DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16205#0041
DOMESTIC UTENSILS
IT will be readily understood that the illustrations on Plate 11 represent a large majority of the ob-
jects discovered on our site. For one decorated vase, a score of undecorated pots and kettles is
unearthed. The temptation is to neglect this ordinary and somewhat unattractive material,
but the penalty of such neglect is to lose a background for our picture of the past. We must
know the standard of living as well as the aesthetic principles of a race and, to save our studies from be-
coming a mere discussion of styles, must keep in full view the significance of the humblest articles of
use. Even without the evidence of their choicer possessions, the variety of ordinary household vessels
found at Gournia would prove that the prehistoric inhabitants of the town were far removed
from savagery or even barbarism. For such variety points to a discriminate adaptation of means to
ends. The potter moulded his clay into an extraordinary number of shapes to fill needs for which we
to-day employ not earthenware alone, but also wood, glass, and metal; and in the course of his more
serious work, he made scores of diminutive vases (e. g.,Nos. 1-8), which look like children's toys (cf.
'Liliputian vases,' Ilios p. 534, Nos. 1054-1078). I cannot think them votive, as scarcely a house was
without them, whereas none are recorded from the Shrine, and several of the shapes (e. g., No. 2) are far
more appropriate for children's housekeeping than for religious offering. Cups were the commonest
of all our finds. Several rooms received the nickname xa<peve7ov 'coffee-house' because of the rouleaux
of cups they contained. In B 7, about fifty of the handleless variety (No. 13) were discovered. Nos.
9-12 are well known Middle Minoan forms, copied from metal cups; many examples of No. 9, the so-
called 'Vaphio' or 'Keftiu' shape (cf. PI. C 4, p. 60), were found in our Early Deposit A (p. 37, infra)
and in the oldest rooms on the lower East Slope (e. g., D 29). The commonest cup of the 1st Late Minoan
period is No. 13, but there are scores of other shapes, born of the potter's growing facility and apprecia-
tion of his own material. A low cup, No. 14, is characteristic of Reoccupation days (L. M. Ill), but it
has forerunners with a narrow flat rim (No. 51) in the Town Period (L. M. I), and in the Buried Houses
(M. M. III). The tall cup, No. 33, has as long a history.
'Fire-boxes' are common on all prehistoric Aegean sites. In their simplest form they seem to
have been intended solely for keeping fire alight; we have two examples in which there is but one hole,
evidently for an ember; modified by the addition of rim and handle, the fire-box served for heating,
probably sometimes as an incense-burner (Nos. 19 and 28). A box which is pointed below or has holes
at the bottom—we have eight of this type, see No. 20— must have been placed on a small ring-stand or
set into another vessel; a large one from Aghia Triadha fits into a deep, round pan. Cup No. 32
may also have been used for heating. Dippers (No. 27) and scoops (No. 29) were made in convenient
and artistic shapes; such flower forms as Nos. 19, 28, 29 are typical of the Town Period; a later genera-
tion saw the long, awkward, loop handle introduced (No. 28), derived perhaps from a very early form
(cf. PL XII 17). There are covers of every variety (Nos. 39-43) made to set over, into, and upon
vessels of all sizes.
Pots, kettles, and saucepans (Nos. 34-37, 70-72) were numerous, but in bad condition, owing to their
poor material and hard use. No. 37, from the East Slope, is a Middle Minoan shape, which occurs fre-
quently at Knossos in modified form with two handles. Tripod kettles (Nos. 64, 70, 72) were made to
stand directly over a fire of sticks; but other forms suggest such arrangements for cooking as are seen
in the cottages of modern Cretans, a raised hearth built of stone and clay coated with plaster, having
recesses for fagots between ledges which support the pots. Yet we were unable to identify any such
hearths, except perhaps in A 43, and must therefore conclude that the simpler method of resting the
pot on stones was usually followed. From the fragments found, it appears that the tripod kettle
was the favorite form of cooking-vessel. As among Cretan peasants to-day, cooking was evidently
limited to roasting on the spit and stewing.
29
IT will be readily understood that the illustrations on Plate 11 represent a large majority of the ob-
jects discovered on our site. For one decorated vase, a score of undecorated pots and kettles is
unearthed. The temptation is to neglect this ordinary and somewhat unattractive material,
but the penalty of such neglect is to lose a background for our picture of the past. We must
know the standard of living as well as the aesthetic principles of a race and, to save our studies from be-
coming a mere discussion of styles, must keep in full view the significance of the humblest articles of
use. Even without the evidence of their choicer possessions, the variety of ordinary household vessels
found at Gournia would prove that the prehistoric inhabitants of the town were far removed
from savagery or even barbarism. For such variety points to a discriminate adaptation of means to
ends. The potter moulded his clay into an extraordinary number of shapes to fill needs for which we
to-day employ not earthenware alone, but also wood, glass, and metal; and in the course of his more
serious work, he made scores of diminutive vases (e. g.,Nos. 1-8), which look like children's toys (cf.
'Liliputian vases,' Ilios p. 534, Nos. 1054-1078). I cannot think them votive, as scarcely a house was
without them, whereas none are recorded from the Shrine, and several of the shapes (e. g., No. 2) are far
more appropriate for children's housekeeping than for religious offering. Cups were the commonest
of all our finds. Several rooms received the nickname xa<peve7ov 'coffee-house' because of the rouleaux
of cups they contained. In B 7, about fifty of the handleless variety (No. 13) were discovered. Nos.
9-12 are well known Middle Minoan forms, copied from metal cups; many examples of No. 9, the so-
called 'Vaphio' or 'Keftiu' shape (cf. PI. C 4, p. 60), were found in our Early Deposit A (p. 37, infra)
and in the oldest rooms on the lower East Slope (e. g., D 29). The commonest cup of the 1st Late Minoan
period is No. 13, but there are scores of other shapes, born of the potter's growing facility and apprecia-
tion of his own material. A low cup, No. 14, is characteristic of Reoccupation days (L. M. Ill), but it
has forerunners with a narrow flat rim (No. 51) in the Town Period (L. M. I), and in the Buried Houses
(M. M. III). The tall cup, No. 33, has as long a history.
'Fire-boxes' are common on all prehistoric Aegean sites. In their simplest form they seem to
have been intended solely for keeping fire alight; we have two examples in which there is but one hole,
evidently for an ember; modified by the addition of rim and handle, the fire-box served for heating,
probably sometimes as an incense-burner (Nos. 19 and 28). A box which is pointed below or has holes
at the bottom—we have eight of this type, see No. 20— must have been placed on a small ring-stand or
set into another vessel; a large one from Aghia Triadha fits into a deep, round pan. Cup No. 32
may also have been used for heating. Dippers (No. 27) and scoops (No. 29) were made in convenient
and artistic shapes; such flower forms as Nos. 19, 28, 29 are typical of the Town Period; a later genera-
tion saw the long, awkward, loop handle introduced (No. 28), derived perhaps from a very early form
(cf. PL XII 17). There are covers of every variety (Nos. 39-43) made to set over, into, and upon
vessels of all sizes.
Pots, kettles, and saucepans (Nos. 34-37, 70-72) were numerous, but in bad condition, owing to their
poor material and hard use. No. 37, from the East Slope, is a Middle Minoan shape, which occurs fre-
quently at Knossos in modified form with two handles. Tripod kettles (Nos. 64, 70, 72) were made to
stand directly over a fire of sticks; but other forms suggest such arrangements for cooking as are seen
in the cottages of modern Cretans, a raised hearth built of stone and clay coated with plaster, having
recesses for fagots between ledges which support the pots. Yet we were unable to identify any such
hearths, except perhaps in A 43, and must therefore conclude that the simpler method of resting the
pot on stones was usually followed. From the fragments found, it appears that the tripod kettle
was the favorite form of cooking-vessel. As among Cretan peasants to-day, cooking was evidently
limited to roasting on the spit and stewing.
29