DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.810#0285
658
INFLUENCE ON SYRIA AND ANATOLIA
Mutual
borrow-
ing of
Syrian
and
Minoan
art.
Minoan
reaction
on Ana-
tolia
and
l'ontus.
claim adherents. The costume itself, as shown below,1 represents a Minoan
fashion. Nor can any too rigid deductions be made from objects carried by
individual figures. There was borrowing on both sides. The well-known
' flower bowls ' of Egyptianizing Syrian fabric, with their lotus buds and
flowers, appear in Minoan hands. At the same time ewers of Minoan type
and characteristic ' rhytons ' such as those in the shape of bulls' heads are also
borne by Syrian tributaries.
The interpenetration of the works of Minoan artificers on the Syrian
side goes back, as we learn from the Byblos find, to the days of Amenemhat
III (c. 1935-1904 B.C.), in other words to the earlier phase of the Second
Middle Minoan Period.
At a later date, when Minoan or Mycenaean settlements unquestionably
existed in Cyprus, we trace a similar reaction of the intrusive Aegean art on
that of Assyria and the Hittite lands. Here, too,—as is well illustrated
by a specimen from Ain Tab,—a Cypro-Minoan type of bull's head ' rhyton '
was imitated in the Southern and Central regions of Anatolia.2
In this connexion it is interesting to refer to certain hitherto unnoticed
parallels which carry back the imitation of Minoan ' rhytons' of this class to
an earlier date than this on the Northern littoral of Asia Minor. From
the neighbourhood of Amisos and of other sites on the coast of Pontus
have been recently obtained specimens of a class of polychrome ware,
including remains of a series of ' rhytons ' of the bull's head type,3 all of very
similar fabric and decoration. These have been described as of ' Ionian style',
and referred to the sixth or even the fourth century4 before our era. One
apparently constant phenomenon connected with these vessels has, however,
escaped observation. Round the necks, as is well seen on the Louvre speci-
men reproduced in Fig. 422, runs a plant with ivy-like leaves and double and
triple stalks. But the illustrative materials given in § 53 above " sufficiently
reveal the fact that the plant here seen, with its divergent stalks, is in fact
1 See p. 754.
- See A. E., Tomb of the Double Axes, &*e.
(Archaeologia, Ixv), p 94, Fig. 97.
3 Several specimens are in the Louvre, and
have been described by H. de Genouillac,
Ce'ramiqtie Cappadocienne, i and ii (1926), who
classifies them as of ' Ionian style' of the
sixth century B. c. or later (op. cit., i, p. 32, and
cf. p. 64 : ' Category xxv '). Others are in the
Ashmolean Museum.
4 Op. cit., i, p. 64. M. de Genouillac says of
the rhyton (op. cit., ii, PI. xiii; Fig. 422 here) :
' Je suis porte, a cause de la terre, a le classer
. . . vers le ive siecle.' The danger of this kind
of ceramic classification, based largely on
material (which was always at hand, for earlier
or later potters), could not be better illus-
trated. An error of a thousand years in one
chronological ' category ' must carry doubt
into the other twenty-four.
5 P. 478 seqq.
INFLUENCE ON SYRIA AND ANATOLIA
Mutual
borrow-
ing of
Syrian
and
Minoan
art.
Minoan
reaction
on Ana-
tolia
and
l'ontus.
claim adherents. The costume itself, as shown below,1 represents a Minoan
fashion. Nor can any too rigid deductions be made from objects carried by
individual figures. There was borrowing on both sides. The well-known
' flower bowls ' of Egyptianizing Syrian fabric, with their lotus buds and
flowers, appear in Minoan hands. At the same time ewers of Minoan type
and characteristic ' rhytons ' such as those in the shape of bulls' heads are also
borne by Syrian tributaries.
The interpenetration of the works of Minoan artificers on the Syrian
side goes back, as we learn from the Byblos find, to the days of Amenemhat
III (c. 1935-1904 B.C.), in other words to the earlier phase of the Second
Middle Minoan Period.
At a later date, when Minoan or Mycenaean settlements unquestionably
existed in Cyprus, we trace a similar reaction of the intrusive Aegean art on
that of Assyria and the Hittite lands. Here, too,—as is well illustrated
by a specimen from Ain Tab,—a Cypro-Minoan type of bull's head ' rhyton '
was imitated in the Southern and Central regions of Anatolia.2
In this connexion it is interesting to refer to certain hitherto unnoticed
parallels which carry back the imitation of Minoan ' rhytons' of this class to
an earlier date than this on the Northern littoral of Asia Minor. From
the neighbourhood of Amisos and of other sites on the coast of Pontus
have been recently obtained specimens of a class of polychrome ware,
including remains of a series of ' rhytons ' of the bull's head type,3 all of very
similar fabric and decoration. These have been described as of ' Ionian style',
and referred to the sixth or even the fourth century4 before our era. One
apparently constant phenomenon connected with these vessels has, however,
escaped observation. Round the necks, as is well seen on the Louvre speci-
men reproduced in Fig. 422, runs a plant with ivy-like leaves and double and
triple stalks. But the illustrative materials given in § 53 above " sufficiently
reveal the fact that the plant here seen, with its divergent stalks, is in fact
1 See p. 754.
- See A. E., Tomb of the Double Axes, &*e.
(Archaeologia, Ixv), p 94, Fig. 97.
3 Several specimens are in the Louvre, and
have been described by H. de Genouillac,
Ce'ramiqtie Cappadocienne, i and ii (1926), who
classifies them as of ' Ionian style' of the
sixth century B. c. or later (op. cit., i, p. 32, and
cf. p. 64 : ' Category xxv '). Others are in the
Ashmolean Museum.
4 Op. cit., i, p. 64. M. de Genouillac says of
the rhyton (op. cit., ii, PI. xiii; Fig. 422 here) :
' Je suis porte, a cause de la terre, a le classer
. . . vers le ive siecle.' The danger of this kind
of ceramic classification, based largely on
material (which was always at hand, for earlier
or later potters), could not be better illus-
trated. An error of a thousand years in one
chronological ' category ' must carry doubt
into the other twenty-four.
5 P. 478 seqq.