DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5625#0136
H4
Survey of the Ancient World
the first real architecture in the northern Mediterranean. lts
walls were painted with fresh and beautiful scenes from daily
life, all aquiver with movement and action. After learning
the Egyptian art of glassmaking the Cretans also adorned
their buildings with glazed figures attached to the surface
of the wall (compare Fig. 49). Noble vases (Fig. 59) were
painted or modeled in relief with grand designs drawn fro"1
plant life or often from the life of the sea, where the Cretans
were now more and more at home. This wonderful pottery
belongs among the finest works of decorative art ever produced
by any people. (See also Ancient Times, §§ 341-342 and
Figs. 139-141.)
Here, then, in the island of Crete, there had arisen a ne*
world. The culture of the gifted Cretans, stimulated by the
magic touch of riper Egyptian culture, shook off the Late Stone
zation in the Age barbarism of early Europe and sprang into a vigorous ltfe
ancient world * „
all its own. Beside the two older centers of civilization on tfi|
Nile and the Two Rivers in this age, there thus grew up here
in the eastern Mediterranean, as a third great civilization, this
splendid world of Crete and the ^Fgean Sea. It was this
third
great civilization which formed the earliest link between the
civilization of the Orient and the later progress of man 111
Greece and western Europe.
203. Crete to
be regarded
as the home
of the third
great civili
204. Cretan
civilization
reaches the
European
mainland in
Greece; the
Mycenaean
Age (about
1500 to
1200 B. c.)
Section 23. The tEgean World : the Mainland
As yet the mainland, both in Europe and in Asia Minor>
had continued to lag behind the advanced civilization of the
islands. Nevertheless, the fleets of Egypt and of Crete main-
tained commerce with the mainland of Greece. These ships
naturally entered the southern bays, and especially the Gulf °^
Argos, which looks southward directly toward Crete (see mapi
p. 124). In the neighboring plain of Argos, therefore, ALgesfl
chieftains were sufficiently civilized after 1500 b.c. to build
the massive strongholds of Tiryns (Fig. 60) and Mycen*
Survey of the Ancient World
the first real architecture in the northern Mediterranean. lts
walls were painted with fresh and beautiful scenes from daily
life, all aquiver with movement and action. After learning
the Egyptian art of glassmaking the Cretans also adorned
their buildings with glazed figures attached to the surface
of the wall (compare Fig. 49). Noble vases (Fig. 59) were
painted or modeled in relief with grand designs drawn fro"1
plant life or often from the life of the sea, where the Cretans
were now more and more at home. This wonderful pottery
belongs among the finest works of decorative art ever produced
by any people. (See also Ancient Times, §§ 341-342 and
Figs. 139-141.)
Here, then, in the island of Crete, there had arisen a ne*
world. The culture of the gifted Cretans, stimulated by the
magic touch of riper Egyptian culture, shook off the Late Stone
zation in the Age barbarism of early Europe and sprang into a vigorous ltfe
ancient world * „
all its own. Beside the two older centers of civilization on tfi|
Nile and the Two Rivers in this age, there thus grew up here
in the eastern Mediterranean, as a third great civilization, this
splendid world of Crete and the ^Fgean Sea. It was this
third
great civilization which formed the earliest link between the
civilization of the Orient and the later progress of man 111
Greece and western Europe.
203. Crete to
be regarded
as the home
of the third
great civili
204. Cretan
civilization
reaches the
European
mainland in
Greece; the
Mycenaean
Age (about
1500 to
1200 B. c.)
Section 23. The tEgean World : the Mainland
As yet the mainland, both in Europe and in Asia Minor>
had continued to lag behind the advanced civilization of the
islands. Nevertheless, the fleets of Egypt and of Crete main-
tained commerce with the mainland of Greece. These ships
naturally entered the southern bays, and especially the Gulf °^
Argos, which looks southward directly toward Crete (see mapi
p. 124). In the neighboring plain of Argos, therefore, ALgesfl
chieftains were sufficiently civilized after 1500 b.c. to build
the massive strongholds of Tiryns (Fig. 60) and Mycen*