DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0536
494
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
General
indica-
tions of
Minoan
con-
nexion
with West
Mediter-
ranean
Basin.
Fig. 353. Festoons between
Columns of Shrine on Fragment
of Painted Pottery.
Of the Westward extension of Minoan enterprise something has
already been said, and the use of imported liparite from the Aeolian
islands bears early witness of its importance. In a sealing from the
Temple Repository, described below,1 we may even trace an allusion to
the myth of Scylla. There are indications of a colonial settlement in
Sicily which may go back to the beginning of the Late Minoan Age, and
a remarkable series of bronzes from Minorca and Spain itself points to
a direct intercourse with the Iberic West
about the same epoch, the reflex of which is
shown in the appearance of the bronze halberd
type of that region in a Mycenae Shaft Grave.
It is at least in accordance with sane methods
of archaeological deduction to infer that the
Minoans were at the same time instrumental in
introducing a kind of bead currency among the
primitive populations of the Iberic Peninsula,
which thence found its way by inter-tribal
barter and native seafaring enterprise to the
British Isles. The natural reflex of this would
be the trade in tin.
From the analogy supplied by the dotted festoons seen between the
pillars of small shrines such as that shown on a signet-ring from Mycenae,2
it seems probable that the beads found in the Temple Repository had served
a similar purpose. A festoon of the kind is given in the restored design of
a fragment of a vessel found in the Domestic Quarter 3 (Fig. 353). It is
there suspended between two slender columns above the sacral horns.
Similar festoons are seen between the posts of the Sanctuary windows
on the fresco fragment reproduced above (p. 444, Fig. 320). On a seal
impression and an ivory from Hagia Triada they hung between the legs of
altar tables supporting Sacral Horns.4
terior as well as the surface, and show a greater
tendency to vitrification. But many of the
specimens of Minoan faience exhibit the same
characteristics.
At the same time, we must bear in mind
the great skill shown by British artificers in
other departments, such as metallurgy. The
beads themselves are of three classes: (1) those
of East Mediterranean shape and aspect, (2)
those derived from such models, (3) those,
like the ' quoit-shaped' beads, the origin of
which is obscure. The Ancient Britons copied
the ' segmented' type in tin (Hoare, Ancient
Wilts, i, p. 103).
See p. 697, and Fig. 520.
See above p. 161, Fig. 116.
This fragment was found by the S. Portico
of the Hall of the Double Axes in 1902, and
is of unique character, apparently of L. M. II
fabric. It was sketched by me at the time
of excavation.
4 Halbherr, Mon. Ant., xiii (1903), p. 42,
Fig. 36. For the ivory see Oest. Jahreshefte, x,
p. 79, Fig. 27.
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
General
indica-
tions of
Minoan
con-
nexion
with West
Mediter-
ranean
Basin.
Fig. 353. Festoons between
Columns of Shrine on Fragment
of Painted Pottery.
Of the Westward extension of Minoan enterprise something has
already been said, and the use of imported liparite from the Aeolian
islands bears early witness of its importance. In a sealing from the
Temple Repository, described below,1 we may even trace an allusion to
the myth of Scylla. There are indications of a colonial settlement in
Sicily which may go back to the beginning of the Late Minoan Age, and
a remarkable series of bronzes from Minorca and Spain itself points to
a direct intercourse with the Iberic West
about the same epoch, the reflex of which is
shown in the appearance of the bronze halberd
type of that region in a Mycenae Shaft Grave.
It is at least in accordance with sane methods
of archaeological deduction to infer that the
Minoans were at the same time instrumental in
introducing a kind of bead currency among the
primitive populations of the Iberic Peninsula,
which thence found its way by inter-tribal
barter and native seafaring enterprise to the
British Isles. The natural reflex of this would
be the trade in tin.
From the analogy supplied by the dotted festoons seen between the
pillars of small shrines such as that shown on a signet-ring from Mycenae,2
it seems probable that the beads found in the Temple Repository had served
a similar purpose. A festoon of the kind is given in the restored design of
a fragment of a vessel found in the Domestic Quarter 3 (Fig. 353). It is
there suspended between two slender columns above the sacral horns.
Similar festoons are seen between the posts of the Sanctuary windows
on the fresco fragment reproduced above (p. 444, Fig. 320). On a seal
impression and an ivory from Hagia Triada they hung between the legs of
altar tables supporting Sacral Horns.4
terior as well as the surface, and show a greater
tendency to vitrification. But many of the
specimens of Minoan faience exhibit the same
characteristics.
At the same time, we must bear in mind
the great skill shown by British artificers in
other departments, such as metallurgy. The
beads themselves are of three classes: (1) those
of East Mediterranean shape and aspect, (2)
those derived from such models, (3) those,
like the ' quoit-shaped' beads, the origin of
which is obscure. The Ancient Britons copied
the ' segmented' type in tin (Hoare, Ancient
Wilts, i, p. 103).
See p. 697, and Fig. 520.
See above p. 161, Fig. 116.
This fragment was found by the S. Portico
of the Hall of the Double Axes in 1902, and
is of unique character, apparently of L. M. II
fabric. It was sketched by me at the time
of excavation.
4 Halbherr, Mon. Ant., xiii (1903), p. 42,
Fig. 36. For the ivory see Oest. Jahreshefte, x,
p. 79, Fig. 27.