|
The
North Wing
Plan
of the western part of the North Wing
North
Entrance Passage
At
the northern end of the Central Court is a long
sloping corridor that runs north for a distance
of about 25 metres and is known as the North Entrance
Passage. The passage was no more than a couple
of metres wide and was hemmed in on each side
by three bastions built at the beginning of the
Second Palace Period.
On
the western side, the bastions supported a magnificent
portico which sheltered painted reliefs of what
appear to be bull-catching scenes (right), similar
to those depicted on the cups found at Vapheio
on the Greek mainland. A column base along with
fragments of stucco were found in the passage
below, enabling Evans to reconstruct porticoed
balconies. |
|
| |
|
North
Entrance & West Portico, looking
north |
North
Entrance (reconstruction) looking
South |
|
West
Bastion of North Entrance |
|
North
Pillar Hall
At
the end of the passage was a large rectangular room
(ca. 10 x 22 metres) supported by two rows of pillars.
There were 11 of these altogether—6 in one row
and 5 in the other—and all were square sectioned
save for the two at the far end of the room. Evans was
unsure of the function of the room, which he called
the North Pillar Hall, but Graham suggests that it may
have been the basement of a Banqueting Hall.
Similar halls have been found at the north end of the
central courts at Mallia and Kato Zakro.
|
North
Pillar Hall & North Entrance |
There is a set of doors on the west side of the room
from which a raised pavement, or ‘causeway,’
leads to the Theatral Area.
The
Northwest Insula
Next
to the North Entrance Passage and opening onto
the Central Court is a small suite known as the
North-West Insula. This block of rooms replaced
an earlier structure, the Early Keep as Evans
called it, a massive stone ediface containing
deep cells. Presumably it had once guarded the
northern entrance to the Old Palace. The entire
superstructure of the replacement structure is
missing and only basement rooms (mainly used for
storage) survive. The suite and whatever lay above
it was clearly of some importance because a lot
of fine pottery, stone vessels and finely crafted
cult paraphernalia was found there.
One of the rooms contained a fresco depicting
blue monkeys who are perhaps gathering saffron
from potted crocuses. The action and the rocky
landscape is very much the same in wall-paintings
found at Akrotiri on the island of Thera which
blew apart in the same seismic upheaval that threw
down the Old Palace. The corner room where the
North Entrance Passage met the |
|
Central Court had a stucco ceiling with painted spiral
reliefs and walls decorated with miniature frescoes. The
latter includes the Sacred Grove Fresco described above
and another known as the Grandstand Fresco, which depicts
groups of well-dressed women seated prominently on either
side of a tripartite shrine and surrounded by crowds of
people.
Grandstand
Fresco (detail) |
North
Lustral Area
Another
entrance, leading directly to the Throne Room Suite,
ran from the Northwest Portico through a double doorway
to a sloping passage that dog-legged around the Northwest
Insula and ran south to the Passage of the Stone Basin.
The portico was also connected, by way of an antechamber
to the North Lustral Area. For this reason, Evans believed
that this entrance system was designed for the use of
pilgrims or others visiting the site for religious reasons
and requiring ritual purification. However, as previously
stated, many modern scholars dispute Evans interpretation
of these installations and believe them to be a type
of subterranean shrine.
| Plan
of North Lustral Area (after Evans) |
| The
basin sits near the south-eastern corner of a larger
enclosure, facing a set of double doors from the
antechamber. It measures some 2.5 x 2.5 metres and
is 2 metres deep with two balustraded flights of
stairs leading to the bottom. The walls had a dado
of gypsum slabs and the floor was paved with the
same material. Evans found the basin full of carbonized
material that had fallen from the upper part of
the building. On the floor were clay and stone vessels—the
latter including ewers and spouted bowls with inlaid
decoration. They were certainly used to pour liquids,
scented oils and water, so the ‘lustral’
connection is understandable. Similar vessels were
found in the surrounding courtyard along with the
lid of an Egyptian bowl bearing the cartouche of
the Hyksos pharaoh of Egypt, Khyan who ruled in
the 17th century BC. |
|
|
