DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15680#0180
160
C. C. EDGAR
with perfect precision, or at least I cannot do it, and probably no one that
has seen the site would expect it. Several important points, however, are
clearly established, and with these we may conveniently begin, disregarding
the historical order.
The top settleraent yields fairly definite results. Putting aside the
coarse, unpainted wäre we may safely say that nine-tenths of the pottery from
the highest Stratum is ' imported Mycenaean ' of F. and L.'s third and fourth
styles. There was no doubt a certain proportion of painted native pottery of
the later period (as well as fragments of other kinds), but all over the site
the ' imported Mycenaean ' wäre was predominant. The final State of things
was strikingly reflected by the Contents of the well in the courtyard of the
palace. The bottom of the well was filled up with broken pottery for a depth
of several metres, and of the many hundred fragments that were fished up
there were not more than ten that did not belong to the above class. Some
of the pottery from the well was painted in a debased and presumably late
style (e.g., Fig. 125), and fragments of a similar kind, coarse in technique and
careless in execution, were of frequent occurrence elsewhere {v. PI. XXXII.).
Assuming this style to be late we are led to the conclusion that the Phylakopi
settlement continued in existence down to an advanced stage, perhaps the
final stage, of the Mycenaean period. On the other hand the entire absence of
archaic Greek pottery shows that it did not outlast the break-up of the
Mycenaean civilization.
Let us now turn to the lowest settlement ofwhich there are architectural
remains. To this settlement we must assign the greater part of the
early pottery grouped together in Sects. 3 and 4, which, as has been pointed
out, closely corresponds with the finds from Pyrgos and Chalandriane.
Further, a good deal of painted geometric pottery, as for instance, beaked
jugs like PI. IX. 1, was found in deposits which seemed certainly to belong
to this settlement, side by side with duck-vases and similar wäre; to this we
shall return.
The finds seem to take us still one stage farther back. As was related in
Sect. 2, a large mass of the most primitive cist-tomb wäre was found within
a small area of the site, lying close above the rock, while outside this area we ob-
tained almost nothing of the same sort. It was not found within house-walls;
the last house-walls do not come down to the rock at this point. Is this then
simply the earliest rubbish-heap of the bottom settlement or is it the relics of a
still earlier period of occupation ? I have taken the latter view. It does not
seem likely that the existing houses, within which were found the duck-vases
and the beaked jugs of PI. IX, were originally built by the people who used
these extremely primitive vessels. More probably their dwellings were
of very poor quality, perhaps of perishable material, and have left no
distinguishable traces.1 It may be due to more than a mere accident, that
though dozens of cemeteries containing similar pottery have been discovered
in the Cyclades, yet the dwellings ofthe people to whom the graves belonged
The lowest strata at Cnossos are saiil to be ckaracterized !>}• remains of mud buildiugs.
C. C. EDGAR
with perfect precision, or at least I cannot do it, and probably no one that
has seen the site would expect it. Several important points, however, are
clearly established, and with these we may conveniently begin, disregarding
the historical order.
The top settleraent yields fairly definite results. Putting aside the
coarse, unpainted wäre we may safely say that nine-tenths of the pottery from
the highest Stratum is ' imported Mycenaean ' of F. and L.'s third and fourth
styles. There was no doubt a certain proportion of painted native pottery of
the later period (as well as fragments of other kinds), but all over the site
the ' imported Mycenaean ' wäre was predominant. The final State of things
was strikingly reflected by the Contents of the well in the courtyard of the
palace. The bottom of the well was filled up with broken pottery for a depth
of several metres, and of the many hundred fragments that were fished up
there were not more than ten that did not belong to the above class. Some
of the pottery from the well was painted in a debased and presumably late
style (e.g., Fig. 125), and fragments of a similar kind, coarse in technique and
careless in execution, were of frequent occurrence elsewhere {v. PI. XXXII.).
Assuming this style to be late we are led to the conclusion that the Phylakopi
settlement continued in existence down to an advanced stage, perhaps the
final stage, of the Mycenaean period. On the other hand the entire absence of
archaic Greek pottery shows that it did not outlast the break-up of the
Mycenaean civilization.
Let us now turn to the lowest settlement ofwhich there are architectural
remains. To this settlement we must assign the greater part of the
early pottery grouped together in Sects. 3 and 4, which, as has been pointed
out, closely corresponds with the finds from Pyrgos and Chalandriane.
Further, a good deal of painted geometric pottery, as for instance, beaked
jugs like PI. IX. 1, was found in deposits which seemed certainly to belong
to this settlement, side by side with duck-vases and similar wäre; to this we
shall return.
The finds seem to take us still one stage farther back. As was related in
Sect. 2, a large mass of the most primitive cist-tomb wäre was found within
a small area of the site, lying close above the rock, while outside this area we ob-
tained almost nothing of the same sort. It was not found within house-walls;
the last house-walls do not come down to the rock at this point. Is this then
simply the earliest rubbish-heap of the bottom settlement or is it the relics of a
still earlier period of occupation ? I have taken the latter view. It does not
seem likely that the existing houses, within which were found the duck-vases
and the beaked jugs of PI. IX, were originally built by the people who used
these extremely primitive vessels. More probably their dwellings were
of very poor quality, perhaps of perishable material, and have left no
distinguishable traces.1 It may be due to more than a mere accident, that
though dozens of cemeteries containing similar pottery have been discovered
in the Cyclades, yet the dwellings ofthe people to whom the graves belonged
The lowest strata at Cnossos are saiil to be ckaracterized !>}• remains of mud buildiugs.