DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15680#0182
162
C. C. EDGAR
to believe that all these tombs belong to the inhabitants of the somewhat
scanty bottom settlement.
The truth is, there does not appear to have been any break in the local
manufacture of pottery, in spite of the great change in style which took place.
The series of vases arranged on PI. XXXIII. is a striking instanceof undisturbed
development, and there are many other threads of connection between the
old style and the new. A good deal of wäre indeed may be classed as
transitional (c.g. parfc of PI. XIII.). All this indicates that the site was never
eeriously abandoned, and suggests that the nucleus of the population remained
the same. It is not likely therefore that there was ever any great break in
buildirig Operations. May we not conceive the middle architectural Stratum as
a thing of long and gradual growth around and over the older remains ?
We speak of three strata, but that does not mean that we find three
well-defined and widely separated floor-levels all over the site and that the
pottery occurs only at these levels. Naturally not. The ground does not
remain at one and the same level during the whole long existence of a
primitive village. The floors and the streets gradually rise, and not at a
uniform rate in every quarter; rubbish heaps accumulate; roofs and walls
fall in; alterations and repairs are constantly going on. How much of the
architectural history may not have been obliterated by the process of repairing
and rebuilding.
It has already been mentioned that we sank two trenches in E 3 and J 2
with the view of observing the stratification of the pottery more accurately
than is practicable in the ordinary course of excavation. As a detailed
account of this experiment would probably be more confusing than instruc-
tive, I have thought it sufficient to give a summary of the results obtained
from the larger and more interesting trcnch in J 2. The summary is as
follows:—
In the first half-metre, out of a total of about 3,500 fragments, 2,000
were imported Mycenaean, 1,300 were of coarse local wäre (chiefly from
pithoi and small cups like XXXVI. 3) and 200 or so belonged to painted
local pottery of the later style. In the second half-metre the fragments of
imported Mycenaean and of painted local wäre were about equal in number,
while in the third half-metre the numbers of the latter class were four times
greater than those of the former. Even in the top layer there occurred a few
fragments of the geometric classes, but it was not until the third half-metre
was rcached that they forined an appreciable item of the total amount. At
the same level lustrous-faced pottery, such as is described on p. 153-154, began
to be fairly common, though fragments of ifc were found in the higher layers
also.
Thefourth half-metre contained a few fragments of imported Mycenaean,
a good many pieces of painted local wäre of the later style, about twice
as many geometric fragments, and a comparatively large quantity of the
lustrous-faced pottery mentioned above. The next two layers were chiefly
given over to geometric wäre, though in the fifth half-metre there were found
about twenty fragments of the pottery described in Sect. 9 and one ' red
C. C. EDGAR
to believe that all these tombs belong to the inhabitants of the somewhat
scanty bottom settlement.
The truth is, there does not appear to have been any break in the local
manufacture of pottery, in spite of the great change in style which took place.
The series of vases arranged on PI. XXXIII. is a striking instanceof undisturbed
development, and there are many other threads of connection between the
old style and the new. A good deal of wäre indeed may be classed as
transitional (c.g. parfc of PI. XIII.). All this indicates that the site was never
eeriously abandoned, and suggests that the nucleus of the population remained
the same. It is not likely therefore that there was ever any great break in
buildirig Operations. May we not conceive the middle architectural Stratum as
a thing of long and gradual growth around and over the older remains ?
We speak of three strata, but that does not mean that we find three
well-defined and widely separated floor-levels all over the site and that the
pottery occurs only at these levels. Naturally not. The ground does not
remain at one and the same level during the whole long existence of a
primitive village. The floors and the streets gradually rise, and not at a
uniform rate in every quarter; rubbish heaps accumulate; roofs and walls
fall in; alterations and repairs are constantly going on. How much of the
architectural history may not have been obliterated by the process of repairing
and rebuilding.
It has already been mentioned that we sank two trenches in E 3 and J 2
with the view of observing the stratification of the pottery more accurately
than is practicable in the ordinary course of excavation. As a detailed
account of this experiment would probably be more confusing than instruc-
tive, I have thought it sufficient to give a summary of the results obtained
from the larger and more interesting trcnch in J 2. The summary is as
follows:—
In the first half-metre, out of a total of about 3,500 fragments, 2,000
were imported Mycenaean, 1,300 were of coarse local wäre (chiefly from
pithoi and small cups like XXXVI. 3) and 200 or so belonged to painted
local pottery of the later style. In the second half-metre the fragments of
imported Mycenaean and of painted local wäre were about equal in number,
while in the third half-metre the numbers of the latter class were four times
greater than those of the former. Even in the top layer there occurred a few
fragments of the geometric classes, but it was not until the third half-metre
was rcached that they forined an appreciable item of the total amount. At
the same level lustrous-faced pottery, such as is described on p. 153-154, began
to be fairly common, though fragments of ifc were found in the higher layers
also.
Thefourth half-metre contained a few fragments of imported Mycenaean,
a good many pieces of painted local wäre of the later style, about twice
as many geometric fragments, and a comparatively large quantity of the
lustrous-faced pottery mentioned above. The next two layers were chiefly
given over to geometric wäre, though in the fifth half-metre there were found
about twenty fragments of the pottery described in Sect. 9 and one ' red