DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0010
X
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
has been already dealt with in the first volume of my Scripta Minoa,1 and
the materials for the full publication of the clay documents of the two linear
scripts A and B are already in an advanced stage of preparation. The special
employment of Class A for religious purposes in the closing phase of the
Middle Minoan Age is illustrated below, and some of the most important
documents in the developed linear script B, from the Archives of the Later
Palace, together with a summary account of its inner economy as illustrated
by them, will be given in the concluding part of this work.
I have also felt that the view here presented of the Minoan Age,
though based throughout all its earlier outlines on the Cretan discoveries,
could not be adequately drawn out without some attempt to set forth
its relation to the Mycenaean culture of Mainland Greece, of which, in fact,
it supplies in an overwhelming degree the antecedent stages. Among the
earlier contents, at least, of the Shaft Graves the finest objects are seen to
be actually of Cretan importation and, in the absence of intact royal tombs,
at Knossos, those of Mycenae are practically the sole repertory for the
Minoan goldsmiths' work of that epoch. The results will surprise
many. Few probably have yet realized how absolute is the dependence
which these comparisons substantiate. In this work of comparison I am
specially grateful for the helpful information supplied me by Dr. G. Karo,
Director of the German Institute at Athens, who has made the subject of the
Mycenaean relics a special subject of research, and whose friendly offices
even the outbreak of the Great War did not interrupt. I am further
indebted to his colleagues, Dr. Kurt Milller and Dr. Gerhart Rodenwaldt,
and to the kind facilities accorded by Dr. V. Stais, Director of the Athens
Museum. To Mr. A. f. B. Wace, the Director of the British School, I am also
greatly obliged for much help at Athens as well as for the early communication
of the results derived from his supplementary investigations at Mycenae.
The opportunity here offered has also been seized to bring into relief
many new points of view, and to throw out suggestions regarding the
genesis and evolution of various types. The Egyptian relations of pre-
historic Crete have been particularly emphasized, and much fresh evidence
has been brought forward as to the relations of Minoan civilization with that
of the Nile Valley, with other parts of the Aegean world, and even with the
further shores of the Ionian Sea and the Western Mediterranean basin.2
1 Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1909.
2 For more general views of the results of excavation in Crete and of the comparative
place that they occupy, I need hardly refer to the luminous survey of the late Professor
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
has been already dealt with in the first volume of my Scripta Minoa,1 and
the materials for the full publication of the clay documents of the two linear
scripts A and B are already in an advanced stage of preparation. The special
employment of Class A for religious purposes in the closing phase of the
Middle Minoan Age is illustrated below, and some of the most important
documents in the developed linear script B, from the Archives of the Later
Palace, together with a summary account of its inner economy as illustrated
by them, will be given in the concluding part of this work.
I have also felt that the view here presented of the Minoan Age,
though based throughout all its earlier outlines on the Cretan discoveries,
could not be adequately drawn out without some attempt to set forth
its relation to the Mycenaean culture of Mainland Greece, of which, in fact,
it supplies in an overwhelming degree the antecedent stages. Among the
earlier contents, at least, of the Shaft Graves the finest objects are seen to
be actually of Cretan importation and, in the absence of intact royal tombs,
at Knossos, those of Mycenae are practically the sole repertory for the
Minoan goldsmiths' work of that epoch. The results will surprise
many. Few probably have yet realized how absolute is the dependence
which these comparisons substantiate. In this work of comparison I am
specially grateful for the helpful information supplied me by Dr. G. Karo,
Director of the German Institute at Athens, who has made the subject of the
Mycenaean relics a special subject of research, and whose friendly offices
even the outbreak of the Great War did not interrupt. I am further
indebted to his colleagues, Dr. Kurt Milller and Dr. Gerhart Rodenwaldt,
and to the kind facilities accorded by Dr. V. Stais, Director of the Athens
Museum. To Mr. A. f. B. Wace, the Director of the British School, I am also
greatly obliged for much help at Athens as well as for the early communication
of the results derived from his supplementary investigations at Mycenae.
The opportunity here offered has also been seized to bring into relief
many new points of view, and to throw out suggestions regarding the
genesis and evolution of various types. The Egyptian relations of pre-
historic Crete have been particularly emphasized, and much fresh evidence
has been brought forward as to the relations of Minoan civilization with that
of the Nile Valley, with other parts of the Aegean world, and even with the
further shores of the Ionian Sea and the Western Mediterranean basin.2
1 Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1909.
2 For more general views of the results of excavation in Crete and of the comparative
place that they occupy, I need hardly refer to the luminous survey of the late Professor