DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0046
THE MINOAN AGE
on the Egyptian as well as the Anatolian side. But the spread of similar
products along continuous lines west of the Ionian, and even of the Tyrrhene
Sea is not an accidental phenomenon, being everywhere coincident with the Aegean
course of the old obsidian routes. Pottery that ' belongs to the same context Inter"
i t . course
as the Neolithic ware of Crete has been found in South Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, with Italy,
the intermediate island of Pianosa, and the Ligurian Caves.1 So, too, the
only Italian sites on which Neolithic clay images have been found lie on this
line, in Sicily and Liguria.-
In the Second and Third Early Minoan Periods and the early part of
the Middle Minoan Age, when Cretan civilization already occupied a com-
Fig. 3. Bone Object from Sikel Cemetery of Castelluccio, near Syracuse c).
manding position in the Central Aegean basin, the evidence of this Western
intercourse becomes even more conclusive, and it is a fair conclusion that
the Troadic silver trade may have found an extension, partly perhaps through
Minoan agency, to the Tyrrhene shores. Among the E. M. Ill relics of the
Tholos ossuary of Kumasa in Central Crete were found silver and copper
daggers of elongated triangular shape with a strong mid-rib 3 which present
a close conformity with daggers 4 of the Chalcolithic period in Italy and Sicily.
It is in M. M. I that the most striking proof of actual import from the Aegean Early
side is afforded by some tubular bone objects, probably handles, with globules Relations
in relief and incised ornamentation, found in tombs and cave-dwelling's of the wltJl.I1:.,ly
' ° andSicily.
First Sikel Period 6 and identical in character with examples from the third
1 See T. E. Peet, The Stone and Bronze
Ages in Italy and Sicily, p. 135 seqq., and
pp. 284, 285.
2 In The Sepulchral Deposit of Hagios Onu-
phrios near Phaestos in its relation to primitive
Cretan and Aegean Culture (Appended to
Cretan Pictographs, &c3 Quaritch, 1893)
I had already called attention to the parallelism
presented by the clay figures of the Finalese
Caves (Liguria) and of Villafrati, near
Palermo, to Aegean forms ; and cf. my Pre-
historic interments of the Balzi Rossi Caves and
their relation to the Neolithic Cave-burials of the
Finalese (Authr. Inst. Journ., i 893, pp. 303-5).
''' A. Mosso, Escursioni ?iel Mediterraneo,
p. 216, Fig. 120 ; and le armi piu antiche di
ra?ne e di brouzo, pp. 490, 491, Fig. 8. (Excava-
tions of Dr. Xanthudides.) See below, p. 100.
4 Peet, op. cit., p. 258, Fig. 136, and p. 260,
Fig. 142, and cf. pp. 282, 283.
5 Orsi, Bull. Paletn., 1892, pp. 7, 8; Au-
sonia i (1907), pp. 5, 6 ; Grotta Lazzaro.
on the Egyptian as well as the Anatolian side. But the spread of similar
products along continuous lines west of the Ionian, and even of the Tyrrhene
Sea is not an accidental phenomenon, being everywhere coincident with the Aegean
course of the old obsidian routes. Pottery that ' belongs to the same context Inter"
i t . course
as the Neolithic ware of Crete has been found in South Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, with Italy,
the intermediate island of Pianosa, and the Ligurian Caves.1 So, too, the
only Italian sites on which Neolithic clay images have been found lie on this
line, in Sicily and Liguria.-
In the Second and Third Early Minoan Periods and the early part of
the Middle Minoan Age, when Cretan civilization already occupied a com-
Fig. 3. Bone Object from Sikel Cemetery of Castelluccio, near Syracuse c).
manding position in the Central Aegean basin, the evidence of this Western
intercourse becomes even more conclusive, and it is a fair conclusion that
the Troadic silver trade may have found an extension, partly perhaps through
Minoan agency, to the Tyrrhene shores. Among the E. M. Ill relics of the
Tholos ossuary of Kumasa in Central Crete were found silver and copper
daggers of elongated triangular shape with a strong mid-rib 3 which present
a close conformity with daggers 4 of the Chalcolithic period in Italy and Sicily.
It is in M. M. I that the most striking proof of actual import from the Aegean Early
side is afforded by some tubular bone objects, probably handles, with globules Relations
in relief and incised ornamentation, found in tombs and cave-dwelling's of the wltJl.I1:.,ly
' ° andSicily.
First Sikel Period 6 and identical in character with examples from the third
1 See T. E. Peet, The Stone and Bronze
Ages in Italy and Sicily, p. 135 seqq., and
pp. 284, 285.
2 In The Sepulchral Deposit of Hagios Onu-
phrios near Phaestos in its relation to primitive
Cretan and Aegean Culture (Appended to
Cretan Pictographs, &c3 Quaritch, 1893)
I had already called attention to the parallelism
presented by the clay figures of the Finalese
Caves (Liguria) and of Villafrati, near
Palermo, to Aegean forms ; and cf. my Pre-
historic interments of the Balzi Rossi Caves and
their relation to the Neolithic Cave-burials of the
Finalese (Authr. Inst. Journ., i 893, pp. 303-5).
''' A. Mosso, Escursioni ?iel Mediterraneo,
p. 216, Fig. 120 ; and le armi piu antiche di
ra?ne e di brouzo, pp. 490, 491, Fig. 8. (Excava-
tions of Dr. Xanthudides.) See below, p. 100.
4 Peet, op. cit., p. 258, Fig. 136, and p. 260,
Fig. 142, and cf. pp. 282, 283.
5 Orsi, Bull. Paletn., 1892, pp. 7, 8; Au-
sonia i (1907), pp. 5, 6 ; Grotta Lazzaro.