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)

268

THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.

Evidence
of Abydos
Tomb,
contain-

ing;

M. M. II
Poly-
chrome
Vase.

spouted ' Minoan vases of this class in a virgin tomb at Abydos,1 accompanied
by glazed steatite cylinders bearing the names of Sesostris (Senusert) III and
Amenemhat III, the latter of whom, according to Meyer's chronology, reigned
from about 1849 to 1801 B.C.2

A view of this vase is given in Fig. 199, a, and it is also shown in com-
pany with other relics found in this tomb in Suppl. PI, IV. The form
and dimensions of the vessel agree with typical ' hole-mouthed ' and ' bridge-
spouted ' vases of the M. M. II class. The same correspondence, moreover,

a b d e

Fig. 199. Abydos Vase (to l.) compared with other M. M. lib Polychrome Types. (-| c.)

is seen in every detail of the decoration. The ' beam end ' bands with
alternating disks of red and white and the stellate flowers recur on a series
of polychrome vessels from the M. M. II Palace floors of Knossos and
Phaestos. The segmental medallions resemble the type given in Fig. 194, h
above, which itself represents the persistence of an inlay pattern that already
appears in E. M. III.3 The vase is shown in its original form as restored
from the existing fragments.4 For comparison there is placed with it in
Fig. 199, e, a M. M. II polychrome vase from Knossos of the same ' hole-

1 J. Garstang, Note on a Vase of Minoan
Fabric from Abydos ( Univ. Liverpool Annals
of Archaeology, &c, 1913, p. 107 seqq.) : 'The
contents of the tomb were noticeably free from
intrusive features and uniformly characteristic
of the funeral arts of the Xllth Dynasty'
(p. 108). According to Professor Garstang,
' Every object found within the tomb, to
a number of more than a hundred, was of
Xllth Dynasty character' (p. 110). The

Minoan Vase and most of the Egyptian relics
from the tomb are now in the Ashmolean
Museum, Oxford (see Suppl. PI, IV).

2 Aegyptische Chronologie, p. 57.

3 See above, p. 113, Fig. 80 b. 1.

4 It is reproduced as set up in the Ash-
molean Museum by Mr. W. H. Young. It was
published by me in the Ashmolean Museum
Report for 1907, where its M. M. II character
was first pointed out.