DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4758#0010
INTRODUCTION.
1.—THE AEGEAN PROVINCE.
The coasts and islands of the Aegean Sea have possessed in every period of
history a distinct and homogeneous culture, which has been modified locally by
continental influences. The modifications have been more or less profound
according to the exposure of their districts to African, Asiatic or European forces,
or their remoteness from the dominant Aegean power. In prehistoric times
this condition was in process of formation. At the close of the Bronze Age
the whole Aegean area was united by the Mycenaean or Minoan culture,
which had spread in direct and unbroken development from neolithic Crete.
Moreover, in the Stone and Early Bronze Ages, before Minoan arts had passed
outside their native island, the other local cultures seem to have been derived
from sources not far distant from Aegean shores. It is indeed possible that the
ultimate Mycenaean koine was the partial replacement of a far more extensive
but less active community of ideas, which had prevailed over a wide Mediterranean
and Anatolian region, perhaps since the Palaeolithic Age,1 until its interruption
by the first independent movements of European intelligence at the birth of
progressive civilisation. It is therefore materially correct to distinguish an
Aegean province from the larger prehistoric cultures of the surrounding con-
tinents, although it is probably true that the present isolation of this iprovince
in archaeological method is due rather to its historical and literary connexions
and to its geographical coincidence with classical Greece.
The development and interrelation of the various districts are most plainly
reflected in ceramic art. No other part of the world has produced so many nor
such strongly differentiated styles and fabrics, and it is difficult to mistake the
identity of any considerable piece of Aegean pottery. It is, however, not always
easy, and often impossible, to establish the primary origin of such material.2 In
the following Catalogue, the districts in which Pre-Mycenaean pottery is thought
to show definite individual character, are taken in order around the sea-coast
1 See A. J. Evans, Palace of Minos, i, pp. 14, 45-52.
- On the diagnostic value of primitive pottery see H. Frankfort, Studies in Early Pottery of the Near
East, pp. 1 ft. (Royal Anthrop. Inst. Occasional Papers, No. 6, 1924).
1.—THE AEGEAN PROVINCE.
The coasts and islands of the Aegean Sea have possessed in every period of
history a distinct and homogeneous culture, which has been modified locally by
continental influences. The modifications have been more or less profound
according to the exposure of their districts to African, Asiatic or European forces,
or their remoteness from the dominant Aegean power. In prehistoric times
this condition was in process of formation. At the close of the Bronze Age
the whole Aegean area was united by the Mycenaean or Minoan culture,
which had spread in direct and unbroken development from neolithic Crete.
Moreover, in the Stone and Early Bronze Ages, before Minoan arts had passed
outside their native island, the other local cultures seem to have been derived
from sources not far distant from Aegean shores. It is indeed possible that the
ultimate Mycenaean koine was the partial replacement of a far more extensive
but less active community of ideas, which had prevailed over a wide Mediterranean
and Anatolian region, perhaps since the Palaeolithic Age,1 until its interruption
by the first independent movements of European intelligence at the birth of
progressive civilisation. It is therefore materially correct to distinguish an
Aegean province from the larger prehistoric cultures of the surrounding con-
tinents, although it is probably true that the present isolation of this iprovince
in archaeological method is due rather to its historical and literary connexions
and to its geographical coincidence with classical Greece.
The development and interrelation of the various districts are most plainly
reflected in ceramic art. No other part of the world has produced so many nor
such strongly differentiated styles and fabrics, and it is difficult to mistake the
identity of any considerable piece of Aegean pottery. It is, however, not always
easy, and often impossible, to establish the primary origin of such material.2 In
the following Catalogue, the districts in which Pre-Mycenaean pottery is thought
to show definite individual character, are taken in order around the sea-coast
1 See A. J. Evans, Palace of Minos, i, pp. 14, 45-52.
- On the diagnostic value of primitive pottery see H. Frankfort, Studies in Early Pottery of the Near
East, pp. 1 ft. (Royal Anthrop. Inst. Occasional Papers, No. 6, 1924).