DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42779#0066
PREHISTORIC PERIODS
36
Summary.
A clear contrast has been observed in Cretan and Myce-
naean times between the treatment of hard and soft stones.
The hard stones are worked with abrasive rubbers for the
general surfaces and outlines, with sharp pointed stone
burins for detail, and here and there with the ordinary
boring drill, which drills holes vertically to the surface. The
Lion Gate and its associated group show the use of the
tubular drill used for cutting hollows and depressions. The
toothless saw or a sawing process was used for cutting pro-
jecting parts of stone masses.
All these tools except the tubular drill and possibly the
saw, could have been of stone, almost certainly of emery,
and the bronze saw in some cases had emery teeth in its
blade. Since emery has a hardness infinitely greater than
bronze or copper and was incomparably cheaper than either,
it seems superfluous to assume that metal was used and is,
in any case, contrary to the evidence. All these tools likewise
correspond to tools used by gem-cutters. The variously
shaped abrasive tools of emery are virtually the same as the
knobbed and round-pointed tools which the gem-cutter of
Minoan and Mycenaean times used, revolving at high speed,
for achieving his hollows and rounded concave surfaces.
The sculptor used similar tools slowly for producing convex
surfaces. The pointed splinter or burin of emery corresponds
to the burin used by the gem-cutter for incising detail free-
hand, in the same way as an engraver cuts the lines of a steel
or copper plate. The manes of lions on Minoan gems are
rendered in precisely the same way as is the jowl-fringe on
the limestone head of a lioness from Knossos. The simple
boring-drill is, of course, the most used in gem-cutting of all
the gem-cutter’s tools. The tubular or reed-drill, on the
other hand, is more rarely used on gems of the Minoan and
Mycenaean periods.
It is clear, then, that the sculptor’s art in Crete and
Mycenaean lands went hand in hand with the art of the gem-
36
Summary.
A clear contrast has been observed in Cretan and Myce-
naean times between the treatment of hard and soft stones.
The hard stones are worked with abrasive rubbers for the
general surfaces and outlines, with sharp pointed stone
burins for detail, and here and there with the ordinary
boring drill, which drills holes vertically to the surface. The
Lion Gate and its associated group show the use of the
tubular drill used for cutting hollows and depressions. The
toothless saw or a sawing process was used for cutting pro-
jecting parts of stone masses.
All these tools except the tubular drill and possibly the
saw, could have been of stone, almost certainly of emery,
and the bronze saw in some cases had emery teeth in its
blade. Since emery has a hardness infinitely greater than
bronze or copper and was incomparably cheaper than either,
it seems superfluous to assume that metal was used and is,
in any case, contrary to the evidence. All these tools likewise
correspond to tools used by gem-cutters. The variously
shaped abrasive tools of emery are virtually the same as the
knobbed and round-pointed tools which the gem-cutter of
Minoan and Mycenaean times used, revolving at high speed,
for achieving his hollows and rounded concave surfaces.
The sculptor used similar tools slowly for producing convex
surfaces. The pointed splinter or burin of emery corresponds
to the burin used by the gem-cutter for incising detail free-
hand, in the same way as an engraver cuts the lines of a steel
or copper plate. The manes of lions on Minoan gems are
rendered in precisely the same way as is the jowl-fringe on
the limestone head of a lioness from Knossos. The simple
boring-drill is, of course, the most used in gem-cutting of all
the gem-cutter’s tools. The tubular or reed-drill, on the
other hand, is more rarely used on gems of the Minoan and
Mycenaean periods.
It is clear, then, that the sculptor’s art in Crete and
Mycenaean lands went hand in hand with the art of the gem-