568 



EXCAVATIONS AT GOURNlA. CRETE. 



it, although smaller pestles and mortars are among our commonest 

 finds. 



Special mention should be made of the palace. On • the west 

 side are four storei'ooms communicating Avith a flight of steps, and 

 three long, narrow magazines opening on a common corridor that 

 correspond, though on a much smaller scale, to those at Knossos and 

 Phaestos. The rooms south of these magazines were reached by a 

 staircase, of which the steps are destroyed, but a transverse support- 

 ing wall still remains. West of the storerooms the road Avidens into 

 a small plateia, of which we have not yet determined the western 

 boundary. South of this is a space, having a cement pavement, Avhich 

 seems to be part of the i^alace, possibly a loggia, in which case the 

 west road continuing south must have formed a covered way within 

 the j)alace. From the southern end of this covered Avay a paved 

 passage leads east, while the road continues soutliAvest. The eastern 



passage ends in three steps as- 

 cending east and a return series 

 of tAvo steps Avhich communi- 

 cated Avith the building south of 

 the passageway. Beyond the 

 three steps is a large open court, 

 Avhich seems to ansAver to the 

 Avest court of Knossos, and may 

 have served as a market place 

 for the town. This court was 

 paved Avith cement; its eastern 

 and southern limits are not yet 

 reached. As Ave turn north 

 from the steps we see on the left 

 running north for a distance of 

 5.60 meters a stylobate, on Avhich stood tAvo square pillars, measuring 

 85 centimeters on a side at the base, Avith shafts about 20 centimeters 

 less in dimensions. Of the southern pillar nothing remains, but its 

 position can be distinctly traced on the stylobate; of the northern 

 pillar Ave still have the base and loAver part of the shaft. The profile 

 of the base is carefully cut. 



Beginning March 30, 1903, at this portico, from which we had 

 remoA-ed our last loads of earth in 1901, Ave dug northward into the 

 center and, as it proved, the most interesting part of the palace. In 

 the northwest corner of the court we came upon two Ioav flights of 

 steps at right angles to each other, which reproduce the arrangement 

 at Knossos and Phaestos. Within their angle a pair of sacred horns, 

 fashioned in coarse terra cotta, measuring 0.38 centimeter across and 

 0.38 centimeter in height, lay as if fallen from above. The flight of 



FiQ. 2. — Sacred hoz'us (coarse terra cotta). 



