5Y0 EXCAVATIONS AT GOURNTA, CRETE. 



contains a bath witli oonionv floor and stucooiMl wall, on which traces 

 of ro<l and yellow color are still visible, a small scjuare court, several 

 storerooms, and a deep cistern with water channel. 



In all the more imjjortant parts of the i)alace squared blocks of 

 soft limestone take the place of rnbble; usual dimensions about l.-tO 

 meters long, 90 centimeters wide, and GO centimeters high. One 

 block 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 on the 

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

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

 reentrant angles, a feature of Cretan architecture of this period. 



Of the shrine which lies in the center of the town, approached by 

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

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

 tecture, it is yet of unique importance as being the first " Mycena?an " 

 or " Minoan " shrine discovered intact. The worshiper ascended 

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

 closure about 3 meters square, surrounded by walls half a meter 

 thick and 50 to 60 centimeters high. The floor is of beaten earth. 

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

 forces of nature. A wild carob tree growing within its bounds had 

 partly destroyed and partly saved its contents, of which the more 

 noteworthy are a low earthen table, covered with a thin coating of 

 plaster, which stands on three legs and possibly served as an altar; 

 four cultus " vases bearing symbols of Minoan w^orship, the disk, 

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

 with a snake, two heads of the same type as the idol, several small 

 clay doves 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 were huddled together in the northeast corner; the rest 

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

 recess^ at the southwest corner, although this seems to correspond to 

 the shelf in the shrine more recently discovered at Knossos, on which 

 were found, many offerings. 



a I liave called them " cultus " vases, and such I do believe them to be in 

 spite of Wide's article on Mykoniscbe Gotterbilder. in Idolo Athenischc Mittheil- 

 ungen, XXVI. 1901, ])i). 247-2r)7, in which he calls similar objects from Prinia 

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

 flaring rims would conveniently hold bowls. Oh.iects with the same rings, flar- 

 ing basi's, and flaring 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 u]tright handle between 

 them. 



