DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.810#0051
428
ORIGIN OF 'TWO-STORIED' POTS
M. M. Ill wall-paintings influenced the vase decoration of the early part of
the Late Minoan Age is, however, best illustrated by the copious materials of
naturalistic and other subjects afforded by the 'House of the Frescoes',
to be described in the succeeding Section.
o
Note on the Origin of the Class of' Two-Storied' Pots.
Attention has been called in the preceding Section to a recurring type of Minoan store-jars
with two rows of handles, one round the shoulders and the other a little above the foot of the
jar, which as the outline sketch (Fig. 249) shows, also survives
to supply a Late Minoan 'amphora' form parallel to that of
the ' pithoid ' jars with three rows of handles.
The origin of this type o*ipiihos must unquestionably be
sought in the widespread primitive type of what may be called
' two-storied' vessels. In this ceramic class a form derived
from a comparatively low, open basket, with ear-like handles
attached to its margin, becomes the basis of a higher receptacle —
the walls of what in effect resemble a second vessel, with or
without handles above, being built up above its rim.
This method of ceramic growth, to be distinguished from
the mere addition of a band or collar to the rim of a pot or
of its simple doming over to imitate a gourd, is itself in one
shape or another of very wide occurrence, and parallels may be
found as far afield as New Mexico or the Mississippi Valley.
Sometimes the upper pot has the appearance of having been
put over the lower, as in the case of certain vessels belonging
to the Second Style of Susa ' and of the root-type of the painted
cinerary urns of South-East Russia, which look like ' Villanova'
pots set upside down.2 But in the typical early Aegean form
the upper member was evidently set into the lower. An early
example of this is seen in the E. M. I pot from Vasilik'i,3 Fig.
250,/, the concentric semicircles of which, above the rim of
the lower section, point, as in many analogous cases, to the imitation and reduplication of loop
handles, such as are attached to the upper borders of baskets.
The indigenous pot from the Fifth Shaft Grave at Mycenae, Fig. 250, e* is of special
interest. On the one hand it represents, for Greece, a very late appearance for such a well-
marked dual type. On the other hand, it shows a decided sympathy in form with certain two-
storied types of the Italian Bronze Age, such as that from Crespellano near Bologna reproduced
in Fig. 250, g. The comparatively low ' upper story ' is foreign to the usual Aegean tradition,
and the parallelism is in other ways so striking that some direct influence from the farther
Fig. 249. Outline Sketch
of 'Pithoid Amphora ' with
Upper and Lower Row of
Handles.
1 E.g. E. Pottier, Delegation en Perse: Memoiris,
torn, xiii, PI. XXXI and p. 144, and cf. p. 24, Fig. 117
from the Akropolis of Susa. These vessels belong to
the period from Naram-Sin to Hammurabi.
2 Compare, for instance, the examples in E. von Stern,
Die pramykenische Kultur in Siid Russland, PI. II,
1 and 3.
3 See P. of M., i,p. 61, Fig. 21. The lower part of this
vase is wanting. In ISoyd-Hawes, Gournia, PI. XII, 13,
it has been restored with a fiat base.
4 Schliemann, Mycenae, p. 331, Fig. 527. Compare
the earlier Melian jar, B. S. A., xvii, PI. V, no. 65.
ORIGIN OF 'TWO-STORIED' POTS
M. M. Ill wall-paintings influenced the vase decoration of the early part of
the Late Minoan Age is, however, best illustrated by the copious materials of
naturalistic and other subjects afforded by the 'House of the Frescoes',
to be described in the succeeding Section.
o
Note on the Origin of the Class of' Two-Storied' Pots.
Attention has been called in the preceding Section to a recurring type of Minoan store-jars
with two rows of handles, one round the shoulders and the other a little above the foot of the
jar, which as the outline sketch (Fig. 249) shows, also survives
to supply a Late Minoan 'amphora' form parallel to that of
the ' pithoid ' jars with three rows of handles.
The origin of this type o*ipiihos must unquestionably be
sought in the widespread primitive type of what may be called
' two-storied' vessels. In this ceramic class a form derived
from a comparatively low, open basket, with ear-like handles
attached to its margin, becomes the basis of a higher receptacle —
the walls of what in effect resemble a second vessel, with or
without handles above, being built up above its rim.
This method of ceramic growth, to be distinguished from
the mere addition of a band or collar to the rim of a pot or
of its simple doming over to imitate a gourd, is itself in one
shape or another of very wide occurrence, and parallels may be
found as far afield as New Mexico or the Mississippi Valley.
Sometimes the upper pot has the appearance of having been
put over the lower, as in the case of certain vessels belonging
to the Second Style of Susa ' and of the root-type of the painted
cinerary urns of South-East Russia, which look like ' Villanova'
pots set upside down.2 But in the typical early Aegean form
the upper member was evidently set into the lower. An early
example of this is seen in the E. M. I pot from Vasilik'i,3 Fig.
250,/, the concentric semicircles of which, above the rim of
the lower section, point, as in many analogous cases, to the imitation and reduplication of loop
handles, such as are attached to the upper borders of baskets.
The indigenous pot from the Fifth Shaft Grave at Mycenae, Fig. 250, e* is of special
interest. On the one hand it represents, for Greece, a very late appearance for such a well-
marked dual type. On the other hand, it shows a decided sympathy in form with certain two-
storied types of the Italian Bronze Age, such as that from Crespellano near Bologna reproduced
in Fig. 250, g. The comparatively low ' upper story ' is foreign to the usual Aegean tradition,
and the parallelism is in other ways so striking that some direct influence from the farther
Fig. 249. Outline Sketch
of 'Pithoid Amphora ' with
Upper and Lower Row of
Handles.
1 E.g. E. Pottier, Delegation en Perse: Memoiris,
torn, xiii, PI. XXXI and p. 144, and cf. p. 24, Fig. 117
from the Akropolis of Susa. These vessels belong to
the period from Naram-Sin to Hammurabi.
2 Compare, for instance, the examples in E. von Stern,
Die pramykenische Kultur in Siid Russland, PI. II,
1 and 3.
3 See P. of M., i,p. 61, Fig. 21. The lower part of this
vase is wanting. In ISoyd-Hawes, Gournia, PI. XII, 13,
it has been restored with a fiat base.
4 Schliemann, Mycenae, p. 331, Fig. 527. Compare
the earlier Melian jar, B. S. A., xvii, PI. V, no. 65.