DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4758#0030
INTRODUCTION. XXIX
form perhaps improved by metal-work. Another typical form is a cylindrical
box suggesting a wooden original (A 311-5). In the next period (E.C. Ill)
a looser style of decoration prevailed, using curvilinear motives (notably spiral
coils* and false spirals) and deep incisions which are said to have contained
white filling.2 A remarkable form, on which spiral ornament displays its most
complicated schemes, is shaped like a frying-pan. This shape has been found
with other Cycladic pottery at Chalcis in Euboea.3 The jugs are related to
the Anatolian type of worked leather vessel (p. xii), but they were more elegantly
designed, and particular care was given to their mouths, which at first were
fan-shaped (A 331), and afterwards channelled (A 339). The natural skin
shape, which produced a long series of animal forms in Asia Minor (p. xii) and
askoid vessels on the Greek Mainland (p. xxiii), was preserved in Cycladic
'duck-vases ' (A 330). One of these was found at Troy.4
With the heavily made Incised Ware is found the fine Plain Varnish
Ware which seems to have come immediately from the Greek Mainland (p. xxiii),
and ultimately from Crete. Besides the strange shapes, there is evidence of foreign
origin in clumsy imitations of the thin varnish done with a thick resinous
substance (A 317).5 Some of the more advanced Patterned Ware (p. xxiv), which
often has a fine white slip, was evidently made locally, for it is represented in
Cycladic shapes," the box with spreading lid, the squat jar with suspension
handles and the cluster-vase (A 332); and some of the plainer fabrics were also
local (A 346). Incised boxes of the later type occur in Crete at the end of the
Early Minoan age, and supply a date for this style and for the varnished ware
that goes with it, in agreement with the Helladic evidence.
The Middle Cycladic age developed an elaborate painted pottery from the
early patterned ware. In its first period (M.C. I) this had rectilinear or simple
curvilinear designs which were principally derived from cording (A 340-1).
Rope slings and cradles served a useful purpose on large vessels, and such use is
attested by the moulded decoration of a series of Cretan jars (A 739), but the
Cycladic vases in question are too small to need such support. Their decoration
probably records an original adornment of the pots with strings and ribbons, like
the necklace-patterns of Yortan (p. xii). Some of the hanging figures have been
compared to Egyptian lotus-pendants.' Many of these vases are identical with the
Dull-painted Geometric pottery of the Greek Mainland (p. xxvi). Other links
between the two regions are the attempts to reproduce Minoan painted pottery
1 For the origin of spiral ornament in the Aegean see pp. xviii, xxxiii.
2 See p. xiii, note 2.
3 Papabasileios, Uep\ tZv iv Eiifioia 'Apxaiuv Tdtpcw, Fig. 14, etc. See also Kret.-myk. Kullur,
p. 135, and 'Apx- 'E<J>., 1899, pp. 86, 87.
' S.S., 2066.
5 C. C. Edgar in Phylakopi, p. 87.
" 'ApX- 'E<|>., 1899, pi. VIII (= B.S.A., xxii, pll. VIII-IX).
7 Edgar, loc. cit., p. 99.
form perhaps improved by metal-work. Another typical form is a cylindrical
box suggesting a wooden original (A 311-5). In the next period (E.C. Ill)
a looser style of decoration prevailed, using curvilinear motives (notably spiral
coils* and false spirals) and deep incisions which are said to have contained
white filling.2 A remarkable form, on which spiral ornament displays its most
complicated schemes, is shaped like a frying-pan. This shape has been found
with other Cycladic pottery at Chalcis in Euboea.3 The jugs are related to
the Anatolian type of worked leather vessel (p. xii), but they were more elegantly
designed, and particular care was given to their mouths, which at first were
fan-shaped (A 331), and afterwards channelled (A 339). The natural skin
shape, which produced a long series of animal forms in Asia Minor (p. xii) and
askoid vessels on the Greek Mainland (p. xxiii), was preserved in Cycladic
'duck-vases ' (A 330). One of these was found at Troy.4
With the heavily made Incised Ware is found the fine Plain Varnish
Ware which seems to have come immediately from the Greek Mainland (p. xxiii),
and ultimately from Crete. Besides the strange shapes, there is evidence of foreign
origin in clumsy imitations of the thin varnish done with a thick resinous
substance (A 317).5 Some of the more advanced Patterned Ware (p. xxiv), which
often has a fine white slip, was evidently made locally, for it is represented in
Cycladic shapes," the box with spreading lid, the squat jar with suspension
handles and the cluster-vase (A 332); and some of the plainer fabrics were also
local (A 346). Incised boxes of the later type occur in Crete at the end of the
Early Minoan age, and supply a date for this style and for the varnished ware
that goes with it, in agreement with the Helladic evidence.
The Middle Cycladic age developed an elaborate painted pottery from the
early patterned ware. In its first period (M.C. I) this had rectilinear or simple
curvilinear designs which were principally derived from cording (A 340-1).
Rope slings and cradles served a useful purpose on large vessels, and such use is
attested by the moulded decoration of a series of Cretan jars (A 739), but the
Cycladic vases in question are too small to need such support. Their decoration
probably records an original adornment of the pots with strings and ribbons, like
the necklace-patterns of Yortan (p. xii). Some of the hanging figures have been
compared to Egyptian lotus-pendants.' Many of these vases are identical with the
Dull-painted Geometric pottery of the Greek Mainland (p. xxvi). Other links
between the two regions are the attempts to reproduce Minoan painted pottery
1 For the origin of spiral ornament in the Aegean see pp. xviii, xxxiii.
2 See p. xiii, note 2.
3 Papabasileios, Uep\ tZv iv Eiifioia 'Apxaiuv Tdtpcw, Fig. 14, etc. See also Kret.-myk. Kullur,
p. 135, and 'Apx- 'E<J>., 1899, pp. 86, 87.
' S.S., 2066.
5 C. C. Edgar in Phylakopi, p. 87.
" 'ApX- 'E<|>., 1899, pi. VIII (= B.S.A., xxii, pll. VIII-IX).
7 Edgar, loc. cit., p. 99.