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The Vat Room deposit at Knossos: the unpublished notes of Sir Arthur Evans1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Marina Panagiotaki
Marina Panagiotaki
Affiliation:
Herakleion
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Abstract

This article is based on a set of notes written by Sir Arthur Evans on the objects retrieved from a pit found under the gypsum floor of the Vat Room, known as the ‘Vat Room Deposit’. Evans made annotated drawings of the most important objects, stressing notable features and often recording the total number of similar objects. Objects which were not published by Evans have now been identified through these notes and appear here for the first time.

Type
Articles
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 93 , November 1998 , pp. 167 - 184
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1998

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References

2 Panagiotaki, M., BSA 88 (1993), 49–91Google Scholar.

3 The notebook (1903 [35]) is in the Ashmolean Museum; it consists of 30 leaves. Folio Ir–v is devoted to the NE House; fos. 2r–5v to the Vat Room Deposit; fos. 6r–25r are blank; 25V–30 are devoted to miscellaneous notes.

4 BSA 9: 94–5.

5 PM i, 168.

6 Andreou, S., ‘Pottery Groups of the Old Palace Period in Crete’ (unpublished PhD thesis; Cincinnati, 1978), 180, 187Google Scholar, gave some vases a MM II A date; M. S. F. Hood, ‘Knossos: the palace’, AR (1973–74), 20, 34, saw Part of the deposit as MM I Momigliano, B. N., BSA 86 (1991), 167–71Google Scholar, agreed with Andreou, while later Cadogan, G., Day, P. M., MacDonald, C. F., MacGillivray, J. A., Momigliano, N., Whitelaw, T. M., and Wilson, D. E., ‘Early Minoan and Middle Minoan pottery groups at Knossos’, BSA 88 (1993), 21–8Google Scholar, agreed on a MM I B date.

7 Cadogan et al. (n. 6).

8 BSA 9: 94.

9 PM i, fig. 121.

10 Pendlebury, et al. , A Guide to the Stratigraphical Museum in the Palace at Knossos (London, 1933–1935), fig. 9.Google Scholar

11 For more details on the vases see Momigliano, N., ‘MM I A pottery from Evans' excavations at Knossos: a reassessment’, BSA 86 (1991), 167–75Google Scholar; and for the Vat Room deposit objects as a whole see M. Panagiotaki, The Central Palace Sanctuary at Knossos (BSA supp. vol. in press).

12 Identified by the author, see n. 11

13 On potters' marks and their Linear A correlations see Evans, PM i, 639, and fig. 476.55Google Scholar; on a similar potter's mark on a loomweight from Petras Siteias see Tsipopoulou, M., ‘Potters' marks from Petras Siteia’, Kadmos, 29 (1990), 100CrossRefGoogle Scholar, fig. 3.15; and ead., Κεραμεικἀ σημεὶα απὸ την ανασκαφὴ Πετρὰ Σητεὶας (1989–1990)’ Πεπραγμὲνα του Ζ Διεθνοῦς Κρητολοηκοῦ Συνεδρὶου, Pὲθυμνο 1991 (1995), 931–71.

14 On the double axe as a Linear A sign see Evans, PM i 643, fig. 474Google Scholarc; as a ‘mason's mark’ see M. S. F. Hood, ‘Masons marks in the palaces’ (also W. Helck, in the discussion, who speaks of the same sign used in Egypt on Early Dynastic vases) in Hägg, R. and Marinatos, N. (eds), The Function of the Minoan Palaces (Stockholm, 1987), 205–12Google Scholar, fig. 5; as a religious symbol see Nilsson, M. P, The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion and its Survival in Greek Religion (Lund, 1927), 204–12Google Scholar; and Gesell, G., Town, Palace and House Cult in Minoan Crete (SIMA 67; Göteborg, 1985), 62Google Scholar.

15 Brown, A., Arthur Evans and the Palace of Minos (Oxford, 1986), pl. 31Google Scholar.

16 BSA 9: 96.10.

17 HM 4495 and 5753 may be the same vase recorded twice. The description of both vases in the HM register is identical; moreover HM 4495 has not been found. HM 5753 has been recorded together with some Temple Repositories vases but it was stored with two vases from the Vat Room Deposit: HM 4496 and 4497.

18 Brown (n. 15), pl. 31

19 This vase has been recorded in the KSM register as coming from the shrine area; however, the number of one of the boxes containing the Vat Room Deposit objects is written on it (‘F II3 box 751’) suggesting that the vase belongs to this deposit. Only its lower part is preserved but there is no doubt that it is a necked jar like the other ones from the same deposit.

20 Popham, M. R., ‘Notes from Knossos, Part I’, BSA 72 (1977), 185–95, at p. 185Google Scholar; also Momigliano (n. 11), 174.

21 Brown (n. 15), pl. 31 (the smaller jug, which has been restored).

22 Momigliano (n. 11), 173–4 (17–25), pls. 23–5.

23 Ibid., 174 (33–4), pls. 24–6.

24 Brown (n. 15), pl. 31.

25 Ibid.; Momigliano (n. 11), 175 (most of the fragments come from lids).

26 PM i. 166 and fig. 118 b3.

27 PM iv. 88–91.

28 Barber, R. L. N., ‘A tomb at Ayios Loukas, Syros: some thoughts on Early-Middle Cycladic chronology’, in Xirotiris, N. and Ottaway, B. (eds), Journal of Mediterranean Anthropology and Archaeology, 1 (1981), 167–79, at p. 174Google Scholar.

29 MacGillivray, J. A., ‘The relative chronology of Early Cycladic III’, in MacGillivray, J. A. and Barber, R. (eds), The Prehistoric Cyclades. Contributions to a Workshop on Cycladic Chronology (Edinburgh, 1984), 74Google Scholar.

30 MacGillivray, J. A., Day, P. M., and Jones, R. E., ‘Dark-faced incised pyxides and lids from Knossos: problems of date and origin’, in French, E. B. and Wardle, K. A. (eds), Problems in Greek Prehistory (Bristol, 1988), 91–4Google Scholar.

31 Warren, P. and Hankey, V., Aegean Bronze Age Chronology (Bristol, 1989), 21Google Scholar.

32 On similar pyxides with flanged bases and feet but not incised decoration see Warren, P. M., Myrtos: An Early Bronze Age Settlement in Crete (BSA supp. vol. 7; Oxford, 1972), fig. 84 (p 642–3Google Scholar); and Hall, E. H., Excavations in Eastern Crete–Sphoungaras (Philadelphia, 1912), fig. 21Google Scholar. Pyxides with incised decoration were found at Koumasa, Xanthoudides, S., The Vaulted Tombs of Mesara (London, 1924), pls. xviii. 4195, 4196, 5035Google Scholar; and Patema near Palaikastro, R. C. Bosanquet and Dawkins, R. M., The Unpublished Objects from the Palaikastro Excavations 1902–1906, Part I (BSA supp. vol. 1; London, 1923), fig. 2Google Scholar.

33 Momigliano (n. 11), 175 (49), pl. 24. Similar lamps were found in the recent excavations of C. F. Macdonald, inside the palace and to the west of it, which he sees as typical MM I B–II; I am grateful to him for this information.

34 Momigliano (n. 11), 174 (31), pl. 23.

35 Ibid., 172 (5).

36 Ibid., 173-4 (16, 28–30).

37 For this and item e, see Ibid., 172–3 (8, 9).

38 Ibid., 172 (3).

39 Brown (n. 15), pl. 31; Momigliano (n. 11), 175 (48).

40 Momigliano (n. 11), 173 (14).

41 Joined by J. A. MacGillivray, see Momigliano (n. 11) 171 and n. 109.

42 Cadogan et al. (n. 6).

43 On the different shapes of beads see Beck, H. C., ‘Classification and nomenclature of beads and pendants’. Archaeologia, 77 (1927), 171Google Scholar.

44 PM i, fig 120.

45 It was published together with the annular beads Ibid.

46 Ibid. (in the bowl).

47 Foster, K. P. and Kaczmarczyk, A., ‘X-Ray Fluorescence Analysis of some Minoan faience’, Archaeometry, 24 (1982), 157CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

48 Samples from the beads have been submitted to NCSR Demokritos for analyses.

49 Warren, P., Minoan Stone Vases (Cambridge, 1969), 99Google Scholar.

50 PM i, fig. 120.

51 Ibid. bottom right.

52 Panagiotaki (n. 11).

53 The analysis was done by Dr P. Northover of the Department of Metallurgy and Science of Materials in Oxford. Permission was given by the Ashmolean Museum, for which I am grateful. Lead isotope analysis is now scheduled to find out the provenance of the copper.

54 PM i, fig. 120.

55 Ibid.

56 Renfrew, C., ‘Obsidian in the Aegean’, BSA 60 (1965), 226–47, at p. 239Google Scholar n. 63. What Renfrew calls ‘prominent phenocrysts’ are in fact round cavities lined with crystals.

57 Renfrew (n. 56), 239.

58 Xanthoudides, S., The Vaulted Tombs of Mesara (London, 1924), 105Google Scholar had found two such blades at Platanos; see also Renfrew (n. 56).

59 Analyses at Demokritos have reaffirmed the origin of the Vat Room Deposit obsidian. The Anatolian source is Göllu Dağ – see forthcoming publication.

60 PM i, fig. 119; on rock crystal see S. Marinatos, ‘Η ορεὶα κρὺσταλλος εν Κρὴτη’, Arch. Eph. 1931, 158–60; and Warren (n. 49), 136–7.

61 PM i, fig. 119 a.

62 PM i, fig 119.

63 I am deeply grateful to Professors I. Pini and W. Müller for this identification and for the photographs of the sealings.

64 Warren (n. 49), 231–4.

65 PM i, fig. 120.

66 Evans, (PM iv, 93Google Scholar) suggested that they may be of tridachna; specialists who have seen the pieces were unable to identify the shell.

67 I thank Dr F. Poplin for his confirmation of the material of these plaques and for explaining to me how the shell was polished.

68 A similarly decorated box comes from Tylissos, J. Hadzidakis, ‘Τὺλισσος Μινωικὴ’, Arch. Eph. 1912, 197–233, at pp. 223–4, fig. 33.

69 The standard and the harp, Strommenger, E., The Art of Mesopotamia (London, 1964)Google Scholar, pls xii–xiv; also Frankfort, H., The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient (New Haven, 1996) figs. 64–5, 69, 77Google Scholar.

70 PM i, 170, fig. 120.

71 PM i, fig. 120.

72 Warren (n. 49), 68.

73 Warren, P., ‘A stone vase maker's workshop in the Palace at Knossos’, BSA 62 (1967), 200Google Scholar n. 35, 50.

74 See Momigliano (n. 11), 172.

75 Momigliano (n. 11), 167.

76 Panagiotaki (n. 11).

77 Panagiotaki, M., ‘Archaeology in Greece 1996’, AR 42 (1995–1996), 39–40Google Scholar; also ‘Recent work in the Central Palace Sanctuary’, paper presented at the Eighth Cretological Congress, Heraklion, September 1996 (forthcoming).

78 An analogy is offered by the Myrtos Pyrgos shrine, see Cadogan, G., ‘A probable shrine in the country house at Pyrgos’, in Hägg, R. and Marinatos, N. (eds), Sanctuaries and Cults in the Aegean Bronze Age (Stockholm, 1981), 169–72, at p. 169–70Google Scholar.

79 The best-known burial of objects with ritual significance has been reported from Tell Asmar, in Mesopotamia, where cult statues were buried ‘under the floor beside the altar’, Frankfort (n. 69), 46. The practice of burying shrine objects, either when they are worn or when the shrine is renovated, has been witnessed in the Near East as early as the seventh millennium BC; see Garfinkel, Y., ‘Ritual burial of cultic objects: the earliest evidence’, Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 4:2 (1994), 159–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

80 On foundation deposits see Boulotis, Ch., ‘Μινωικοὶ αποθὲτες θεμελὶωσης’, Πεπραγμὲνα του Ε Διεθνοῦς Κρητολογικοῦ Συνεδρὶου, Αγ. Νικολαος 1981 (1985), 248–57Google Scholar.

81 On trade in the Old Palace period see K. Branigan, ‘The economic role of the First Palaces’, in Hägg and Marinatos (n. 14), 245–9; also M. Wiener, ‘Trade and rule in Palatial Crete’, Ibid. 261–7; Catling, H.W., ‘Bronze Age trade in the Mediterranean: A view’, in Gale, N. (ed.), Bronze Age Trade in the Mediterranean (SIMA 90; Göteborg, 1991), 1–13Google Scholar; and G. F. Bass, ‘Evidence of trade from Bronze Age shipwrecks’, Ibid. 69–82; see also Warren, P., ‘Minoan Crete and Pharaonic Egypt’, in Davies, W. V. and Schofield, L. (eds), Egypt, the Aegean and the Levant (London, 1995), 1–18Google Scholar; and Cline, E. H., Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea (Oxford, 1994Google Scholar).

82 On contact and exchange between royal courts see S. Alexiou, ‘Minoan palaces as centres of trade and manufacture’, in Hägg and N. Marinatos (n. 14), 251–3.

83 Reese, D. S., ‘Shells, ostrich eggshell and other exotic faunal remains from Kition’, in Karageorghis, V., Kition V (Nicosia, 1985Google Scholar), app. viii; also Conwell, D., ‘On ostrich eggs and Libyans; traces of a Bronze Age people from Bates' island, Egypt’, Expedition, 29:3 (1987), 25–34Google Scholar.

84 Sakellarakis, J., ‘The fashioning of ostrich-egg rhyta in the Creto-Mycenaean Aegean’, in Hardy, D. (ed.) Thera and the Aegean World, iii (London, 1990), 285–308Google Scholar.

85 H. Frankfort (n. 69).

86 Hood, M. S. F., ‘Knossos: the palace’, AR 20 (1973–1974), 34Google Scholar. Dr C. F. MacDonald has also found evidence for an MM IB or IIA destruction immediately SW of the palace. I thank him for allowing me to use this information.