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)

244

THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.

finials of curiously Gothic aspect.1 Alongside is shown the incave interior
effect of the double arcacling. This goblet itself points to a repousse original
in metal-work with inlaid ornamentation.

The existence of these polychrome clay vessels reproducing the typical
shape, the fluted and arcaded decoration, and even the varied inlays of an
existing class in precious metals that formed part of the treasure of the
Priest-Kings of Knossos in the great days of the early Palace, is itself a fact
of far-reaching importance. All fine examples of such vessels, moreover, of

Fig. 184. Cups showing Light on Dark and Dark on Light Decoration

Pottery Stores'.

' Royal

which remains have been found, were from this site, and no trace of this
' arcaded' class has been found elsewhere.

At Knossos, indeed, neither the Palace Treasury itself nor royal tombs
have come to light to supply the originals. But types at any rate closely
parallel to what these must have been, as well as others that represent their
immediate outgrowth in metal-work, have been preserved for us among the
Originals precious vessels of the Shaft Graves at Mycenae. One or other, indeed, of
Shaft §°ld goblets there brought to light, may well have found an earlier resting-

Gravesof place in the Knossian Treasury. The cup 5 (Fig. 183 a), for instance, with
its doublv arched flutinofs, occurred in the Fourth Shaft Grave in a Minoan

1 Another polychrome fragment, Fig. 183a,3, presents a simple arcading with a fleur-de-lis
starting from the sides of the pillars.