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The Pottery and Architecture of the EM IIA West Court House at Knossos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

David E. Wilson
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Abstract

In a series of soundings made in the West Court of the palace at Knossos by John D. Evans in 1969, three basement rooms of an EM IIA building were uncovered almost directly beneath the pavement of the West Court. A rich and homogeneous deposit of pottery came from these rooms, associated yard levels to the west, and fill above. Certain features, such as the pattern-burnished stemmed goblets, put the West Court House pottery at the very beginning of the EM II sequence at Knossos. A discussion of the stratification and architecture of the West Court House is followed by a representative selection of the pottery. The West Court House not only adds to our knowledge of the EM IIA settlement at Knossos, but also provides new evidence for contacts with the rest of Crete and the Aegean.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 80 , November 1985 , pp. 281 - 364
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1985

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References

Acknowledgements. The pottery and the architecture of the West Court House originally formed part of my doctoral dissertation for the University of Cincinnati (Wilson 1984, chapters 1–2). I owe my first debt of gratitude to Professor John D. Evans who generously gave to me the pottery from the West Court House for discussion in my thesis and eventual publication here. I would like also to especially thank Gerald Cadogan and Sinclair Hood from whom I benefited greatly in discussions about the West Court House pottery and about Early Minoan Knossos in general. The West Court House pottery should be viewed in conjunction with their own material from Knossos (BSA suppl. vol., forthcoming) in order to have a more complete picture of the Early Minoan ceramic sequence at Knossos. I would like to thank also Sandy (J. A.) MacGillivray, Gisela Walberg, and Pat Cameron for their helpful comments and assistance. This article was written while I held a Semple Classics Postdoctoral Fellowship from the University of Cincinnati. The Department of Classics of the University of Cincinnati gave me additional funding for the preparation of plates and illustrations for which I am most grateful. My thanks finally to Miss Emma Faull who drew and inked most of the fine ware pottery illustrated here and to Mr John Forg who inked most of the coarse ware pottery drawn by the author. All the photographs are by the author except for the architectural views in PLATES 27–9 kindly provided by Professor Evans. The section drawings, FIGS. 2–5 and 6, are based on those of various members of the British School during the 1969 West Court excavations.

Abbreviations. The following additional abbreviations are used:

Ayia Kyriaki Blackman, D. and Branigan, K., ‘The Excavations of an Early Minoan Tholos Tomb at Ayia Kyriaki, Ayiofarango, Southern Crete’, BSA. 77 (1982) 1–57.Google Scholar

Boyd-Hawes 1904. Boyd-Hawes, H., ‘Gournia. Report of the American Exploration Society's Excavations at Gournia, Crete, 1901–1903’, Trans. I, pt. i (1904) 7–44.Google Scholar

Debla Warren, P. and Tzedhakis, J., ‘Debla, an Early Minoan Settlement in Western Crete’, BSA. 69 (1974) 299–342.Google Scholar

Evans 1964 Evans, J. D., ‘Excavations in the Neolithic Settlement at Knossos, 1957–60. Part I’, BSA 59. (1964) 132–240.Google Scholar

Evans 1971 Id., ‘Neolithic Knossos: the Growth of a Settlement’, PPS. 37, pt. ii (1971) 81–117.

Evans 1972 Id., ‘The Early Minoan Occupation of Knossos: A Note on Some New Evidence’, AnatSt. 22 (1972) 115–28.

Festòs I Pernier, L., Il Palazzo Minoico di Festòs. i (Rome 1935).Google Scholar

Festos II Levi, D., Festòs e la Civilta Minoica. (Rome 1976).Google Scholar

Gournia Boyd-Hawes, H., Hall, E. H., Seager, R. B., Gournia, Vasilike, and Other Prehistoric Sites on the Isthmus of Ierapetra, Crete. (Philadelphia 1908).Google Scholar

Hag. Nik. Mus. Davaras, C., Haghios Nikolaos Museum (Athensc. 1982).Google Scholar

Lebena Alexiou, S., ‘New Light on Minoan Dating: Early Minoan Tombs at Lebena’, ILN 6 Aug. 1960, 225–7.Google Scholar

MacGillivray 1980. MacGillivray, J. A., ‘Mount Kynthos in Delos. The Early Cycladic Settlement’, BCH. 104 (1980) 3–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Myrtos Warren, P., Myrtos. An Early Bronze Age Settlement in Crete. (Oxford 1972).Google Scholar

Pendlebury 1935 Pendlebury, H. W. and Pendlebury, J. D. S., Money-Coutts, M. B. and Eccles, E., Knossos. Dating of the Pottery of the Stratigraphical Museum, Pts. i–iii (London 1935).Google Scholar

Pendlebury 1939 Pendlebury, J. D. S., The Archaeology of Crete (London 1939).Google Scholar

Pyrgos Cave Xanthoudides, S., ‘Μέγας Πρωτομινωḯκόςς Τάϕος Πύργου’, ADelt 4. (1918) 136–70.Google Scholar

SM Box Stratigraphical Museum Sherd Box (Knossos)

Trans I University of Pennsylvania. Transactions of the Department of Archaeology, Free Museum of Science and Art., i (1904).

Vasilike Ζωη, A., Βασιλικη1 (Athens 1976)Google Scholar.

VTM Xanthoudides, S., The Vaulted Tombs of Mesara. (London 1924).Google Scholar

Warren 1972 Warren, P., ‘Knossos and the Greek Mainland in the Third Millennium B.C.’, AAA. 5 (1972) 392–8.Google Scholar

Wilson 1984 Wilson, D. E., ‘The E.M. IIA West Court House, Knossos’. (Cincinnati Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 1984, University Microfilms no. 84–20922).Google Scholar

Zervos 1956 Zervos, C., L'Art de la Créte. (Paris 1956).Google Scholar

Zois 1968 Ζωη, A., Ερευνα Περι Της Μινωϊκης Κεραμεικης, Επετηηρις Επισιημονικων Ερευνων Του Πανεπιοσστημιον Αθένων (1967–1968) 703–32.Google Scholar

1 Evans, A. J., Essai de Classification des Epoques de la Civilisation Minoenne. (London 1906).Google Scholar

2 Id., ‘The Palace of Knossos: Knossos Excavations 1904’, BSA. 10 (1904) fig. 7. Evans had based his section on a series of tests dug by Duncan Mackenzie in 1904. I have argued elsewhere (Wilson 1984. 30–6) that the West Court section does have stratigraphic validity which is supported by the pottery from the early tests made by Mackenzie in the West Court and now stored in the Stratigraphic Museum at Knossos. The pottery from Evans's ‘Early Minoan I Floor’ level I see as a mixed deposit of LN and EM IIA. Warren had earlier suggested that this deposit was mixed Neolithic, EM I, and EM III (Warren, P., ‘The First Minoan Stone Vases and Early Minoan Chronology’, KrChron. 19 (1965) 17, 24–5).Google Scholar Evans's ‘E.M. II Stratum’ may be contemporary with the pottery from the EM IIA West Court House. Warren dated this stratum to EM III (ibid. 24–5). See FIG. 1 for approximate location of 1904 West Court East Section.

3 None of this area had been investigated previously, although modern back–fill was found in the westernmost end of Trench 2, west of the EM IIA West Court Terrace Wall. Note that the trench designations 1 and 2 in Evans 1972. fig. 1, have been reversed but see Evans 1971, fig. 1 and p. 97: CC = Tr. 2 and DD = northern end of Tr. 1; see my FIG. 1.

4 Today nothing is visible of the excavated West Court House since the trenches have been filled in and the paving stones relaid.

5 For a possible Final Neolithic phase at Knossos, see Evans 1971. 113–14, and L. Vagnetti and Belli, P., ‘Character and Problems of the Final Neolithic in Crete’, SMEA. 68 (1978) 125–63.Google Scholar The ceramic evidence for defining a phase between the LN (Evans's Stratum I: Evans 1964 188) and the EM I Well at Knossos is still very slight.

6 PLATE 27b: view of pit after removal of walls and floors of West Court House; FIG. 6 for plan of West Court House and FIGS. 3–4: South and East Sections for ‘pit below house’.

7 For the EM I pottery deposit from Trench FF, see below, 359–64.

8 It may not be coincidental that the latest Neolithic buildings beneath the Central Court of the palace are also aligned on a north-east-south-west axis: Houses A and B (PM II. 5–21) and just to the east the corner of another building uncovered in 1969 in area N/L (Evans 1971. 111, fig. 7 and pl. vii). The span of time between the LN and EM IIA at Knossos, however, may argue against any continuity of settlement plan from Neolithic to EM.

9 One of the most characteristic EM building techniques is the double wall construction with an inner and outer facing of stones and a clay and rubble packing. Instances can be cited at the following EM II sites: Aghia Triadha: Laviosa, C., ‘Saggi di Scavo ad Haghia Triada’, ASAtene. 32 (1970) 407–15Google Scholar and ‘L'Abitato Prepalaziale di Haghia Triada’, ibid. 35 (1973) 503–13; Debla: Debla. 310; Khamaizi: Davaras, C., ‘The Oval House of Chamaizi Reconsidered’, AAA. 5 (1972) 283–8Google Scholar; Knossos: Royal Road South EM IIA building: Warren, P., ‘Knossos and the Greek Mainland in the Third Millennium B.C.’, AAA. 5 (1972), 392 fig. 1Google Scholar; Mallia: (a.) near Megaron III. 7: Daux, G., ‘Chroniques des Fouilles’, BCH (1965) 1004–5Google Scholar and fig. g, (b.) Room I. 1: id., ‘Chronique des Fouilles’, BCH. 90 (1966) 1008–11 and fig. 5; Fournou Korifi: Myrtos. chapter iii, passim;. Phaistos (a). Peristyle 74: Festòs I. 115–20 and fig. 49; (b). West Court, Area LXX: Levi, D., ‘L'Archivo di Cretule a Festos’, ASAtene. 20 (1958) 167–9Google Scholar; Vasilike: Vasilike, passim.

10 For the use of red wall plaster elsewhere in EM Crete, see Cameron, M. A. S., ‘Appendix IV. The Plasters’, in Myrtos 305–9Google Scholar and a discussion of painted floor and wall plasters with further examples, 310 and nn. 1–2. Add Phaistos: Area LXX, Levi, op. cit. n. 9.

11 See FIG. 4: East Section for floor make-up levels beneath Rooms 1 and 2.

12 There is good evidence for roofing at Fournou Korifi: here wooden poles or small beams were laid across the walls with reeds placed over them at right angles, the whole covered in a thick layer of plaster (Myrtos. 258–9 and fig. 122). The lack of good timber for roofing beams is clear: none of the rooms at Fournou Korifi has a span greater than 2.6 m. The roofing poles may not have been much more than 3.0 to 5.0 cm in diameter and most were of olive wood (Cameron, M. A. S., ‘Appendix IV. The Plasters’, in Myrtos. 309–10Google Scholar). The same roofing methods were used at EM II Vasilike (Seager, R., ‘Excavations at Vasilike, 1904’, Trans I, pt. iii (1905) 209–10Google Scholar), where the length of the roofing materials appear to have determined the maximum roof span. Horizontal wall beams at Vasilike measured about 10 cm square (ibid. 209).

13 I would like to thank Judson Harward for this suggestion.

14 PLATE 28a for Rooms 1 and 2; PLATE 28c for buttress wall in baulk at east end of Wall C between Rooms 2 and 3.

15 For a similar arrangement at Fournou Korifi, see Myrtos, 258.

16 Room I: PLATE 29a showing south-west corner with P1 and P218; Room 2: PLATE 29b for P93, 128–9, and 133.

17 The extent of the fill can be traced from the southern edge of area AA/BB to a point 15 m north, just to the west of the North Altar Base (FIG. 1). Here a test made by Mackenzie in 1904 uncovered a pure deposit of EM IIA pottery to a depth of 2 m (Pendlebury 1935 Plan 4.l.16. = Test Pit 13; SM Boxes: B.I. 16: 278–80). The plan of Pendlebury places this test north of the Altar Base but the sherd box label reads ‘to west of altar’. There were few joins in the three boxes of sherds kept from this test suggesting that it may only be fill material. The pottery of this deposit is identical to that from the West Court House fill and is probably contemporary with it.

18 Ibid. Plan 4.B.I.4 = Test 1. Within this test a floor found at 1.60 m contained pottery that need be no later than EM IIA (SM Box: 8.1.4:170), while the deposit below the floor at 2.55 m and above the floor at 3.0 m is pure EM IIA except for 5–10% Neolithic (SM Box: B.I.4:171).

19 South-west of Trench GG and about 9 m south of Kouloura III, a test was made in the West Court in 1901 and 1902 reaching a depth of 8 m (Hood, M. S. F. and Taylor, W., The Bronze Age Palace at Knossos. (London 1981)Google Scholar, no. 15 on palace plan and no. 45, p. 14; Pendlebury 1935. Plan 4.B.I.3). Furness has shown that Test B.I. 3 is a continuation of Test B.I. 1 first dug in 1901 and completed in 1902 (Furness, A., ‘The Neolithic Pottery of Knossos’, BSA. 48 (1953) 95 n. 7).Google Scholar All the datable pottery from the first meter of this test appears to be LN and EM IIA with the possibility of some pottery of EM I (SM Boxes: B.I.I : 145–6). Again, this may be part of the same EM IIA fill found in the West Court House and over the yard to the west.

20 Diamond, G. P., ‘A Study of Microscopic Wear Patterns on the Chipped Stone Artefacts from the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Levels of Knossos’ (Ph.D. Dissertation, Institute of Archaeology, London 1974).Google Scholar

21 Royal Road: North: Floor VI (Hood, M. S. F., ‘Stratigraphic Excavations at Knossos’, KrChron. 15–16 (1961–1962) 93Google Scholar and Hood, M. S. F. and Smyth, D., Archaeological Survey of the Knossos Area. (London 1981)Google Scholar Plan: no. 215); Royal Road: South (Warren 1972. and Hood and Smyth op. cit. Plan: no. 216).

22 For use of mudbrick walling on a stone socle, see the Royal Road: South EM IIA building (Warren 1972. fig. 1 and p. 393) and the EM IIB ‘Red House’ at Vasilike (Vasilike. pls. 48b, 49).

23 Hood, op. cit. n. 21, 92–3.

24 The pottery is stored in boxes by trench and level in the Stratigraphical Museum at Knossos.

25 I have included the context of every pot and sherd in the catalogue below.

26 Both clay and stone burnishers were found in the West Court House deposits.

27 Evely, R. D. G., ‘Minoan Crafts: Tools and Techniques’ (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Oxford, 1979), 407.Google Scholar

28 In Evans, , ‘The Palace of Knossos’, BSA. 10 (1904) 21.Google Scholar

29 Hood has termed this type ‘thickened anti-plash’ rims (Hood, , The Minoans. (New York 1971) 37Google Scholar).

30 Cf. PAI7 fig. 40 top right; Pendlebury called this shape ‘cup with a high swung handle’ (Pendlebury 1939. 67).

31 This is the same ware as Pendiebury's ‘monochrome grey ware’ (Pendlebury 1939. 50, 65); Warren's ‘fine grey ware’ (Myrtos 95); and Blackman's and Branigan's ‘incised grey ware’ (Ayia Kyriaki. 32).

32 A fragmentary but very fine example comes from Test K.II.5 at Knossos (Pendlebury 1939, 52 n. 1).

33 The teapot may begin in southern Crete in EM I (Ayia Kyriaki. fig. 7. A6 and E23) and is one of the hallmarks of EM II in this region (e.g. ibid. fig. 11 and Phaistos: Festòs I pl. xii.4 and Festòs II. fig. 404 top centre). For a list of find-spots of fine painted teapots see Wilson 1984. 279–81.

34 Another comes from Warren's Royal Road South excavations. I am grateful to Peter Warren for allowing me to look at a selection of his pottery from the Royal Road stored in the Stratigraphical Museum at Knossos. A jug from Rock Shelter V at Gournia may be also from the same Knossos workshop (Boyd-Hawes 1904 G.V.a: 182 and pl. xxv; Gournia. pl. A.3).

35 At Fournou Korifi in Period I, handles pushed through the jug body are equally rare, but are common in Period II, EM IIB (Myrtos. 104, 133).

36 I am grateful to Mr Sinclair Hood for allowing me to look at the EM I Well pottery.

37 Myrtos, 95 for C.P.W. 1 and C.P.W.2.

38 I use the term ‘open jar’ as it is commonly used in describing similar vases in the EBA Aegean (cf. Caskey, J. L., ‘Investigations in Keos. Part II: A Conspectus of the Pottery’, Hesperia. 41 (1972) 366, 372, and B71 pl. 78CrossRefGoogle Scholar): a very deep bowl with in-curving or in-turned rim and narrow base compared to the rim diameter. The West Court House examples are too fragmentary to reconstruct the height but, whether deep bowl or open jar, both would probably have been used for storage.

39 Cf. MacGillivray 1980. 36.

40 Cf. ibid. fig. 13. It is suggested that the Mt. Kynthos examples were used as a permanent low hearth; like the West Court House examples these are also well burnished on the interior.

41 These are similar to the deep bowls/open jars discussed above, but have a much thicker rim and are, for that reason, more appropriately called jars than deep bowls.

42 Any vase which has some articulation between neck and shoulder has been termed a jar.

43 For EM IIA tripod legs from Fournou Korifi, see Myrtos. fig. 63 nn. 6 and 7; for a later example of a tripod cooking pot, see Myrtos. 339 fig. 62.

44 Frodin, O. and Persson, A., Asine. Results of the Swedish Excavations, 1922 1930. (Stockholm 1938) fig. 169 pp. 231–3.Google Scholar This horned stand from Asine provides one possible reconstruction for the horned stands at Knossos.

45 For similar type cf. Caskey, op. cit. n. 38, B46 fig. 4.

46 Royal Road: North: Floor VI and the Royal Road: South EM IIA building. I would like to thank Sinclair Hood and Peter Warren for allowing me to look at the material from their excavations at Knossos. For EM IIA deposits from tests beneath the palace at Knossos contemporary with the West Court House, see Wilson 1984. 175–99 and Hood and Cadogan (BSA. Suppl. Vol., forthcoming).

47 Davaras, C., Ἀρχαιοήτες και Μνημεîα Ανατολικής, ADelt. 27 (1972) pl. 603 top right.Google Scholar

48 Trench FF below and Wilson 1984. 156–65.

49 Evidence of contact between the Cyclades and Crete was noted early (Pendlehury 1939. 53) and has been the subject of much recent discussion: Branigan, K., The Foundations of Palatial Crete. (London 1970), 185–6Google Scholar, and ‘Cycladic Figurines and Their Derivatives in Crete’, BSA. 66 (1971) 76–8; Doumas, C., ‘Prehistoric Cycladic People in Crete’, AAA. 9 (1976) 69–80Google Scholar; Renfrew, C., ‘Crete and the Cyclades before Rhadamanthus’, KrChron. 18 (1964) 120–5Google Scholar, and The Emergence of Civilisation, (London 1972) 199–202; Sakellarakis, J., ‘The Cyclades and Crete’, in The Art and Culture of the Cyclades, Thimme, J. (ed.) (Karlsruhe 1977), 145–54Google Scholar; Warren 1972. 397–8, and ‘Knossos and Its Foreign Relations in the Early Bronze Age’, in Proceedings of the Fourth International Cretological Congress. (Athens 1981), 628–37; Wilson 1984, 295–308.

50 The three other examples are from palace tests: SM Boxes: K.I.6:895, C.IV;473, and E.I.1:593. I am grateful to Mr J. A. MacGillivray for drawing my attention to the last two pieces and for a Cycladic slashed pithos handle (SM Box O.1.10: 1379.

51 Cf. Zaphiropoulou, F., Ὀστρακ Ἐκ Κἑρου', AAA. 8 (1975) 80–1Google Scholar: figs. 3d, h, and 4n.

52 Delos: MacGillivray 1980, figs. 15 and 20; Naxos: Doumas, C., Early Bronze Age Burial Habits in the Cyclades. (Goteborg 1977), pl. xlive.Google Scholar

53 The other two handles are from palace tests: SM Boxes: K.I.4:882 and O.I.10:1379.

54 Cf. Eutresis: Caskey, J. L., Caskey, E. G., ‘The Earliest Settlements at Eutresis, Supplementary Excavations, 1958’, Hesperia. 29 (1960)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, fig. 11.VIII. 1.

55 Cf. Syros: Zervos, C., L'Art des Cyclades. (Paris 1957), pls. 233–4.Google Scholar

56 For location see FIG. I and above, p. 282. I should like to thank John Evans for giving this pottery to me for study and publication here.

57 To distinguish this pottery from that of the West Court House each catalogued piece has been designated FF no., i.e. Trench FF, pot no.