DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0656
6io
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
'Axe-
plants ' on
M. M. Ill
Jar.
Antici-
pation
of late
' Palace
Style".
Tan-
gential
Loops on
M. M. Ill
Vases.
subject that it presents, afford a specially valuable illustration of this
transitional style. As in the case of the jar with the dolphins, Fig. 447 a,
the dark part of the designs is bordered and ornamented with fine white
lines and clots. The central feature here is a kind of plant with lily-like
stems bearing strange curved objects in place of the natural flowers.
Bladder-shaped sprays, ap-
parently buds, coil up from
their bases. We have here
a combination of natural
vegetable forms with purely
conventional excrescences
curiously anticipatory of the
later ' Palace Style' of Knossos
(L. M. II). But what makes
this comparison the more
suggestive is that the appen-
dages, here added to the stems,
are in fact borrowed from
the blades of axes and recall
in their ornamental zones a
recurring feature of the sacral
Double Axe blades on a
parallel class of jars of the
same late ' Palace Style'.
The incorporation of this
Minoan religious element in
the design may perhaps ac-
count for the fact that this com-
paratively narrow-mouthed
pitcher was used for the same
sepulchral purpose as the jars and clay chests. As already noted, a series
of complete double-axes surrounds the shoulders of a M. M. Ill burial jar
from a Qrave at Mochlos.
The lobes or bladder-like offshoots of this mystic plant stand in a close
relation to a geometrical pattern consisting of a disk with tangential loops,
which also supplies a transitional element of great value. In one shape or
another this decorative unit constantly recurs throughout a large part of
the Middle Minoan Age. In its simplest form, as a disk with two loops
springing from it in reversed directions, inlaid examples of this pattern
Fig 448. Jar with Scalloped Handles and
Double Axe Plant, Pachyammos.
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
'Axe-
plants ' on
M. M. Ill
Jar.
Antici-
pation
of late
' Palace
Style".
Tan-
gential
Loops on
M. M. Ill
Vases.
subject that it presents, afford a specially valuable illustration of this
transitional style. As in the case of the jar with the dolphins, Fig. 447 a,
the dark part of the designs is bordered and ornamented with fine white
lines and clots. The central feature here is a kind of plant with lily-like
stems bearing strange curved objects in place of the natural flowers.
Bladder-shaped sprays, ap-
parently buds, coil up from
their bases. We have here
a combination of natural
vegetable forms with purely
conventional excrescences
curiously anticipatory of the
later ' Palace Style' of Knossos
(L. M. II). But what makes
this comparison the more
suggestive is that the appen-
dages, here added to the stems,
are in fact borrowed from
the blades of axes and recall
in their ornamental zones a
recurring feature of the sacral
Double Axe blades on a
parallel class of jars of the
same late ' Palace Style'.
The incorporation of this
Minoan religious element in
the design may perhaps ac-
count for the fact that this com-
paratively narrow-mouthed
pitcher was used for the same
sepulchral purpose as the jars and clay chests. As already noted, a series
of complete double-axes surrounds the shoulders of a M. M. Ill burial jar
from a Qrave at Mochlos.
The lobes or bladder-like offshoots of this mystic plant stand in a close
relation to a geometrical pattern consisting of a disk with tangential loops,
which also supplies a transitional element of great value. In one shape or
another this decorative unit constantly recurs throughout a large part of
the Middle Minoan Age. In its simplest form, as a disk with two loops
springing from it in reversed directions, inlaid examples of this pattern
Fig 448. Jar with Scalloped Handles and
Double Axe Plant, Pachyammos.