DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4758#0026
INTRODUCTION. XXV
decoration in dull black paint, best described as dull-painted geometric pottery.
The co-existence of two such opposite fabrics is an unique phenomenon.
Minyan Ware * is plainly an intrusion. It stands on a much higher technical
level than any other Middle Helladic pottery, and for most of that period it is
the only fabric in which the wheel was used. Its extant forms are mostly cups,
which are well represented in this collection (A 281-4). They are all of metallic
type, with hollow sides or strongly curved or carinated bodies, projecting lips,
and wide band-handles which are often looped high above the rims. This ware
is rather heavily made of peculiar fatty clay which has a natural lustre and fires
in a reducing atmosphere to light or dark grey. Although its forms and fabric
were so mature that no improvements have been noticed in them during its life of
four or five hundred years in Greece, the earlier stages of its development are not
known there.2 At Troy, however, where it belongs to the Sixth City, the
evolution of the typical cup 3 can be traced back through the pottery of the
earlier settlements, and the bucchero technique was equally at home in that
locality (p. xiv). The delicate grey colour, as well as the metallic shapes, doubtless
reflects the traditional Hellespontine silver industry. Anatolian pottery of
much earlier date has appeared in Euboea (p. xiii) : this small and isolated
group is a significant anticipation of the larger ' Minyan' occupation, which seems
to have been strongest in Boeotia, although its pottery was used or imitated in
most parts of Greece. The intermediate phases may still be found elsewhere, in
Greece or in the islands or on the North Aegean coasts (for it cannot be supposed
that Troy was the only station of the culture which it represents) ; but even in
that event the precise similarity of this fabric on both sides of the sea could only
be explained by continuous intercourse.
Further proof of foreign origin is supplied by the numerous imitations
which sprang up beside it on the Greek Mainland and in the Cyclades (p. xxx).
The so-called Argive Minyan (A 283, A 298) is stained with a surface-pigment,
not blackened all through by the reduction process, which was probably beyond
the skill of the native potters. Still more inept is a hand-made burnished fabric
with rudimentary handles which copies Minyan shapes.4 A better adaptation was
the abandonment of the difficult grey colour. This Yellow Minyan was partly
made in the same shapes as the grey, but it naturally tended to adopt the forms,
as well as the colour of the local pottery. The most prominent is a goblet
with globular body and stem-foot, which was first made in Helladic slipped
ware,6 and was copied from Middle Cycladic0 models under Minoan influence.
1 On this pottery see Forsdyke inJ.fl.S., xxxiv, p. 126.
2 The Minyan ware from Piperis in Phocis (Childe in J.H.S., xxxv, p. 196) may belong to the Late
Helladic period, and its unusual forms may show influence of Minoan types.
3 J.JT.S., xxxiv, p. 146, fig. 12.
4 Korakou, figs. 24-5.
s Myk. Vasen, pi. XXIV 176-7
0 Phylakopi, pi. XVI, 1-7, p. 115 : ' panelled cups.'
decoration in dull black paint, best described as dull-painted geometric pottery.
The co-existence of two such opposite fabrics is an unique phenomenon.
Minyan Ware * is plainly an intrusion. It stands on a much higher technical
level than any other Middle Helladic pottery, and for most of that period it is
the only fabric in which the wheel was used. Its extant forms are mostly cups,
which are well represented in this collection (A 281-4). They are all of metallic
type, with hollow sides or strongly curved or carinated bodies, projecting lips,
and wide band-handles which are often looped high above the rims. This ware
is rather heavily made of peculiar fatty clay which has a natural lustre and fires
in a reducing atmosphere to light or dark grey. Although its forms and fabric
were so mature that no improvements have been noticed in them during its life of
four or five hundred years in Greece, the earlier stages of its development are not
known there.2 At Troy, however, where it belongs to the Sixth City, the
evolution of the typical cup 3 can be traced back through the pottery of the
earlier settlements, and the bucchero technique was equally at home in that
locality (p. xiv). The delicate grey colour, as well as the metallic shapes, doubtless
reflects the traditional Hellespontine silver industry. Anatolian pottery of
much earlier date has appeared in Euboea (p. xiii) : this small and isolated
group is a significant anticipation of the larger ' Minyan' occupation, which seems
to have been strongest in Boeotia, although its pottery was used or imitated in
most parts of Greece. The intermediate phases may still be found elsewhere, in
Greece or in the islands or on the North Aegean coasts (for it cannot be supposed
that Troy was the only station of the culture which it represents) ; but even in
that event the precise similarity of this fabric on both sides of the sea could only
be explained by continuous intercourse.
Further proof of foreign origin is supplied by the numerous imitations
which sprang up beside it on the Greek Mainland and in the Cyclades (p. xxx).
The so-called Argive Minyan (A 283, A 298) is stained with a surface-pigment,
not blackened all through by the reduction process, which was probably beyond
the skill of the native potters. Still more inept is a hand-made burnished fabric
with rudimentary handles which copies Minyan shapes.4 A better adaptation was
the abandonment of the difficult grey colour. This Yellow Minyan was partly
made in the same shapes as the grey, but it naturally tended to adopt the forms,
as well as the colour of the local pottery. The most prominent is a goblet
with globular body and stem-foot, which was first made in Helladic slipped
ware,6 and was copied from Middle Cycladic0 models under Minoan influence.
1 On this pottery see Forsdyke inJ.fl.S., xxxiv, p. 126.
2 The Minyan ware from Piperis in Phocis (Childe in J.H.S., xxxv, p. 196) may belong to the Late
Helladic period, and its unusual forms may show influence of Minoan types.
3 J.JT.S., xxxiv, p. 146, fig. 12.
4 Korakou, figs. 24-5.
s Myk. Vasen, pi. XXIV 176-7
0 Phylakopi, pi. XVI, 1-7, p. 115 : ' panelled cups.'