DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.805#0065
56 FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [325]
One or two of these earlier types (Figs. 21, 36) have been inserted in the series
of hieroglyphic seal-stones already given, as presenting symbols of essentially
the same class though at times in a more primitive form and associated with
more purely ideographic figures. It would not have been difficult, as will
be seen from the contents of the present section, to have added others, and
in truth no real lines of demarcation can be laid down between the earlier
and the later group. These primitive types show a close correspondence
in their designs with certain other classes of early engraved stones found in
the island. Amongst these may be mentioned flat disks perforated along
their axes and engraved on both faces, button-like stones, and others of
truncated pyramidal and sub-conical forms, bored horizontally near the apex.
For the dating of this early group most valuable evidence is supplied
by the deposit, already referred to, found at Hagios Onuphrios, near the site
of Phaestos, and now preserved in the little Museum of the Syllogos or
Literary Society of Candia (Heraklio). This deposit, which contains nothing
that can safely be brought down to Mycenaean times proper, is of a homo-
geneous character, and seems to me to be of capital importance in the history
of early Aegean art. Although exact details of the excavation are wanting,26
it is certain that it represents the remains of early sepulture, dating from
the same period as the primitive cemeteries of Amorgos and presenting a
series of objects in many respects strikingly similar to those from the
Amorgan cists.26* Here are the same rude marble idols and vessels, high-
spouted clay vases and rude pots with perforated covers, as well as the first
beginnings of painted ware, with red, white, and violet stripes on the plain
surface of the clay. Here is the square-ended triangular-bladed dagger of
the Amorgan graves, the fluted jewelry, but of gold instead of silver; here
are the same steatite pendants and spirally ornamented seals. In a word the
Phaestos deposit covers precisely the same period as the earlier elements of
the Amorgos cemeteries—a period which may be roughly defined as
intermediate between the first prehistoric stratum of Troy and the early
remains of Thera.26b As a matter of fact a two-handled jar with red and white
streaks on the blackish-brown ground which must be regarded as one of the
latest objects in the Phaestos group approaches in technique some of the
earliest ceramic specimens from Thera.
These considerations would alone be sufficient to afford a rough chrono-
26 Professor Halbherr has obligingly collected bones and skulls, but no regular tomb was noted,
for me on the spot the following particulars of The whole deposit occupied a space of about
the find, that are all that are now obtainable. four square metres.
The hill of H. Onuphrios where the objects 25a For the early cist-graves of Amorgos see
were found rises opposite the double Akropolis especially F. Diimmler, Hittheilimgen von den
of Phaestos about a quarter of a mile to the GriechiscJien Inseln (Ath. Mittli. 1886, p. 15
North of the ancient city. The find>spot itself seqq. and 209 seqq.). The contents of some of
was on the southern slope of the hill just above the Amorgan tombs, obtained by me in 1893, are
the Khans on the Dibaki road and near the now in the Ashmolean Museum,
aqueduct of a mill. The deposit was acciden- 26b For the Hagios Onuphrios deposit see
tally discovered in 1887 at a small distance p. 104 seqq,
beneath the surface. The objects lay in a heap of
One or two of these earlier types (Figs. 21, 36) have been inserted in the series
of hieroglyphic seal-stones already given, as presenting symbols of essentially
the same class though at times in a more primitive form and associated with
more purely ideographic figures. It would not have been difficult, as will
be seen from the contents of the present section, to have added others, and
in truth no real lines of demarcation can be laid down between the earlier
and the later group. These primitive types show a close correspondence
in their designs with certain other classes of early engraved stones found in
the island. Amongst these may be mentioned flat disks perforated along
their axes and engraved on both faces, button-like stones, and others of
truncated pyramidal and sub-conical forms, bored horizontally near the apex.
For the dating of this early group most valuable evidence is supplied
by the deposit, already referred to, found at Hagios Onuphrios, near the site
of Phaestos, and now preserved in the little Museum of the Syllogos or
Literary Society of Candia (Heraklio). This deposit, which contains nothing
that can safely be brought down to Mycenaean times proper, is of a homo-
geneous character, and seems to me to be of capital importance in the history
of early Aegean art. Although exact details of the excavation are wanting,26
it is certain that it represents the remains of early sepulture, dating from
the same period as the primitive cemeteries of Amorgos and presenting a
series of objects in many respects strikingly similar to those from the
Amorgan cists.26* Here are the same rude marble idols and vessels, high-
spouted clay vases and rude pots with perforated covers, as well as the first
beginnings of painted ware, with red, white, and violet stripes on the plain
surface of the clay. Here is the square-ended triangular-bladed dagger of
the Amorgan graves, the fluted jewelry, but of gold instead of silver; here
are the same steatite pendants and spirally ornamented seals. In a word the
Phaestos deposit covers precisely the same period as the earlier elements of
the Amorgos cemeteries—a period which may be roughly defined as
intermediate between the first prehistoric stratum of Troy and the early
remains of Thera.26b As a matter of fact a two-handled jar with red and white
streaks on the blackish-brown ground which must be regarded as one of the
latest objects in the Phaestos group approaches in technique some of the
earliest ceramic specimens from Thera.
These considerations would alone be sufficient to afford a rough chrono-
26 Professor Halbherr has obligingly collected bones and skulls, but no regular tomb was noted,
for me on the spot the following particulars of The whole deposit occupied a space of about
the find, that are all that are now obtainable. four square metres.
The hill of H. Onuphrios where the objects 25a For the early cist-graves of Amorgos see
were found rises opposite the double Akropolis especially F. Diimmler, Hittheilimgen von den
of Phaestos about a quarter of a mile to the GriechiscJien Inseln (Ath. Mittli. 1886, p. 15
North of the ancient city. The find>spot itself seqq. and 209 seqq.). The contents of some of
was on the southern slope of the hill just above the Amorgan tombs, obtained by me in 1893, are
the Khans on the Dibaki road and near the now in the Ashmolean Museum,
aqueduct of a mill. The deposit was acciden- 26b For the Hagios Onuphrios deposit see
tally discovered in 1887 at a small distance p. 104 seqq,
beneath the surface. The objects lay in a heap of