DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9804#0067
42 THE BEGINNINGS OF MINOAN CIVILISATION
stretch over thousands of years by a name that was
presumably given to one particular historical personage.
For the plea which they put in for the time-honoured
word Mycenaean, consecrated by Schliemann's epoch-
making discoveries, we have much sympathy, and there
is no doubt that the ambiguity that now involves the
term Mycenaean, used sometimes in its old generic and
sometimes in its new specific sense, will for a long time
to come lead to confusion. On the other hand the
argument that the term is inapplicable to the early
periods that are almost unrepresented at or near Mycenae 1
is unanswerable. Racial names such as Achaean or
Carian, after which Dr. Dorpfeld hankers, are out of
the question, as they take for granted racial theories
that are the subject of debate. " /Egean," on the other
hand, which Professor Reisch supports, will possibly
prove ultimately the best generic word for the civilisation
as a whole, while Mycenaean and Minoan will fit into it,
as representing certain stages of its development in
different localities. For such a synthesis we are not
yet ready, but we may infer that it is to something
like this that Mr. Evans himself is looking forward.
In the cases of his own Museum, the Ashmolean, at
Oxford, he has only a few months ago divided his speci-
mens of pottery from islands like Melos and Amorgos into
nine epochs, and equated them, as Early, Middle, and
Late " Cycladic," with the nine Minoan epochs.2
Meanwhile there may be pleaded for the term Minoan,
1 The early sub-Neolithic periods are represented both at the
Hcrieum on the north-east of the plain of Argos, and on the
hill called Aspis on its west (W. Vollgraff in B.C.H. 1906,
pp. 1-34); but the Middle Minoan periods are almost unknown,
except sporadically at Tiryns. See Ath. Mitt. 1905, p. 151 seq.
and J. L. Myres in Y.W.C.S. 1907, p. 22.
3 Cp. the interesting suggestion made by J. L. Myres in
Y.W.C.S. 1907, p. 26, that it may be possible, with slight
modifications, to equate Dr. Orsi's three " Sikel " periods with
Early, Middle, and Late Minoan.
stretch over thousands of years by a name that was
presumably given to one particular historical personage.
For the plea which they put in for the time-honoured
word Mycenaean, consecrated by Schliemann's epoch-
making discoveries, we have much sympathy, and there
is no doubt that the ambiguity that now involves the
term Mycenaean, used sometimes in its old generic and
sometimes in its new specific sense, will for a long time
to come lead to confusion. On the other hand the
argument that the term is inapplicable to the early
periods that are almost unrepresented at or near Mycenae 1
is unanswerable. Racial names such as Achaean or
Carian, after which Dr. Dorpfeld hankers, are out of
the question, as they take for granted racial theories
that are the subject of debate. " /Egean," on the other
hand, which Professor Reisch supports, will possibly
prove ultimately the best generic word for the civilisation
as a whole, while Mycenaean and Minoan will fit into it,
as representing certain stages of its development in
different localities. For such a synthesis we are not
yet ready, but we may infer that it is to something
like this that Mr. Evans himself is looking forward.
In the cases of his own Museum, the Ashmolean, at
Oxford, he has only a few months ago divided his speci-
mens of pottery from islands like Melos and Amorgos into
nine epochs, and equated them, as Early, Middle, and
Late " Cycladic," with the nine Minoan epochs.2
Meanwhile there may be pleaded for the term Minoan,
1 The early sub-Neolithic periods are represented both at the
Hcrieum on the north-east of the plain of Argos, and on the
hill called Aspis on its west (W. Vollgraff in B.C.H. 1906,
pp. 1-34); but the Middle Minoan periods are almost unknown,
except sporadically at Tiryns. See Ath. Mitt. 1905, p. 151 seq.
and J. L. Myres in Y.W.C.S. 1907, p. 22.
3 Cp. the interesting suggestion made by J. L. Myres in
Y.W.C.S. 1907, p. 26, that it may be possible, with slight
modifications, to equate Dr. Orsi's three " Sikel " periods with
Early, Middle, and Late Minoan.