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)

55^

THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.

Jar with
Inscrip-
tion of
Linear
Class A.

Pottery of
Temple
Reposi-
tories.

theory, built formerly on negative grounds, that the ' Mycenaeans ', as they
were then called, abstained from fish 1 must definitely go by the board.2

The most remarkable vessel found in the deposit was a tall two-handled
jar, resembling that shown in Fig. 4 03, b, of the elongated class very character-
istic of this Period, which bore upon its shoulders a graffito inscription of five
characters, belonging to the Linear Class A,3 incised when the clay was still
wet (see Fig. 453). The vessel itself, which except for its handles presents
a curiously Chinese contour, is reproduced in Fig. 416, b.

It is interesting to note that all the graffito inscriptions on pottery found
on the Palace site, including single signs as well as groups, presented
characters of this earlier linearized Class and belonged to M. M. Ill vessels.4
The chronological value of this phenomenon is evident.

The Temple Repositories.

It has already been noticed that the Temple Repositories contained
a large store of vessels belonging to the latest M. M. Ill phase. These
vessels were found in an upper layer, over a metre thick, above the shallower,
fatty stratum containing the objects of art and cult. Some of these have
been already illustrated in the photographic Fig. 333 as they were set on
the pavement above at the time of excavation. Another representative
series is given here in Fig. 404 and two interesting specimens showing
a survival of polychromy will be illustrated in the succeeding Section.5 Of
the vases given in Fig. 404, a reproduces a jar resembling a specimen which
presents incised on its rim an inscription of Class A,G while b is important
as showing the favourite grass motive of this epoch, white on a lilac brown
ground, and as illustrating the division into light and dark panels which is
already seen as a characteristic feature of some of the finest M. M. II
vessels. The exceptional vase, g, supplies an example of dark decorative
patterns on a light ground. The surface, however, unlike that of the typical
L.M. I vases, is dull. It is of special interest to note that this Minoan
type as well as fragments of ewers like /" with their broad white spirals on the
dark ground—the most numerously represented of all the types found in the

Manatt, Myceriaean

4ge,

1 Tsuntas and
pp. 69 and 334.

- AVith this, too, must go the comparisons
made loc. cit. with the supposed aversion of
the so-called ' Graeco-Italic ' stock—including
the Homeric Achaeans — to a fish diet. On
this subject see Keramopoullos, M-uK^raiW,
('Ap^. Azkrlov, 19 r8, p. 88 seqq.).

3 When this discovery was made in 1901,1 had

not arrived at a definite classification of the tw7o
phases of the Linear Script, but it was at once
apparent that the characters on this jar showed
variations from those of the ordinary clay tablets
of Class B. See Kuossos, Report, 1901, p. 10.

4 See p. 616 seqq.

5 See below, p. 593 seqq., and Coloured
Plate VII.

6 See below, p. 617.