DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0052
THE MINOAN AGE
27
It was followed in M. M. Ill, however, by a monumental rebuilding and a Mainland
splendid revival, leading up to the first era of expansion in Mainland Greece, begins!
richly illustrated by the earliest elements in the Shaft Graves of Mycenae. .
This is the Age of brilliant polychromy in ceramic decoration, and of
the earliest wall-paintings. In its latest phase it is marked by an extraordinary
development of naturalism in design. But what especially distinguishes this
middle stage of Minoan culture is the final evolution of the Art of Writing
from the mere pictography of the earlier Periods. By M. M. I we already
see the full evolution of a hieroglyphic style. In M. M. Ill, Class A
of the Linear series has already taken its rise. To the same Period
belongs the ' Phaestos Disk ' but the characters differ from the Cretan and
may best be ascribed to some related element in S.W. Asia Minor.
The Late Minoan Age corresponds with the Eighteenth and Nineteenth The Late
Dynasties in Egypt, at most including the early part of the Twentieth. Its Age.^"
First and Second Periods would cover the reigns from Aahmes to Amen-
hotep III. The beginning of the Mainland L. M. Ill stage is already
illustrated by the earlier sherds of the 'rubbish heaps' of Tell-el-Amarna of
the time of Akhenaten and his immediate successors1 (c. 1370-1350 B.C.).
By the thirteenth century Minoan and Mycenaean art was in lull decadence,
and it is difficult to believe that anything that can be described as pure Minoan
culture is to be found in Crete later than the early part of Rameses 11 I s reign.
Thus the time limits with which we have to deal for the Late Minoan
Age lie approximately between 1580 and 1200 b. c.
The early part of this epoch, including the transitional phase which The
preserved the fine naturalistic style of M. M. Ill, is the Golden Age ol Ag/of
Crete, followed, after a level interval, by a gradual decline. The settlement Crete-
already begun in M. M. Ill of large tracts of mainland Greece is now-
continued, and the new Mycenaean culture is thus firmly planted on
those shores. But the generation that witnessed this consummation saw
also the final overthrow of the Palace at Phaestos, and the brilliant sole
dominion of remodelled Knossos that followed on this event was itself, after
no long interval, cut short. The overthrow of the great Palace took place at Expan-
the close of the succeeding L. M, II Period, the result, according to the inter- fowedby
pretation suggested below, of an internal uprising, apparently of ' submerged ' ^ec^ad"
elements. It looks as if the Mainland enterprise had been too exhausting
The centre of gravity of Minoan culture shifted now to the Mycenaean side
1 In Tell-el-Amarna,PI. XXVII 52,28,&c.,ai* the L. M. Ill a Mainland phase. Most, how-
well as in part of an alabastron, &c, in the B.M. ever, show distinctly later associations,
we see the L. M. I b tradition characteristic of
27
It was followed in M. M. Ill, however, by a monumental rebuilding and a Mainland
splendid revival, leading up to the first era of expansion in Mainland Greece, begins!
richly illustrated by the earliest elements in the Shaft Graves of Mycenae. .
This is the Age of brilliant polychromy in ceramic decoration, and of
the earliest wall-paintings. In its latest phase it is marked by an extraordinary
development of naturalism in design. But what especially distinguishes this
middle stage of Minoan culture is the final evolution of the Art of Writing
from the mere pictography of the earlier Periods. By M. M. I we already
see the full evolution of a hieroglyphic style. In M. M. Ill, Class A
of the Linear series has already taken its rise. To the same Period
belongs the ' Phaestos Disk ' but the characters differ from the Cretan and
may best be ascribed to some related element in S.W. Asia Minor.
The Late Minoan Age corresponds with the Eighteenth and Nineteenth The Late
Dynasties in Egypt, at most including the early part of the Twentieth. Its Age.^"
First and Second Periods would cover the reigns from Aahmes to Amen-
hotep III. The beginning of the Mainland L. M. Ill stage is already
illustrated by the earlier sherds of the 'rubbish heaps' of Tell-el-Amarna of
the time of Akhenaten and his immediate successors1 (c. 1370-1350 B.C.).
By the thirteenth century Minoan and Mycenaean art was in lull decadence,
and it is difficult to believe that anything that can be described as pure Minoan
culture is to be found in Crete later than the early part of Rameses 11 I s reign.
Thus the time limits with which we have to deal for the Late Minoan
Age lie approximately between 1580 and 1200 b. c.
The early part of this epoch, including the transitional phase which The
preserved the fine naturalistic style of M. M. Ill, is the Golden Age ol Ag/of
Crete, followed, after a level interval, by a gradual decline. The settlement Crete-
already begun in M. M. Ill of large tracts of mainland Greece is now-
continued, and the new Mycenaean culture is thus firmly planted on
those shores. But the generation that witnessed this consummation saw
also the final overthrow of the Palace at Phaestos, and the brilliant sole
dominion of remodelled Knossos that followed on this event was itself, after
no long interval, cut short. The overthrow of the great Palace took place at Expan-
the close of the succeeding L. M, II Period, the result, according to the inter- fowedby
pretation suggested below, of an internal uprising, apparently of ' submerged ' ^ec^ad"
elements. It looks as if the Mainland enterprise had been too exhausting
The centre of gravity of Minoan culture shifted now to the Mycenaean side
1 In Tell-el-Amarna,PI. XXVII 52,28,&c.,ai* the L. M. Ill a Mainland phase. Most, how-
well as in part of an alabastron, &c, in the B.M. ever, show distinctly later associations,
we see the L. M. I b tradition characteristic of