DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15680#0100
CHATTE R IV.
THE POTTERY.
[Plates IV.—XXXVI.]
§ 1.—Introductorif.
FltOM few Aegean sites of the pre-Hellenic period, if indeed
f'rom any, lias therc come a more interesting collection of pottery than
from Phylakopi in Melos. The find rangcs, without any apparent break,
from the earliest types of the Cyclades to specimens of the latest Mycenaean
style. It is true that the earlier period, up to the introduction of wäre with
painted i^atterns, is very imperfectly represented owing to the shattered con-
dition of the material. The mature Mycenaean pottery of the final period
again makes but a poor show among the following illustrations, not owing
to any scarcity of it on the site but because it has been so fully published
already in the monumental work of Furtvvängler and Löschcke. But in two
respects the Phylakopi find is of capital importance ; first, it provides us with
an ordered series of pottery extending, we may venture to say, over the
whole Bronze Age of the Cyclades; and, secondly, it exemplifies with remark-
able fulness the geomctric and the early Mycenaean styles of vase-painting
as practised in one thriving centre of the industry.
What was known about the Phylakopi pottery before the excavation of
the British School was derived from two sources. In the first place various
European Museums, notably the British Museum, the Museum of Sevres, and
the National Museum in Athens, contain some early vases which are known
to have come from Melos, and which may be assigned without any doubt
to the Phylakojji tombs. Taken together they form a pretty large group,
though representative of only one period, and add considerably to the stock
of our knowledge. In the next place the late Dr. Dümmler, in an accountof
a visit made by him to Phjdakopi in LS85, has given a short description of
the vase-fragments which he observed lying about the tombs and the
fortress. From these he recognized (with complete justice, as the contents of
this book will show) that the remains at Phylakopi furnish the desired link
between the culture of the cist-tomb period and that of Mycenae and
Tiryns.
In the first two seasons of the excavation, when the Great Wall at the
west end of the site was being cleared, the amount of pottery found was by
THE POTTERY.
[Plates IV.—XXXVI.]
§ 1.—Introductorif.
FltOM few Aegean sites of the pre-Hellenic period, if indeed
f'rom any, lias therc come a more interesting collection of pottery than
from Phylakopi in Melos. The find rangcs, without any apparent break,
from the earliest types of the Cyclades to specimens of the latest Mycenaean
style. It is true that the earlier period, up to the introduction of wäre with
painted i^atterns, is very imperfectly represented owing to the shattered con-
dition of the material. The mature Mycenaean pottery of the final period
again makes but a poor show among the following illustrations, not owing
to any scarcity of it on the site but because it has been so fully published
already in the monumental work of Furtvvängler and Löschcke. But in two
respects the Phylakopi find is of capital importance ; first, it provides us with
an ordered series of pottery extending, we may venture to say, over the
whole Bronze Age of the Cyclades; and, secondly, it exemplifies with remark-
able fulness the geomctric and the early Mycenaean styles of vase-painting
as practised in one thriving centre of the industry.
What was known about the Phylakopi pottery before the excavation of
the British School was derived from two sources. In the first place various
European Museums, notably the British Museum, the Museum of Sevres, and
the National Museum in Athens, contain some early vases which are known
to have come from Melos, and which may be assigned without any doubt
to the Phylakojji tombs. Taken together they form a pretty large group,
though representative of only one period, and add considerably to the stock
of our knowledge. In the next place the late Dr. Dümmler, in an accountof
a visit made by him to Phjdakopi in LS85, has given a short description of
the vase-fragments which he observed lying about the tombs and the
fortress. From these he recognized (with complete justice, as the contents of
this book will show) that the remains at Phylakopi furnish the desired link
between the culture of the cist-tomb period and that of Mycenae and
Tiryns.
In the first two seasons of the excavation, when the Great Wall at the
west end of the site was being cleared, the amount of pottery found was by