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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 September 2013
Evans excavated the West Magazines in 1900 and 1901. The entrances of the rooms, flanked by huge antae, were wide and it was apparent that reductions in their width were generally late in date. In supplementary excavations in 1904, a further entrance system was uncovered in Magazines VII–X and it was then obvious that Magazines XI–XIII had the same arrangement. In Evans's opinion, these door-jambs were inserted later than the antae, but subsequently fell into disuse, so that the magazines once again had wide entrances. In a guide to the Palace of Knossos, Alexiou pointed out that this procedure was so complicated that he preferred another sequence, the door-jambs being earlier than the antae. In 1994 the author studied the evidence still available in the magazines and arrived at the conclusion that this solution is the more plausible.
1 This somewhat lengthy note is the second part of a broader study of Minoan storage-capacities. I wish to express my gratitude to the Managing Committee of the British School at Athens and the Greek authorities for their kind permission to work at Knossos and the AMH. In this particular case, I should like to express my warmest thanks to all those who have had the misfortune to meet me, for their help and encouragement, their patience in answering silly questions and bringing wild ideas to the point. Above all, I am grateful to Graham Shipley and Christopher Mee for their generous and patient help in the formidable task of converting the original manuscript into understandable English. I also feel very much indebted to Mr Sinclair Hood for his very welcome advice and corrections, and his encouragement of ‘my’ Minoan affairs. Also to Dr Colin Macdonald, the Knossos Curator for most of my time at Knossos, who did as much as Sinclair Hood to keep me on the road; I should not forget to thank Dr Marina Panagiotaki for help and advice in the West Wing of the Palace.
2 The West Magazines survived until the close of LM I B, when they were destroyed, possibly by an invasion from the mainland.
3 It is wrong to count together everything with either a volume or capacity, omitting time as a factor and the various architectural phases. During my research I have concentrated on particular phases of the Palace and the (conjectural) situation and organisation of storage.
4 Mainly in the fine library at Knossos.
5 The material is stored in the Stratigraphical Museum at Knossos. Mr Hood and Dr Macdonald spent much time dating items of interest to me.
6 BSA 10 (1903–4), 35–6; PM i. 448–62.
7 Raison, Jacques, Le palais du second millénaire à Knossos II:, Le front ouest et ses magasins (Paris, 1993) (henceforth PSMK II), 146–61.Google Scholar
8 Ibid. 159.
9 Alexiou, Stylianos, A Guide to the Minoan Palaces: Knossos, Phaistos, Malia (Heraklion, no date).Google Scholar
10 Ibid. 34 n. 8.
11 When my measuring of the containers began.
12 PM ii. 664.
13 Duncan Mackenzie, Notebook (henceforth DM/NB) 1907, 15–34.
14 Ibid., drawing between pp. 25 and 26. Mackenzie's opinion is rather in contradiction with that of Evans who assigned the antae to the First Palace. The difficulties which the excavators met in the magazines become clear from Mackenzie's entry of 27 June 1907 when he complained that there were no traces of floors left to distinguish earlier from later phases in the magazines.
15 PM i. 448–62, iv. 630–3.
16 The whole problem of this ‘early entrance’ should be reconsidered. Evans's statements about Magazines I and II and this entrance are not convincing. The raised causeway, part of Evans's entrance theory, certainly appears to be much later.
17 BSA 10 (1903–4), 10. The first reference to the ‘Kamares deposit’ is in 1901, BSA 7 (1900–1), 6, where Evans speaks of tests made in the West Court; the eastern of these, near the West Façade, was about 2 m long (perhaps a rubbish deposit from cleaning and repair operations) and begins just under the pavement of the Court.
18 PM i. 234 n. 1.
19 The better preservation of the East Wing, compared to the West, made this investigation possible.
20 Neither Evans nor Mackenzie mentions an exact date: in his notebook for 1907, Mackenzie assigns the original rooms to the Early Palace. The inscribed MM III B vase, found just south of Magazines A, B, and C, does not answer the question of dating the revisions but may provide an indication.
21 PM i. 448. He speaks of ‘a fairly late date’, as if an exact date was not possible.
22 Pendlebury, J. D. S., The Archaeology of Crete, an Introduction (London, 1939), 188 (hereafter AoC).Google Scholar
23 PM ii. 664. Alexiou (n. 9), 20 reports that Platon questioned the conjectural earlier West Façade, since the row of flagstones have no underlying foundation capable of carrying a heavy wall. Momigliano, N., ‘The “proto-palatial façade” at Knossos’, BSA 87 (1992), 165–75, contributed conclusive evidence to dismantle Evans's early façade theory completelyGoogle Scholar.
24 PSMK II 162
25 Overbeck, J. C and McDonald, C. K., ‘The date of the last palace at Knossos‘, AJA 80 (1976), 155–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
26 Possibly at the time of the earthquake during the transition MM II B/III A.
27 PM i. 315. ‘Uninhabited’ does not imply that Knossos was deserted by that time; the rebuilding of the palace must have taken much time.
28 PM ii. 227–8.
29 AoC 146.
30 The wall opposite Magazines I and II, supporting the South Propylaeum, seems to be constructed in the same way. The excavation level is washed out here, leaving the lower course of the wall bare at its base where no foundation is visible.
31 At least he did not mention these in his publications.
32 Originally called the Corridor of the Stone Jambs, it is in fact part of the Long Corridor. Measured between the top of the stairs at the southern end and the corner of the passage north of Magazine XVIII, the Long Corridor was 230 Minoan feet long; this size was apparently an important Minoan value.
33 DM/NB 2 May 1900: ‘but the corresponding floor level was only determined after the paved flooring further N had been brought into view’.
34 After removing the sand and dust, the sheet of cement makes it clear that there must have been a narrow opening between antae and jambs.
35 See below under Magazine XI.
36 Clearly visible on early photos, PSMK II, pl. 99.
37 Ibid. pl. 124 a.
38 Especially in the lower courses of the walls between the magazines, where there are blocks of considerable size showing minor traces of fire. These, and the heavily burnt stones higher in the walls, make a twofold rebuilding quite likely.
39 BSA 10 (1903–4), 36.
40 PSMK II, 156 and n. 1108.
41 Ventilation in one direction would have created areas of low pressure in the Magazines, reducing the oxygen supply.
42 I avoid mentioning ‘absolute’ dates but I imagine that it might have been contemporary with the construction of the Stepped Portico, assigned to LM I by Evans, PM ii. 810.
43 Good photograph in PSMK II, pl. 133 c.
44 BSA 8 (1901–2), 48–50.
45 It has not been cleared for years and decay is rapid now.
46 PSMK II, pl 55.
47 The large lintel of the higher structure of the additional wall is not included.
48 Good photograph in Hallager, E., The Mycenaean Palace at Knossos (Stockholm, 1977), fig. 35.Google Scholar
49 Or, if so, covered again.
50 Mackenzie's entries of 1904 on the subject are not very conclusive; it seems that Evans relied on Fyfe's notes (which I have not seen yet).
51 PM i. 461.
52 Or so it seems but, having no scale to hand, I could not prove this.
53 PM i. 460–1.
54 Probably during Platon's cleaning and repair operations.
55 PSMK II. 44–52, including nn. 311–72.
56 BSA 6 (1899–1900), 23–5.
57 The plans in Pendlebury, J. D. S., A Guide to the Stratigraphical Museum in the Palace at Knossos (London, 1933–5)Google Scholar are inconclusive and it seems that the entries are not very accurate; this is also true of the text. The problem of reliability of the boxes and their contents was discussed at length by Boardman, J., ‘The date of the Knossos tablets’, in Palmer, L. R. and Boardman, J., On the Knossos Tablets (Oxford, 1963)Google Scholar, and Popham, M., The Destruction of the Palace at Knossos (Göteborg, 1970).Google Scholar
58 A simple and cheap shaving brush with soft hairs.
59 PSMK II. pl. 66 a.
60 Ibid, in nn. 311–72.
61 Measured on the plan in PM i, fig. 325.
62 Cleaning with steam or compressed air would be helpful.
63 ‘Ledge’ is the word used by Mackenzie, DM/NB 1904, 51.
64 PM i. 448. It is surprising that he remained vague in his statements.
65 Ibid. 450.
66 Which is an unproven, though plausible suggestion.
67 This layer varies slightly in strength, being adapted to the uneven earlier paving in order to obtain a smooth surface for the upper, as is still done now.
68 When I reached the surface of this odd spot, I stopped to avoid inflicting damage.
69 The number of visitors may have been substantial, though the great invasion began much later. When I visited Knossos for the first time in 1972, I found the section between Magazines II and XII already closed to the general public.
70 Especially in the East Wing, where the building is better preserved, PM i. 320, fig. 233.
71 PM i. 316.
72 DM/NB 1923, 3 b, see under Magazines XI and XII.
73 BSA 19 (1912–13), 13.
74 Pers. comm., Nov. 1994.
75 LM II in Mackenzie's terms.
76 The black pavement could be charcoal, probably introduced by Mackenzie.
77 Possibly a remnant of the last pavement, covering the kasellas completely.
78 This cist is problematic. As its rim is quite smooth, it does not look as though the upper rim was intentionally broken away to make room for the buttress. One could speculate that this cist was, as Evans vaguely mentioned, an earlier one.
79 It begins just at the northern end of the buttress.
80 This supposition is based on the appearance of the blocks which show no traces of fire or smoke.
81 A potsherd in the sand, at the extreme SW corner of the test pit, just in front of this piece, might be MM III.
82 It is not clear when, though probably later than Mackenzie's work.
83 As found and described by Mackenzie in 1923, while excavating Magazines XI and XII.
84 PM ii. 664 and n. 2 for both tests.
85 In BSA 6 (1899–1900), 21, Evans assigned the jar to Magazine III.
86 Registered under AE 977, good photograph in Ann Brown, Arthur Evans and the Palace of Minos (Oxford, 1986) 68, fig. 36 a.
87 BSA 6 (1899–1900), 21.
88 PSMK II, 20 and 162 including notes.
89 DM/NB for 1900 and 1901 passim. Recorded after the completion of the excavation of the rooms and the sections of the Long Corridor. Later authors apparently considered these entries as important, Mackenzie is often quoted on this point.
90 There is no easy answer to this question. Because of the sweeping, the finds can hardly belong to the inventory of the excavations of 1900 or 1901. In his entries of 1923, Mackenzie does not mention these sherds, nor did Evans. On the grounds of the existing evidence in Magazines XI and XII, however, I am convinced that they must belong to some deeper level and were simply ignored because of the lack of decoration.
91 In Magazines VII–X.
92 Apparently of Minoan date.
93 Notably in 1923, when he started extensive soundings in Magazines XI and XII.
94 DM/NB 1923 I, 13 and 14.
95 Though of an undetermined class, the undecorated sherds remind one of ‘Ordinary pithoi’, as Evans would have said. These are not always of a ‘late character’: those pithoi inscribed with Linear A texts can only fall in the genuine Minoan period, i.e. LM IB at the latest. Pithoi, styles, and style-groups will be discussed in a separate paper. The differences are probably not a problem of dating, but reflect different groups, or schools of pithos-makers.
96 I saw these in 1989, when the Curator showed me around the Throne Room Complex. The area was discussed by Mirié, S., Das Thronraumareal des Palastes von Knossos (Bonn, 1979), 33–8.Google Scholar
97 Ibid. 35
98 Mackenzie raised the later pavement here and left what he thought was the early floor, apparently of MM III date, uncovered for inspection. The whole operation is described in detail in his notebook for 1923.
99 We encountered this situation from Magazine VII upwards.
100 At Phaistos in the restored Magazine XXXIII, which I examined with the permission of the Italian School in 1988; at Malia in the East Magazines, of which not very much survived. In 1989, with the permission of the French School, I was able to do some work there.
101 Reconsidering my notes with the aid of PSMK II, I think it more likely that the remains belong to the bedding of the later pavement.
102 As still visible in the extreme west of Magazine VIII.
103 Also fully described in the notebooks for 1923. Here Mackenzie raises the idea that the gypsum dado was used as paving later. It is more than likely that there existed a pavement in the rooms, before the dado was ‘converted’.
104 As I found the magazines fenced in March 1972, a measure which may have been taken even earlier, there were not more than eight years available for free inspections.
105 See n. 103.
106 Several sheets of my notes were spoilt by the torrential rain, when I left Knossos in Nov. 1994, the water washed the ink away.
107 Described by Mackenzie in 1923.