Evans, Arthur J.: The Palace of Minos: a comparative account of the successive stages of the early Cretan civilization as illustred by the discoveries at Knossos (Band 1): The Neolithic and Early and Middle Minoan Ages (London, 1921)

74

THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.

Painted
Geome-
trical
Decora-
tion on
Pottery.

Simple but and ben huts, moreover, constructed with roughly hewn stone
blocks are associated with contemporary Cycladic remains.1 This tomb-plan
in fact supplies a typical example of the simpler form of rectangular hut still
in use in Crete at the beginning of the Early Minoan Age. The house of
the dead is here a reduced model of the house of the living^^)

A 'Sub-Neolithic' tradition is still perceptible on some of the early
pottery of this Period, notably a class of fine grey ware. Apart from this,
the first ceramic phase of the E. M. II culture is chiefly characterized by
painted vessels showing a geometrical decoration of a darker hue on a pale

Fig. 41. E. M. II Painted Bowl
from Mochlos (I).

Fig. 42. Jug from
Mochlos.

Dark on

Light

Styles.

E. M. II
Domestic
Ware
from
House-
floors,
Knossos.

buff ground. These vessels represent the continuation of a class which, as
we have seen, was already coming into prominence among the later ceramic
fabrics of the preceding E. M. I Period.2 A similar kind of painted ware is
found in contemporary Cycladic deposits, as for instance in the tombs of Syros.

Many vessels and fragments representing the ordinary domestic types
of this E. M. II class were found on some house-floors of that date that
came to light at Knossos on the Southern slope of the Palace site bordering
the S. Corridor (Fig. 40). Amongst these were high-beaked jugs, bowl-
shaped ew^ers with prominent spouts emerging from their sides, open bowls,
some with triple excrescences on their lower periphery, and numerous cups
with low pedestals which fit on to an E. M. I type. The surface of the
cups and bowls in many cases showed signs of having been pared with
a knife, a technique which is still more emphasized in the succeeding

1 loc. cit., p. 364

See above, pp. 62, 63, Figs. 25, 2G, 27.