DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7476#0045
KNOSSIAN BRONZE EWER FROM FIFTH GRAVE 29
The bronze vessels found in the Shaft Graves in almost every case
present a practical identity with those of Minoan Crete. The finest of all,
the gold-plated ewer from the Fifth Shaft Grave,1 here drawn fully restored
(Fig.15, d), shows such correspondence in its fluted decoration with a
bronze ewer from the North-West Treasure-House at Knossos (Fig. 15, a)
that we may suppose it to have been made in the same palatial atelier. It
may be referred to the transitional M.M. III<S-L.M. la phase. A gold-
plated silver bowl, found in the same Grave, bears a foliated decoration
very closely resembling that of a bronze basin from the same palatial hoard
at Knossos.2 The bronze tripod cauldrons also correspond with those of
the Knossian deposits of the same transitional age.
One exception, indeed, there is. This is the large cauldron from
Grave III, the upper plate of which presents a concave outline, thus recalling
Italian types. Its general Northern affinities have been rightly pointed out
by Or. Karo,3 who regards it as an important indication of Mainland
influence. But, in the entire absence of any Hellado-Minyan types of this kind,
the possibility that, like the halberd described below from Grave VI, it may
represent an intrusive object due to Adriatic commerce cannot be excluded.
Jewellery and Decorative Motives: Minoan Origins.
When we turn to the jewellery and to the decorative designs on gold
plates and roundels we are again compelled to seek the antecedent stages of
the forms and motives in the early remains of Minoan Crete.
It is now possible to trace back the recurring motives of the Mycenae
jewellery to the simple combinations of C, S, and J scrolls that appear on
a whole series of early Cretan seal types4 (Fig. It will be seen,
moreover, that the correspondences are not simply of a general character,
but extend to details of coincidence such as the coupling of the S-scrolls
with the tendril-pattern. The triquetral and swastika motives will also be
seen to have a much earlier history on the Cretan side (Fig. 17).
In spite, moreover, of the considerable interval in time between the
found near Gournia (Boyd-Hawes, Gournia,
p. 56, and Fig. 56), and a stone vase from
Tomb VI at Mochlos (Seager, Mochlos, PI.
VI). Cf., too, de Ridder {Cat. sommaire des
bijoux du Louvre, PI. VI), and Karo, op. at.,
p. 217.
1 For the first time fully restored in the draw-
ing executed for me by Monsieur E. Gillieron,
fils, P, of M., ii, Pt. II, p. 646, Fig. 411, a,
where it is set beside the Knossian ewer.
2 See ibid., p. 639, Fig. 403.
3 Die Schachigniber von Mykenai, p. 203 ;
he cites Hoemes, Ur°eschichte der Kunst,
2nd ed., p. 267, and Schuchhardt, Alteuropa,
p. 288, Fig. 259.
4 See my detailed account in P. of Af., ii,
Pt. I, p. 195 seqq., and Figs. 105-0 here repro-
duced.
The bronze vessels found in the Shaft Graves in almost every case
present a practical identity with those of Minoan Crete. The finest of all,
the gold-plated ewer from the Fifth Shaft Grave,1 here drawn fully restored
(Fig.15, d), shows such correspondence in its fluted decoration with a
bronze ewer from the North-West Treasure-House at Knossos (Fig. 15, a)
that we may suppose it to have been made in the same palatial atelier. It
may be referred to the transitional M.M. III<S-L.M. la phase. A gold-
plated silver bowl, found in the same Grave, bears a foliated decoration
very closely resembling that of a bronze basin from the same palatial hoard
at Knossos.2 The bronze tripod cauldrons also correspond with those of
the Knossian deposits of the same transitional age.
One exception, indeed, there is. This is the large cauldron from
Grave III, the upper plate of which presents a concave outline, thus recalling
Italian types. Its general Northern affinities have been rightly pointed out
by Or. Karo,3 who regards it as an important indication of Mainland
influence. But, in the entire absence of any Hellado-Minyan types of this kind,
the possibility that, like the halberd described below from Grave VI, it may
represent an intrusive object due to Adriatic commerce cannot be excluded.
Jewellery and Decorative Motives: Minoan Origins.
When we turn to the jewellery and to the decorative designs on gold
plates and roundels we are again compelled to seek the antecedent stages of
the forms and motives in the early remains of Minoan Crete.
It is now possible to trace back the recurring motives of the Mycenae
jewellery to the simple combinations of C, S, and J scrolls that appear on
a whole series of early Cretan seal types4 (Fig. It will be seen,
moreover, that the correspondences are not simply of a general character,
but extend to details of coincidence such as the coupling of the S-scrolls
with the tendril-pattern. The triquetral and swastika motives will also be
seen to have a much earlier history on the Cretan side (Fig. 17).
In spite, moreover, of the considerable interval in time between the
found near Gournia (Boyd-Hawes, Gournia,
p. 56, and Fig. 56), and a stone vase from
Tomb VI at Mochlos (Seager, Mochlos, PI.
VI). Cf., too, de Ridder {Cat. sommaire des
bijoux du Louvre, PI. VI), and Karo, op. at.,
p. 217.
1 For the first time fully restored in the draw-
ing executed for me by Monsieur E. Gillieron,
fils, P, of M., ii, Pt. II, p. 646, Fig. 411, a,
where it is set beside the Knossian ewer.
2 See ibid., p. 639, Fig. 403.
3 Die Schachigniber von Mykenai, p. 203 ;
he cites Hoemes, Ur°eschichte der Kunst,
2nd ed., p. 267, and Schuchhardt, Alteuropa,
p. 288, Fig. 259.
4 See my detailed account in P. of Af., ii,
Pt. I, p. 195 seqq., and Figs. 105-0 here repro-
duced.