430 THE PALACE OF MINOS. 



and the fallen debris in the rooms and passag-os turned over and ran- 

 sacked for precious booty. Here and there a local bey or peasant had 

 grubbed for stone slabs to supply his yard or thrashing il )r. But 

 the part}' walls of cla}^ and plaster still stood intact, with the fresco 

 painting on them, still in many cases perfecth' preserved at a few 

 inches depth from the surface, a clear proof of how severely the site 

 had been let alone for these long centuries. 



Who were the destroyers i! Perhaps the Dorian invaders, who seem 

 to have overrun the island about the eleventh or twelfth century 

 before our era. More probably, still earlier invading swarms from 

 the mainland of Greece. The palace itself had a long antecedent his- 

 tory and there are frequent traces of remodeling. Its earl}' elements 

 may go back a thousand years before its final overthrow, since, in the 

 great eastern court, was found the lower part of an Egyptian seated 

 figure of diorite, with a triple inscription, showing that it dates back 

 to the close of the twelfth or the beginning of the thirteenth dynasty 

 of Egypt; in other words, approximately to 2,000 B. C. But below 

 the foundation of the later building, and covering the whole hill, are 

 the remains of a primitive settlement of still greater antiquity, belong- 

 ing to the insular Stone Age. In parts this "Neolithic" deposit was 

 over 24 feet thick, everywhere full of stone axes, knives of volcanic 

 glass, dark polished and incised pottery, and primitive images, such 

 as those found by Schliemann in the lowest strata of Troy. 



The outer walls of the palace were supported on huge gypsum blocks, 

 but there was no sign of an elaborate system of fortification such as at 

 Tiryns and Mycen^. The reason of this is not far to seek. Why is 

 Paris strongly fortified, while London is practically an open town? 

 The city of Minos, it must be remembered, was the center of a great sea 

 power, and it was in " wooden walls " that its rulers must have put their 

 trust. The mighty blocks of the palace show, indeed, that it was not 

 for want of engineering power that the acropolis of Knossos remained 

 unfortified. But in truth Mycena?an might was here at home. At 

 Tiryns and Mycena? itself it felt itself threatened by warlike conti- 

 nental neighbors. It was not till the mainland foes were masters of the 

 sea that they could have forced an entry into the house of Minos. 

 Then, indeed, it was an easy task. In the cave of Zeus on Mount Ida 

 was found a large brooch (or fibula) belonging to the race of northern 

 invaders, on one side of which a war galley is significantly engraved. 



The palace was entered on the southwest side by a portico and double 

 doorway opening from a spacious paved court (fig. 1). Flanking the 

 portico were remains of a great fresco of a bull, and on the walls of 

 the corridor leading fioni it were still preserved the lower part of a 

 procession of painted life-size figures, in the center of which was a 

 female personage, prol)ably a queen, in magnificent apparel. This 

 corridor seems to have led round to a great southern porch or Propy- 



