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)

M.M.I: CERAMIC PHASES

i75

in Fig. 132 below,1 as an illustration of the beginnings of naturalism in
ceramic design. The plainer cups and small vessels from this deposit show
an absolute correspondence with those from the pit beneath the floor of the
Room of the Stone Vats. In the same context must be placed a large
hoard of pottery from an early well2 found in the small area immediately
west of the Court of the Stone Spout, and which descended to a depth of
22 metres (82§ feet). Here were found specimens of cups with their surface
raised in irregular ridges, illustrated below in connexion with the characteristic
' barbotine ' or prickly ware that comes in at this epoch. Here, too, occurred
numerous specimens of a class of clay objects very characteristic of
M. M. I deposits (Fig. 124). They were known to
our workmen as ' sheep-bells to which, indeed, they
presented much resemblance. They have a loop
handle at top, and on either side a horn-like pro-
jection, while their upper part is also provided with
two small perforations through which a string may
have been drawn for the suspension of a clapper.
It seems probable that they were, in fact, votive
bells,3 to be hung up in shrines or on the boughs of
sacred trees, where they would be tinkled by the
breeze, as were later the bronze bells at Dodona and
elsewhere.

With these other parallel finds may also be grouped the pottery from
an early M. M. I house floor, found in the North quarter of the Minoan
town of Knossos.4 All these deposits bear the stamp of absolute contem-
poraneity. They all present a certain archaic aspect as compared with the
succeeding phase of Middle Minoan ware, and it is to be noted that in the
case of the simpler vessels there is a greater tendency towards the old dark
on light style. The occurrence of this well-marked stratum throughout the
whole Knossian site may certainly be regarded as the result of a widespread
local destruction, possibly even a methodical demolition, which immediately
preceded the construction of the Palace as now known to us.

In this earl)' group of deposits we have already noted the incipient Incipient
appearance of ceramic polychromy, which in the later phase of M. M. I and po[}am'L
the succeeding M. M. II Period was to attain such prominence. Some chromy.

1 See p. 183. this theory does not explain the perforations.

- See Mackenzie, The Pottery of Knossos, Not unfrequently they are double, and in one

J. H. S., xxiii (1903), p. 167, Fig. 1. case a bull's head appears between the 'bells'.

3 Dr. Hatzidakis, Ti'Atcro-os Mi^wtKr;, p. 229, 4 See too, Mackenzie,Middle Minoan Pottery

has suggested that they were votive robes, but of Knossos, J. II. S., xxvi (1906), PI. X.

Fig. 124. Votive Ci.av
'Sheep-Bell', M.M. I
Well, Knossos