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 2,2): Town houses in Knossos of the new era and restored West Palace Section (London, 1928)

488 IVY-LEAF NATURALLY REPRODUCED IN L. M. lb

Ivy-leaf
naturally
repro-
duced in
L. M. I b.

where, the ' leaf' with the survival of the curved papyrus tuft within it
broadens out into a purely geometrical design.

Finally, the fully developed naturalistic form of the ivy-leaf, already

reached in L. M. I a, also finds a place in the decorative repertory of the

later phase. It is illustrated by the well-known jug from the First Shaft

Grave at Mycenae,1 which is closely paralleled by the

i designs on an amphora from a tliolos tomb of the

^A Messenian Pylos.2 On these there is no longer a trace

^^A ^L of the papyrus tuft, but both show a survival of L. M.

^^^^WJB^^ I a technique in the linear application of unfixed white

B vlp^^^% on the dark foliage as veins or borders. As to the

^*~ Wi M assignment of both these vessels to the phase b of that

f *■» Period there can, however, be no doubt, and both, in

fact, show a reflection from the marine style, then so

much in vogue, in the recurring disks with five or, at

times, six curved ' rays' suggestive of star-fish or more

particularly of the common ' brittle-star' (Ophiothrix) with its five coiling

arms.

The natural ivy appears very prominently in the form of large single
leaves on the jug (Fig. 291, e) from the West side of the Palace at Knossos.
On the other hand, the Kakovatos ' amphora '3 (Fig. 291, c) displays a series
of double-stalked plants, with similar natural leaves, climbing up its sides.
Such ivy-like leaves in single sprays, moreover, are a common feature on
a class of aryballi derived from a New Empire type of Egyptian alabastron
and on a parallel series of small, one-handled alabastra, of which the
specimen from the Maket Tomb at Kahun supplies a well-known
example4 (Fig. 291,/). A series of these ' one-handled' alabastra, ranging

Fig. 295. Vase Frag-
ment FROM ' AEG1S-

thos ' Tomb, Mycenae.

1917, p. 200, Fig. 144, 1, and p. 2or, Fig.

*45>

1 Schliemann, Mycenae, p. 160, Figs. 232,
233 (fragments) ; Schuchhardt, Schliemann's
Excavations, p. 187, Fig. 161 (restored, but
without the characteristic white veining);
Furtwangler und Loschke, Mykenische Vasen,
PL 2 (fragment showing the details in matt
white).

2 K. Kuroniotis, 'ApX' E<£-> r9'4' P- IJ3
and PL II, 1.

3 Kurt Miiller, loc. cit., PL XXII, 2.

4 Petrie, Illahun, Kahun, and Gurob, PL

XXVI, 44, p. 23, and Egyptian Bases of Greek
History (J. H. S., xi, 1890), PL XIV, 1 and
p. 293. This vessel, from Coffin no. 9, was
first attributed by Petrie (loc. cit.) with the rest
of the contents of the tomb to Rameses IPs
time, and approximately to iiooii.c. Later
on, in Egypt and Early Europe (Trans. R.
Soc. Lit., xix, p. 16) he referred it to Thothmes
Ill's time (1503-1449 b.c), and this view is
accepted by Dr. H. R. Hall (Aegean Archaeo-
logy, 1915, p. 102). In my own opinion both
the form and decoration of the vessel agree
with this dating.