DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15680#0266
24G
DUiSTCAN MACKENZIE
Adamanta it had a long duration of prosperity. Bat there remains the
prior question as to whether the obsidian quarries of Melos were known at
an era preceding that of tho cist-tombs. Evidence from the Cyclades is
lacking, because no remains have as yet been discovered in that region that
go back to a period preceding that of the earliest cist-tombs and the first
beginnings of settlement at Phylakopi. The great neolithie deposits of
Cnossos on the other hand reach back to a remote pre-Cycladic era. In
these the evidence forthcoming shows that in neolithie Cnossos obsidian
was already in use long before the period when the finds in the deposit come
to have chai-acteristics that bring them into one general relation of im-
mediate antecedence to those of the early Cycladic period.1 If then wo. put
the knowledge of obsidian in the Neolithie Age in Crete into relation with
the fact that at Phylakopi the earliest beginnings of settlement belong
already to the dawn of the Cycladic civilization, the conclusion will be safe
that the industry in Melian obsidian and tho Aegean commerce in it began
to be a factor in Aegean civilization long before the first foundation of the
prehistoric capital of Melos at Phylakopi. The great obsidian quarries at
Xomia and Adamanta were probably at first independent stations exploited
directly from without in the Neolithie Age, and it is only in course of time
that we ean coneeive so much Organization as would have tended to centralize
the trade at the emporium of Phylakopi.
The presence of obsidian in the First Settlement at Hissarlik, if this
obsidian is Aegean, is in harmony with other indications that the founding
of prehistoric Troy occurred somewhat earlicr than that of the great Aegean
obsidian emporium in Melos. That the commerce with the Troad was one of
long duration and growing prosperity in the later period is vouched for by
the fact that the mass of the obsidian is assignable in a general way to a
period ranging from the Second to the Fifth Settlements at Troy.2
It was not otherwise with the mainland of Greece. Here again indica-
tions are now forthcoming of a knowledge of obsidian both in the Peloponnese
and in Upper Greece, as early at least as the era immediately anteceding
that of the Cycladic civilization.3 Again, if the obsidian arrowheads,
belonging to a much later era, which were found in one of the shaft tombs.
are of Melian obsidian, then we have a guarantee of trade-intercourse between
Melos and the Argolid during the great days-of Mycenae.
But given the lack of obsidian on the whole of the Greek mainland it
could not have been very different with the trade relations between Melos
and the Upper parts of Greece. The Saronic Gulf with its islands of Aegina
and Salamis and the island of Euboea with its long strait of sea are the
natural prolongations into the Greek mainland of the Aegean. The trade-
connections that we are able to conjecture between the Aegean and the
Argolid could not have been less intimate with Attica4 and, at a greater
1 See B.8.A. viii. 123. above.
- See Troja und I/ion, 386-7. 4 For obsidian arrowheads in prehistoric
:1 For the evidence see pp. 222 and 22S Athens, see \i. 223.
DUiSTCAN MACKENZIE
Adamanta it had a long duration of prosperity. Bat there remains the
prior question as to whether the obsidian quarries of Melos were known at
an era preceding that of tho cist-tombs. Evidence from the Cyclades is
lacking, because no remains have as yet been discovered in that region that
go back to a period preceding that of the earliest cist-tombs and the first
beginnings of settlement at Phylakopi. The great neolithie deposits of
Cnossos on the other hand reach back to a remote pre-Cycladic era. In
these the evidence forthcoming shows that in neolithie Cnossos obsidian
was already in use long before the period when the finds in the deposit come
to have chai-acteristics that bring them into one general relation of im-
mediate antecedence to those of the early Cycladic period.1 If then wo. put
the knowledge of obsidian in the Neolithie Age in Crete into relation with
the fact that at Phylakopi the earliest beginnings of settlement belong
already to the dawn of the Cycladic civilization, the conclusion will be safe
that the industry in Melian obsidian and tho Aegean commerce in it began
to be a factor in Aegean civilization long before the first foundation of the
prehistoric capital of Melos at Phylakopi. The great obsidian quarries at
Xomia and Adamanta were probably at first independent stations exploited
directly from without in the Neolithie Age, and it is only in course of time
that we ean coneeive so much Organization as would have tended to centralize
the trade at the emporium of Phylakopi.
The presence of obsidian in the First Settlement at Hissarlik, if this
obsidian is Aegean, is in harmony with other indications that the founding
of prehistoric Troy occurred somewhat earlicr than that of the great Aegean
obsidian emporium in Melos. That the commerce with the Troad was one of
long duration and growing prosperity in the later period is vouched for by
the fact that the mass of the obsidian is assignable in a general way to a
period ranging from the Second to the Fifth Settlements at Troy.2
It was not otherwise with the mainland of Greece. Here again indica-
tions are now forthcoming of a knowledge of obsidian both in the Peloponnese
and in Upper Greece, as early at least as the era immediately anteceding
that of the Cycladic civilization.3 Again, if the obsidian arrowheads,
belonging to a much later era, which were found in one of the shaft tombs.
are of Melian obsidian, then we have a guarantee of trade-intercourse between
Melos and the Argolid during the great days-of Mycenae.
But given the lack of obsidian on the whole of the Greek mainland it
could not have been very different with the trade relations between Melos
and the Upper parts of Greece. The Saronic Gulf with its islands of Aegina
and Salamis and the island of Euboea with its long strait of sea are the
natural prolongations into the Greek mainland of the Aegean. The trade-
connections that we are able to conjecture between the Aegean and the
Argolid could not have been less intimate with Attica4 and, at a greater
1 See B.8.A. viii. 123. above.
- See Troja und I/ion, 386-7. 4 For obsidian arrowheads in prehistoric
:1 For the evidence see pp. 222 and 22S Athens, see \i. 223.