DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0045
20
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
with Anatolia, which was in fact an inheritance from late geological times
when Crete formed its South-Western foreland. The actual land bridge, it
is true, had long been broken through, though the island stepping stones
remained, Rhodes bulking large among them. But across the open Aegean
basin that lies north of Crete, and over which the Etesian winds blow
steadily throughout the summer days, direct intercourse had early begun
with the Cyclades and still further lying coasts and islands. From a remote
Neolithic Period the obsidian from Melos had found its way across this basin.
Intimate relations between Crete and the Cyclades are a well-
marked feature of the Early Minoan Age. At the time of its most
characteristic development we see Crete, the Aegean islands, and, North-
Eastwards still, the First Settlement of Troy interfused with similar
elements. The early silver trade from the Troadic side, about which more
will be said, seems to have played a leading part in this diffusion. But of
actual work in precious metals the most brilliant manifestation is to be
found on Cretan soil. How poor is the jewellery of Hissarlik or the
Cycladic graves compared with the exquisite fabrics of Mochlos ! Per contra,
towards the close of the Early Minoan Age, a current of influence makes
itself perceptible from the Central Aegean, bearing with it more primitive
ingredients. Typical marble idols of Cycladic fabric and material appear in
Cretan deposits, and the clay ' pyxides' or round-lidded boxes, derived from
the same quarter, present a form of ceramic decoration, consisting of incised
and punctuated patterns with chalky inlay, which in Crete is but sparsely found
beyond the close of the Middle Neolithic. The spiral system, with widely
ramifying Northern connexions, now enters Crete from the same direction.
On the other hand, the abundance of Middle Minoan polychrome sherds
at Phylakopi shows an ever-increasing preponderance of Cretan influence,
which by the close of the Middle Minoan Age completely dominates Melian
culture. Symptoms of this are the use of the advanced Linear script, A,1 and
the employment of Knossian artists to paint the panels of the Palace walls.-
Indirectly, at least, a connexion may be said to have subsisted between
Crete and mainland Greece from the Early Neolithic Age onwards. The
same primitive commerce in obsidian, that linked it with Melos and the Cen-
tral Aegean, had wide ramifications that extended not only to the Greek
mainland but to Italy and what was then the ' Far West' beyond. Certain
correspondences in types that occur in the Neolithic products both of Crete
and the Aegean area-—such, for instance, as the steatopygous images—may
have been due to a common heritage of great antiquity and indeed reappear
1 See below, p. 561. 2 See below, p. 542.
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
with Anatolia, which was in fact an inheritance from late geological times
when Crete formed its South-Western foreland. The actual land bridge, it
is true, had long been broken through, though the island stepping stones
remained, Rhodes bulking large among them. But across the open Aegean
basin that lies north of Crete, and over which the Etesian winds blow
steadily throughout the summer days, direct intercourse had early begun
with the Cyclades and still further lying coasts and islands. From a remote
Neolithic Period the obsidian from Melos had found its way across this basin.
Intimate relations between Crete and the Cyclades are a well-
marked feature of the Early Minoan Age. At the time of its most
characteristic development we see Crete, the Aegean islands, and, North-
Eastwards still, the First Settlement of Troy interfused with similar
elements. The early silver trade from the Troadic side, about which more
will be said, seems to have played a leading part in this diffusion. But of
actual work in precious metals the most brilliant manifestation is to be
found on Cretan soil. How poor is the jewellery of Hissarlik or the
Cycladic graves compared with the exquisite fabrics of Mochlos ! Per contra,
towards the close of the Early Minoan Age, a current of influence makes
itself perceptible from the Central Aegean, bearing with it more primitive
ingredients. Typical marble idols of Cycladic fabric and material appear in
Cretan deposits, and the clay ' pyxides' or round-lidded boxes, derived from
the same quarter, present a form of ceramic decoration, consisting of incised
and punctuated patterns with chalky inlay, which in Crete is but sparsely found
beyond the close of the Middle Neolithic. The spiral system, with widely
ramifying Northern connexions, now enters Crete from the same direction.
On the other hand, the abundance of Middle Minoan polychrome sherds
at Phylakopi shows an ever-increasing preponderance of Cretan influence,
which by the close of the Middle Minoan Age completely dominates Melian
culture. Symptoms of this are the use of the advanced Linear script, A,1 and
the employment of Knossian artists to paint the panels of the Palace walls.-
Indirectly, at least, a connexion may be said to have subsisted between
Crete and mainland Greece from the Early Neolithic Age onwards. The
same primitive commerce in obsidian, that linked it with Melos and the Cen-
tral Aegean, had wide ramifications that extended not only to the Greek
mainland but to Italy and what was then the ' Far West' beyond. Certain
correspondences in types that occur in the Neolithic products both of Crete
and the Aegean area-—such, for instance, as the steatopygous images—may
have been due to a common heritage of great antiquity and indeed reappear
1 See below, p. 561. 2 See below, p. 542.