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Two Palatial Stone Vases from Knossos
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 October 2013
Extract
At the invitation of Dr. St. Alexiou, Ephor of Antiquities for Crete and Director of Herakleion Museum, two magnificent large stone vases from the original Knossos excavations are published here. The vases (A. Her. Mus. 21; B. Her. Mus. 23) were found in 1900 in the passage adjoining the ‘Room of the Stone Vases’ on the south, and were reported by Evans. They are the vases of which more details about the find-spot have been given by John Boardman. The fact that vases were found in this passage, well above the floor level (Boardman op. cit.), confirms Evans's view that the whole series had fallen from the upper floor, the majority into the basement room north of the passage.
Each of these vases is unique but they may be taken as part of a series of large stone vessels in use in the Palace at the time of its destruction. This series includes the giant amphora and the smaller one from the Sculptor's Workshop, the dark maroon limestone basin from the passage north of the Throne Room, and two other large basins from the North-west Insula, a fine reddish limestone amphora, the Throne Room alabastra and various large vessels from the Central Treasury deposit. The two lids have L.M. IB parallels whilst that of the reddish limestone amphora is similar.
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- Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1965
References
I am very grateful to Mr. Mervyn Popham for reading through this paper and making several constructive suggestions.
1 BSA vi (1899–1900) 32.
2 On the Knossos Tablets, The Date of the Knossos Tablets 23 and fig. 4: 3.
3 Palace of Minos ii. 820 (henceforward PM).
4 PM iv. 896–900 and figs. 875 a, b; 876.
5 PM iv. 935–6, fig. 906. (It is not ‘purple gypsum’.)
6 PM iii. 25 and Plan fig. 9.
7 Her. Mus. 60.
8 PM iv. 938 and fig. 910.
9 PM ii. 821, fig. 537.
10 Palaikastro, : BSA viii (1901–2) 316Google Scholar, from B 33 (Her. Mus. 153). Her. Mus. 929 is another example from Palaikastro, probably contemporary. Zakro, : BSA vii 1900–1901) 135, 140 (3 examples).Google Scholar Tylissos: Tylissos à l'époque minoenne, fig. 24.
11 An entirely typical fragment of this stone was analysed for me by Dr. S. R. Nockolds, F.R.S., of the Department of Mineralogy and Petrology, Cambridge University. It was serpentine with a small proportion of talc and calcium carbonate.
12 Raulin, V., Description physique de l'ile de Crète, Extrait, 1858, 34Google Scholar; Spratt, , Travels and Researches in Crete ii. 68Google Scholar; Hutchinson, , Prehistoric Crete 34.Google ScholarEvans, , PM i. 211Google Scholar, speaks of serpentine for column bases. Wace, , BSA 1 (1955) 182 and pl. 24aGoogle Scholar, called a number of the stone vases from the House of the Shields at Mycenae serpentine. Two specimens of the stone in the Cairo Geological Museum (Nos. 19220 and 23585) from Hospenthal, Switzerland and Gebel um Salatit in the Eastern Desert, closely resemble the commonest Cretan variety.
13 The name of the site, given by a small boy, is Stalona, probably a corruption of 
Sherds picked up included typical M.M. I ‘egg-cup’ bases, and fragments of plain conical cups (L.M.I.). I am much indebted to Mr. Diallinas of Herakleion for first showing me specimens of this rock in his own collection and then taking Mr. Keith Branigan and myself to the area so that a survey could be made on the spot and the Minoan site discovered.
Evans found true steatite or soapstone in the Sarakina valley in Crete, East (JHS xvii (1897) 328)Google Scholar but used the term steatite also for the stone vases he obtained from Arvi nearby (Hagios Onouphrios Deposit, Supplement to Cretan Picto-graphs 118, 182, 124). (Mr. Gerald Cadogan kindly informs me that Evans' notebooks record the purchase of the vases in Herakleion, not at Arvi.) These vases are in fact of the regular serpentine but the term steatite has persisted.
14 Popham, M.R., AJA lxviii (1964) 352Google Scholar; Stud. Med. Arch. xii (forthcoming).
15 The Zakro hoard (ILN 7 Mar. 1964) is the best illustration but there are very fine vases from Pseira (Seager, , Excavations at Pseira, figs. 17, 19, and pl. viiiGoogle Scholar), Gournia (Boyd, , Gournia, pl. v 13, 26–29Google Scholar), Triadha, A. (Marinatos, and Hirmer, , Crete and Mycenae, pls. 100–7)Google Scholar, Khani, Nirou (Xanthoudides, , AE 1922 14, fig. ii)Google Scholar, Tylissos (Hatzidakis, Tylissos à l'époque minoenne, figs. 27 and 28), and Palai-kastro (BSA Supplementary Paper 1, Unpublished Objects from Palaikastro Excavations, 136, fig. 117).
16 There are occasional Blossom Bowls, which are almost certainly survivals from L.M. I–IIIA 1, e.g. at Dhamania (Xanthoudides, , AD ii (1916) 177 fig. 2Google Scholar) and Palaikastro, (BSA viii (1901–2) 316, from B 26)Google Scholar, vases in the L.M. IIIB tombs at Gournes, (AD iv (1918) 78, fig. 22Google Scholar, and 82, fig. 27, though most of these are almost certainly survivals) and a few pieces from the L.M. IIIC settlement on Karphi, (BSA xxxviii (1937–8) 123–4 and pl. xxxGoogle Scholar, again most being survivals). But it must be admitted that not much is known as yet about L.M. IIIA 2–IIIC settlement sites in Crete.