6 (1967), 28CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hood, S., The Arts in Prehistoric Greece (Harmondsworth, etc., 1978), 222Google Scholar; Younger 1979, 261.

19 See below, pp, 112–13; J. Weingarten, below, pp. 141–2.

20 Kr. Chron. 1955, 553–69.

21 Alexiou, S., ‘Neue Wagendarstellungen aus Kreta’, AA 1964, 785–804Google Scholar

22 See below, pp. 135–6.

23 Cameron, M. A., ‘Unpublished fresco fragments of a chariot composition from Knossos’, AA 1967, 330–44.Google Scholar

24 Cf. p. 111 above.

25 Cf. Popham 1970; 53; 57; 60; 67; Popham et al. 1984, 264; Driessen, J., An Early Destruction in the Mycenaean Palace at Knossos (Acta archaeologica Lovaniensia, monographiae, 2; Leuven, 1990).Google Scholar

26 Cf. n. 14 above.

27 For manufacture of lime in general cf. Adam, J.-P., La Construction romaine: matériaux et technique (Paris, 1984), 69–78Google Scholar; Shaw, J., ‘Minoan architecture: materials and techniques’, ASA 49 (1971), 213Google Scholar; Dix, B., ‘The manufacture of lime and its uses in the western Roman provinces’, OJA 1 (1982), 331–44.Google Scholar

28 A layer of clay beneath a layer of plaster is typical of the make-up of Minoan floors and wall coating (Shaw (n. 27), 207–11). Slaked lime, under appropriate conditions, can be stored for very long periods: see Adam (n. 27), 76; Dix (n. 27), 339. For storage of lime, in different containers (i.e. in pithoi), see Shaw (n. 27), 213; PM ii. 301; iii. 356. Heaton's suggestion that the shallow pits or cists in the galleries at Knossos may have been used for the storage of lime can no longer be accepted: see Cameron, M. A. S., Jones, R. E., and Philippakis, S. E., ‘Scientific analysis of Minoan fresco samples from Knossos’, BSA 72 (1972), 151Google Scholar; cf. PM i. 448–62. With regard to lime production at Knossos in general, one may also remember the discovery of three kilns near the Stratigraphical Museum which, according to the excavator, were used for this purpose: Warren, P. M., ‘Knossos: Stratigraphical Museum excavations 1978–80’, AR 1980–1981, 76 ff.Google Scholar Cf. also AR 1957, 24, for a similar kiln found near the SE House. For another possible lime kiln at Knossos see PM iii. 356. Finally, one should mention the LM III A bowls, filled and encrusted with lime, from the cists in the W. Magazines and Long Corridor (Popham 1970, 50–3; Shaw (n. 27), 211 figs. 241–2).

29 Thickness varied between 10 and 15 cm.

30 Cf. Popham, M. R., ‘Late Minoan pottery: a summary’, BSA (1967), 344Google Scholar; id., ‘The Late Minoan goblet and kylix’, BSA 64 (1969), 299; Popham 1970, 74–6; 93.

31 Cf. Popham el al. 1984, 162.

32 Cf. Popham 1969 (n. 30), 300–1.

33 Apart from the catalogued objects, it is perhaps worth mentioning a small fragment of lapis lacedaemonius; a few chips and a fragmentary blade of obsidian; and several painted plaster fragments, showing red, white, light blue, yellow, and black pigments.

34 Cf. Evely, R. D. G., ‘Some manufacturing processes in a Knossian stone vase workshop’, BSA 75 (1980), 129Google Scholar; Warren, P. M., ‘A stone vase maker workshop in the palace at Knossos’, BSA 62 (1967), 195–201.Google Scholar

35 Evans 1900, pl. 13.

36 Evans 1901, pl. 1.

37 BSA 8 (1901–2), pl. 1.

38 Palmer, L. R., The Penultimate Palace of Knossos (Incunabula Graeca, 33; Roma, 1969), plan 1 a.Google Scholar

39 Evans 1901, 19.

40 Ibid. 19–20.

41 DM/DB 1901 (24 Apr.).

42 Cameron (n. 23).

43 Ibid. 341 and n. 27. Cf. S. Immerwahr, A., Aegean Painting in the Bronze Age (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1990), 175–6Google Scholar, Kn No. 25: LM II/III A.

44 Alexiou (n. 21), 797, 801; Hood (n. 18), 58, also favoured a date in LM I B.

45 AE/NB 1901, p. 34, right side; Boardman, , OKT ii. 12Google Scholar, with refs. to DM/DB 1901 (24, 25, 26 Apr.).

46 Evans 1901, 19–20.

47 PM ii. 767.

48 Ibid. 768.

49 Ibid. 770.

50 PM iv. 594.

51 AE/NB 1900, p. 15; OKT i, pl. 1.

52 OKT ii. 20.

53 See Palmer (n. 38), pls. 8–9.

54 Popham 1964, 14, nos. 8–11.

55 Evans 1901, 20–1.

56 Ibid. 21.

57 DM/DB 1901 (31 May–6 June).

58 Popham 1964, 14, nos. 8–10.

59 Ibid. no. 11.

60 OKT ii. 12.

61 DM/DB 1901 (21 and 25 May); Boardman, , OKT ii. 12.Google Scholar

62 AE/NB 1901, p. 33, right side. Boardman, , OKT ii. 14 fig. 3Google Scholar, except that on right.

63 DM/DB 1901 (21 May).

64 AE/NB 1901, p. 34, left side. Reproduced by Boardman, , OKT ii. 14Google Scholar, fig. 3 on right.

65 OKT ii. 12 n. 4. Cf. Boardman, J., Greek Gems and Finger Rings (London, 1970), 63.Google Scholar

66 Younger 1979, 266.

67 Evans 1901, 16–18.

68 Ibid. 20.

69 Ibid. 20–1.

70 PM iv. 594.

71 Ibid. 595 n. 1.

72 Palmer (n. 38), plan 1 a; Mosso, A., The Palaces of Crete and Their Builders (London, 1907).Google Scholar

73 e.g. PM ii. 762 fig. 490 a and plan A at end.

74 Palmer, L. R., A New Guide to the Palace of Knossos (London: Faber and Faber, 1969), 109Google Scholar; Palmer (n. 38), 102.

75 AE/NB 1901, p. 33, right side. Compare Evans 1901, 20.

76 Gill (n. 8), 74.

77 Evans 1901, 20.

78 AE/NB 1901, p. 34, left side, shown by Boardman, , OKT ii. 14 fig. 3Google Scholar, to the right of those sketched by Evans as from the Lapidary's Workshop.

79 DM/DB 1901 (Tues. 21 May).

80 Ibid. (25 May).

81 Ibid. (27 May).

82 Ibid. (21 May).

83 AE/NB 1901, p. 33 right side.

84 Evans 1901, 20.

85 OKT ii. 14 fig. 3; AE/NB 1901, p. 33, right side.

86 Younger 1979, 262, pl. 35 a.

87 Evans 1901, 20.

88 PM iv. 595 figs. 589, 590; Boardman, , OKT ii, pl. 7bGoogle Scholar; Younger 1979, 262–8, pls. 33–4, 35 b.

89 Younger 1979, 263–4.

90 Evans 1901, 20–1.

91 Hood, S. and Taylor, W., The Bronze Age Palace at Knossos (London, 1981), 22 no. 216Google Scholar, for the ‘sculptor's workshop’.

92 Evans 1901, 92–3.

93 PM iv. 595.

94 Popham 1964, 14–5 nos. 12–15.

95 DM/DB 1901 (21 May).

96 Popham 1964, 14–15 no. 12.

97 Ibid. 15 nos. 13–15.

98 Evans 1901, 20.

99 OKT ii. 12–14 fig. 3; AE/NB 1901, p.33.

100 Younger 1979, 262, pl. 35 a.

101 OKT ii. 14 fig. 3, 3rd from r.

102 Ibid. 14 fig. 3, top, 2nd from l.

103 Younger 1979, 262. Cf. Boardman (n. 65), 63.

104 Published in OKT ii. 14 fig. 3.

105 Younger 1979, 266.

106 DM/DB 1901 (23 May).

107 Evans 1901, 16–18.

108 DM/DB 1901 (22 Apr.).

109 Gill (n. 8), 58–98.

110 PM ii. 762 fig. 490; iv. 594.

111 Hood (n. 18), 58, 222.

112 Palmer (n. 38), 103–5.

113 Kenna (n. 8), 74–8.

114 Betts (n. 18), 28.

115 Younger 1979, 261.

116 PM ii. 766–7.

117 Ibid. 767.

118 Evans 1901, 16.

119 PM ii. 762. Cf. Evans 1901, 16.

120 Niemeier, W.-D., ‘Das Stuckrelief des “Prinzen mit der Federkrone” aus Knossos und minoische Götterdarstellungen’, AM 102 (1987), 65–98.Google Scholar

121 Evans 1901, 15.

122 DM/DB 1901 (Sat. 11 May); OKT i. 152.

123 DM/DB 1901 (12, 13, 14 May).

124 Evans 1901, 15–16.

125 Coulomb, J., ‘Le “prince aux lis” de Knosos reconsidéré’, BCH 103 (1979), 29–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Niemeier (n. 120).

126 See the transcriptions from DM/DB 1901 in Niemeier (n. 120), 67.

127 BSA 9 (1902–3), 2.

128 PM ii. 774–95.

129 Niemeier (n. 120), pl. 8.

130 Cameron, M. A. S., ‘New restorations of Minoan frescoes from Knossos (Mycenaean Seminar, 3 June 1970)’, BICS 17 (1970), 165.Google Scholar

131 Coulomb (n. 125).

132 Niemeier (n. 120).

133 PM ii. 353, 775.

134 PM, index vol. 146.

133 Kaiser, B., Untersuchungen zum minoischen Relief (Bonn, 1976), 284, 292 f.Google Scholar; Immerwahr (n. 43), 171, Kn No. 7, suggests a date in LM I A (?).

136 Evans 1901, 15.

137 M. B. Money-Coutts and J. D. S. Pendlebury, Knossos: Dating of the Pottery in the Straligraphical Museum, iii: The Plans (n.d.), fig. 11.

138 Pendlebury, J. D. S., A Guide to the Stratigraphical Museum in the Palace at Knossos (n.d.), 15.Google Scholar

139 Eccles, E. et al. , Knossos: Dating of the Pottery in the Stratigraphical Museum, ii (n.d.), 8.Google Scholar

140 Popham 1964, 13; 19 no. 7; pl. 7 c.

141 Duncan Mackenzie pottery notebook, i. 79–85.

142 DM/DB 1901 (18 May); Niemeier (n. 120), 68.

143 Niemeier (n. 120), 69 fig. 1.

144 Evans 1901, pl. 1;Palmer (n. 38), plan 1 a.

145 DM/DB 1901 (17 May).

146 DM/DB 1901 (14 May).

147 Evans 1901, pl. 1.

148 Palmer (n. 38), plan 1 a.

149 Evans 1900, pl. 13.

150 Hood and Taylor (n. 91), 18 no. 136.

151 OKT ii. 13 n. 1.

152 Evans 1901, 92–3.

153 PM iv. 594.

154 It is worth noting that the flower design on the shoulder of a large storage stirrup jar (Popham 1964, 12–13 no. 1) from the Room of the Vases, at the w end of the S. Terrace Basements, was assigned by Furumark, who was unaware of its supposed ‘reoccupation’ context, to LM III A2 on the basis of a drawing of it published by Mackenzie: Furumark, A., The Chronology of Mycenaean Pottery (Stockholm, 1941), 105Google Scholar, citing JHS 23 (1903), 197 fig. 13, top.

155 A date for the destruction in LM III A is accepted by J. Weingarten (below, pp. 151–2). Niemeier, however, while admitting that most of the seals which impressed the sealings found in the Palace cannot be dated later than LM II/III A, notes that some seal impressions from Pylos, destroyed in LH III B, are directly compatible with ones from Knossos, and claims that at Knossos as at Pylos there are a number of impressions made by seals that are later in date (i.e. LM/LH III B): Niemeier, W.-D., ‘The character of the Knossian palace society in the second half of the fifteenth century BC: Mycenaean or Minoan?’, in Krzyszkowska, O. and Nixon, L. (eds), Minoan Society: Proceedings of the Cambridge Colloquium, 1981 (Bristol, 1983), 219–20.Google Scholar

156 I have argued that the bulk of the pottery assigned to the ‘reoccupation’ was in fact datable to LM III A2 (Hood 1966 (n. 8); 1967 (n. 8); id., ‘“Last Palace” and “reoccupation” at Knossos’, Acts of the Second Crelological Congress, i (1968), 173–9. This was on the assumption that the group of finely decorated LM III B vases from the ‘Area of the Wheat’ and the ‘Area of the Chessmen’ on the S. Front (Popham 1964, 14–15 nos. 8–10, 13–15) were later than the final destruction of the Palace and reflected some post-destruction activity confined to that part of the site.

157 As emphasized by Weingarten below (pp. 151–5).

158 Popham 1964, 13 nos. 4 and 5. I am grateful to Mervyn Popham for drawing my attention to these vases.

159 As suggested for sector G of the Amorite palace of Mari by Margueron, J., Recherches sur les palais mésopotamiens de l'âge du bronze (Paris, 1982), 273–80Google Scholar (description), 340–1 (interpretation), figs. 149 and 198 (plans). The original excavators had interpreted this sector as a storage area.