It may
be noted that at Gournia Miss Boyd (Mrs. Hawes) found a primitive
figure of a goddess, twined with snakes and accompanied by doves,
together with a low, three-legged altar, and the familiar horns
of consecration. Strangely enough, along with the Snake Goddess
of Knossos there was found in the Temple Repositories a cross of
veined marble, with limbs of equal length, which Dr. Evans believes
to have actually been the central object of worship in the cult,
and which he has placed in this position in his reconstruction
of the little shrine. This discovery, 'pointing to the fact that
a cross of orthodox Greek shape was not only a religious symbol
of the Minoan cult, but an actual object of worship, cannot but
have a profound interest in its relation to the later cult of the
same emblem which still holds the Christian world.' The fact of
the equal-limbed cross having at so early a date been the object
of worship also suggests the reason why the Eastern Church has
always preferred the Greek form of cross to the unequal-limbed form
of the Western Church.

Outside the area of the palace proper discoveries of almost equal
importance were made. About 130 yards to the east of the Northern
Entrance there came to light the walls of a building which Dr. Evans
has designated the Royal Villa. It proved to be by far the finest
example yet discovered of Minoan domestic architecture on a moderate
scale, and contained a finely preserved double staircase; while among
the relics found within its walls were some very beautiful examples
of the ceramic art, including a fine 'stirrup' or 'false-necked'
vase of the Later Palace style, decorated in lustrous orange-brown
on a paler lustred ground. Still more beautiful was a tall painted
jar, nearly 4 feet in height, bearing an exquisite papyrus design
in relief (Plate XXIII.).

[Illustration XIV: CLAY TABLET WITH LINEAR SCRIPT, KNOSSOS (_pp_.
80 & 241)

From 'The Palace of Minos,' by Arthur J. Evans, in _The Monthly
Review_]

The main feature of the Villa was a long pillared hall, measuring
about 37 by 15 feet. At the one end of it was a raised dais, separated
by a balustrade from the rest of the hall, and approached by an
opening in the balustrade with three steps. Immediately in face
of the opening a square niche breaks the wall behind the dais,
and here stand the broken fragments of a gypsum throne. A fine
stone lamp of lilac gypsum stands on the second step of the dais
(Plate XXI