The Chora Museum

Room 2 Room 2 of the museum is devoted to finds from the palace. A plan hanging in the doorway helps the visitor see where each item came from. Most striking as one enters is the large quantity of undecorated pottery in contrast to the painted tomb finds in the first room—here one enters the workaday world of the living, CASE IO to the right of the doorway and CASE 19 to its left are crowded with drinking cups and bowls from the pantries; some are twisted or blackened from the intensity of the fire that destroyed the palace. The portable clay offering table near the front of the room was found next to a column base in the throne room. It is of a type used for ritual offerings, so it ties the Mycenaean king closely to religious affairs.
Low cases against each wall (CASES II and 12 on the right, CASES 18 and 17 on the left) contain fresco fragments from the palace. These include the well-known lyre player from the throne room (CASE 17 on the left; Fig 8) and a lion and griffin that decorated the walls of hall 46 (CASE 11 on the right; Fig 19), as well as some delightful smaller fragments, like the small-scale head of a deer (CASE 12). Watercolor reconstructions on the walls, by the excavation artist Piet de Jong, bring the fragments together and recapture their original appearance, CASE 32 in the middle of the room to the left contains replicas of some of the Linear Β tablets found at Pylos, along with other objects from the archives complex, including some miniature votive drinking cups and a Venetian coin. (A second Venetian coin found elsewhere on the hill is displayed here with its fellow.) Some of the elegant and unusual painted jars from the special storeroom 32 are in CASE 13 on the right-hand wall (Fig. 15).

CASE 10 Pottery from pantries
Top: Drinking cups from pantry 20
Middle: Drinking cups from pantry 20
Bottom: Serving and drinking vessels from pantry 20

CASE 11 Frescoes
Lion and griffin from queen's hall 46 Dogs, hunting scene fallen into bathroom 43

CASE 12 Frescoes
Men with dogs and tripods, fallen into corridor 48 Head of stag found in pantry 19 [fallen] Flowers from washroom 53 White crocus from court 47 Seated women, nautilus frieze from inner propylon 2 Nautilus found in corridor 16 [fallen?] Seated woman, fallen into oil magazine 23 Seated woman from outside to northwest Architectural facade from court south of portico

CASE 13 Jars from storeroom 32

CASE 14 Pottery from pantry 60
Top: Cups
Middle: Jars, bowls, drinking cups, scoops
Bottom: Jars, bowls, cups, scoops, incense burners

CASE 15 Pottery from pantry 18
Top: Drinking cups
Middle: Jars, cups, dippers
Bottom: Bowls

CASE 16 Material from palace
Top: Pottery and bronze scraps from ramp 59
Middle: Stirrup jars and basin from court 47
Bottom: Pottery and other finds from pro-pylon 1, propylon 2

CASE 17 Frescoes
Battle scene from hall 64 Rosettes from stairway 54 Lyre player from throne room 6

CASE 18 Frescoes found discarded on northwest and southwest slopes and under Wine Magazine
Heads and feet of male and female figures, nautilus frieze, bluebird frieze, bull leaper, offering table

CASE 19 Material from palace
Top: Pottery from pantry 20
Middle: Pottery from pantry 20
Bottom: Pottery from room 38, including strips of clay used to seal jars Pottery and other finds from throne room 6 drinking cups from pantry 20

CASE 32 Finds from archives complex 7-8
Miniature kylikes, metal and stone finds Two Venetian coins Replicas of Linear Β tablets

CASE 33 Finds from palace environs Middle Helladic and Early Mycenaean potsherds from NW slope and under room 25 Byzantine potsherds from NE gateway Middle Helladic, Early and Late Mycenaean pottery from south and southwest of palace and under room 65

OUTSIDE CASES
In front of CASE 13: Pottery from storeroom 32, bathroom 43 In front of CASE 18; Table of offerings from throne room 6 Other: Storage pottery fallen into room 38