DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7382#0023
INTRODUCTION
The connection of Egypt with the Aegean is of the greatest importance not only
in early times when it provides us with our only positive dating, but also all
through early Greek history, for it shows us where to turn for possible foreign
influence on art and culture.
The following is concerned with the undeniable evidence of archaeological finds,
and has some strange facts to show. Single objects may not have much value as
evidence. It cannot be maintained that Boeotian Thebes owes anything to Egypt just
because a scarab was found in a Theban tomb, any more than that because a few
pieces of iron were found in the Kamares Cave the Minoans must have been an
iron-using race, or that because a piece of jade was found at Troy the Trojans were
in close relations with the Far East. But on the whole the finds do show how far
Egyptian influence reached, at what dates and where that influence is to be looked for,
and at what dates and where it is totally absent.
One must go cautiously in using the discoveries for dating purposes. Several stone
vases of the Old Kingdom have turned up in deposits thousands of years later. Other
objects too may have been kept as heirlooms or bought as "genuine antiques" in
Egypt itself. Not all the scarabs which bear the name of Thothmes III date from his
time. His name was one to conjure with, not only in Egypt but, for hundreds of years
after his death, in Syria, where, like Richard Coeur de Lion, he was the bogy of children
and the cause of all unknown fear. For Cyprus, too, which he may actually have
conquered as he claims, hundreds of scarabs bearing his name were made as amulets
more than a thousand years later.
As is shown in more detail below,1 Predynastic Egypt has left its mark on the south
of Crete and two objects at least have found their way north to Knossos.
Objects of the Old Kingdom, i.e. Dynasties I-VI, are found in the Messara Plain,
at Knossos, and in the east of the island at Mokhlos. The stone bowls of Mycenae and
Asine can be omitted for they are well out of their context, though it might be con-
ceivable that they were kept for a long time as heirlooms, since the men of the Mainland
had little skill in making such vessels.
The succeeding dynasties are a blank save for a few rough scarabs. Egypt was in
the grip of a barons' war for some hundreds of years. There was a foreign domination
by Syrians. Even the stronger Kings, like Khety, merely held tight to the throne.
The seal-stones of the "double sickle" pattern, however, found at Mokhlos and
1 Introduction to Crete,
xvii
The connection of Egypt with the Aegean is of the greatest importance not only
in early times when it provides us with our only positive dating, but also all
through early Greek history, for it shows us where to turn for possible foreign
influence on art and culture.
The following is concerned with the undeniable evidence of archaeological finds,
and has some strange facts to show. Single objects may not have much value as
evidence. It cannot be maintained that Boeotian Thebes owes anything to Egypt just
because a scarab was found in a Theban tomb, any more than that because a few
pieces of iron were found in the Kamares Cave the Minoans must have been an
iron-using race, or that because a piece of jade was found at Troy the Trojans were
in close relations with the Far East. But on the whole the finds do show how far
Egyptian influence reached, at what dates and where that influence is to be looked for,
and at what dates and where it is totally absent.
One must go cautiously in using the discoveries for dating purposes. Several stone
vases of the Old Kingdom have turned up in deposits thousands of years later. Other
objects too may have been kept as heirlooms or bought as "genuine antiques" in
Egypt itself. Not all the scarabs which bear the name of Thothmes III date from his
time. His name was one to conjure with, not only in Egypt but, for hundreds of years
after his death, in Syria, where, like Richard Coeur de Lion, he was the bogy of children
and the cause of all unknown fear. For Cyprus, too, which he may actually have
conquered as he claims, hundreds of scarabs bearing his name were made as amulets
more than a thousand years later.
As is shown in more detail below,1 Predynastic Egypt has left its mark on the south
of Crete and two objects at least have found their way north to Knossos.
Objects of the Old Kingdom, i.e. Dynasties I-VI, are found in the Messara Plain,
at Knossos, and in the east of the island at Mokhlos. The stone bowls of Mycenae and
Asine can be omitted for they are well out of their context, though it might be con-
ceivable that they were kept for a long time as heirlooms, since the men of the Mainland
had little skill in making such vessels.
The succeeding dynasties are a blank save for a few rough scarabs. Egypt was in
the grip of a barons' war for some hundreds of years. There was a foreign domination
by Syrians. Even the stronger Kings, like Khety, merely held tight to the throne.
The seal-stones of the "double sickle" pattern, however, found at Mokhlos and
1 Introduction to Crete,
xvii