DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.805#0066
[326] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT 5?
logical guide. The Thera vases may be justly regarded as the earliest
examples of the Mycenaean class, which already by the middle of the second
millennium B.C. had attained its apogee. On archaeological grounds there-
fore it would certainly be unsafe to bring down the earliest of the painted
vases found beneath the volcanic strata at Santorin and Therasia later than
the eighteenth century before our era. On the other hand, the first pre-
historic city of Troy must be carried back to a far more remote period.
The recent excavations of Dr. Dorpfeld have now made' it abundantly
clear that the Sixth City on the site of Hissarlik belongs to the great age
of Mycenae, or roughly-speaking 1500 B.C.27 But between this and the
once miscalled ' Homeric' City of the second stratum, an interval, estimated
by Dr. Dorpfeld in round numbers at 500 years, must be allowed for the
intervening settlements, and beyond this again lies the whole duration
of the Second City, the beginnings of which go back at a moderate
estimate to 2500 B.C. The earliest and most primitive stratum is thus in
Dr. Dorpfeld's opinion carried back to the close of the fourth millennium
before our era.
But the Phaestos deposit contains direct chronological indications of
a kind hitherto unique amidst primitive Aegean finds. Amongst the relics
found there occurred in fact a series of Egyptian scarabs belonging to the
Twelfth Dynasty and the immediately succeeding period. And happily in
this case we have to deal not with cartouches containing names which
might possibly have been revived at later periods of Egyptian history, but
with a peculiar class of ornament and material that form the distinguishing
characteristics of the Egyptian scarabs of Twelfth Dynasty date, and which,
though partly maintained during the succeeding Dynasty, give way in later
work to other decorative fashions. The amethyst scarabs with a plain
face—intended to be covered with a gold plate,—characteristic of this
period of Egyptian art, are represented among the Phaestos relics by
an example, on which—probably by an indigenous hand,—three circles
have subsequently been engraved. A more important specimen however
is a steatite scarab engraved below, with a spiral ornament peculiar to this
period, to which also in all probability belongs a white steatite bead with
a vegetable motive and a scarab with a hieroglyphic inscription. Nor must
this occurrence of Twelfth Dynasty scarabs be considered at all exceptional
in Crete. Erom the Messara district I acquired another of the same class,
with a returning spiral ornament of a typical kind; while another scarab
found in the same region, with an S-shaped scroll and a cowry-like back,
apparently represents an indigenous imitation of a form that came into
vogue during the Hyksos period,
28
27 For the chronology arrived at by Dr. Dorp- istio form with, cartouches representing blun-
feld, see especially Troja: 1893, pp. 61 and dered copies of the name of Ba-sehoteb-ab of
86, 87. the Thirteenth Dynasty, who reigned about
28 This is Professor Petrie's opinion. In his 2510 e o. It is natural to refer these blundered
History of Egypt (vol. I. p. 208, Fig. 116) are imitations of this cartouche to the succeeding
engraved two ' cowxoids' of the same character- Hyksos Period and with them this ' cowroid'
logical guide. The Thera vases may be justly regarded as the earliest
examples of the Mycenaean class, which already by the middle of the second
millennium B.C. had attained its apogee. On archaeological grounds there-
fore it would certainly be unsafe to bring down the earliest of the painted
vases found beneath the volcanic strata at Santorin and Therasia later than
the eighteenth century before our era. On the other hand, the first pre-
historic city of Troy must be carried back to a far more remote period.
The recent excavations of Dr. Dorpfeld have now made' it abundantly
clear that the Sixth City on the site of Hissarlik belongs to the great age
of Mycenae, or roughly-speaking 1500 B.C.27 But between this and the
once miscalled ' Homeric' City of the second stratum, an interval, estimated
by Dr. Dorpfeld in round numbers at 500 years, must be allowed for the
intervening settlements, and beyond this again lies the whole duration
of the Second City, the beginnings of which go back at a moderate
estimate to 2500 B.C. The earliest and most primitive stratum is thus in
Dr. Dorpfeld's opinion carried back to the close of the fourth millennium
before our era.
But the Phaestos deposit contains direct chronological indications of
a kind hitherto unique amidst primitive Aegean finds. Amongst the relics
found there occurred in fact a series of Egyptian scarabs belonging to the
Twelfth Dynasty and the immediately succeeding period. And happily in
this case we have to deal not with cartouches containing names which
might possibly have been revived at later periods of Egyptian history, but
with a peculiar class of ornament and material that form the distinguishing
characteristics of the Egyptian scarabs of Twelfth Dynasty date, and which,
though partly maintained during the succeeding Dynasty, give way in later
work to other decorative fashions. The amethyst scarabs with a plain
face—intended to be covered with a gold plate,—characteristic of this
period of Egyptian art, are represented among the Phaestos relics by
an example, on which—probably by an indigenous hand,—three circles
have subsequently been engraved. A more important specimen however
is a steatite scarab engraved below, with a spiral ornament peculiar to this
period, to which also in all probability belongs a white steatite bead with
a vegetable motive and a scarab with a hieroglyphic inscription. Nor must
this occurrence of Twelfth Dynasty scarabs be considered at all exceptional
in Crete. Erom the Messara district I acquired another of the same class,
with a returning spiral ornament of a typical kind; while another scarab
found in the same region, with an S-shaped scroll and a cowry-like back,
apparently represents an indigenous imitation of a form that came into
vogue during the Hyksos period,
28
27 For the chronology arrived at by Dr. Dorp- istio form with, cartouches representing blun-
feld, see especially Troja: 1893, pp. 61 and dered copies of the name of Ba-sehoteb-ab of
86, 87. the Thirteenth Dynasty, who reigned about
28 This is Professor Petrie's opinion. In his 2510 e o. It is natural to refer these blundered
History of Egypt (vol. I. p. 208, Fig. 116) are imitations of this cartouche to the succeeding
engraved two ' cowxoids' of the same character- Hyksos Period and with them this ' cowroid'