DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7525#0178
The Prehistoric Tombs of Knossos.
555
hearth, the bronze mirror, the crystal pommel, the clay sealings, and probably
some other relics may be referred to the same period, or roughly speaking to the
fifteenth or sixteenth century before our era.
But when we come to objects such as the more baggy class of alabaster
vessels of the types represented by Nos. 3 and 4, the centre of gravity of our
comparisons tends at once to move up to a higher chronological level. It is true
that certain offshoots of these types, as for instance Nos. 5 and 6 of the above
series, are still found in early Eighteenth Dynasty deposits. But the nearest
parallels to such alabastra as Nos. 3 and 4 occur in Egyptian tombs of the Twelfth
and even the Sixth Dynasty. They are, as all Egyptologists who have seen them
agree, characteristic Middle Empire forms, in other words, they belong rather to
the Third than to the Second Millennium before our era, and to a period con-
temporary with the Middle Minoan of Crete.
There is, moreover, a remarkable proof that about the close of the period in
question this particular type of baggy alabastron was well known in Crete. Miss
Boyd's excavations at Gournia have brought to light, among floor deposits
belonging to the immediately succeeding age (Late-Minoan I.), a series of painted
vases, not only reproducing the characteristic shape of these Egyptian alabastra,
but even imitating in the chevron patterns on their walls the waved bands of
the stone. But by the Second Late-Minoan Period, to which the painted vases
from the present tomb belong, these ceramic imitations have disappeared.
It has been further shown above that the hole-spouted vase of alabaster,
No. 12, has very early connexions. The form itself seems to be derived from
that of a class of Egyptian vessels of copper and alabaster characteristic of the
early Dynasties, and it had already taken root in Crete during the Early Minoan
period. It is specially common during the Middle Minoan Age, but by the con-
cluding epoch of the Later Palace it seems to have fallen into complete desuetude,
and no vessels of this shape in the Palace Style have come to light. On the other
hand, the only parallel in alabaster is a fragment of a similar vessel from an early
deposit found under the Later Palace floor in the neighbourhood of the Pillar
Rooms and belonging to the very beginning of the Middle Minoan Period.
The magnificent porphyry bowl (fig. 124) recalls in its material and to a
certain extent in its form the vessels in similar hard stones from royal and other
tombs of the early Dynasties. The fragment of a diorite bowl (No. 21) repro-
duces the characteristic rim and contour of Fourth Dynasty examples, and if, as
seems most probable, it formed part of an imported article from Egypt, it cannot
with any reasonable probability be brought down much below that early period.
555
hearth, the bronze mirror, the crystal pommel, the clay sealings, and probably
some other relics may be referred to the same period, or roughly speaking to the
fifteenth or sixteenth century before our era.
But when we come to objects such as the more baggy class of alabaster
vessels of the types represented by Nos. 3 and 4, the centre of gravity of our
comparisons tends at once to move up to a higher chronological level. It is true
that certain offshoots of these types, as for instance Nos. 5 and 6 of the above
series, are still found in early Eighteenth Dynasty deposits. But the nearest
parallels to such alabastra as Nos. 3 and 4 occur in Egyptian tombs of the Twelfth
and even the Sixth Dynasty. They are, as all Egyptologists who have seen them
agree, characteristic Middle Empire forms, in other words, they belong rather to
the Third than to the Second Millennium before our era, and to a period con-
temporary with the Middle Minoan of Crete.
There is, moreover, a remarkable proof that about the close of the period in
question this particular type of baggy alabastron was well known in Crete. Miss
Boyd's excavations at Gournia have brought to light, among floor deposits
belonging to the immediately succeeding age (Late-Minoan I.), a series of painted
vases, not only reproducing the characteristic shape of these Egyptian alabastra,
but even imitating in the chevron patterns on their walls the waved bands of
the stone. But by the Second Late-Minoan Period, to which the painted vases
from the present tomb belong, these ceramic imitations have disappeared.
It has been further shown above that the hole-spouted vase of alabaster,
No. 12, has very early connexions. The form itself seems to be derived from
that of a class of Egyptian vessels of copper and alabaster characteristic of the
early Dynasties, and it had already taken root in Crete during the Early Minoan
period. It is specially common during the Middle Minoan Age, but by the con-
cluding epoch of the Later Palace it seems to have fallen into complete desuetude,
and no vessels of this shape in the Palace Style have come to light. On the other
hand, the only parallel in alabaster is a fragment of a similar vessel from an early
deposit found under the Later Palace floor in the neighbourhood of the Pillar
Rooms and belonging to the very beginning of the Middle Minoan Period.
The magnificent porphyry bowl (fig. 124) recalls in its material and to a
certain extent in its form the vessels in similar hard stones from royal and other
tombs of the early Dynasties. The fragment of a diorite bowl (No. 21) repro-
duces the characteristic rim and contour of Fourth Dynasty examples, and if, as
seems most probable, it formed part of an imported article from Egypt, it cannot
with any reasonable probability be brought down much below that early period.