DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15680#0282
ÜG2
DUNCAN MACKENZIB
native art in Melos at this period. Again, the kind of pottery character-
istic of the period to which the pillar-houses belong is that illustrated on
PI. XVI-XXI, most of it from the floor-deposit of houses that, like those
with the pillars, were submcrged in the last era of the Second City. All
of this pottery is in a genuinely native Melian style.
The Melian curvilinear style is now in its prime. We have to
await the results of further comparative investigation based on excava-
tion in Order to ascertain how far the exceptional means of intercourse,
secured to Melos by her obsidian trade, encouraged the export of
Melian pottery to other Settlements in the Aegean and the surrounding
regions.
In Grete such excavation has already yielded positive rosults. Thus in
the excavations at Cnossos in the season of 1903 typical Melian pottery of this
era was discovered in deposit belonging to the earliest period of the palace.
The wäre in question was found in one of two great cists opened up under-
ncath the pavement in a rooni to the south of the Throne-room.1 The
Melian pottery was found oh a Stratum containing along with other things
a remarkable series of objects in porcelain including some votive h'gurines
of women of exceptional artistic and religious importance. The Cnossian
wäre found in the same deposit was either piain or had usually simple band
or spiral decoration, iight on a dark or da'rk on a light ground. The Melian
wäre consisted of three very large beaked vases with birds thrice repeated
in profile on the Shoulder. These vases, in clay, slip, style of decoration and
paint, were the exaet counterpart of the bird-vases of Melos as figured
XXI, 1, 5. The context in which the vases occurred showed that they were
contenvporary with the transitional style which prevailed at Cnossos at the
time of the building of the palace, and of the laying of the pavements which
led to the covering up of the cists in which they and their Cnossian com-
panions were found. The Melian vases were otherwise, however, strangely
out of harmony with their environment, and the curious novelty of their
somewhat old-fashioned eccentricity of appearance in such surroundings was
only kept in countenance by the quaint liveliness of the bird designs in the
lustreless black of the Melian paint on the pale yellow clay. The bird-vases
of Melos .are a characteristic class for the period to which the pillar-houses
at Phylakopi belong, and the environment in which the imported Melian
vases of this class were found at Cnossos makes it clear that the pillar-houses
of Melos are contemporary with those of Crete and with the first foundation
of the Palace at Cnossos.
The presonce of the Melian vases at Cnossos points to a time of jjeace
and of friendly intercourse on a footing of mutual advantage between Melos
and Crete. There is nothing to indicate any repressive influence on the
part of the more powerful island, for the course of development and its cul-
1 See ß.S.A. vii. 27, the " Room of the Two
Cists," aiiil PI. I. H f> ü. The cists in the
plan of 1901 are in the Moor, Ihose of 1903
were fonml nnderlying the pavement and are
of muoli earlier date. The Contents of these
eists will be described by Mr. Evatis in the
leport of 1903.
DUNCAN MACKENZIB
native art in Melos at this period. Again, the kind of pottery character-
istic of the period to which the pillar-houses belong is that illustrated on
PI. XVI-XXI, most of it from the floor-deposit of houses that, like those
with the pillars, were submcrged in the last era of the Second City. All
of this pottery is in a genuinely native Melian style.
The Melian curvilinear style is now in its prime. We have to
await the results of further comparative investigation based on excava-
tion in Order to ascertain how far the exceptional means of intercourse,
secured to Melos by her obsidian trade, encouraged the export of
Melian pottery to other Settlements in the Aegean and the surrounding
regions.
In Grete such excavation has already yielded positive rosults. Thus in
the excavations at Cnossos in the season of 1903 typical Melian pottery of this
era was discovered in deposit belonging to the earliest period of the palace.
The wäre in question was found in one of two great cists opened up under-
ncath the pavement in a rooni to the south of the Throne-room.1 The
Melian pottery was found oh a Stratum containing along with other things
a remarkable series of objects in porcelain including some votive h'gurines
of women of exceptional artistic and religious importance. The Cnossian
wäre found in the same deposit was either piain or had usually simple band
or spiral decoration, iight on a dark or da'rk on a light ground. The Melian
wäre consisted of three very large beaked vases with birds thrice repeated
in profile on the Shoulder. These vases, in clay, slip, style of decoration and
paint, were the exaet counterpart of the bird-vases of Melos as figured
XXI, 1, 5. The context in which the vases occurred showed that they were
contenvporary with the transitional style which prevailed at Cnossos at the
time of the building of the palace, and of the laying of the pavements which
led to the covering up of the cists in which they and their Cnossian com-
panions were found. The Melian vases were otherwise, however, strangely
out of harmony with their environment, and the curious novelty of their
somewhat old-fashioned eccentricity of appearance in such surroundings was
only kept in countenance by the quaint liveliness of the bird designs in the
lustreless black of the Melian paint on the pale yellow clay. The bird-vases
of Melos .are a characteristic class for the period to which the pillar-houses
at Phylakopi belong, and the environment in which the imported Melian
vases of this class were found at Cnossos makes it clear that the pillar-houses
of Melos are contemporary with those of Crete and with the first foundation
of the Palace at Cnossos.
The presonce of the Melian vases at Cnossos points to a time of jjeace
and of friendly intercourse on a footing of mutual advantage between Melos
and Crete. There is nothing to indicate any repressive influence on the
part of the more powerful island, for the course of development and its cul-
1 See ß.S.A. vii. 27, the " Room of the Two
Cists," aiiil PI. I. H f> ü. The cists in the
plan of 1901 are in the Moor, Ihose of 1903
were fonml nnderlying the pavement and are
of muoli earlier date. The Contents of these
eists will be described by Mr. Evatis in the
leport of 1903.