Show > PALACE OF MINOS IN CRETE I i c Digging I Out the Labyrinth Disco vories of A J Evans In the Myce V r ucan House I of the Double Ax 3300 Years Before Christ j 1 i Shice the days of Dr Schltemanns c discoveries nothing has made an epoch In European archeology In the sense attaching to those r wor B when used of tho revelations for which we havo I to thank the indomitable energy and unflagging enthusiasm oC our compatriot compa-triot by adoption But now since A J Evans has returned from his last nrchcological campaign In Crete we are fajrly entitled to say that a new era has dawned upon us and that the btank spaces in the earliest records of European letters and arts are soon to be llllcd up by an array of now facts Six years ago Mr EVans discovered in Crete a system or rather two systems sys-tems of writing older than that of historic his-toric Greece and distinct from tho Phenlcian as well as from the socalled Hittltc of Asia Minor The characters charac-ters of this script he found on seal slones and ilnally about two years ago on a slealltu libation table unearthed un-earthed In the Diclean cave of Zeus This last was demonstrably of the My cencart period Naturally our invcstl galprs thoughts turned to Cnossos the city of Minos and Dedalus and the traditional center of early Cretan civilisation Indeed as early a 1S91 lIe copied linear characters from a Cnos lan sealslone and obtained further fur-ther indications from that site which confirmed him In a wish to make systematic sys-tematic excavations there Mr Stlll man had attempted to dig on the site attracted by the presence of Mycenean pottery and by curious signs upon stone blocks showing on the hU of Cc phala near the modern town of Can din Dr Schliemann also had striven to secure the right to excavate thc sIte But all efforts were defeated by the impossibility of coming to terms with the Turks in possession of the landS S O Such was the situation until the Undiscouraged un-discouraged Mr Evans obtained an un dhflded sixth interest in the site This was In 1S9C but the dilllcultics which ho overcame between that time and thc beginning of his excavations upon the site early in April last have been innumerable First came lawsuit culminating cul-minating In C forced sale at which the Turkish joint owners purchased Mr Evanss share at a preposterous price which they failed to pay Then came the GrecoTurkish war and the whole Imbroglio ot the European concert followed fol-lowed by a claim to excavate on this site made by other archeologIsts Last I of all there was a new lawsuit culminating culmi-nating in a second sale at which Mr Evans Ilnally succeeded In obtaining control of the whole Bite Apart from a certain assistance covering only 3 c fraction of expenses Incurred Mr Evens has defrayed the cost of all operations op-erations I is indeed to be hoped that the Cretan exploration funds upon which ho may In future be able to draw will be swelled by those who app ap-p elate the farreaching and universal univer-sal value of the results obtained The site of Cnossos lies on a hill about four miles to the south of the modern Candia which the Cretans are baptizing Heracleion The hill was popularly known as The Chiefs Head A Cretan explorer Kalokerlnos by name excavated there in 1877 and found Mycenean walls and potsherds identified as such by Haussoullier and I Fabrlclus Fabrlclus was struck by resemblance re-semblance to leading features of known Mycenean palaces Stlllman in 1881 i 181 identified the building a the Labyrinth Laby-rinth of mythological fame and now mythologcal Mr Evans after 3 careful and complete com-plete excavation of oneHalf of the site finds that both Fabrlclus and Stlllman r were right A striking confirmation is found In the sculptured doubleax abounding on the square gypsum stones used in the I construction of this Mycenean palace of the explanation of the Labyrinth as meaning the Rouse of the Doubleax This same doubleax supplied a well known epithet to Zeus In Carla and figures in both the linear and the pictorial pic-torial alphabets of Mr Evanss discoveries i coveries as a slgnlllcant character Cnossos then was the site of the House of the Doubleax which was whih also the palace of the Cretan King MI KIng I nos whose authenticated relations with Carla and the Carlans make the designation of his palace by the Carlan name of Labyrinth a very natural one 4 f The part of the palace laid bare by Mr Evans reveals a complex of wails not yet sufficiently sUfclentb studied to yield a determinate groundplan The mate a rial roughquarried used for most of stones the partition compacted wall together with a clayey compound and there Is 3 plentiful use of something not unlike whitewash upon wall BUt faces The more solid walls however sold wals tare often built of beautifully squared > gypsum blocks superior in their work anshIp even to the muchadmired walls of tho sixth Trojan city Identl lied vith Homers IIIum Sills and pil lars are all of stone as far as the first S story reaches There are unmistakable signs of numerous wooden columns which rested on stone bases that arc still well preserved There was an up per part or the buldIng made of wood The whole of the excavated portion of this palace of Minos falls into two un equal parts extending to the east and 0 west of a long and narrow corridor which runs nearly due north and south Opening upon this corridor are a series of long and narrow magazines which I lie to the west of I and were used for the storage of wheat and the like This western side of the palace suggests in the general effect of its groundplan what we might cal a lab lnth and in each of Its long magazineroom5 are subterranean storage Iaces which UpN pear to have been lined with lead wih The Incised representations of the double ax abound In this part 80 that If the I same PIlied Labyrinth were specIfically to be to ppJed one part rather than to an other It would attach to this western most complex of buildings S < I Rather the larger half of the portion EXcavated porton e lies on the I lhs Inn n n eastern side oC P wuo SSaUUL VUUy Uluve mentioned and might be mentoned distinctively called dlslnetv1 the culed palace of Minos since It 1Unos I contains among van ous rooms not yet dientangJ all belonging to Isentangled though plan of a Mycenean naturl ground 3 palace 1ycenean the council Chamber oC MInoR counci This Is a large hamber nearly square With un ante room of almost equal dimensIons The anteroom which rhe had for the most Part been already excavatcc Is ap proached and entered by a short iligt of stalls and out doors separated by JalIoW lOOrpOJ3ts it doorosLs communicates I I with the councIl eliambei bymans councI c1ambol ans or I a doorwuy whcse width Is almost that of the whole Partition tmt partIUon separating the two rooms sepamlng rooms The council chamber itself I fnls Into two parts To the Iself entering steps led down to a square wateitayiic whose botom level is about five feet lover than the floor of the rest 1001 of the council chamber Three careful ychiseled circular holes show that there were three cedar 1lrC posts or col umns extending from tim balustrade I which fenced or thin tank balustndc council chamber to some sort of a roof o tWoTii which Covered it In > Th51 fact shows that there was no roof ooverlnir the CoUlicil chamber UJ a whole then cen tml iffiii f or part which wa2 oprn to the sky OppoSIte this balustrado and screen and acing the lank Is facing the throne of I I Mines with 8tone benches on cither I side of it I presumably for his I Jrc8umabl council councl j OJH The judgment sent of Minos is 1 lnos supplied with a stone footalool and Is S a chair fashioned out oC solid gypsum Ila I proportions are more or les a those I oc the throne of England Ihrpno EnSlan In the choir oC Westminster Abbey I Is a chair with tour straight legs and a very I high straight back the nine wavelike curves or whose Contour w3elkc I I duce a magnined COnour leaf of the repro lobed I I variety Between thc two front legs of I II I the throne Is a curious panel suggestive of a gothic arch though not quite pointed and decorated with four crock Its which are strikingly gothlc in the outline and decorative effect The buck of the throne Is all but Imbedded In the surface of the wall which still bears clear remains of plants painted In fresco fres-co Traces of similar fresco work are plain elsewhere on the walls of thjs chamber and there are two remarkable remarka-ble grllilns with unmistakable peacock feathers on their heads and cross hatchings to Indicate shadows and give relief to the modeling of their bodies This Is a remarkable tuihnlc when we lhls compare it with that of redfigured vase paintings and the peacock feathers feath-ers come as n surprise In such early work since thc Greeks are not usually supposed to have known the peacock until a rather later date The only other feature of the council coun-cil chamber worth mention here Is C small alcove which probably was used for bathing The general plan of the central space open to the sky and an adjoining tankroom has a certain re semblanisr to similar features In well known buildings of Egyptian antiquity It may be well to mention that an Egyptian statue clearly marked by Its Inscription as of the early twelfth dynasty dy-nasty was unearthed in the palace where also were found various unmistakable unmis-takable traces of the eighteenth Egyptian Egyp-tian dynasty These discoveries serve to give us roughly the chronological limits within which the Cnosslan Labyrinth was built I has yielded says Mr Evans hardly a scrap of anything later than the great days of Mycena or to give approximate I chronology the fourteenth century before be-fore Christ I But to return to the palace of Minos I we have not yet done with its frescoes I A marvelous stroke of luck has pre I ser c Considerable remains of the I large frescoes in a spacious corridor by I which apparently C large open court L was approached The final catastrophe I which befell all the buildings on this i site more than 3000 years ago was a I conflagration that might easily have I I destroyed all traces of wallpainting I since i performed the useful function I of baking the tablets of unburned clay I bearing inscriptions which Mr Evans I I has found In various chambers The large wallpaintings In question fell to the ground face downward and this I fall like the slmlar one to the Hermes I at Olympia has been l godsend to the archaeologists of today Had the wall stood upright through all these I i centuries there would have been nothing noth-ing left of the frescoes today for the whole building lies very close to the I surface of the soil the back of MInoss rnoss judgment scat for instance was Intance wa separated sepa-rated from the level ground above It only by about four feet of soil Of this large fresco then only the very lowest partshowIng two pairs of red feet and one of white feet belonging respectively to two men and one woman remains In situ Of the original effect the blowing description appears to be true On both sides of the corridor were processions pro-cessions much like those adorning I certain early Egyptian tombs consist ing of youths painted very nearly the I size of life These youth are naked I except for a hip cloth of beautiful texture text-ure and brilliant pattern roses scales and the like which is hung I from the waist quite over the hips I and nearly halfway down to the knees This cloth is of almost gossamer I gos-samer lightness and Is held down by I weights such as were used to maintain the adjustment of their robes by the I latterday Greeks There Greek are several I details In the disposition of this I very scanty drapery which strongly resemble re-semble similar effects In Egyptian pic tures Also there seems to be indicated indi-cated behind the youths legs some sort of a stream of water and this encourages the notion that these fig ures were tribute bearers from beyond the streams of ocean Strikingly enough the wrists of these figures are adorned with blue silver bands to which are attached oval stones the counterpart of those Island stones upon which Mr Evans first discovered characters of the Mycenean alphabet These youths have long hair hanging unconflned down their backs and are moving toward n female figure Identi fed by two white feet and the hem of a highlyvariegated robe Among the marching youths here and there are heavily draped figures of men and oc casionally a woman These were plainly magnates decked out in full I festal attire Oxford Eng Cul Dondence N Y Post v |