They were carefully lined with lead, and in some cases the slabs
of stone covering them could not be removed without lifting the
whole pavement. In spite of such precautions, however, they had
been well rifled in ancient days, and little was left to tell of
what their contents may once have been. The magazines were well
fitted to convey a strong impression, not only of the size, but
also of the splendour of the palace which needed such storerooms.
There was no meanness or squalor about the domestic offices of the
House of Minos. The doorways leading into the magazines from the
Long Corridor were of fine stone-work, and the side-walls, both
of the gallery and the magazines, had been covered with painted
plaster, presenting a white ground on which ran a dado of horizontal
bands of red and blue, further bands of the same colours forming a
frieze below the ceiling level. This, of course, had been merely
the basement of the palace, and had been surmounted by another
storey or storeys, of which nothing was left except fragments of
the painted plaster which had once decorated the walls.
To the rooms composing the block of building between the Long Gallery
and the Central Court, access had been given from the latter area;
and it was in these rooms that, as the excavations progressed, some
of the most remarkable features of the palace began to disclose
themselves.
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