The Pottery and Architecture of the EM IIA West Court House at Knossos

Abstract

In a series of soundings made in the West Court of the palace at Knossos by John D. Evans in 1969, three basement rooms of an EM IIA building were uncovered almost directly beneath the pavement of the West Court. A rich and homogeneous deposit of pottery came from these rooms, associated yard levels to the west, and fill above. Certain features, such as the pattern-burnished stemmed goblets, put the West Court House pottery at the very beginning of the EM II sequence at Knossos. A discussion of the stratification and architecture of the West Court House is followed by a representative selection of the pottery. The West Court House not only adds to our knowledge of the EM IIA settlement at Knossos, but also provides new evidence for contacts with the rest of Crete and the Aegean.