DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16205#0055
POTTERY: TOWN STYLE
A LL the vases illustrated on Plate IX were found in houses which were occupied in the last
f\ days of the Town's existence. It would be unsafe to urge too far a distinction between
/ % them and the vases shown on Plates VII, VIII, yet there are some shades of difference,
J. V corresponding in part to differences between the houses in which they were buried. The
Town Period of Gournia was undoubtedly a long one; it is probable that not all the houses drawn in black
on our Plan were ever occupied simultaneously, and it is practically certain that some had been aban-
doned, perhaps even reduced to ruins and buried, before such vases as Nos. 4, 5, 7, 16, 30, 31 on Plate IX
were made. No pottery of this advanced style was found on the lower East Slope.
The extreme delicacy of design on Nos. 30, 31 represents the acme of ceramic art for the 1st Late
Minoan Period, before it merges into the studied effects of the Palace Period (L. M. II). Also the use
of multitudinous small dots, edging spirals, circles, spots, and ivy stems (Nos. 4, 5, 7) verges on Late
Minoan II, although spots surrounded by dots occur on 'Early Mycenaean' cups from Phylakopi. In
contrast with the majority of Gournia vases, No. 10 is over-elaborate, but the elements of its design, the
clay pellet imitating a metal rivet where handle joins rim and the horned projection on the rim, are all
early in character; a similar design of leaves filled with rosettes (this interpretation seems on the whole
preferable to that of a conventionalized iris or lily stalk) is painted on an 'Early Mycenaean' panelled
cup from Phylakopi. Again, the foliate design on No. 12 ( cf. Plate GO. imitating a rim pattern often
fig. 23
employed on bronze vessels occurs on many Minoan vases of the Palace Period, but one may readily
believe that it was also used before that time; a bronze rim fragment with this decoration was found
in one of the older houses on the East Slope at Gournia. An interesting instance of what would be
called 'red-figured technique' in classical Greek pottery is seen on the neck of a 'lecythus-rhyton' (Plate
I 2) where the background is painted, so as to reserve patches of buff clay representing four-petalled
flowers. The same neck ornament appears on a magnificent ewer from Phylakopi and on an elaborately
decorated amphora from Vaphio; both are of Palace Style, but since, in Mr. Bosanquet's words, this
technique is only "one step removed from the white on black of Middle Minoan ceramics," there is no
reason for supposing that a vase on which it occurs may not be earlier than Late Minoan II. The most
richly decorated vases from Gournia appear sober when referred to the standard of typical Palace
Style pottery; on none of them do we see the lacy effect of the Palaikastro rhytons or the architec-
tonic schemes of the great amphorae from Knossos, Mycenae, and Vaphio. A comparison of the Phy-
lakopi ewer mentioned above with the biigelkanne from Gournia (Plate H), which bears the same rich
marine design—octopus, nautilus, rocks—brings out the greater naturalism of the latter, the more con-
scious embellishment of the former. It may be argued that greater simplicity was likely to prevail at
a small provincial town than at a large port like Palaikastro or a capital like Knossos and that this need
not mean a difference in time. Certainly no hard and fast line can be drawn between the art of the 1st
and 2nd Late Minoan periods, but as the ultra Palace Style was absolutely lacking at Gournia, we
may conclude that our Town was destroyed before Knossos reached the zenith of its power.
43
A LL the vases illustrated on Plate IX were found in houses which were occupied in the last
f\ days of the Town's existence. It would be unsafe to urge too far a distinction between
/ % them and the vases shown on Plates VII, VIII, yet there are some shades of difference,
J. V corresponding in part to differences between the houses in which they were buried. The
Town Period of Gournia was undoubtedly a long one; it is probable that not all the houses drawn in black
on our Plan were ever occupied simultaneously, and it is practically certain that some had been aban-
doned, perhaps even reduced to ruins and buried, before such vases as Nos. 4, 5, 7, 16, 30, 31 on Plate IX
were made. No pottery of this advanced style was found on the lower East Slope.
The extreme delicacy of design on Nos. 30, 31 represents the acme of ceramic art for the 1st Late
Minoan Period, before it merges into the studied effects of the Palace Period (L. M. II). Also the use
of multitudinous small dots, edging spirals, circles, spots, and ivy stems (Nos. 4, 5, 7) verges on Late
Minoan II, although spots surrounded by dots occur on 'Early Mycenaean' cups from Phylakopi. In
contrast with the majority of Gournia vases, No. 10 is over-elaborate, but the elements of its design, the
clay pellet imitating a metal rivet where handle joins rim and the horned projection on the rim, are all
early in character; a similar design of leaves filled with rosettes (this interpretation seems on the whole
preferable to that of a conventionalized iris or lily stalk) is painted on an 'Early Mycenaean' panelled
cup from Phylakopi. Again, the foliate design on No. 12 ( cf. Plate GO. imitating a rim pattern often
fig. 23
employed on bronze vessels occurs on many Minoan vases of the Palace Period, but one may readily
believe that it was also used before that time; a bronze rim fragment with this decoration was found
in one of the older houses on the East Slope at Gournia. An interesting instance of what would be
called 'red-figured technique' in classical Greek pottery is seen on the neck of a 'lecythus-rhyton' (Plate
I 2) where the background is painted, so as to reserve patches of buff clay representing four-petalled
flowers. The same neck ornament appears on a magnificent ewer from Phylakopi and on an elaborately
decorated amphora from Vaphio; both are of Palace Style, but since, in Mr. Bosanquet's words, this
technique is only "one step removed from the white on black of Middle Minoan ceramics," there is no
reason for supposing that a vase on which it occurs may not be earlier than Late Minoan II. The most
richly decorated vases from Gournia appear sober when referred to the standard of typical Palace
Style pottery; on none of them do we see the lacy effect of the Palaikastro rhytons or the architec-
tonic schemes of the great amphorae from Knossos, Mycenae, and Vaphio. A comparison of the Phy-
lakopi ewer mentioned above with the biigelkanne from Gournia (Plate H), which bears the same rich
marine design—octopus, nautilus, rocks—brings out the greater naturalism of the latter, the more con-
scious embellishment of the former. It may be argued that greater simplicity was likely to prevail at
a small provincial town than at a large port like Palaikastro or a capital like Knossos and that this need
not mean a difference in time. Certainly no hard and fast line can be drawn between the art of the 1st
and 2nd Late Minoan periods, but as the ultra Palace Style was absolutely lacking at Gournia, we
may conclude that our Town was destroyed before Knossos reached the zenith of its power.
43