ioiS

THE MONUMENT NOT REOCCUPIED

Site just
missed by
' Geomet-
rical '
grave.

To the Achaean invaders, as to the later Greeks, it seems to have
been unknown, since no Geometrical sherds had intruded themselves
within. They missed it, indeed, by only a few feet, for, almost immediately,
beyond the North-West Corner of the Monument, there had been dug a
Late Geometrical grave pit containing vessels of characteristic types. Had
they been aware of the existence of the elaborate basement system or pene-
trated to the rock-cut chamber there can be little doubt that they would
have made use of them as they did of other Minoan vaults.

In the ' Whirligig of Time ', however, it was ordained that this resting-
place of old Priest-kings should not thus be reoccupied by the new-comers.
Its structures, so skilfully combined to suit the needs of celestial and
of heroic worship, survived alike the tragic interlude of ruin wrought by the
Powers below and the succeeding epoch of re-use when they once more
offered hospitality to the honoured dead and had become the scene of memo-
rial services. To-day, as re-discovered, thanks to a child's chance find, they
still preserve—after the lapse of some thirty-three centuries—to a quite
extraordinary degree the essential features of their original arrangement.

A votary of the old cult, were he restored to the upper air, might
well claim that it was simply and solely due to the magic power of the ' Ring
of Minos', with its varied record of his divine patroness as Lady of the Sea,
that this monument of ancient piety owes its rescue from the long Night of
Man's forgetfulness.

Fig. 9GG. Life in the Air, on Sea, and Land :
Flying. Bird, Argonaut 'Sailing', and Butter-
fly FLUTTERING ABOVE FLOWER (a MlNOAN 'LITTLE

Soui.' and Emblem of Resurgence). Haematite

Lentoid dating from the Earliest Phase of

the Latest Palatial Period (L. M. I b). From

North of Palace Site, Knossos.