DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0080
NEOLITHIC STAGE: THE 'TELL' OF KNOSSOS 55
was found what appears to have been a large stud of a brilliant greenish blue
colour, somewhat mottled (Fig. 15 b). The appearance of the stone at first
suggested the employment of callai's, a kind of turquoise used for beads and
pendants by the Late Stone and Early Metal Age population of Western
Europe. The material, however, in this case proved to be a copper silicate,1
or chrysocolla, and may have been derived from some Cretan locality. A frag-
ment belonging to the Last Palace Period, of what appears to have been
an imitation of an anodon shell, seems in fact to be of [he same material.
ft &»
Fk;. 15/'. Chrysocolla Stud from Middle Neolithic Deposit, Knossos.
(2 and 3 are restored.)
The very extended relations of the Neolithic Aegean culture are well
illustrated by the ramifications of the early trade routes. In Professor
Petrie's opinion, the emery used by the inhabitants of the Nile Valley for
cutting and polishing their stone beads and other objects in the Late Pre-
historic Period2 was brought from the Aegean region. The obsidian of
Melos had already found its way into Egypt in even more remote prehistoric
times, and Crete was a natural stage in the course of the whole of this
commerce. Melian obsidian seems also to have already found its way
into Italy." But the drift of primitive commerce had a wider range. A still
more striking illustration of the remote derivation of ornamental objects
of Mediterranean usage in Neolithic times is seen in the occurrence
among the Stone Age deposits in a Ligurian Cave and, in an early Fondo
di Capanna of the Reggiano, ol shells like the Mitra oleacea 4 and Meleagrina
margaritifera or ' mother-of-pearl' shell,' whose nearest habitat is at present
the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean.
Evid-
ences of
Early
Neolithic
inter-
course in
Mediter-
ranean.
Emery
and
Obsidian
Trade.
Shell
Com-
merce.
1 Professor Bowman, of the Mineralogical
Department of the Oxford University Museum,
kindly examined the specimen.
2 e.g. at Naqada where blocks of emery were
found (Petrie, Naqada and Ballas, p. 45).
3 See T. E. Peet, The Sto/ie and Bronze
Ages in Italy, p. 150.
4 A. Issel, Bull. Pale/n.. xiii (1887), pp. 173,
174. Five specimens were found in the
Arene Candide Cave.
5 P. Strobel, Bull. Faletn., iii (1877), p. 56.
The fragment found in a Fondo di Capanna
at Rivaltella seems to have been used as
a polisher. Issel and Strobel regard these
discoveries as evidence that the early inhabi-
tants who possessed these relics had emigrated
from the Eastern Mediterranean regions. Put
the drift of early commerce may be thought
a sufficient explanation.
was found what appears to have been a large stud of a brilliant greenish blue
colour, somewhat mottled (Fig. 15 b). The appearance of the stone at first
suggested the employment of callai's, a kind of turquoise used for beads and
pendants by the Late Stone and Early Metal Age population of Western
Europe. The material, however, in this case proved to be a copper silicate,1
or chrysocolla, and may have been derived from some Cretan locality. A frag-
ment belonging to the Last Palace Period, of what appears to have been
an imitation of an anodon shell, seems in fact to be of [he same material.
ft &»
Fk;. 15/'. Chrysocolla Stud from Middle Neolithic Deposit, Knossos.
(2 and 3 are restored.)
The very extended relations of the Neolithic Aegean culture are well
illustrated by the ramifications of the early trade routes. In Professor
Petrie's opinion, the emery used by the inhabitants of the Nile Valley for
cutting and polishing their stone beads and other objects in the Late Pre-
historic Period2 was brought from the Aegean region. The obsidian of
Melos had already found its way into Egypt in even more remote prehistoric
times, and Crete was a natural stage in the course of the whole of this
commerce. Melian obsidian seems also to have already found its way
into Italy." But the drift of primitive commerce had a wider range. A still
more striking illustration of the remote derivation of ornamental objects
of Mediterranean usage in Neolithic times is seen in the occurrence
among the Stone Age deposits in a Ligurian Cave and, in an early Fondo
di Capanna of the Reggiano, ol shells like the Mitra oleacea 4 and Meleagrina
margaritifera or ' mother-of-pearl' shell,' whose nearest habitat is at present
the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean.
Evid-
ences of
Early
Neolithic
inter-
course in
Mediter-
ranean.
Emery
and
Obsidian
Trade.
Shell
Com-
merce.
1 Professor Bowman, of the Mineralogical
Department of the Oxford University Museum,
kindly examined the specimen.
2 e.g. at Naqada where blocks of emery were
found (Petrie, Naqada and Ballas, p. 45).
3 See T. E. Peet, The Sto/ie and Bronze
Ages in Italy, p. 150.
4 A. Issel, Bull. Pale/n.. xiii (1887), pp. 173,
174. Five specimens were found in the
Arene Candide Cave.
5 P. Strobel, Bull. Faletn., iii (1877), p. 56.
The fragment found in a Fondo di Capanna
at Rivaltella seems to have been used as
a polisher. Issel and Strobel regard these
discoveries as evidence that the early inhabi-
tants who possessed these relics had emigrated
from the Eastern Mediterranean regions. Put
the drift of early commerce may be thought
a sufficient explanation.