DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.805#0090
[350] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCEPIT ' 81
on the southern steeps of Mount Ida, immediately above a Mycenaean nekro-
polis, two of the bee-hive tombs of which I had occasion to visit and in which
Professor Haibherr has now excavated an intact Mycenaean tomb. The above
cave was excavated by Dr. Hazzidaki, the President of the Syllogos or
Literary Society at Candia, and the objects found are now exhibited in the
little Museum of that Society.30" My own observations of these have led me
to the conclusion that the ceramic class here represented, though of archaic
aspect, may slightly overlap the more purely Mycenaean pottery in the island.
A spray on one specimen resembles a design on a Mycenaean pot from the
prehistoric Palace at Knosos ; a fish on another recalls similar forms on the
painted hut-urns from Cretan tholos-tombs, and a barbaric head and arm finds
a close parallel in a painted fragment from tomb 25 of the lower town of
Mycenae. Nos. 1, 6, 7, and 14 and No. 13 of Professor Petrie's Plate of
Aegean pottery show, so far as their shape is concerned, a greater affinity
with this Cretan class than with any hitherto known ceramic group, and the
analogy certainly suggests an early Mycenaean date of some of the Kahun
sherds. Both the Kamares pots and those from Kahun find, on the whole,
their best comparisons with some early types from Tiryns (Schliemann,
PL xxiv. c. xxvid. and xxvii<i). It may be confidently stated that during
the Aegean period, which roughly corresponds with that of the Twelfth and
Thirteentb Dynasties, and for which the name ' Period of Amorgos' has
been here suggested—no such finish of ceramic fabric either in form, glaze
or colour as either the vases of Kamares or the fragments from Kahun had
yet been achieved. If then these vessels were imported into Egypt at that
early date they could not have come from the Aegean islands and still less
from the mainland of Greece or from Italy.
But while this, presumably the latest class of pottery found in the Kahun
rubbish-heaps, is for the most part of early Mycenaean date, there seems no
good reason for doubting Mr. Petrie's conclusion that the ruder pottery from
the same deposit exhibiting the incised characters of non-Egyptian forms may
go back in part at least to the days of the Twelfth Dynasty. Isolated
appearances will not mislead the archaeologist as to the general character of
the deposits with which he is dealing, and all their associations point to the
time of the Twelfth Dynasty as the chief period of their formation.37 At
Gurob again certain of the signs occurred under circumstances which seem
to involve the same early date, while others were found on sherds which
from their character and the position in which they lay belonged as clearly
36a A paper on the Kamares pottery was read by elude a later date than that of the Twelfth
Mr. J. L. Myres in the Anthropological Section Dynasty. Yet these signs belong to the same
of the British Association in 1893. It is to be class as the others, and occur on pottery of the
hoped that this important study may shortly same rude fabric which occurs, together with
see the light in a fuller form. I believe that some of the marks, in foundation deposits of
my own conclusions as to the date of the pot- Usertesen II., and which, in Mr. Petrie's
tery agree with those of Mr. Myres. opinion {Kahun, Gurob, and Hawara, pt 43),
37 The special circumstances UDder which ' cannot be mistaken for that of any subsequent
the signs numbered 141, 21, 125, 126 in Mr. age.'
Petrie's list were found, seem altogether to ex-
on the southern steeps of Mount Ida, immediately above a Mycenaean nekro-
polis, two of the bee-hive tombs of which I had occasion to visit and in which
Professor Haibherr has now excavated an intact Mycenaean tomb. The above
cave was excavated by Dr. Hazzidaki, the President of the Syllogos or
Literary Society at Candia, and the objects found are now exhibited in the
little Museum of that Society.30" My own observations of these have led me
to the conclusion that the ceramic class here represented, though of archaic
aspect, may slightly overlap the more purely Mycenaean pottery in the island.
A spray on one specimen resembles a design on a Mycenaean pot from the
prehistoric Palace at Knosos ; a fish on another recalls similar forms on the
painted hut-urns from Cretan tholos-tombs, and a barbaric head and arm finds
a close parallel in a painted fragment from tomb 25 of the lower town of
Mycenae. Nos. 1, 6, 7, and 14 and No. 13 of Professor Petrie's Plate of
Aegean pottery show, so far as their shape is concerned, a greater affinity
with this Cretan class than with any hitherto known ceramic group, and the
analogy certainly suggests an early Mycenaean date of some of the Kahun
sherds. Both the Kamares pots and those from Kahun find, on the whole,
their best comparisons with some early types from Tiryns (Schliemann,
PL xxiv. c. xxvid. and xxvii<i). It may be confidently stated that during
the Aegean period, which roughly corresponds with that of the Twelfth and
Thirteentb Dynasties, and for which the name ' Period of Amorgos' has
been here suggested—no such finish of ceramic fabric either in form, glaze
or colour as either the vases of Kamares or the fragments from Kahun had
yet been achieved. If then these vessels were imported into Egypt at that
early date they could not have come from the Aegean islands and still less
from the mainland of Greece or from Italy.
But while this, presumably the latest class of pottery found in the Kahun
rubbish-heaps, is for the most part of early Mycenaean date, there seems no
good reason for doubting Mr. Petrie's conclusion that the ruder pottery from
the same deposit exhibiting the incised characters of non-Egyptian forms may
go back in part at least to the days of the Twelfth Dynasty. Isolated
appearances will not mislead the archaeologist as to the general character of
the deposits with which he is dealing, and all their associations point to the
time of the Twelfth Dynasty as the chief period of their formation.37 At
Gurob again certain of the signs occurred under circumstances which seem
to involve the same early date, while others were found on sherds which
from their character and the position in which they lay belonged as clearly
36a A paper on the Kamares pottery was read by elude a later date than that of the Twelfth
Mr. J. L. Myres in the Anthropological Section Dynasty. Yet these signs belong to the same
of the British Association in 1893. It is to be class as the others, and occur on pottery of the
hoped that this important study may shortly same rude fabric which occurs, together with
see the light in a fuller form. I believe that some of the marks, in foundation deposits of
my own conclusions as to the date of the pot- Usertesen II., and which, in Mr. Petrie's
tery agree with those of Mr. Myres. opinion {Kahun, Gurob, and Hawara, pt 43),
37 The special circumstances UDder which ' cannot be mistaken for that of any subsequent
the signs numbered 141, 21, 125, 126 in Mr. age.'
Petrie's list were found, seem altogether to ex-