DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9804#0113
LATE MINOAN II. AND THE MAINLAND 87
frescoes are taken bodily over.1 The conventional flower
design of another beautiful amphora, 2 feet high, found
close to it, supplies alink between Crete and the Mycenaean
mainland.8 Fragments of vases found in chamber tombs
at Mycenae,' and Vaphio,4 as ingeniously pieced together
by Mr. J. H. Marshall, show a similarity of shape and
design and colouring that points without a doubt to a
common origin. It is interesting to notice that Professor
Tsountas found the Vaphio fragments at the same time
and place as the famous Gold Bull Cups, but they lay
unpublished in the Athenian Museum till the Steatite
vases from Hagia Triada suggested to Mr. Marshall that
here too we might have an importation from Crete.
The chamber tomb at Mycenae, also excavated by
Professor Tsountas, suggests a point of contact of another
kind. It contained a sword-hilt and pommel of white
faience,5 which must belong to the same type of sword
as the fragment of a crystal hilt found in the Palace, and
the splendid ivory and agate pommels from some of the
earliest tombs in the Zafer Papoura cemetery." The
inference that these graves are contemporary with Late
Minoan II. is confirmed by a small onyx plaque found in
the Throne Room, representing in relief like that of a
cameo gem a short sword with horn-shaped guards like
those of the long sword in the chieftain"s grave.' Each
warrior seems to have had two of these swords, the one
a rapier, a good 3 feet long, the other a 2-feet short
sword, a kind of lengthened dagger that was used, like
the rapier, for thrusting and not for cutting. The short
1 P.T. fig. 144, p. 159.
2 Ibid. Plate CI. ; cp. fig. 143, p. 158.
3 J.H.S. xxiv. Plate XIII.
4 Ibid, xxiii. fig. 10, p. 192 ; see B.S.A. vii. p. 51.
5 Bosanquet in J.H.S. xxiv. pp. 322-4.
8 P.T. p. 110, and figs. 58, 59, 66, no, 112, pp. 56, 57, 62, 106,
no.
7 Ibid. p. 106. In B.S.A. vi. p. 41 Evans calls it "agate,"
but we presume that his later " onyx " is correct.
frescoes are taken bodily over.1 The conventional flower
design of another beautiful amphora, 2 feet high, found
close to it, supplies alink between Crete and the Mycenaean
mainland.8 Fragments of vases found in chamber tombs
at Mycenae,' and Vaphio,4 as ingeniously pieced together
by Mr. J. H. Marshall, show a similarity of shape and
design and colouring that points without a doubt to a
common origin. It is interesting to notice that Professor
Tsountas found the Vaphio fragments at the same time
and place as the famous Gold Bull Cups, but they lay
unpublished in the Athenian Museum till the Steatite
vases from Hagia Triada suggested to Mr. Marshall that
here too we might have an importation from Crete.
The chamber tomb at Mycenae, also excavated by
Professor Tsountas, suggests a point of contact of another
kind. It contained a sword-hilt and pommel of white
faience,5 which must belong to the same type of sword
as the fragment of a crystal hilt found in the Palace, and
the splendid ivory and agate pommels from some of the
earliest tombs in the Zafer Papoura cemetery." The
inference that these graves are contemporary with Late
Minoan II. is confirmed by a small onyx plaque found in
the Throne Room, representing in relief like that of a
cameo gem a short sword with horn-shaped guards like
those of the long sword in the chieftain"s grave.' Each
warrior seems to have had two of these swords, the one
a rapier, a good 3 feet long, the other a 2-feet short
sword, a kind of lengthened dagger that was used, like
the rapier, for thrusting and not for cutting. The short
1 P.T. fig. 144, p. 159.
2 Ibid. Plate CI. ; cp. fig. 143, p. 158.
3 J.H.S. xxiv. Plate XIII.
4 Ibid, xxiii. fig. 10, p. 192 ; see B.S.A. vii. p. 51.
5 Bosanquet in J.H.S. xxiv. pp. 322-4.
8 P.T. p. 110, and figs. 58, 59, 66, no, 112, pp. 56, 57, 62, 106,
no.
7 Ibid. p. 106. In B.S.A. vi. p. 41 Evans calls it "agate,"
but we presume that his later " onyx " is correct.