• Part of architectural frieze with relief half-rosettes and triglyphs



Part of architectural frieze with relief half-rosettes and triglyphs
Part of architectural frieze with relief half-rosettes and triglyphs

Part of architectural frieze with relief half-rosettes and triglyphs

Λ70 + Λ71
Stone (Green schist)
Incomplete
Length: 65 cm. Width: 18.5 cm.
Knossos
Palace
Middle-Late Bronze Age. Neopalatial period - Final Palatial period, Middle Minoan ΙΙΙΒ-Late Minoan ΙΙ period:
1650-1400 BC:
Gallery:
IV
Case:
37
Exhibition thematic unit:
Late Bronze Age - Neopalatial period (1700-1450 BC). The New Palaces. The zenith of Minoan civilisation
The Minoan world. Architecture
Description
Part of an architectural frieze decorated with opposed half-rosettes. Two opposed pairs of half-rosettes are preserved, on either side of a vertical band with a running spiral, as well as one semi-rosette of a third similar pair. The composition is framed at top and bottom by rows of relief bands of varying widths. Many fragments of similar architectural friezes have been found in what are believed to be monumental entrances in the SW and NW corners of the palace, in the West Court and in the area of the monumental porch leading to the upper storey of the West Wing (“Piano Nobile”). The discovery of the reliefs near monumental entrances shows that they were originally located above the door frames. They probably adorned wooden elements of the masonry, heightening the magnificence of the interior decoration of the palace of Knossos. The combination of semi-rosettes and “triglyphs” is found in Neopalatial frescoes and also appears to have decorated the fronts of stepped wooden structures. Later, in the Final Palatial period, the motif was adopted by the Mycenaeans in the decoration of palaces and monumental tholos tombs, the most famous and imposing example being the “Treasury of Atreus” at Mycenae. According to another theory, however, the half-rosette friezes from the palace of Knossos are dated to the Final Palatial period and betray a Mycenaean influence. Finally, the similarity of the design to the incurved altar shape indicates a religious significance, while the frequent depiction of the motif in the frescoes and seals of the Neopalatial and Final Palatial periods is interpreted as a symbolic expression of palatial authority.
Bibliography:
A. Evans, The Palace of Minos: A comparative account of the successive stages of the early Cretan civilization as illustrated by the discoveries at Knossos, London 1921-1936, Vol. II, 162, 590-608, 696-97, 704; Vol. IV, 221-28, 919-20. Hägg, R. “On the Reconstruction of the West Façade of the Palace at Knossos.” In Hägg, R., and N. Marinatos, eds. The Function of the Minoan Palaces. Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium at the Swedish Institute in Athens, 10-16 June, 1984. Skrifter Utgivna av Svenska Institutet I Athen, 4, XXXV. Stockholm, 1987, 132 and n. 21. Marinatos, N. Minoan Kingship and the Solar Goddess. A Near Eastern Koine. Illinois, 2010, 27-29, 131-39. Soles, J. “Hero, Goddess, Priestess: New Evidence for Minoan Religion and Social Organization.” in E. Alram-Stern, F. Blakolmer, S. Deger-Jalkotzy, R. Laffineur, and J. Weilhartner, eds. METAPHYSIS: Ritual, Myth and Symbolism in the Aegean Bronze Age. Proceedings of the 15th International Aegean Conference, Vienna, Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology, Aegean and Anatolian Department, Austrian Academy of Sciences and Institute of Classical Archaeology, University of Vienna, 22-25 April 2014. Aegaeum 39. Leuven and Liège 2016, 250, pl. LXXXII.
Author:
S. M.


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