DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4758#0044
INTRODUCTION.
xliii
octopus in combination with palmettes and large rosettes (A 931-2), which, with
cable-patterns (A 1070), may have been introduced by Phoenician agency.
Beside these elaborate and heavy styles the process of degeneration still
went on. A large class of pottery is decorated with the poorest kind of linear
ornament, plain girding-lines and simple wavy bands ; the surface of the clay
loses its clear colour, and the varnish has no brilliance, but is either dull, or shines
with thin metallic lustre (A 821, etc.). The fabric of the pottery, and its strati-
fication at Mycenae,1 indicate that both styles were contemporary. Fibulae,
swords of northern type, the use of iron and the funeral-rite of cremation are
represented in material found with such vases.- The last innovation gives good
reason for setting the lower limit of the Mycenaean Age at this point. Its
chronological position is very vaguely indicated. No pottery of the second phase
(Late Mycenaean B) has been found in Egypt,3 but indirect evidence of its date
is supplied through Palestine. At Gezer, Gath, Lachish and elsewhere the pottery
identified as Philistine contains some shapes and ornaments (particularly panelled
bowls with spiral figures),4 which have definite affinities with the latest Mycenaean
types.5 There is no means of dating such pottery in Palestine, although the
historical fact that the Philistine settlement did not begin before 1200 B.C. sets
an upper limit to its period. But Philistine pottery of the same style1'' has been
found on the site of the Palace of Rameses III at Tel-el-Yehudiyeh in Egypt,
where it is taken, to belong to the reign of that king, or shortly afterwards.7
By means of these partial coincidences the end of the Mycenaean Age may be
placed about 1100 B.C.
The following period began the Early Iron Age in Greece. Its pottery con-
sists almost entirely of Mycenaean forms debased by primitive metal construction.
The vases have no elegance, and show a preference for spherical and oval bodies,
splayed necks and conical feet. (A 1103-5 etc.). The false-necked jar was much in
favour at first;s it was made in unusually large sizes, and was adapted for some
new use by the addition of an air-hole on the shoulder or on top of the false
neck (A 1092-A 1101). The disc which belongs in the latter place is unduly
spread and thin at its edges, and usually rises to a cone in its middle. A
change of handles on the latest Mycenaean jar produced the earliest model for
1 A. J. B. Wace in B.S.A., xxv., p. 51.
- 'Apx- 'E<p., he. cit. See Evans in Prehist. Tombs of Knossos, p. 102.
3 The break was evidently a result of the movements of peoples in Aegean lands which began in
the time of Rameses II and culminated in the attack on the Delta by Achaeans and others, who were
repulsed by Merneptah in the battle of Piari (1225 B.C.). For the ethnographical significance of the
archaeological material, which lies outside the scope of this Catalogue, see D. Mackenzie in U.S.A.,
xiii, p. 421.
' As A 1019-20, A 1075. For the Philistine pottery see Fimmen, Kret.-myk. Kicltur, fig. 1S9, p. 196.
5 This pottery is not Mycenaean, but represents a strong Mycenaean tradition : Mackenzie in
P.E.F. Annual, 1912-3, p. 13 (Beth-Shemesh).
0 Fimmen loc. cit.
' W. M. Flinders Peine, ITyksos and Israelite Cities, p. 17.
s E. H. Hall, Vrokastro, p. 176.
xliii
octopus in combination with palmettes and large rosettes (A 931-2), which, with
cable-patterns (A 1070), may have been introduced by Phoenician agency.
Beside these elaborate and heavy styles the process of degeneration still
went on. A large class of pottery is decorated with the poorest kind of linear
ornament, plain girding-lines and simple wavy bands ; the surface of the clay
loses its clear colour, and the varnish has no brilliance, but is either dull, or shines
with thin metallic lustre (A 821, etc.). The fabric of the pottery, and its strati-
fication at Mycenae,1 indicate that both styles were contemporary. Fibulae,
swords of northern type, the use of iron and the funeral-rite of cremation are
represented in material found with such vases.- The last innovation gives good
reason for setting the lower limit of the Mycenaean Age at this point. Its
chronological position is very vaguely indicated. No pottery of the second phase
(Late Mycenaean B) has been found in Egypt,3 but indirect evidence of its date
is supplied through Palestine. At Gezer, Gath, Lachish and elsewhere the pottery
identified as Philistine contains some shapes and ornaments (particularly panelled
bowls with spiral figures),4 which have definite affinities with the latest Mycenaean
types.5 There is no means of dating such pottery in Palestine, although the
historical fact that the Philistine settlement did not begin before 1200 B.C. sets
an upper limit to its period. But Philistine pottery of the same style1'' has been
found on the site of the Palace of Rameses III at Tel-el-Yehudiyeh in Egypt,
where it is taken, to belong to the reign of that king, or shortly afterwards.7
By means of these partial coincidences the end of the Mycenaean Age may be
placed about 1100 B.C.
The following period began the Early Iron Age in Greece. Its pottery con-
sists almost entirely of Mycenaean forms debased by primitive metal construction.
The vases have no elegance, and show a preference for spherical and oval bodies,
splayed necks and conical feet. (A 1103-5 etc.). The false-necked jar was much in
favour at first;s it was made in unusually large sizes, and was adapted for some
new use by the addition of an air-hole on the shoulder or on top of the false
neck (A 1092-A 1101). The disc which belongs in the latter place is unduly
spread and thin at its edges, and usually rises to a cone in its middle. A
change of handles on the latest Mycenaean jar produced the earliest model for
1 A. J. B. Wace in B.S.A., xxv., p. 51.
- 'Apx- 'E<p., he. cit. See Evans in Prehist. Tombs of Knossos, p. 102.
3 The break was evidently a result of the movements of peoples in Aegean lands which began in
the time of Rameses II and culminated in the attack on the Delta by Achaeans and others, who were
repulsed by Merneptah in the battle of Piari (1225 B.C.). For the ethnographical significance of the
archaeological material, which lies outside the scope of this Catalogue, see D. Mackenzie in U.S.A.,
xiii, p. 421.
' As A 1019-20, A 1075. For the Philistine pottery see Fimmen, Kret.-myk. Kicltur, fig. 1S9, p. 196.
5 This pottery is not Mycenaean, but represents a strong Mycenaean tradition : Mackenzie in
P.E.F. Annual, 1912-3, p. 13 (Beth-Shemesh).
0 Fimmen loc. cit.
' W. M. Flinders Peine, ITyksos and Israelite Cities, p. 17.
s E. H. Hall, Vrokastro, p. 176.