EASTERN CRETE

of the Minoans: the Throne Room with stairs
that lead to the upper floor, the banqueting
chamber and the crypt, a monumental
stairway with beside it a kernos (a circular
table with a central hollow and with 34
smaller bowls along the edge for the ritual
offering of the first fruits), the archive and
a vast portico held up by columns alternated
with pilasters which gave access to the great
palace storerooms.
Other courtyards and numerous
corridors lead to the wing reserved for
habitation, to the guest apartments and
to the
artisans'
workshops.
Almost all of
the spaces are
paved with
the typical
local stone, a
bluish
limestone,
and a
sandstone
known as
ammouda.
The necropolis, also known as
Chryssolakos ("the gold mine") for the great
quantity of gold objects discovered in the
tombs, is to be found down by the sea and
is laid out like the palace of the living with
rooms and porticos. The excavations at Malia
have rendered up a vast quantity of splendid
objects, jewels and ceramics dating from
the First Palace period to the Second Palace
period, among which are a sceptre in the
form of a leopard, some very fine jewellery
such as the pendant with two bees and
a gold pommel from a sword-hilt embossed
with the figure of a vaulting acrobat,
preserved in the museums of Heraklion and
Ayios Nikolaos.
Directly beyond
the entrance one
can make out the
huge circular
storerooms,
called kouloures,
which held the
reserves of grain
for the
population that
inhabited the
various quarters
around the Palace
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