DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7476#0092
76 M.M. Ill EQUATIONS OF 'ATREUS' DECORATION
' Treasury of Atreus', is certainly in itself a feature not to be found in the
similar bands from Knossos, and leads us in the direction of the alabaster frieze
from Tiryns with its kyanos inlay. But the practice of inlaying was so wide-
spread in the case of M.M. Ill stone vessels of Knossian origin that it is
unsafe to attach much importance to this negative fact. We meet the evidence
of inlays again in the case of the gypsum relief of the galloping bull.1
The half-rosette and triglyph motive was already copied in wall-
paintings of the M.M. Ill Palace at Knossos, such as those from the
Thirteenth Magazine and the Miniature 'Temple Fresco ' which we now
know to have belonged to the ' Middle Palace'. As a traditional feature
in representations of Minoan or Mycenaean buildings, degenerate copies of
this design long survived in wall-paintings on the Mainland side, as can be
seen from the fresco fragment found at Orchomenos.2 So, too, the motive
appears impressed on glass paste beads of relatively late date and as an
architectural base to the design on the great gold ring from the Tiryns
Treasure. But these are one and all copies that do not affect the date of
the great original group.
In Crete itself there is no example of the half-rosette and triglyph band
in stone-work dating from Late Minoan days. On the Mainland, however,
we see a stone relief of this kind preserved in the well-known alabaster
frieze found in the Vestibule of the Men's Megaron at Tiryns.3 Both the
more complicated character of the decoration and the inlays of blue glass
paste as well as its actual structural associations point in this case to a later
date, but the alabaster material was itself in all probability imported from
Crete, and every detail of the ornament is still Minoan.
In view of the existing evidence, it is perhaps hardly necessary to dwell
on Mr. Wace's attempt to bring down the date of the * Treasury of Atreus'
over three centuries later than that indicated by the decorative parallels
above given, mainly on the ground of a painted sherd discovered by him
beneath its threshold. This sherd,4 which is in the fully developed 'metope'
style, belongs—whatever its exact position within that series—to the latest
Mycenaean class, equivalent in date with L. M. Ill b in Crete. To use it
1 See below, p. 79. dyke's view that the ' triglyph and metope '
2 H. Bulle, Orchomenos J, PI. XXVIII. visible on some of these types ultimately go
3 Schliemann, Tiryns, p. 248 seqq., and back to the architectural designs such as are seen
PL IV. on a ' Palace Style ' amphora (L.M. II) from a
4 See B. S. A., xxv, p. 387, Fig. 76 a, and tomb at Zafer Papoura (A. E., J're/i. Tombs,
compare Forsdyke, P.M. Cat., Prehistoric &-c, Fig. 144)- But there is a long gap in
Aegean Pottery, p. 203, Fig. 286, and p. 206, ceramic evolution between the two groups.
A 1075, 1 (Mycenae). I agree with Mr. Fors-
' Treasury of Atreus', is certainly in itself a feature not to be found in the
similar bands from Knossos, and leads us in the direction of the alabaster frieze
from Tiryns with its kyanos inlay. But the practice of inlaying was so wide-
spread in the case of M.M. Ill stone vessels of Knossian origin that it is
unsafe to attach much importance to this negative fact. We meet the evidence
of inlays again in the case of the gypsum relief of the galloping bull.1
The half-rosette and triglyph motive was already copied in wall-
paintings of the M.M. Ill Palace at Knossos, such as those from the
Thirteenth Magazine and the Miniature 'Temple Fresco ' which we now
know to have belonged to the ' Middle Palace'. As a traditional feature
in representations of Minoan or Mycenaean buildings, degenerate copies of
this design long survived in wall-paintings on the Mainland side, as can be
seen from the fresco fragment found at Orchomenos.2 So, too, the motive
appears impressed on glass paste beads of relatively late date and as an
architectural base to the design on the great gold ring from the Tiryns
Treasure. But these are one and all copies that do not affect the date of
the great original group.
In Crete itself there is no example of the half-rosette and triglyph band
in stone-work dating from Late Minoan days. On the Mainland, however,
we see a stone relief of this kind preserved in the well-known alabaster
frieze found in the Vestibule of the Men's Megaron at Tiryns.3 Both the
more complicated character of the decoration and the inlays of blue glass
paste as well as its actual structural associations point in this case to a later
date, but the alabaster material was itself in all probability imported from
Crete, and every detail of the ornament is still Minoan.
In view of the existing evidence, it is perhaps hardly necessary to dwell
on Mr. Wace's attempt to bring down the date of the * Treasury of Atreus'
over three centuries later than that indicated by the decorative parallels
above given, mainly on the ground of a painted sherd discovered by him
beneath its threshold. This sherd,4 which is in the fully developed 'metope'
style, belongs—whatever its exact position within that series—to the latest
Mycenaean class, equivalent in date with L. M. Ill b in Crete. To use it
1 See below, p. 79. dyke's view that the ' triglyph and metope '
2 H. Bulle, Orchomenos J, PI. XXVIII. visible on some of these types ultimately go
3 Schliemann, Tiryns, p. 248 seqq., and back to the architectural designs such as are seen
PL IV. on a ' Palace Style ' amphora (L.M. II) from a
4 See B. S. A., xxv, p. 387, Fig. 76 a, and tomb at Zafer Papoura (A. E., J're/i. Tombs,
compare Forsdyke, P.M. Cat., Prehistoric &-c, Fig. 144)- But there is a long gap in
Aegean Pottery, p. 203, Fig. 286, and p. 206, ceramic evolution between the two groups.
A 1075, 1 (Mycenae). I agree with Mr. Fors-