570 EXCAVATIONS AT GOURNIA, CRETE. 



contains a bath \\'ith cement floor and stuccoed Avail, on which traces 

 of red and yellow color are still visible, a small square court, several 

 storerooms, and a deep cistern with water channel. 



In all the more important parts of the palace squared blocks of 

 soft limestone take the place of rubble; usual dimensions about 1.40 

 meters long, 90 centimeters w^ide, and f)0 centimeters high. One 

 bloclv attains the length of 2.10 meters. These blocks are carefully 

 trimmed on all sides, and are laid in a thin bed of clay, each course 

 receding about 10 centimeters from the one below it. The outer face 

 was covered with stucco, and we have some traces of its use or, +he 

 inner walls also. On a block near the southwest corner the dc 

 ax of Zeus is carved, as at Knossos and Phaestos. We note also ' 

 reentrant angles, a feature of Cretan architecture of this j^eriod. 



Of the shrine which lies in the center of the town, approachc 

 a well-worn road of its own, I shall say very little, as it opens u} 

 large a subject for discussion here. Not imposing as a piece of ai 

 tecture, it is yet of unique importance as being the first " Mycenae. . 

 or " Minoan " shrine discovered intact. The Avorshiper ascendea 

 three steps and, through a doorway 1.50 meters Avide, entered an in- 

 closure about 3 meters squai-e, surrounded In^ AA^alls half a meter 

 thick and 50 to 00 centimeters liigh. The floor is of beaten earth. 

 Lying near the top of the hill, our shrine has suffered much from the 

 forces of nature. A AA^ld carob tree groAA'ing AAithin its bounds had 

 partly destroyed and partly saA^ed its contents, of Avhich the more 

 noteAA-ortliA' are a Ioav earthen table, coA^ered with a thin coating of 

 plaster, which stands on three legs and possibly serA'ed as an altar; 

 four cultus "- Abases bearing symbols of Minoan worship, the disk, 

 consecrated horns and serpent, a terra-cotta female idol entwined 

 with a snake, two heads of the same type as the idol, seA'Cral small 

 clay doA^es and serpents' heads, all of coarse terra cotta, and a frag- 

 ment of a pithos, on which a double-ax and disk are modeled in re- 

 lief. These Avere huddled together in the northeast corner; the rest 

 of the shrine Avas entirely empty of finds, and nothing stood in the 

 recess at the soutliAvest corner, although this seems to correspond to 

 the shelf in the shrine more recently discovered at Knossos, on AA-hicli 

 were found many offerings. 



o T have called them " cultus " vases, and such I do believe them to be in 

 spite of AVide's article on Mykenische Gotterbilder, in Idole Athenisehe Mittheil- 

 nnircn, XXVI, 1001, pp. 247-257, in which he calls similar objects from Priniii 

 " idols." These resemble ring stands found in Egypt, and with their slightly 

 fl:irlng rims would conveniently hold bowls. Objects with the same rings, tlar- 

 ing bases, and ilaring rims have been found at Orchomenos and elsewhere in 

 Greece and the islands, but none of this height. The Gournia vases are fur- 

 nished with two opposite sets of upright loops, with an upright handle between 

 them. 



