DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15680#0107
THE POTTERY.
87
applied upon a white ground, and the inside is not glazed. The thin, glaze-
coated fragments may be regarded as forerunners of the Kamäres class
(see sect. 17) and it is not unlikely that a good many of thcm are of Cretan
origin.
§ 4.—An EarJy Group of Dark-faced Vascs.
We come now to less fragmentary material of the same general class as
the contents of the preceding sections. The pottery which is here grouped
together is technically a development of the primitive wäre of section 2. It
has a lustrous surface, red, brown, or black, but with some exceptions the
lustre is no longer produced by the old method of burnishing, but by some
ingredient in the coat with which the vases are covered ; it has a rather
resinous appearance at times and is seldom at all brilliant. In addition to
this lustrous coat most of the vases and fragments mentioned below are
ornamented with incised patteras. In a great many instances there are
traces, more or less distinct, of a white filling in the incised lines, and we
may assumc that in many other cases it once existed but has now disappeared.
One must think of all the following designs as picked out in white and as
much more distinct therefore than they now appeär to be. I have never
noticed any traces of this techniqne on the earlier class of cist-tomb vases,
and in many of thcm indeed the incised lines (or rather scorings) are so
shallow that they cannot have been intendod for the bed of a white design ;
in other cases, howcver, it is possible that the chalky filling was originally
there but has not survived. It would be interesting to determine at what
period this tcchnit[ue, which is so prominent a feature in the earliest pottery
of Egypt, Anatolia, and Europe, found its way to the Cycladcs. Mr. Tsountas
has observed it on the Chalandriane vases ('E<f>. 'Ap-%. 1899, p. <S8), but does
not mention it in connection with the earlier pottery from Paros and other
places.
There is no strict division between the contents of section 3 and those of
the present section, although for the sake of clearnessl have separated them.
The pottery described below is contemporary with the painted geometric
wäre of Phylakopi, or rather with the earlier part of it. A great deal of it
is made of the same clay as the painted wäre and is therefore Melian.
1. The primitive type of cylindrical pyxis {e.g. Fig. 70, 'E</>. ''Ap%. 1898,
pl. IX. 18) has perpendicular sides, two vertical suspension-handles and a very
slight neck to hold a slightly convex lid. The later type, of which PI. IV. 1
is a good illustration, narrows towards the top and is without the suspension-
tnbes, having merely a hole on each side a little below the top. PI. IV. i is
a double pyxis of the same form.1 PI. IV. 3 exhibits the type in a still later
stage of development. A second and much rarer variety of pyxis had a lid
with a projecting roof and a cylindrical neck which ca'me down over the sides
of the vessel and rested on a projecting base, e.g., IV. 4. This is a common
1 Cf. also a vase from Sciiplios in Copen- Pri-MycAnieniWi; the same type occiu-s at
hagen, published in Blinkenberg, Antiquiii» Hissarlik.
87
applied upon a white ground, and the inside is not glazed. The thin, glaze-
coated fragments may be regarded as forerunners of the Kamäres class
(see sect. 17) and it is not unlikely that a good many of thcm are of Cretan
origin.
§ 4.—An EarJy Group of Dark-faced Vascs.
We come now to less fragmentary material of the same general class as
the contents of the preceding sections. The pottery which is here grouped
together is technically a development of the primitive wäre of section 2. It
has a lustrous surface, red, brown, or black, but with some exceptions the
lustre is no longer produced by the old method of burnishing, but by some
ingredient in the coat with which the vases are covered ; it has a rather
resinous appearance at times and is seldom at all brilliant. In addition to
this lustrous coat most of the vases and fragments mentioned below are
ornamented with incised patteras. In a great many instances there are
traces, more or less distinct, of a white filling in the incised lines, and we
may assumc that in many other cases it once existed but has now disappeared.
One must think of all the following designs as picked out in white and as
much more distinct therefore than they now appeär to be. I have never
noticed any traces of this techniqne on the earlier class of cist-tomb vases,
and in many of thcm indeed the incised lines (or rather scorings) are so
shallow that they cannot have been intendod for the bed of a white design ;
in other cases, howcver, it is possible that the chalky filling was originally
there but has not survived. It would be interesting to determine at what
period this tcchnit[ue, which is so prominent a feature in the earliest pottery
of Egypt, Anatolia, and Europe, found its way to the Cycladcs. Mr. Tsountas
has observed it on the Chalandriane vases ('E<f>. 'Ap-%. 1899, p. <S8), but does
not mention it in connection with the earlier pottery from Paros and other
places.
There is no strict division between the contents of section 3 and those of
the present section, although for the sake of clearnessl have separated them.
The pottery described below is contemporary with the painted geometric
wäre of Phylakopi, or rather with the earlier part of it. A great deal of it
is made of the same clay as the painted wäre and is therefore Melian.
1. The primitive type of cylindrical pyxis {e.g. Fig. 70, 'E</>. ''Ap%. 1898,
pl. IX. 18) has perpendicular sides, two vertical suspension-handles and a very
slight neck to hold a slightly convex lid. The later type, of which PI. IV. 1
is a good illustration, narrows towards the top and is without the suspension-
tnbes, having merely a hole on each side a little below the top. PI. IV. i is
a double pyxis of the same form.1 PI. IV. 3 exhibits the type in a still later
stage of development. A second and much rarer variety of pyxis had a lid
with a projecting roof and a cylindrical neck which ca'me down over the sides
of the vessel and rested on a projecting base, e.g., IV. 4. This is a common
1 Cf. also a vase from Sciiplios in Copen- Pri-MycAnieniWi; the same type occiu-s at
hagen, published in Blinkenberg, Antiquiii» Hissarlik.