DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1117#0190
•SNAKE TUBES' DERIVED FROM WATER-PIPES 145
objects. That a type of tube-like vessels should have arisen from the
analogy of a class of built, well-like openings in the earth, is wholly
inadmissible. The origin of ceramic articles of the ritual class is rather
to be found in the adoption and further adaptation of objects like cups,
bowls, and ewers, and stands for such in common use. When, for instance,
as in certain vase designs, we see the upper rim of a great jar, the rest of
which is buried in the sepulchral mound, and, it may be, little souls flying
out of it,"' we have generally to recognize a vessel of ordinary type, used for
funeral libations and with, at most, an opening made in its base.
There was, in fact, a very material model at hand.
' Snake Tubes' derived from Minoan Water-pipe or Drain Sections.
A satisfactory explanation, which covers all features and both classes
of the ' snake tubes' with which we are dealing", may indeed be obtained by
a comparison with separate sections of one of the
beautifully compacted clay water-pipes, as seen in the
early Palace at Knossos.
These, as has been well demonstrated by those
found in situ on the Palace site, are of two main
varieties, plain tubes, namely, as seen under the
' Draught-board Area ', and those provided with two
loops on each side, such as were found beneath the
South Porch, Figs, 112-114.2 The slightly tapering-
outline and the stop-ridges near the smaller end are
common to both. The comparative examples given
in Fig. 110 of 'snake tubes' from the primitive Cretan
house shrines show that in this case too we have to deal
with two main groups, those with a plain circumference
and those with three or four loops running up their sides (Fig. Ill b).
From the comparative point of view this latter class is of special
importance, for the side loops—hitherto unexplained—stand in the most
natural relation to the pipe or drain sections presenting on either side
pairs of similar attachments (see Figs. 112-114). These themselves perform
a definite constructional function, enabling the separate sections to be
corded together for better cohesion in places where, as in the case of the
South Porch, they passed over made, earth, entailing the danger of sagging
1 E.g., in the scene ofthe swinging Nymph, •- J\,,f_Hf., i, p. 143, Fig. 104 a (cf. B.S.A.,
already cited (Berlin hydria. Furtwangler, p. I3] Fig, j\
No. 2294).
IV. L
Real
origin
from
drain
sections.
Both
Minoan
varieties
of these
adapted
as ' snake
tubes'.
Fig. Ill b.
Looped
class of
tubes
thus ex-
plained :
cording
together
of pipe
sections.
objects. That a type of tube-like vessels should have arisen from the
analogy of a class of built, well-like openings in the earth, is wholly
inadmissible. The origin of ceramic articles of the ritual class is rather
to be found in the adoption and further adaptation of objects like cups,
bowls, and ewers, and stands for such in common use. When, for instance,
as in certain vase designs, we see the upper rim of a great jar, the rest of
which is buried in the sepulchral mound, and, it may be, little souls flying
out of it,"' we have generally to recognize a vessel of ordinary type, used for
funeral libations and with, at most, an opening made in its base.
There was, in fact, a very material model at hand.
' Snake Tubes' derived from Minoan Water-pipe or Drain Sections.
A satisfactory explanation, which covers all features and both classes
of the ' snake tubes' with which we are dealing", may indeed be obtained by
a comparison with separate sections of one of the
beautifully compacted clay water-pipes, as seen in the
early Palace at Knossos.
These, as has been well demonstrated by those
found in situ on the Palace site, are of two main
varieties, plain tubes, namely, as seen under the
' Draught-board Area ', and those provided with two
loops on each side, such as were found beneath the
South Porch, Figs, 112-114.2 The slightly tapering-
outline and the stop-ridges near the smaller end are
common to both. The comparative examples given
in Fig. 110 of 'snake tubes' from the primitive Cretan
house shrines show that in this case too we have to deal
with two main groups, those with a plain circumference
and those with three or four loops running up their sides (Fig. Ill b).
From the comparative point of view this latter class is of special
importance, for the side loops—hitherto unexplained—stand in the most
natural relation to the pipe or drain sections presenting on either side
pairs of similar attachments (see Figs. 112-114). These themselves perform
a definite constructional function, enabling the separate sections to be
corded together for better cohesion in places where, as in the case of the
South Porch, they passed over made, earth, entailing the danger of sagging
1 E.g., in the scene ofthe swinging Nymph, •- J\,,f_Hf., i, p. 143, Fig. 104 a (cf. B.S.A.,
already cited (Berlin hydria. Furtwangler, p. I3] Fig, j\
No. 2294).
IV. L
Real
origin
from
drain
sections.
Both
Minoan
varieties
of these
adapted
as ' snake
tubes'.
Fig. Ill b.
Looped
class of
tubes
thus ex-
plained :
cording
together
of pipe
sections.