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)

EARLY MINOAN II

79

of surface.

had been placed upside down in a bed of coals V The same process was at
times followed in Cyprus.

In the above cases we have to do with the application of this method to Greater

or less de~

primitive hand polished wares. In the Vasiliki class we see it largely adapted oxydation
to the early glaze technique.2 The root cause in producing this effect
seems, however, to be that suggested by Professor Flinders Petrie 3 in the
case of the Egyptian black-topped pottery, namely, the greater or less
direct exposure of the vessel to the hot air of a kiln, which preserves the red
oxide of the surface material. It is clear, however, that the Minoan potters

b a c

Fig. 47. Metallic Types of E. M. II Vessels from Sphungaras c).

possessed a method of reserving certain parts of the vessel from direct Patterns

contact with the furnace air in such a way as to produce a variety of simple P™duced

patterns or other definite effects.4 Thus several of the specimens given Minoan.

r I t> potters in

in Fig. 46 present an appearance, recalling the pebbly section of conglom- this tech-

erate stone, such as is imitated at times on Middle Minoan painted vases. In n

1 Edith H. Hall (now Mrs. Dohan), Ex-
cavations in Eastern Crete: Sphoungaras,
pp. 48, 49.

2 See Seager, Excavations at Vasiliki, 1904,
p. ri, note. The old method, however, sur-
vived at Vasiliki and elsewhere, and a large
part of the surface of the vessels is often
simply hand-polished. The cup (Fig. 46, d) is
an instance in point, the black bands appearing
on the red-faced and hand-polished clay.

3 Naqada and B alias, p. 37. Prof. Petrie
adds, ' it is precisely the same question of hue
and composition as on Greek vases, where the
black may become red wherever a draught of
air impinged upon it.'

4 No satisfactory explanation has yet been

given of the manner in which these patterns
were produced. Franchet, Nouv. Arch, des
Missions, &c, XXV, pp. 19, 20, regards this
system as the beginning of true colour
technique, and even proceeds to bring the
E. M. II ' mottled ' vases of Vasiliki into direct
connexion with painted vases of advanced
M.M.I types from the same site. He described
this as ' the invention of black colour and of
polychrome decoration'. Discrepancies in date,
however, do not affect M. Franchet, who con-
sistently ignores the stratigraphic results of his
predecessors in Cretan research and substitutes
for the Minoan Periods a crude classification
of his own, based on the Bronze Age of pro-
vincial France.