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)

598

THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.

Meliah The basin itself is two handled and of oval shape, 55 cm. (c. 21 § in.)

Copies. greatest width, while its flat base is 23 cm. in its maximum

Fig. 439. M. M. Ill Polychrome Basin, Knossos. c, (i).

diameter. Its profile is shown in the inset. It was probably used as a wash-
basin and seems to supply the prototype of a class of flat-bottomed

oval vessels, numerous speci-
mens of which were brought to
light at Phylakopi in Melos in a
stratum answering to the early
part of L. M. I. These vessels

were recognized by the excavators as baths and wash-basins, their sizes
varying from something over a metre to somewhat under a third. Like
Minoan baths, they showed interior designs of reeds and swimming fishes,
while their margins were decorated with spiral patterns affording an analogy
with the coiled sprays seen on the Knossian specimen.1

These coiled sprays have a special importance in connexion with
the painted sherds from the Fourth Shaft Grave at Mycenae. They

1 Phylakopi, p. 140, Figs. 112, 113.