DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0134
io8
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
position of the handiwork of this Period was also obtained in the later
tombs at Mochlos. At Knossos, the latest pottery on the floors of the
Early Minoan houses, found to the South of the Palace, belonged to this
Period, and its closing phase may include the earlier elements in a tran-
sitional deposit—known as the ' Vat Room Deposit'—found beneath the
early Palace floor to the north of the E. Pillar Room.1
The exaggerated types of vessel with abnormally long spouts still
continued in use in this Period, though towards its close the beaks show
a tendency to become less prominent and gradually approach the more sober
proportions of the Middle Minoan Age.
In the earlier stage of the E. M. Ill ceramic fabrics, the old dark on
light geometrical class and the ' mottled' ware still survive. This latter
becomes gradually extinct, but the geometrical class with the buff ground
seems never to have entirely died out. At Knossos, at any rate, it partially
survived to the borders of the First Middle Minoan Period, in the early
part of which it re-emerges into prominence, together with some of its
characteristic patterns, notably the ' butterflies ' or ' double axes'.
But the characteristic ceramic product of the Third Early Minoan Period
was a new style of painted ware showing a light decoration on a dark ground
(Fig. 76). This ware, though represented at Knossos and elsewhere in
Central Crete, is specially abundant in the East of the island, where its
deposits are in places so thick as to point to its production having extended
over a considerable interval of time.2 It may well be that the evolution of
the new, Middle Minoan, style had effected itself more rapidly in the great
palatial centres of Crete, at Knossos and Phaestos, than in the eastern
extremity of the island, and that there had been a certain overlapping of the
two styles.
Some characteristic forms of the light on dark E. M. Ill pottery are
given in Fig. 76. Many types of the preceding Period will be seen to sur-
vive, including the jugs with prominent side-spouts ending in an elongated
open channel. Good specimens of this class occurred at Knossos in the upper
deposit of the Early Minoan house floors. Towards the close of the Period,
1 A. J. E., Knossos, Report (1903), pp. 94,
95 (£>. S, A., ix). See below, pp. 165-171.
2 Mr. Seager remarks {Mochlos, p. 9) that
besides the evolution visible in style and forms
a long duration for this Period is suggested
by the enormous quantity of light on dark
geometric ware that is found on early sites
on and near the Peninsula of Hierapetra. The
first large deposit was found in 1904 at Gournia,
where a great heap of these sherds had been
piled up just outside the town limits. This
heap was composed of thousands of fragments
of light on dark geometrical ware and must re-
present accumulations of a long term of years.
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
position of the handiwork of this Period was also obtained in the later
tombs at Mochlos. At Knossos, the latest pottery on the floors of the
Early Minoan houses, found to the South of the Palace, belonged to this
Period, and its closing phase may include the earlier elements in a tran-
sitional deposit—known as the ' Vat Room Deposit'—found beneath the
early Palace floor to the north of the E. Pillar Room.1
The exaggerated types of vessel with abnormally long spouts still
continued in use in this Period, though towards its close the beaks show
a tendency to become less prominent and gradually approach the more sober
proportions of the Middle Minoan Age.
In the earlier stage of the E. M. Ill ceramic fabrics, the old dark on
light geometrical class and the ' mottled' ware still survive. This latter
becomes gradually extinct, but the geometrical class with the buff ground
seems never to have entirely died out. At Knossos, at any rate, it partially
survived to the borders of the First Middle Minoan Period, in the early
part of which it re-emerges into prominence, together with some of its
characteristic patterns, notably the ' butterflies ' or ' double axes'.
But the characteristic ceramic product of the Third Early Minoan Period
was a new style of painted ware showing a light decoration on a dark ground
(Fig. 76). This ware, though represented at Knossos and elsewhere in
Central Crete, is specially abundant in the East of the island, where its
deposits are in places so thick as to point to its production having extended
over a considerable interval of time.2 It may well be that the evolution of
the new, Middle Minoan, style had effected itself more rapidly in the great
palatial centres of Crete, at Knossos and Phaestos, than in the eastern
extremity of the island, and that there had been a certain overlapping of the
two styles.
Some characteristic forms of the light on dark E. M. Ill pottery are
given in Fig. 76. Many types of the preceding Period will be seen to sur-
vive, including the jugs with prominent side-spouts ending in an elongated
open channel. Good specimens of this class occurred at Knossos in the upper
deposit of the Early Minoan house floors. Towards the close of the Period,
1 A. J. E., Knossos, Report (1903), pp. 94,
95 (£>. S, A., ix). See below, pp. 165-171.
2 Mr. Seager remarks {Mochlos, p. 9) that
besides the evolution visible in style and forms
a long duration for this Period is suggested
by the enormous quantity of light on dark
geometric ware that is found on early sites
on and near the Peninsula of Hierapetra. The
first large deposit was found in 1904 at Gournia,
where a great heap of these sherds had been
piled up just outside the town limits. This
heap was composed of thousands of fragments
of light on dark geometrical ware and must re-
present accumulations of a long term of years.