DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0194
168
PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
Early
M. M. I
pottery
from Vat
Room
Deposit.
' Egg-
shell '
Ware.
(Fig. 117, c) was found in a contemporary deposit near Drachmani in
Phokis in company with 'Minyan' and ' Helladic' ware.1 Though itself,
probably, of Cycladic fabric, it is interesting as showing the indirect influence
at this time of Minoan ceramic types on those of Mainland Greece.
The group of vessels from the ' Vat Room ' Deposit, shown in Fig. 118 a,
will be found to supply a very good type series for the initial ceramic phase
of the M. M. I Period. The paring of the surface of the cups, a procedure
taken over from the preceding Age, is well illustrated by this group. It was
sometimes, as is seen in 20, repeated in a series of diagonal strokes. The
open bowl 18 shows a series of curved furrows, probably produced by the
thumb while the vessel was slowly revolved on a disk; 12 is the top of
a lamp, covered with a thick reel wash slightly burnished. Its pedestal was
missine, but it belongs to a class that attained a considerable vopue in
Middle Minoan times. Certain plain, red-faced jars, 4, 19 and 6, n, the former
with an envelope-like sign incised, are of special importance as supplying
the direct forerunners of the two principal types of jar found in the
neighbouring Temple Repositories, belonging to the last Middle Minoan
Period. This will be seen to be only one of a series of comparisons that
bring out the curious parallelism between the two deposits.
Among the more exquisite fabrics from this deposit are several that
already represent in its full development the £ egg-shell' ware in which the
polychrome masterpieces of the early
phase of M. M. II were to be after-
wards executed. Among- these are
some very fine band-handled cups
(Fig. 118 a, 8 and Fig. 120) with narrow
streaks of the new" white on a dark
glaze slip. Altogether characteristic
of the new polychromy, moreover, were
the remains of pedestalled cups, of which
a specimen is given in Fig. 118 a, 7 and
Fig. 120, with four white and two
scarlet bands ascending spirally from
the stem. Here, the deep Indian red
that appears already in E. M. Ill is superseded by a much more brilliant
vermilion pigment. Of great interest, too, is a miniature form of tumbler
(Fig. 110, a) found here and in a contemporary pre-Palace deposit beneath
a c d
Fie. 119. a, Mottled Egg-shell
Ware Tumbler ■ b, Crystal Core ; c, d,
Fragments of Clay Sealings : From
Vat Room Deposit.
1 G. Soteriades, 'E$. 'Apx-, 1908, p. 87, Fig. 13,
and Rev. des Etudes Grecquesy xxv (1912^,
p. 259, Fig. 6; and cf. Wace and Thompson,
Preh. Thessaly, p. 204, Fig. 140.
PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
Early
M. M. I
pottery
from Vat
Room
Deposit.
' Egg-
shell '
Ware.
(Fig. 117, c) was found in a contemporary deposit near Drachmani in
Phokis in company with 'Minyan' and ' Helladic' ware.1 Though itself,
probably, of Cycladic fabric, it is interesting as showing the indirect influence
at this time of Minoan ceramic types on those of Mainland Greece.
The group of vessels from the ' Vat Room ' Deposit, shown in Fig. 118 a,
will be found to supply a very good type series for the initial ceramic phase
of the M. M. I Period. The paring of the surface of the cups, a procedure
taken over from the preceding Age, is well illustrated by this group. It was
sometimes, as is seen in 20, repeated in a series of diagonal strokes. The
open bowl 18 shows a series of curved furrows, probably produced by the
thumb while the vessel was slowly revolved on a disk; 12 is the top of
a lamp, covered with a thick reel wash slightly burnished. Its pedestal was
missine, but it belongs to a class that attained a considerable vopue in
Middle Minoan times. Certain plain, red-faced jars, 4, 19 and 6, n, the former
with an envelope-like sign incised, are of special importance as supplying
the direct forerunners of the two principal types of jar found in the
neighbouring Temple Repositories, belonging to the last Middle Minoan
Period. This will be seen to be only one of a series of comparisons that
bring out the curious parallelism between the two deposits.
Among the more exquisite fabrics from this deposit are several that
already represent in its full development the £ egg-shell' ware in which the
polychrome masterpieces of the early
phase of M. M. II were to be after-
wards executed. Among- these are
some very fine band-handled cups
(Fig. 118 a, 8 and Fig. 120) with narrow
streaks of the new" white on a dark
glaze slip. Altogether characteristic
of the new polychromy, moreover, were
the remains of pedestalled cups, of which
a specimen is given in Fig. 118 a, 7 and
Fig. 120, with four white and two
scarlet bands ascending spirally from
the stem. Here, the deep Indian red
that appears already in E. M. Ill is superseded by a much more brilliant
vermilion pigment. Of great interest, too, is a miniature form of tumbler
(Fig. 110, a) found here and in a contemporary pre-Palace deposit beneath
a c d
Fie. 119. a, Mottled Egg-shell
Ware Tumbler ■ b, Crystal Core ; c, d,
Fragments of Clay Sealings : From
Vat Room Deposit.
1 G. Soteriades, 'E$. 'Apx-, 1908, p. 87, Fig. 13,
and Rev. des Etudes Grecquesy xxv (1912^,
p. 259, Fig. 6; and cf. Wace and Thompson,
Preh. Thessaly, p. 204, Fig. 140.