DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7525#0155
536
The Prehistoric Tombs of Knossos.
§ 2. Earlier Glass of Objects found in the Royal Tomb.
1. Bowl of deep green and black porphyry with white crystals. Diameter 38 centimetres,
height 13 centimetres. Fig. 124. The underside is seen on fig. 123, S.l (Plate XCVIIL).
On either side of the most prominent part of the exterior border are two small vertical
perforations, perhaps originally intended for purposes of suspension, which had been care-
fully filled up, apparently with similar porphyry. Only one small fragment of this bowl
(from the rim) is wanting.
The shape of this vase does not seem to answer to any Egyptian type. At the same time
it might easily be a derivative form descended from certain types of bowls of diorite and other
materials belonging to the Early Empire, examples of which occurred at El Kab. The
recurved rim and carinated contour is also characteristic of this Egyptian group. Moreover,
a similar dark green porphyry was also in use in Egypt as a material for vases during
the early dynastic period. Rough blocks of green porphyry answering to the material of
the present bowl were found in the Palace at Knossos j many of these worked into a later
wall in the Domestic Quarter. The porphyry itself seems to be the lajns Lacedfemonius,
and to have been imported into Minoan Crete for various purposes from the quarries of
Mount Taygetus. In Late-Minoan times it was a common material of gems. (See Fig. 124.)
2. One-handled Egyptian vase of coarse alabaster. Height 25'3 centimetres, diameter
14 centimetres. (Fig. 125, S.2, Plate XCIX.) The exterior of the handle shows perpen-
dicular and hoi'izontal grooves, and is prolonged in a grooved collar round the neck of
the vase. A part of the rim was wanting, and has been restored in plaster. This vase,
unquestionably an imported vessel, belongs to a very common Egyptian class. The present
specimen greatly resembles one from an early Eighteenth Dynasty tomb group at Abydos,u
now in the Ashmolean Museum. Another, of more expanded contour, but with the same
characteristic handle and collar, was found in a tomb of the Lower Town at Mycenae1'
which contained a fine painted amphora of the Knossian Palace style and two stone
lamps,0 also of Cretan fabric and material and exactly resembling those from the present
tomb to be described below. This common Egyptian type recalls, in its globular body
a A. C. Mace, El Amrah and Abydos, plate 1., Tomb D, 11. An interesting vase in the form of a
hedo-ehos' was found in the same grave.
b See Bosanquet, J. H. 8. xxiv. (1904), p. 325, where various similar vases are cited. Nothing
exactly answering to this very characteristic Egyptian type occurs among those illustrated in Von
Bissing's Catalogue of the Gizeh Stone Vases.
c Op. cit. plate xiv. a, b. These were of grey steatite.
The Prehistoric Tombs of Knossos.
§ 2. Earlier Glass of Objects found in the Royal Tomb.
1. Bowl of deep green and black porphyry with white crystals. Diameter 38 centimetres,
height 13 centimetres. Fig. 124. The underside is seen on fig. 123, S.l (Plate XCVIIL).
On either side of the most prominent part of the exterior border are two small vertical
perforations, perhaps originally intended for purposes of suspension, which had been care-
fully filled up, apparently with similar porphyry. Only one small fragment of this bowl
(from the rim) is wanting.
The shape of this vase does not seem to answer to any Egyptian type. At the same time
it might easily be a derivative form descended from certain types of bowls of diorite and other
materials belonging to the Early Empire, examples of which occurred at El Kab. The
recurved rim and carinated contour is also characteristic of this Egyptian group. Moreover,
a similar dark green porphyry was also in use in Egypt as a material for vases during
the early dynastic period. Rough blocks of green porphyry answering to the material of
the present bowl were found in the Palace at Knossos j many of these worked into a later
wall in the Domestic Quarter. The porphyry itself seems to be the lajns Lacedfemonius,
and to have been imported into Minoan Crete for various purposes from the quarries of
Mount Taygetus. In Late-Minoan times it was a common material of gems. (See Fig. 124.)
2. One-handled Egyptian vase of coarse alabaster. Height 25'3 centimetres, diameter
14 centimetres. (Fig. 125, S.2, Plate XCIX.) The exterior of the handle shows perpen-
dicular and hoi'izontal grooves, and is prolonged in a grooved collar round the neck of
the vase. A part of the rim was wanting, and has been restored in plaster. This vase,
unquestionably an imported vessel, belongs to a very common Egyptian class. The present
specimen greatly resembles one from an early Eighteenth Dynasty tomb group at Abydos,u
now in the Ashmolean Museum. Another, of more expanded contour, but with the same
characteristic handle and collar, was found in a tomb of the Lower Town at Mycenae1'
which contained a fine painted amphora of the Knossian Palace style and two stone
lamps,0 also of Cretan fabric and material and exactly resembling those from the present
tomb to be described below. This common Egyptian type recalls, in its globular body
a A. C. Mace, El Amrah and Abydos, plate 1., Tomb D, 11. An interesting vase in the form of a
hedo-ehos' was found in the same grave.
b See Bosanquet, J. H. 8. xxiv. (1904), p. 325, where various similar vases are cited. Nothing
exactly answering to this very characteristic Egyptian type occurs among those illustrated in Von
Bissing's Catalogue of the Gizeh Stone Vases.
c Op. cit. plate xiv. a, b. These were of grey steatite.