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Eastern
Apartments
The
Queen’s Apartments
A dog-legged passage led from the Hall of the Double
Axes to a smaller version that Evans dubbed the Queen’s
Megaron. In this case, instead of a series of doors,
the hall was sub-divided by a low stylobate about 38
cm high, supporting a pair of pillars. On top of the
gypsum blocks that made up the stylobate, Evans found
carbonized wood with a coating of plaster leading him
to believe that it was used as a bench, one whose height
he believed was designed to accommodate women rather
than men. At the north end of the bench is a doorway,
linking the room to a sort of portico with a light-well
beyond.
Queen's
Megaron looking towards the light well and with private
staircase to the left
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Fresco
fragments depicting a woman with long, wavy tresses
were found in the light-well. Her hair hangs rather
limply down to her neck but then seem to fly out
from her shoulders. Evans thought she was spinning
around as she danced but the attitude of the rest
of her body does not seem to support this. It
may well be that she is a goddess, descending
from heaven, a scene that is often depicted on
seals. The size and scale of the figure suggested
to Evans that it belonged on the side panel of
one of the pillars. He also found fragments of
two swimming dolphins, restored versions of which
he placed over the door on the north side of the
room. However, many scholars now believe they
originally decorated the floor of the room above.
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Queen's
Megaron: Reconstruction
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At
the north end of the hall was a balustrade, separating
it from a small bathroom. The balustrade actually
turns inwards next to the door and it was there
that Evans found a painted clay tub that enabled
him to identify the function of the room. The
walls were lined with gypsum and the floor was
paved with the same material—not the ideal
waterproofing.
There
was a corridor next to the bathroom door that
led to what Evans described as a “toilette”
and which he named the Room of the Plaster Couch
because of the oblong plaster dais found in the
southwest corner. A narrow closet projects from
the east wall of this room, which contains what
Evans believed was a latrine. There were grooves
in the wall to hold a wooden seat about 57 cm
above the floor. An opening beneath the seat connected
by means of a vented drain to the main sewage
system for this part of the palace. This consisted
of a cement-lined |
conduit about 78 cm high and 38 cm across that ran in
a circuit around domestic quarter, from a high point by
the Grand Staircase. Shafts in a block of masonry next
to the Room of the Plaster Couch fed effluent from the
upper floors.
(Plan of Drains)
Illumination
in this part of the wing was provided by a small light-well,
known as the Court of the Distaffs from the symbols
carved on its walls. From the northeast corner of the
Room of the Plaster Couch, a corridor led to another
private staircase leading to the upper chambers before
ending up in the Hall of the Colonnades once again.
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