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Sliding panels at Knossos*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 September 2013
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I. While excavating at Knossos, Sir Arthur Evans discovered remains of a uniform group of unusual, if not unique, compartments in the North-east area of the Minoan Palace (Plates 32–3, Figs. 1–4). Unlike most groups of adjacent rooms of similar dimensions facing on to a corridor, those at Knossos are joined neither by doorways nor by solid party walls. Rather, their common side walls are interrupted by openings that, from all indications, were designed to be closed or opened by means of sliding panels. These panels, which were probably of wood, would have been slid into grooves, provided for them, by someone standing outside of the rooms themselves.
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- Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1978
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1 For instance, the storerooms in the stoa-like structure in the north-east area at Hagia Triadha, those at Phaistos in the West Wing of the palace (Rooms 27–37), at the Mallia Palace (Area I, 1–6) or in the West Wing at Knossos itself. Comparison could also be made with the casemates in Area 11 at Tiryns (as shown in Mylonas, G., Mycenae and the Mycenaean Age, Princeton, 1966Google Scholar, Fig. 1 (Plan III)).
2 BSA 7 (1900–1) p. 93; 8 (1901–2) pp. 12–13.
3 DM/NB 1902/2 pp. 31, 34–5.
4 The area is illustrated, but apparently not specifically discussed in the text, in Fig. 280, Volume I, of Evans, A., The Palace of Minos at Knossos, Vols. I–IV (in six), London, 1921–1936Google Scholar, hereafter cited as PM.
5 For the specific techniques known, see my Minoan Architecture: Materials and Techniques, Volume 33 (1971) of the Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene, Rome, 1973, pp. 20–3, 91, also figs. 107, 178, 215. Henceforth this volume will be cited as MAMAT.
6 I first noticed the remains of these compartments in 1968 while examining the architecture of the palace in general. In 1973, in cooperation with Mr. Sinclair Hood of the British School of Archaeology in Athens, and with the support of a Canada Council Research Grant, I was again able to work at Knossos and, at various times during that memorable summer of helping to ready the definitive ground plan of the palace, I reinspected the area described in this article. In the autumn of 1976, aided by another Council grant given in connection with a project at Kommos, the present text was completed at Knossos itself. I am grateful to the Managing Committee of the British School of Archaeology in Athens for allowing me at that time to make the actual state plans of the pens.
While there is no sure dating for the compartments, they are most likely post-Middle Minoan IIIB. This is suggested by a slab-lined drain partially excavated during the summer of 1973. This east—west drain was discovered under and slightly to the north of the partition base between compartments 1 and 2. The drain, of which neither eastern or western terminus was discovered, actually continues partly under the partition base and, from all appearances, is not connected with it structurally. Entire vases of MM IIIB date, found in the drain's fill (personal communication of 24 February 1976 from Sinclair Hood) suggest that the drain was filled in during or after this period. From this one can infer that the earliest date possible for the compartments is MM IIIB at Knossos.
7 PM I, 388 and fig. 281. I should note that our state plan (FIG. 2) is selective, showing only the paving slabs noted on Evans's plan and not those which may have been restored in the meantime. The Royal Pottery Stores to the north-east are not indicated either since they were presumably largely covered over at the time that the compartments were in use. The level of the plan in FIG. 2 is taken just above the compartment floor surface: thus the façade blocks shown on the east are those of the first course.
8 Ibid., pp. 389–91, 568–71 and figs. 281, 414.
9 Ibid., pp. 570, 571; PM III, p. 277 n. 1.
10 PM I, pp. 231 f.
11 Ibid., pp. 240–7, 570–3; III, p. 277 no. 1. The general stratification of the area is described in BSA 8 (1901–2) pp. 117–19.
12 In the restored plan (FIG. 2), I suggest an entrance from outside the palace just north of compartment 11. This is purely conjectural but seems quite likely. It also fits into the scheme of access to terminate compartment 11 before it reaches the enceinte wall, the resulting arrangement both allowing for access and making it possible for the compartment to conform in its general north–south dimension with those to the south.
13 The pavement slabs in PLATE 32b have been restored by the Antiquities Service in order to prevent erosion. Judging from the significant height of the walls preserved on the west, the floor level here was probably essentially undisturbed, which strongly suggests that it was unpaved. Moreover, except for a single slab outside compartment 4 (not visible now), which may have indicated a step down (FIG. 1), no paving blocks seem to have been found in the area.
14 East of compartment 4 was found a long rectangular block (FIG. 1) most probably a reused partition base, discovered lying upside down. It has been restored, perhaps correctly, by a later excavator at Knossos as the tread for a flight of stairs leading up to a surely post-compartment structure.
15 See note 12, above.
16 The gypsum block (PLATE 33b, FIG. 3) has been reused from an earlier burnt structure since it is scorched while the limestone blodes in the same wall are not. The same block, to judge from the dowel holes visible on its southern face, was originally set on end, southern face up. Mackenzie also noted the reused material in his excavation diary (DM/NB 1902/2 p. 36).
17 Note that in FIG. 1 the corridor is shown to jog westward at a point north of compartment 4. Although this jog is completely restored by Evans's architect, the extra length thus gained by compartments 6 to 11 still remains possible.
18 BSA 8 (1901–2) p. 13. No reasons are given.
19 In the case of compartment 1, from northern end of door jamb to partition block.
20 The northernmost slot is not preserved completely.
21 In some cases the major partition block is set so that it begins from the edge of the corridor.
22 Compartment 1 also had an opening, not shown in Evans's plan (FIG. 1). As will become clear later in this analysis, it is not adjoined by a slot since there was no other compartment to the south.
23 For a study of square dowels and their use, see my MAMAT (above, note 5), pp. 166–85.
24 The timbers may have been morticed into a horizontal beam, cut with a notch on the east and held in place from below by the wooden dowels.
25 For the evidence see the valuable article by Marinatos, S., ‘Greniers de l'Helladique Ancien’, BCH 70 (1946) pp. 337–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar EH granaries are tentatively identified at Orchomenos and Tiryns, and there is ample comparison and reference to the round granaries known in various Egyptian representations and examples, especially at Amarna. See also Badawy, A., A History of Egyptian Architecture, Berkeley, 1968, pp. 93 f.Google Scholar, 107 f., 123. A recently discovered Geometric model of a series of silos, found in Athens, can now be seen in Thompson, H. and Wycherley, R., The Agora of Athens, Volume XIV, Princeton, N.J. 1972Google Scholar, Plate 20.
26 Walter Graham, J., The Palaces of Crete, Princeton, N.J., 1962, p. 134.Google Scholar Henceforth cited as PofC.
27 Ibid., p. 135 n. 11.
28 See also Hood, S., The Minoans, London, 1971, p. 157 n. 9.Google Scholar
29 BSA 8 (1901–2) p. 13. He did suggest, however, that certain rooms in the Caravanserai were intended to be used for pack animals, since the unusual cobbled floor was thought to be set in so that the animals would not slip (PM II, p. 105). In an earlier report (BSA 7 (1900–1) p. 72) he thought that certain rooms near the Northern Entrance might have been stables. Stylianos Alexiou has also thought that dogs may have been kept there (Minoikos Politismos, Heraklion, 1964, p. 185), as did Pendlebury, (Guide to the Palace of Minos, Knossos, London, 1933, p. 47Google Scholar).
30 Evidence for both animal and plant remains from Crete were summarized (up to 1935) in Vickery, K. F., ‘Food in Early Greece’ Illinois Studies in Social Sciences, 20, n. 3, 1936.Google Scholar For further information see Hood, S., The Minoans, London, 1971, pp. 88 f., 156 f.Google Scholar; Ventris, M. and Chadwick, J., Documents in Mycenaean Greek, Cambridge, 1973, pp. 49, 130–2, 205–6Google Scholar; Jarman, M. R., ‘The Fauna’, in Warren, P., Myrtos, Oxford, 1972, pp. 318–20.Google Scholar
31 Hood, S.The Minoans, London, 1971, p. 157 n. 18.Google Scholar See Hutchinson, R. W., Prehistoric Crete, Harmondworth, 1962, p. 240Google Scholar, for an opposite view.
32 This assumes that the northern compartments were at least 2·50 m. × 2·50 m., Evans's own estimation.
33 PofC, p. 127. Also Graham, J. W., Minoan Crete, Athens, 1974, pp. 40–1Google Scholar. The location of the supposed ‘Banquet Hall’ at Knossos. as Graham makes clear, is not sure if Knossos is considered without relation to other sites in Crete. But the evidence in general supports the form of the Banquet Hall as he has proposed it, and the North Wing does appear to be the preferred location for it in all the palaces discovered. See also Graham's various articles on the subject in AJA 65 (1961) pp. 165–72 71 (1967) pp. 353–60; 74 (1970) p. 235; 79 (1975) pp. 141–4.
34 See Albright, W. F., The Archaeology of Palestine, Harmondsworth, 1960, p. 124 and pl. 20Google Scholar; Kenyon, K., The Archaeology of the Holy Land, New York, 1960, p. 270Google Scholar. For a careful study of stables both in Egypt and Palestine, see J. S. Holladay, Jr., ‘The Stables of Ancient Israel’, in the forthcoming Festschrift dedicated to Siegfried H. Horn.
35 The arrangements in the North Palace are best described and illustrated in JEA 10 (1924) pp. 296 f. and Plate XXX. See also Porter, B. and Moss, R., Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings, Oxford, 1927–1951, Vol. IV, p. 193Google Scholar for a full listing, including the mangers from Amarna now in European museums.
36 Except, perhaps, for a wall painting from the Tomb of Huy which depicts horses being transported on the decks of ships. Each horse appears within a fancy canopied stall, the sides of which come up to a bit below the horses’ backs (de Garies Davies, N., The Tomb of Huy, London, 1926, Plates XXXI–XXXIIIGoogle Scholar). Cattle are also shown on board, within a large fenced enclosure. G. Wilkinson has suggested that structures in a cattleyard shown in a painting from the Tomb of Meryra at Amarna should be interpreted as a series of pens for individual animals, each with a separate entrance (Wilkinson, G., The Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, London, 1878 2, Volume I, Fig. 140 (2))Google Scholar, but the arrangement in the painting is so similar to that in the North Palace at Amarna, described here in the text, that I suspect that is what the artist was really depicting. The definitive publication (de Garies Davies, N., The Rock Tombs of Amarna, London, 1903Google Scholar, Part I (see Plate XXIX)) also emerged some years before the North Palace was discovered.
37 Frankfort, H. and Pendlebury, J. D. S., The City of Akhenaten, Part II, The North Suburb and the Desert Altars, London, 1933, p. 24, Plate XII (for T 36 11) and pp. 30–1 and Plate XIII (for the ‘Tax Collector's Group’).Google Scholar
38 Pendlebury, J. D. S., The City of Akhenaten, Part III, The Central City and Official Quarters, London, 1951, pp. 132–4Google Scholar in Vol. I and Plates XXI and LII–LIV in Vol. II. Similar hitching posts, abo fixed along the sides of long parallel rooms, were found in Building Q,46.1 (Rooms 4‴ and 5‴) at Amarna (Ricke, H., Der Grundriss der Amarna Wohnhauses, Osnabruck, 1967, p. 47Google Scholar, Fig. 44 and Plate 17). In house Q.44.1 an even more unusual stable was discovered. Part of it was paved with rough stones to keep the animals from slipping. Along the east side of the room, the entire room being 16 metres long by 3·10 m. wide, was built a range of eight mangers behind a low parapet wall, die food being placed into the mangers from a narrow passage running along behind them (JEA 10 (1924) p. 291 and Plates XXV–XXVI(1)).
39 Threpsiades, I., Praktika, 1961, p. 37.Google Scholar R. Hope Simpson has also suggested that they may have been stables (A Gazetteer and Atlas of Mycenaean Sites, University of London Institute of Classical Studies Bulletin Supplement No. 16 (1965) p. 116).
40 In the fresco from Thera, there is a generous encircling wall of fieldstones, with a tree growing in the centre of the circular space thus created. Sheep and goats approach from nearby (Marinatos, S., Excavations at Thera, VI, Athens, 1974, p. 41Google Scholar (Volume I) and Colour Plate 7 (Volume II)). Apparently such enclosures were referred to in the later Linear B as ta-to-mo, perhaps stathmoi (Ventris, M. and Chadwick, J., Documents in Mycenaean Greek 1, Cambridge, 1973, p. 131).Google Scholar A skeleton of a goat was found in a room at the site of Balos, on Thera, in 1870, along with jars of barley, lentils, and peas (Page, D., The Santorini Volcano and the Desolation of Minoan Crete, London, 1970, p. 26 and Fig. 15)Google Scholar; but the architectural plan suggests only an informal stable arrangement. Apparently straw bedding and crockery pans for feeding the goat were found nearby. Parts of a possible pen (manger?) for a goat are shown on a sealing from Knossos (PM I, Fig. 202e). P. Warren has suggested that at Myrtos, (Myrtos, London, 1972, p. 30)Google Scholar sheep and goats may have been herded into certain narrow passages within the prepalatial settlement, thus protecting the animals from theft or attack. Even in many Cretan villages today goats, donkeys, and other animals are kept in rooms on the ground floor.
41 See above, note 29. The domesticated dog was certainly known in Crete. Bones of dogs have been found in Minoan contexts (Hutchinson, R. W., Prehistoric Crete, Harmondsworth, 1962, p. 239Google Scholar) and dogs are often depicted on seals and other artistic media (see PM II, p. 24 and other references in the accompanying Index volume). Of course the most famous of the hunting scenes is the later Mycenaean fresco from Tiryns depicting a boar hunt (Rodenwaldt, Tiryns, Volume II, Athens, 1912, pp. 125 ff., Fig. 25, Plate XIII and p. 126 n. 2) and fragments of a similar scene have recently been found at Orchomenos (AAA 7, 1974, PP. 319 f.).
42 When speaking of the construction of kennels, one recent writer suggests that the compartment doors should either ‘open inward or slide to one side, and for two reasons, not taking any passage of space, and never giving way when pushed against by dogs’ (Watson, J., The Dog Book, Toronto, Canada, 19— (date not given) p. 37)Google Scholar. The same author recommends that bitches be separated when whelping and that the average compartment size be 36″ deep and 26″ wide, much smaller than the Knossian compartments being discussed here.
43 Frankfort, H. and Pendlebury, J. D. S., The City of Akhenaten, Part II, The North Suburb and the Desert Altars, London, 1933Google Scholar, Plate XII (east of the house, a single small room near the cattle pens) and Plate XIII (four rooms south of the main house).
44 See above, note 30. At LM Tylissos there were discovered thirty-two jaws of sheep or goat and seventeen of domestic swine.
45 See above, note 30 (Ventris, p. 129).
46 Columella, Lucius, On Agriculture, translated by Forster, E. and Heffer, E., Cambridge, 1954, VII, ix, 9–10.Google Scholar
47 On a prism of the hieroglyphic class, a pig is shown associated with a gate or door, perhaps the entrance to its sty (PM IV, p. 572).
48 ‘Wild swine, if captured when young, can be tamed and domesticated very easily’ (Bokonyi, S., A History of Domestic Animals in Central and Eastern Europe, Budapest, 1974, p. 207)Google Scholar. For evidence for boar hunting in Crete, see PM IV, pp. 571–4.
49 The Odyssey, Book XIV, lines 10–20, the translation being that of R. Lattimore.
50 See Pelon, O., BCH 90 (1966) pp. 552–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
51 Walter Graham, J. ‘A Minoan Puzzle’, Archaeology 26 (1973) PP. 101–5.Google Scholar
52 As Graham points out in the article cited above, the auges are not all the same. Some have rectangular or square holes on each end of the top of the block, between the block's edge and the first basin. These are, clearly, holes for wooden dowels which would, in a manner similar to those already discussed in connection with the compartments at Knossos, retain vertical timbers, in this case the lower part of the door frame at the entrance into the small room. Since this frame probably had some kind of hinged wooden lattice-work attached to it, in order to prevent the animal from escaping, it had to be firmly based. See now Archaeology 31 (1978) 55, where Professor Graham, who was kind enough to read a version of this text, espouses the interpretation suggested here.
53 As in Graham, J. W., ‘The Minoan Banquet Hall’, AJA 65 (1961) p. 168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
54 Pernier, L. and Banti, L., Festòs, II, Rome, 1951, p.216Google Scholar; PofC, p. 39; Alexiou, S., Minoikos Politismos, Heraklion, 1964, p. 216Google Scholar.
55 Pernier, L. and Banti, L., Festòs, II, pp. 217 f. and Fig. 122Google Scholar; see also the map in the Plate Volume accompanying Festòs, I, Rome, 1935.