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

37

of very hard material but of great beauty, may have been handed down as
heirlooms to a considerably later date. That these fine models were repro-
duced by Cretan vase-makers as late as the beginning of the Middle Minoan
Age is made probable by another highly interesting discovery on the
Palace site at Knossos. This is a fragment of a very similar bowl with Similar

vessel of

a highly carinateel outline (Fig. 55, c), executed in ' liparite', a form of obsi- Liparite.
dian or volcanic glass which seems to have been confined to the Aeolian
islands. A large unworkeel lump of this was actually found in the Palace 1
and, in spite of the hardness of the stone, the early bowl may itself have

been of Knossian fabric, since there is no evidence that the Egyptians used
this material. From the beginning of the Palace Period (M. M. I) it had
a considerable vogue in Crete. Apart from actual remains of liparite vessels, Ceramic
the proof of this is supplied by a class of dark faced ware with white 0fLipa-
spots, evidently copied from this stone, and including actual imitations of rite"
carinated bowls of the present class.2 The ceramic copies referred to seem
themselves to belong mainly to M. M. II and III. On the other hand,
masterpieces of the lapidary's art in liparite still occur at the beginning of
the Late Minoan Age, witness a beautiful vessel in the form of a dolium shell
from the Palace of Hagia Triacla now in the Museum of Candia.

1 See above, p. 23. It was found in a in height, and has been illustrated by Mosso,
M. M. II stratum beneath the chamber con- Le Origini del/a Civilta Mediterranea, p. 285,
taining the Miniature Frescoes. It is 43 cm. Fig. 180. " See below, p. 178, Fig. 127/