DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16205#0049
POTTERY: EARLY GOURNIA STYLE
THE history of Gournia ceramics begins with a few scattered fragments found at low levels
amid the house foundations (Fig. 15). The oldest potsherds (1, 2; E. M. I, or earlier) are
of coarse reddish clay, parts of unpainted vases which were hand-made and baked in
an open fire. Their decoration consists of rough linear designs scratched in the clay with
a blunt tool, and in no case are these incisions filled with a pigment. An 'archaizing neolithic'
style is represented by a few fragments of very fine, firm, gray clay, thin and thoroughly levigated,
which ring when struck and are incised with great precision in narrow lines (3, E. M. II; cf. Pis. A 5,
XI 10). Of the same period are specimens of rather fine, buff clay (4, 5), parts of a bowl or cup that
t^ji_j~-r £3xtw~*. - —■« was ^irst mcisec^ 'n st:r'Pes and wave-lines and then
pggh m^'fw w^^^l clipped in a slip, which became, through baking in
' ^s^^pjy wjpi. »mf^& io^* an °Pen fire, partly black, partly red-brown, and
9=^S^ ^7 *JLm fflr-'—uaiL. received thereafter a low hand-polish. The mot-
^ l^fifA Sf^sa O^Wls* l'ed ware of Vasiliki is represented at Gournia by a
* wimmJ Tg^" few random sherds (6) and by one whole jug (PI.
* ^ VI 1) found in a pocket of rock underlying a house
fig. .5. early minoan sherds floor Marks q{ the model,ing stick on neck and
body, and the roughness of the bottom of the vase prove that it was hand-made, but form and decora-
tion are so sophisticated, that it appears to be an archaizing use of Vasiliki technique; such polka-dot
spotting is entirely foreign to genuine Vasiliki pottery of the 2nd Early Minoan period (see Pis. B, XII).
A few fragments of buff clay on which narrow stripes were painted in black (7), others with white geo-
metric designs on a black body-paint (8,10), and others with white decoration on black bands or panels
covering only a part of the buff ground of the clay (9) complete the list of chance survivals of pottery
that was made centuries before the town we excavated was built (E. M. Ill wares; cf. North Trench
Pottery, p. 57, infra).
fig. l6. from deposits below house floors on east slope
Our excavations confirmed the opinion held by Dr. Mackenzie that dark-on-light and light-on-
dark styles of decoration were both developed from sub-neolithic wares and grew up side by side; but
they leave no doubt that in this neighborhood, during Middle Minoan times, the light-on-dark style
prevailed on all the best pottery, whereas, during the Town Period of Gournia (L. M. I),for fine as well
as coarse wares, the opposite technique was almost exclusively employed. Broadly speaking, the
light-on-dark style is stiff and formal, the dark-on-light style is free and impressionistic. Even in Early
Minoan times, the potter who made vase 3 on Plate A, using red on buff, was feeling after a freer
form of design than anything we see in light-on-dark before the last stage of the Middle Minoan period,
and interest in plant forms was actually manifested before the custom of incising pottery was aban-
doned (Fig. 16, 14).
37
THE history of Gournia ceramics begins with a few scattered fragments found at low levels
amid the house foundations (Fig. 15). The oldest potsherds (1, 2; E. M. I, or earlier) are
of coarse reddish clay, parts of unpainted vases which were hand-made and baked in
an open fire. Their decoration consists of rough linear designs scratched in the clay with
a blunt tool, and in no case are these incisions filled with a pigment. An 'archaizing neolithic'
style is represented by a few fragments of very fine, firm, gray clay, thin and thoroughly levigated,
which ring when struck and are incised with great precision in narrow lines (3, E. M. II; cf. Pis. A 5,
XI 10). Of the same period are specimens of rather fine, buff clay (4, 5), parts of a bowl or cup that
t^ji_j~-r £3xtw~*. - —■« was ^irst mcisec^ 'n st:r'Pes and wave-lines and then
pggh m^'fw w^^^l clipped in a slip, which became, through baking in
' ^s^^pjy wjpi. »mf^& io^* an °Pen fire, partly black, partly red-brown, and
9=^S^ ^7 *JLm fflr-'—uaiL. received thereafter a low hand-polish. The mot-
^ l^fifA Sf^sa O^Wls* l'ed ware of Vasiliki is represented at Gournia by a
* wimmJ Tg^" few random sherds (6) and by one whole jug (PI.
* ^ VI 1) found in a pocket of rock underlying a house
fig. .5. early minoan sherds floor Marks q{ the model,ing stick on neck and
body, and the roughness of the bottom of the vase prove that it was hand-made, but form and decora-
tion are so sophisticated, that it appears to be an archaizing use of Vasiliki technique; such polka-dot
spotting is entirely foreign to genuine Vasiliki pottery of the 2nd Early Minoan period (see Pis. B, XII).
A few fragments of buff clay on which narrow stripes were painted in black (7), others with white geo-
metric designs on a black body-paint (8,10), and others with white decoration on black bands or panels
covering only a part of the buff ground of the clay (9) complete the list of chance survivals of pottery
that was made centuries before the town we excavated was built (E. M. Ill wares; cf. North Trench
Pottery, p. 57, infra).
fig. l6. from deposits below house floors on east slope
Our excavations confirmed the opinion held by Dr. Mackenzie that dark-on-light and light-on-
dark styles of decoration were both developed from sub-neolithic wares and grew up side by side; but
they leave no doubt that in this neighborhood, during Middle Minoan times, the light-on-dark style
prevailed on all the best pottery, whereas, during the Town Period of Gournia (L. M. I),for fine as well
as coarse wares, the opposite technique was almost exclusively employed. Broadly speaking, the
light-on-dark style is stiff and formal, the dark-on-light style is free and impressionistic. Even in Early
Minoan times, the potter who made vase 3 on Plate A, using red on buff, was feeling after a freer
form of design than anything we see in light-on-dark before the last stage of the Middle Minoan period,
and interest in plant forms was actually manifested before the custom of incising pottery was aban-
doned (Fig. 16, 14).
37