Below them came four large medallions, set among crystal
bars backed with silver plate, and then eleven bars of ribbed crystal
and ivory, alternating with one another. Eight shorter bars of
crystal backed with blue enamel fill spaces on either side of the
topmost section in the lower part of the board, which consists of
a two-winged compartment with ten circular openings, the medallions
of which have been broken out, but were probably of crystal backed
with silver. The remaining space of the board was filled with flat
bars of gold-plated ivory alternating with bars of crystal on the
blue enamel setting. The mere summary of its decoration conveys
no idea of the splendour of a piece of work which, as Professor
Burrows says, 'defies description, with its blaze of gold and silver,
ivory and crystal.' The Late Minoan monarch who used it--for so
gorgeous a piece of workmanship can scarcely have been designed
for anyone but a King--must have been as splendid in his amusements
as in all the other appointments of his royalty (Plate XVIII.).
The gaming-board suggested the lighter and more innocent side of
the palace life. A darker and more tragic aspect of it was hinted
at by the fresco which was found in the following season among
debris fallen from a chamber overlooking the so-called Court of
the Olive Spout.
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