DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0219
M.M.I: METAL-WORK, SEALS, FOREIGN RELATIONS 193
the Troadic silver trade. The great wealth of the Hissarlik site in silver
vessels and the silver bars found there are explained by the fact that the
neighbouring- ranges were rich in argentiferous ore and that many remains
of ancient surface mining occur.1 That this commerce affected the ceramic
types both of the Aegean world and of Mainland Greece through many
channels is shown at a somewhat later date by the diffusion of the ' Minyan '
class of ware.
The common use of silver plate in the island at this epoch is also well
illustrated by a large painted clay bowl from
Pseira (Fig. 139, d),2 with three handles, which
reproduces the features of the silver prototype
even to the rivet-studs and the alternating sheen
and shade of the metallic original. As already
observed, it is to the existence of these ceramic
copies that we owe the best evidence of the
wealth of the Minoan lords in precious metals in
the palmy days of the Middle Minoan Age.
The imitation of Egyptian copper vessels
had, as we have seen, already begun in the
Second Period of the Early Minoan Age, and
in the next Period indigenous types of the kind
were also reproduced. On the floors of House
A at Vasiliki, in company with pottery of the
M. M. I b class, Mr. Seager discovered a peculiar
class ot fine ware the surface of which presented
an iridescent effect and in which we may recognize a local Minoan attempt
to imitate a metallic sheen. Here was found the two-handled 'amphora',
Fig. 140," with slightly pinched-in mouth, which is clearly a very direct
imitation of a copper original, the effect, indeed, enhanced by its iridescent
surface, is ' so successful that at first glance it might easily be mistaken for
a vessel of bronze '. This copper amphora type, or, rather, a simpler stage of
it, has left its impress in a coarser form on a common type of plain M. M. I
Diffusion
of Silver
Types
from
Troadic
Source.
Imitation
of Copper
Vessels.
Fig. 140. Clay imitation of
copper ' Amphora ', M. M. I
VasilikK Crete.
1 See especially Prof. W. Gowland, F.R.S., Balia, 'at the present time the most important
Archaeologia, 2nd ser., xix, 1920, pp. 138-41. in Asia Minor for lead and silver'.
Professor Gowland calls attention to the con- 2 R. B. Seager, Excavations in the Island of
siderable deposits of argentiferous galena in the Pseira { Univ. Pennsylvania Trans. Ill), p. 20,
mountain districts N.E. of Alt. Ida and in the Fig. 5.
Olympus range. Some of the ancient workings 3 R. B. Seager, Excavations at Vasiliki in
have been re-opened, notably the mine of 1906 (lb. II), pp. 125, 126.
I O
the Troadic silver trade. The great wealth of the Hissarlik site in silver
vessels and the silver bars found there are explained by the fact that the
neighbouring- ranges were rich in argentiferous ore and that many remains
of ancient surface mining occur.1 That this commerce affected the ceramic
types both of the Aegean world and of Mainland Greece through many
channels is shown at a somewhat later date by the diffusion of the ' Minyan '
class of ware.
The common use of silver plate in the island at this epoch is also well
illustrated by a large painted clay bowl from
Pseira (Fig. 139, d),2 with three handles, which
reproduces the features of the silver prototype
even to the rivet-studs and the alternating sheen
and shade of the metallic original. As already
observed, it is to the existence of these ceramic
copies that we owe the best evidence of the
wealth of the Minoan lords in precious metals in
the palmy days of the Middle Minoan Age.
The imitation of Egyptian copper vessels
had, as we have seen, already begun in the
Second Period of the Early Minoan Age, and
in the next Period indigenous types of the kind
were also reproduced. On the floors of House
A at Vasiliki, in company with pottery of the
M. M. I b class, Mr. Seager discovered a peculiar
class ot fine ware the surface of which presented
an iridescent effect and in which we may recognize a local Minoan attempt
to imitate a metallic sheen. Here was found the two-handled 'amphora',
Fig. 140," with slightly pinched-in mouth, which is clearly a very direct
imitation of a copper original, the effect, indeed, enhanced by its iridescent
surface, is ' so successful that at first glance it might easily be mistaken for
a vessel of bronze '. This copper amphora type, or, rather, a simpler stage of
it, has left its impress in a coarser form on a common type of plain M. M. I
Diffusion
of Silver
Types
from
Troadic
Source.
Imitation
of Copper
Vessels.
Fig. 140. Clay imitation of
copper ' Amphora ', M. M. I
VasilikK Crete.
1 See especially Prof. W. Gowland, F.R.S., Balia, 'at the present time the most important
Archaeologia, 2nd ser., xix, 1920, pp. 138-41. in Asia Minor for lead and silver'.
Professor Gowland calls attention to the con- 2 R. B. Seager, Excavations in the Island of
siderable deposits of argentiferous galena in the Pseira { Univ. Pennsylvania Trans. Ill), p. 20,
mountain districts N.E. of Alt. Ida and in the Fig. 5.
Olympus range. Some of the ancient workings 3 R. B. Seager, Excavations at Vasiliki in
have been re-opened, notably the mine of 1906 (lb. II), pp. 125, 126.
I O