DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0048
THE MINOAN AGE
23
terranean basin. The increase in tin alloy in the copper implements in use Trade in
in the Aegean area from the close of the Early Minoan Age onwards points Liparite.
at least to one objective. In connexion with the early tin trade attention
will be called below to the diffusion among the Early Bronze Age remains
not only in Spain, but in the British islands, of a segmented type of faience
bead, the fabric of which had been taken over by the Minoans from Egypt.1
Of another result of these Western relations we have direct evidence in the
import into Crete, from the close of the Early Minoan Age onwards, of the
kind of volcanic glass known as liparite and peculiar to the Aeolian Islands.
Lumps of this material were found in the Palace at Knossos and, as has
already been mentioned above, liparite bowls were cut by native lapidaries,
following diorite models of the Fourth or succeeding Dynasties, while these, in
turn, were imitated in painted clay early in the Middle Minoan Period. The
manufacture of liparite vessels was still in vogue in Crete in the early part of
the Late Minoan Age.
Aegean influences, in their origin, at least, due to the early trade in Relations
the native obsidian, were operating, as we have seen, in Mainland Greece Mainland
already in Neolithic times and are traceable in man)- directions during Greece
the early Ages of metal. The evidence, however, of distinctively Cretan
ingredients in the Mainland culture does not become clear till the Middle
Minoan Age. Even then the materials are still very few.2 It is only Scanty
among the sherds connected with the Minoan settlements at Tiryns and Minoan
Mycenae that specimens occur which must be regarded as offshoots of the t^Iaces1 md
M. M. Ill ceramic style. The general dearth of such material in the Greece,
preceding Periods only heightens the effect of the wholesale invasion of Main- But
land Greece by Minoan forms at the close of the Middle and beginning of the ^ie°]n"va.
Late Minoan Age. This was no gradual change, led up to by successive stages, ^on of
but a sudden revolution involving the idea ot actual conquest and widespread Forms
settlement. It implies a real break in local conditions, and the dominant ^g^f
element that now comes into view represents an incomparably higher stage M.M.lll.
of civilization than anything that had existed before on the Helladic side.
Some of the new features, indeed, now introduced show points of
divergence from Cretan forms so far as they are at present known to
us. One remarkable phenomenon that now meets us is that the Megaron
at Mycenae, which as we now know goes back at least to the borders of the
1 See below, p. 491. below p. 166, and Fig. 117 c) Steatite vases
2 A matt-painted globular jug from Elateia of Cretan M. M. I fabric occurred on the Aspis
in Phocis, probably of Cycladic origin, shows the site at Argos. See Bulletin de Correspondance
influence of the M. M. I 'butterfly' motive (see Hellenique, 1906, p 38, Fig. 68.
23
terranean basin. The increase in tin alloy in the copper implements in use Trade in
in the Aegean area from the close of the Early Minoan Age onwards points Liparite.
at least to one objective. In connexion with the early tin trade attention
will be called below to the diffusion among the Early Bronze Age remains
not only in Spain, but in the British islands, of a segmented type of faience
bead, the fabric of which had been taken over by the Minoans from Egypt.1
Of another result of these Western relations we have direct evidence in the
import into Crete, from the close of the Early Minoan Age onwards, of the
kind of volcanic glass known as liparite and peculiar to the Aeolian Islands.
Lumps of this material were found in the Palace at Knossos and, as has
already been mentioned above, liparite bowls were cut by native lapidaries,
following diorite models of the Fourth or succeeding Dynasties, while these, in
turn, were imitated in painted clay early in the Middle Minoan Period. The
manufacture of liparite vessels was still in vogue in Crete in the early part of
the Late Minoan Age.
Aegean influences, in their origin, at least, due to the early trade in Relations
the native obsidian, were operating, as we have seen, in Mainland Greece Mainland
already in Neolithic times and are traceable in man)- directions during Greece
the early Ages of metal. The evidence, however, of distinctively Cretan
ingredients in the Mainland culture does not become clear till the Middle
Minoan Age. Even then the materials are still very few.2 It is only Scanty
among the sherds connected with the Minoan settlements at Tiryns and Minoan
Mycenae that specimens occur which must be regarded as offshoots of the t^Iaces1 md
M. M. Ill ceramic style. The general dearth of such material in the Greece,
preceding Periods only heightens the effect of the wholesale invasion of Main- But
land Greece by Minoan forms at the close of the Middle and beginning of the ^ie°]n"va.
Late Minoan Age. This was no gradual change, led up to by successive stages, ^on of
but a sudden revolution involving the idea ot actual conquest and widespread Forms
settlement. It implies a real break in local conditions, and the dominant ^g^f
element that now comes into view represents an incomparably higher stage M.M.lll.
of civilization than anything that had existed before on the Helladic side.
Some of the new features, indeed, now introduced show points of
divergence from Cretan forms so far as they are at present known to
us. One remarkable phenomenon that now meets us is that the Megaron
at Mycenae, which as we now know goes back at least to the borders of the
1 See below, p. 491. below p. 166, and Fig. 117 c) Steatite vases
2 A matt-painted globular jug from Elateia of Cretan M. M. I fabric occurred on the Aspis
in Phocis, probably of Cycladic origin, shows the site at Argos. See Bulletin de Correspondance
influence of the M. M. I 'butterfly' motive (see Hellenique, 1906, p 38, Fig. 68.