DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.805#0125
PRIMITIVE CRETAN AND AEGEAN CULTURE.
116
with terracotta-coloured stripes. In form and colouring it shows some
affinity to the later class of vases in the Amorgos cemeteries. Fig. 107 is a
kind of pyxis with white bands on a terracotta ground. Originally, no
doubt, it was provided with a cover.
The jar represented in Fig. 108 shows still greater advance in the art of
colouring pottery ; it bears red and white stripes on a greyish black ground,
and its tints agree with those of some of the vessels found in the Kamares
cave, on the Southern side of Mt. Ida.10 Indeed, the Kamares pottery must
be brought into very direct relation Avith Phaestos, within whose territory it
probably lay. On the other hand, the style of colouring shows a distinct
approach to that of the earliest vases from Thera and Therasia. The design
on this jar, and to a certain degree its shape, seems to me to stand in a
direct relation to a very beautiful type of stone vase (Fig. 123) which was
in vogue in prehistoric Crete.
Fig. 109.—Phaestos ; Limestone (Natural Size).
Stone vases play a very important part in the early remains of Crete, as
also in the contemporary deposits of Naxos, Amorgos, and other early Aegean
sites. A small limestone vase from the Hagios Onuphrios deposit is given in
Fig. 109, together with its lid of the same material. Except that its cover
is not provided with a knob at top, this vase bears a close resemblance to one
(Fig. 119) obtained by me from a prehistoric cemetery at Arvi, the ancient
Arbi, on the South-Eastern coast of the island. The variegated limestone
vase, Fig. 110, now in the Ashmolean Museum, was found, like Fig. 109,
near Phaestos, and probably belongs to the same early necropolis.
These stone vases form such a characteristic feature in early Cretan
deposits, and seem to afford in certain cases such a definite chronological clue,
that a fuller account of those that I was able to meet with in the course of
my recent explorations may not be amiss. They differ from the stone vessels
10 See above, pp. 79 (348), 81 (350) and note,
116
with terracotta-coloured stripes. In form and colouring it shows some
affinity to the later class of vases in the Amorgos cemeteries. Fig. 107 is a
kind of pyxis with white bands on a terracotta ground. Originally, no
doubt, it was provided with a cover.
The jar represented in Fig. 108 shows still greater advance in the art of
colouring pottery ; it bears red and white stripes on a greyish black ground,
and its tints agree with those of some of the vessels found in the Kamares
cave, on the Southern side of Mt. Ida.10 Indeed, the Kamares pottery must
be brought into very direct relation Avith Phaestos, within whose territory it
probably lay. On the other hand, the style of colouring shows a distinct
approach to that of the earliest vases from Thera and Therasia. The design
on this jar, and to a certain degree its shape, seems to me to stand in a
direct relation to a very beautiful type of stone vase (Fig. 123) which was
in vogue in prehistoric Crete.
Fig. 109.—Phaestos ; Limestone (Natural Size).
Stone vases play a very important part in the early remains of Crete, as
also in the contemporary deposits of Naxos, Amorgos, and other early Aegean
sites. A small limestone vase from the Hagios Onuphrios deposit is given in
Fig. 109, together with its lid of the same material. Except that its cover
is not provided with a knob at top, this vase bears a close resemblance to one
(Fig. 119) obtained by me from a prehistoric cemetery at Arvi, the ancient
Arbi, on the South-Eastern coast of the island. The variegated limestone
vase, Fig. 110, now in the Ashmolean Museum, was found, like Fig. 109,
near Phaestos, and probably belongs to the same early necropolis.
These stone vases form such a characteristic feature in early Cretan
deposits, and seem to afford in certain cases such a definite chronological clue,
that a fuller account of those that I was able to meet with in the course of
my recent explorations may not be amiss. They differ from the stone vessels
10 See above, pp. 79 (348), 81 (350) and note,