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)

266

THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.

Probable circumstances of its finding and the approach in style of the crocus-flowers
MM II to tnose seen 011 the polychrome bowl illustrated in Fig. 197 above make it

preferable to regard this fresco as coming within the limits of M. M. II.

It must be regarded as the only example of a figured wall-painting surviving

from the Early Palace walls,
import of There is clear evidence that during the most brilliant period of the Middle

Minoan . . ,

Poly- Kingdom in Egypt—a country which, owing to natural causes, was poor 111

Ware16 ceramic wares—the beautiful polychrome fabrics of contemporary Crete

under were beginning to come into favour. They were perhaps first introduced

Dynasty, by Minoan traders and craftsmen employed on the great royal works. A
contingent of these seems to have formed part of the settlement at Kahun

Minoan in the Fayum, called into being by the erection of Senusert IPs pyramid

chrome on the neighbouring site of Illahun. That large numbers of foreign work-

S^rdif men were collected here appears from the fact that according- to Petrie's

at Kahun. _ 1 " &

observations ' the greater part of the weights and two of the three measures
found are foreign weights and measures of Phoenicia and Asia Minor'.1 It
is, therefore, not surprising that in the rubbish heaps of this Twelfth Dynasty
town, together with Syrian pottery, there occurred other polychrome sherds,
several with a fine glaze, to which Professor Flinders Petrie with prescient
instinct gave the name of 'Aegean'.2 The discovery, soon after this, of
similar pottery in the Kamares Cave proved its Cretan source.3

Among the painted fragments from Kahun illustrated by Professor
Petrie, part of a hole-mouthed vessel with a textile pattern 4 in creamy white
on the black ground recalls the early specimen of this class of decoration
given in Fig. 125, 9, p. 176 above, and represents an archaic tradition going
back to Neolithic times, though the technique of the vase is characteristically
M. M. II. A fragmentary bowl with light brown ground, crinkled rim, and
impressed cruciform ornaments,5 and another with a dark ground and
patterns consisting of lines and dotted circles, are also best grouped with
M. M. II a. On the other hand, the pointed petals seen on Fig. 198, c, from

1 Petrie,y. H. S., xi (1890), pp. 275, 276, PI.
XIV ; Kahun, &c, p. 42 ; Illahun, Kahun, and
Gurob, 1891, p. 9, and PI. I, Figs. 3-8, 10-15.

2 /. H. S., xi, PI. XIV, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10. (In
the British Museum.) Similar imported sherds
were found on the neighbouring Site of
Harageh.

3 J. L. Myres, Prehistoric Pottery from
Kamarais (Proc. Soc. Ants., xv, 1895, p. 351
seqq., and Pis. I-IV), and Dr. Lucio Mariani

(Mon. Antichi, vi, 1895, p. 332 seqq., and Pis.
IX-XI). Myres noted the resemblance to the
Kahun sherds.

4 Petrie, Illahun, Kahun, &=c, pl I, 14, and

j. h. s., xi, pi. xiv, 5

5 Petrie, Illahun, Kahun, &-"c, PL I. 8, and
J. II. S., xi, PL XIV, 10. The impressed
ornaments are madder-red rimmed with white.
For the cruciform pattern in light, cf.
Mackenzie, / H. S., xxvi, PL VIII, 4, 11.