DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1117#0130
EARLY INFLUENCE OF INLAYS 91
red colouring' matter may also have been in use. What is certain is that in the
series of polychrome patterns that now appear on M. M. I a pottery both the
vermilion and the white elements of these primitive motives were reproduced.
How, then, account for such a revival after so vast an interval of time ?
It seems necessary to revert to a suggestion—already made when the Suggested
evidence was less complete!—that the reappearance of this primitive ^"p™'
technique on M. M. I a pottery was due to its survival on some class of ishaMe
objects in perishable materials of which we have no record. May there not
have been a tradition of boxes of this form, either of wood or of parchment
with a wooden frame-work, keeping" alive this simple form of patterns and
colour effect ?2
It is possible, indeed, to indicate another parallel source from which
these quasi-Neolithic elements in colouring" and design may have been taken
over. It is clear Thai pyxides of steatite existed such as are said to have
been found in Western Crete, already illustrated,3 in which incised linear
decoration—in that case spiraliform—was enhanced by a white inlaying
material. On a steatite libation vessel from the little sacellum of the
Phaestos Palace the incised designs were set off by a red inlay.4
Early Influence of Inlays.
Nor was this coloured decoration of steatite objects confined to the E«r'y "se
r . . . , . , . , .... of Inlays,
insertion or calcareous white or bright peroxide materials into the grooves
and cavities. The square-shaped lid of a steatite pyxis from Kumasa5 has
a white marble-like plaque resembling" a five-petalled flower set into it as its
central ornament.
As illustrating the influence of intarsia work on the origin of early
polychrome designs, the fragment partially completed in Fig". 59 has a special
interest.
Its 'rosette' pattern consists of a circle containing four segments of Rosettes
vesica piscis shape, a pattern that already appears in white on dark on pottery. from
of E. M. Ill date (see Fig-. 5S). As a natural result of intersecting- clrculiir
\ & ' to plaques.
circles the pattern is itself one of a constantly recurring class, but the
1 P. of M., i, p. 177. flasks of the Saharan borders.
' A parallel phenomenon meets the eye 3 P. ofM., i, p. 113, Fig. 81, a. Its type,
over a large North African region. There, however, seems to be Cycladic.
indeed, the common pottery is black and 4 L. Pernier, Palazzo di Phaestos, Mon.
unadorned, but a very fine tradition of poly- Ant., xiv, pp. 4S0, 4Sr, and Fig. 87.
chrome geometrical decoration in another ■'■ Xanthudides, Vaulted Tombs of Mesara
field is kept alive by the camel's bladder (ed. Droop), PI. XXXI, No. 685, and p. 45.
red colouring' matter may also have been in use. What is certain is that in the
series of polychrome patterns that now appear on M. M. I a pottery both the
vermilion and the white elements of these primitive motives were reproduced.
How, then, account for such a revival after so vast an interval of time ?
It seems necessary to revert to a suggestion—already made when the Suggested
evidence was less complete!—that the reappearance of this primitive ^"p™'
technique on M. M. I a pottery was due to its survival on some class of ishaMe
objects in perishable materials of which we have no record. May there not
have been a tradition of boxes of this form, either of wood or of parchment
with a wooden frame-work, keeping" alive this simple form of patterns and
colour effect ?2
It is possible, indeed, to indicate another parallel source from which
these quasi-Neolithic elements in colouring" and design may have been taken
over. It is clear Thai pyxides of steatite existed such as are said to have
been found in Western Crete, already illustrated,3 in which incised linear
decoration—in that case spiraliform—was enhanced by a white inlaying
material. On a steatite libation vessel from the little sacellum of the
Phaestos Palace the incised designs were set off by a red inlay.4
Early Influence of Inlays.
Nor was this coloured decoration of steatite objects confined to the E«r'y "se
r . . . , . , . , .... of Inlays,
insertion or calcareous white or bright peroxide materials into the grooves
and cavities. The square-shaped lid of a steatite pyxis from Kumasa5 has
a white marble-like plaque resembling" a five-petalled flower set into it as its
central ornament.
As illustrating the influence of intarsia work on the origin of early
polychrome designs, the fragment partially completed in Fig". 59 has a special
interest.
Its 'rosette' pattern consists of a circle containing four segments of Rosettes
vesica piscis shape, a pattern that already appears in white on dark on pottery. from
of E. M. Ill date (see Fig-. 5S). As a natural result of intersecting- clrculiir
\ & ' to plaques.
circles the pattern is itself one of a constantly recurring class, but the
1 P. of M., i, p. 177. flasks of the Saharan borders.
' A parallel phenomenon meets the eye 3 P. ofM., i, p. 113, Fig. 81, a. Its type,
over a large North African region. There, however, seems to be Cycladic.
indeed, the common pottery is black and 4 L. Pernier, Palazzo di Phaestos, Mon.
unadorned, but a very fine tradition of poly- Ant., xiv, pp. 4S0, 4Sr, and Fig. 87.
chrome geometrical decoration in another ■'■ Xanthudides, Vaulted Tombs of Mesara
field is kept alive by the camel's bladder (ed. Droop), PI. XXXI, No. 685, and p. 45.