Temple tomb (Knossos)
Temple grave ( Greek Βασιλικός Τάφος και Ιερό , English (Royal) Temple Tomb ) is a grave that 600 meters south of the Palace of Knossos is called. It was discovered in 1931 by the English archaeologist Arthur Evans .
description
The grave is dug into the eastern slope of a hill. While the eastern part of the grave is at ground level, the hill rises in a westerly direction, so that the pillar tomb and the burial chamber are underground. The grave was entered from the north through a covered entrance passage about 1.80 m wide and about 4 m long. You first came to a 7 m long and 3.50 m wide pavilion, which opened to the west into a small paved inner courtyard. From the inner courtyard one got further west through an entrance area into the approximately 4 m long and 2 m wide inner hall.
A passage in the west led to the approximately 6 m long pillar tomb. The ceiling of the pillar crypt was supported by two 0.50 m thick square columns. In a north-south orientation, equally thick beams made of cypress wood rested on these . At right angles to these bars were seven thinner rectangular bars. The ceiling consisted of round beams lying close together. While the south wall of the pillar tomb followed the general orientation of the tomb and the north wall deviated slightly to the north, the width of the pillar tomb increased from about 4 m to 5 m from east to west. In the northwest corner of the crypt, a passage led to the approximately 4 m by 4 m large burial chamber. In contrast to the other rooms, the burial chamber was carved into the rock. To be on the safe side, a monolithic column was placed in the middle of the burial chamber , on which a mighty cross made of wooden beams rested and was supposed to support the chamber ceiling. The wooden beams had a square cross-section of 0.80 m by 0.80 m. The floor and walls were covered with stone slabs and the ceiling was painted blue.
Another passage branched off south of the inner hall into a stairwell. The staircase led to a terrace which lay over the inner hall and was paved with slate. To the west one entered the so-called pillared shrine through a door. It was exactly above the pillar tomb and was the same size. The roof of the sanctuary was supported by round wooden pillars, which were located exactly above the pillars of the room below. Cult horns were found that came from this sanctuary. The lower part of the walls was covered with stucco and painted red. Arthur Evans suspected that the upper part of the wall was decorated with a frieze and showed a representation that was associated with the goddess worshiped here as the mistress of the sea .
There was also an outside staircase that could be used to reach the sanctuary and the terrace above the pavilion without entering the grave.
excavation
In 1928 a golden signet ring, the so-called Ring of Minos , was found 45 meters northwest of the grave . Arthur Evans investigated the site more closely and suggested that the ring had been brought here by grave robbers and must have come from a nearby royal tomb.
In 1931 a winemaker found several large blocks of stone in his vineyard and informed Evans about them. During excavations he first came across the walls of the pillared shrine and the pillared tomb. Since he had difficulty exposing the burial chamber through the small entrance, he decided to dig a shaft through the rock from above. Piet de Jong made reconstruction drawings of the burial chamber and Evans partially reconstructed the tomb.
Evans dated the grave to the end of the Medieval Minoan period by means of incisions made by double axes on stone blocks from the pillar tomb and ceramic vessels from the burial chamber . He suspected that priest-kings from the Knossischen palace-sanctuary were buried here. It is believed that the grave was used as a burial site from Middle Minoan III B to Late Minoan II.
designation
Diodorus reported that when Minos died in Sicily, his comrades built a two-story tomb in Herakleia Minoa . The body was buried in the underground chamber. A temple of Aphrodite was set up on the upper floor . The two-story construction of the tomb immediately reminded Evans of the description of Diodorus and he therefore called it the temple tomb.
Individual evidence
- ^ Diodor, Bibliotheke historike 4, 79, 3 ( English translation online ).
literature
- Arthur Evans: The Palace of Minos . tape 4 , no. 2 . Macmillan, London 1935, pp. 964-987 ( [1] [accessed October 13, 2014]).
- Spyridon Marinatos : Crete, Thera and the Mycenaean Hellas . Special edition. Hirmer, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-7774-4310-7 , pp. 35, 100, 125 .
Web links
Coordinates: 35 ° 17 ′ 32.3 " N , 25 ° 9 ′ 51.4" E