DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42779#0071
4o PREHISTORIC PERIODS
types which were employed by the stone-turners of Mochlos
and of the various sites in Crete where the output of stone
vessels was considerable. A typical example of a bowl of
hard stone which has been turned inside and out on a lathe
is seen in the grey and white marble bowl of the second
Middle Minoan period which is now preserved in the
Ashmolean Museum.1 The traces of the turning are visible
clearly on both surfaces, while the lugs and the lip have
clearly been made by independent abrasion, probably with
a stone tool.
Traces of a lapidaries’ quarter have been found at the
Harbour Town of Knossos,2 where part of a vase of Lapis
Lacedaemonius—the vivid green Spartan marble—and an
unfinished limestone rhyton were found. A similar lapidary’s
store was also found in the Late Minoan palace at Knossos.
In it were large quantities of Lapis Lacedaemonius, several
pieces of which showed signs of having been sawn.3
But the lapidary did not always use the lathe for turning
his bowls. In the Ashmolean Museum is a bowl of hard
diorite4 of the first Late Minoan period which has not been
turned at all but made simply by abrasion. It is very thin and
exhibits not the traces of turning, in the shape of concentric
striations horizontally round the sides, but rather the varied
and unsystematic scratches and lines which indicate a rubbed
surface. The rim of the bowl also is milled or notched, as
with a file.
The lapidary could in fact use whatever tool he liked,
though as a rule he preferred the lathe.
For convenience of classification I prefer to use the term
lapidary only of those craftsmen in stone who made small
ornaments and objects of use. The decorated steatite vases
of Crete were turned by a lapidary and their designs cut by
an artist or a sculptor. If the lapidary and the artist happened
to be the same man the distinction of functions still remains
1 No. vE 962 in the Museum. 2 Evans, Palace of Minos, II. i, p. 238.
3 Ibid, iii, p. 269. 4 No. 890 (from PalaikastroJ in the Museum.
types which were employed by the stone-turners of Mochlos
and of the various sites in Crete where the output of stone
vessels was considerable. A typical example of a bowl of
hard stone which has been turned inside and out on a lathe
is seen in the grey and white marble bowl of the second
Middle Minoan period which is now preserved in the
Ashmolean Museum.1 The traces of the turning are visible
clearly on both surfaces, while the lugs and the lip have
clearly been made by independent abrasion, probably with
a stone tool.
Traces of a lapidaries’ quarter have been found at the
Harbour Town of Knossos,2 where part of a vase of Lapis
Lacedaemonius—the vivid green Spartan marble—and an
unfinished limestone rhyton were found. A similar lapidary’s
store was also found in the Late Minoan palace at Knossos.
In it were large quantities of Lapis Lacedaemonius, several
pieces of which showed signs of having been sawn.3
But the lapidary did not always use the lathe for turning
his bowls. In the Ashmolean Museum is a bowl of hard
diorite4 of the first Late Minoan period which has not been
turned at all but made simply by abrasion. It is very thin and
exhibits not the traces of turning, in the shape of concentric
striations horizontally round the sides, but rather the varied
and unsystematic scratches and lines which indicate a rubbed
surface. The rim of the bowl also is milled or notched, as
with a file.
The lapidary could in fact use whatever tool he liked,
though as a rule he preferred the lathe.
For convenience of classification I prefer to use the term
lapidary only of those craftsmen in stone who made small
ornaments and objects of use. The decorated steatite vases
of Crete were turned by a lapidary and their designs cut by
an artist or a sculptor. If the lapidary and the artist happened
to be the same man the distinction of functions still remains
1 No. vE 962 in the Museum. 2 Evans, Palace of Minos, II. i, p. 238.
3 Ibid, iii, p. 269. 4 No. 890 (from PalaikastroJ in the Museum.