DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4758#0045
xliv CATALOGUE OF VASES.
the Geometric amphora (A 1024). The decoration fits on to the Late
Mycenaean linear style. Some flower-forms persist (A IC92, A 1096), but they
are geometrically composed with the common decorative figure of the period
the half-disc bordered with concentric semicircles, or semicircles alone, which
began to appear on the latest Mycenaean vases (A 1082). A tendency to
rectilinear drawing, in which the semicircle becomes a triangle (A 929, A 1094).
is the first movement towards Greek Geometric art.
The transition was gradual, and it is hardly possible to separate Sub-My-
cenaean and Proto-Geometric elements. Both types can be recognised at the
same moment, and often on the same vase (A 1123). They are found together
at the end of long series of burials in Mycenaean chamber-tombs.1 In a
cemetery at Assarlik in Caria (p. 211) Mycenaean inhumation chests bearing
Geometric maeander-patterns were found in association with cremated bodies
(A 1113).2 The process of change in ceramic decoration appears to have been
selection from the Mycenaean repertory of a few motives which were familiar or
attractive in the new system, and the mechanical adaptation of others. Thus
the spiral coil, which had survived until the end of Mycenaean art (A 1018), was
replaced by compass-drawn concentric circles (A 1124). This simple style was
uniform, although it ranged from Crete1' to Macedonia (A n28) and from Caria
(A 1108) to the Ionian Islands.4 Some strange and unassimilated forms appear
beside the transitional types. In the South, and particularly in Crete, a bird-
shaped vase is found (A 1102). This may have come through Cyprus from
Syria or Asia Minor, where zoomorphic forms belonged (p. xii). In northern
districts plain handrmade jugs with cut-away necks of Anatolian pattern (A 1129)
have been found with Proto-Geometric pottery, and loop-handled kantharoi
(A 1130) go with the same jugs in Macedonia.5 Both may have come from a
Balkan source, like the earlier ' Minyan ' shapes of the same region, to which they
were evidently related (p. xxii). The influence of such primitive types is seen
in nipples and necklaces (p. xii) which appear on painted jugs (A 1121),6 and
perhaps in the use of a solid black wash to cover large.portions of a vessel, or
even its whole surface (A 1122). The ground was thus made ready for reserved
panels which contained the earliest Geometric ornament (A 1106-7). Such
panels were often filled with rectilinear patterns, triangles or zig-zag lines, which
might perhaps be reconciled with Mycenaean forms ;' but the maeander is a
plain warning that the borders of the Geometric period have been crossed.
1 Eg. at Ialysos in Rhodes and Pothia in Calymnos (p. 209). For an exhaustive list' of sites see
B. Schweitzer, Untersuchungen zur Chronologic der geom. Stile in Grieclunland, i, p. 10.
- W. R. Paton in/. U.S., viii, p. 70.
3 Vrokastro, pi. XXVII.
' Rev. Arch. (3) xxxvii, p. 138.
5 S. Casson in B.S.A., xxiv, p. 26.
0 For the necklaces see also S. Wide in Opusc. arch. O. Montelio dicata, pp. 209, 214
7 See A 1112, note.
the Geometric amphora (A 1024). The decoration fits on to the Late
Mycenaean linear style. Some flower-forms persist (A IC92, A 1096), but they
are geometrically composed with the common decorative figure of the period
the half-disc bordered with concentric semicircles, or semicircles alone, which
began to appear on the latest Mycenaean vases (A 1082). A tendency to
rectilinear drawing, in which the semicircle becomes a triangle (A 929, A 1094).
is the first movement towards Greek Geometric art.
The transition was gradual, and it is hardly possible to separate Sub-My-
cenaean and Proto-Geometric elements. Both types can be recognised at the
same moment, and often on the same vase (A 1123). They are found together
at the end of long series of burials in Mycenaean chamber-tombs.1 In a
cemetery at Assarlik in Caria (p. 211) Mycenaean inhumation chests bearing
Geometric maeander-patterns were found in association with cremated bodies
(A 1113).2 The process of change in ceramic decoration appears to have been
selection from the Mycenaean repertory of a few motives which were familiar or
attractive in the new system, and the mechanical adaptation of others. Thus
the spiral coil, which had survived until the end of Mycenaean art (A 1018), was
replaced by compass-drawn concentric circles (A 1124). This simple style was
uniform, although it ranged from Crete1' to Macedonia (A n28) and from Caria
(A 1108) to the Ionian Islands.4 Some strange and unassimilated forms appear
beside the transitional types. In the South, and particularly in Crete, a bird-
shaped vase is found (A 1102). This may have come through Cyprus from
Syria or Asia Minor, where zoomorphic forms belonged (p. xii). In northern
districts plain handrmade jugs with cut-away necks of Anatolian pattern (A 1129)
have been found with Proto-Geometric pottery, and loop-handled kantharoi
(A 1130) go with the same jugs in Macedonia.5 Both may have come from a
Balkan source, like the earlier ' Minyan ' shapes of the same region, to which they
were evidently related (p. xxii). The influence of such primitive types is seen
in nipples and necklaces (p. xii) which appear on painted jugs (A 1121),6 and
perhaps in the use of a solid black wash to cover large.portions of a vessel, or
even its whole surface (A 1122). The ground was thus made ready for reserved
panels which contained the earliest Geometric ornament (A 1106-7). Such
panels were often filled with rectilinear patterns, triangles or zig-zag lines, which
might perhaps be reconciled with Mycenaean forms ;' but the maeander is a
plain warning that the borders of the Geometric period have been crossed.
1 Eg. at Ialysos in Rhodes and Pothia in Calymnos (p. 209). For an exhaustive list' of sites see
B. Schweitzer, Untersuchungen zur Chronologic der geom. Stile in Grieclunland, i, p. 10.
- W. R. Paton in/. U.S., viii, p. 70.
3 Vrokastro, pi. XXVII.
' Rev. Arch. (3) xxxvii, p. 138.
5 S. Casson in B.S.A., xxiv, p. 26.
0 For the necklaces see also S. Wide in Opusc. arch. O. Montelio dicata, pp. 209, 214
7 See A 1112, note.