DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9804#0216
igo NEOLITHIC POTTERY OF SOUTH RUSSIA
Even if we do not necessarily interpret the absence of
the spiral as proof of a more primitive civilisation,1 we
must agree that the designs of the pottery are in every
respect of a ruder type. In Crete, as we have seen,2
the invention of painting on the flat does not come in
till Early Minoanl. The absence of metal must, on this
hypothesis, have kept Central Europe in the Neolithic Age
centuries and centuries after the ZEgean had developed
the free use of bronze. There is nothing improbable in
this supposition.3 The real difficulty in Dr. Wosinsky's
view is that, except for the spiral and the pottery marks
that we find in Transylvania,' the North would seem
to have obtained nothing from the South that was
material or portable, but only that most impalpable
of things, the artistic spirit. In all its mass of pottery,
there is apparently no fragment that is an import from
the iEgean.5 If we can grant that the spiral, once seen,
would be reproduced, even when unaccompanied by many
specimens of the vases that it decorated, it is strange
that knowledge of the potter's wheel did not follow in
its train, when the trade route was once opened. The
absence of copper and bronze would have to be accounted
for on the ground that metal was still so valuable in the
iEgean that it could not be spared for export.
Though the difficulties that this view involve are
considerable, they are less than those of the rival theory,
supported by Dr. Schmidt and Professor von Stern.0
1 See above, p. 52 ; below, p. 196. 2 See p. 47.
3 See Hoernes, op. cit. p. 12, note t. 4 See pp. 149, 196.
5 The native character of the pottery is also shown by the
discovery at Petrcny of lumps of red ochre which was used as
colouring matter. Von Stei n, p. 87, n. 2. Cp. J. L. Myres on the
pSkros or " red earth " of Cappadocia in J.A.I, xxxiii. 1903, p. 394.
6 And also by Dr. M. Much, H.I.G. 1904. Von Stern places
the exact point of origin, the centre of the true Indo-Europeans,
in South Russia, Schmidt in Hungary and Austria, and Much in
Germany. We have no right to smile until we have found
Neolithic spirals in Wales—and resisted the temptation!
Even if we do not necessarily interpret the absence of
the spiral as proof of a more primitive civilisation,1 we
must agree that the designs of the pottery are in every
respect of a ruder type. In Crete, as we have seen,2
the invention of painting on the flat does not come in
till Early Minoanl. The absence of metal must, on this
hypothesis, have kept Central Europe in the Neolithic Age
centuries and centuries after the ZEgean had developed
the free use of bronze. There is nothing improbable in
this supposition.3 The real difficulty in Dr. Wosinsky's
view is that, except for the spiral and the pottery marks
that we find in Transylvania,' the North would seem
to have obtained nothing from the South that was
material or portable, but only that most impalpable
of things, the artistic spirit. In all its mass of pottery,
there is apparently no fragment that is an import from
the iEgean.5 If we can grant that the spiral, once seen,
would be reproduced, even when unaccompanied by many
specimens of the vases that it decorated, it is strange
that knowledge of the potter's wheel did not follow in
its train, when the trade route was once opened. The
absence of copper and bronze would have to be accounted
for on the ground that metal was still so valuable in the
iEgean that it could not be spared for export.
Though the difficulties that this view involve are
considerable, they are less than those of the rival theory,
supported by Dr. Schmidt and Professor von Stern.0
1 See above, p. 52 ; below, p. 196. 2 See p. 47.
3 See Hoernes, op. cit. p. 12, note t. 4 See pp. 149, 196.
5 The native character of the pottery is also shown by the
discovery at Petrcny of lumps of red ochre which was used as
colouring matter. Von Stei n, p. 87, n. 2. Cp. J. L. Myres on the
pSkros or " red earth " of Cappadocia in J.A.I, xxxiii. 1903, p. 394.
6 And also by Dr. M. Much, H.I.G. 1904. Von Stern places
the exact point of origin, the centre of the true Indo-Europeans,
in South Russia, Schmidt in Hungary and Austria, and Much in
Germany. We have no right to smile until we have found
Neolithic spirals in Wales—and resisted the temptation!