DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16205#0057
POTTERY: REOCCUPATION STYLE
A T Gournia as on most Aegean sites, pottery is the chief guide to chronology. Even with-
/\ out the confirming testimony of other excavations, the student would recognize a lapse of
/ % considerable time between the Town Period represented by pottery shown on Plates VI-IX
L JL and the Reoccupation of a few houses in which were found such vases as appear on the up-
per part of Plate X. The hiatus cannot be bridged at our site. By comparison, we find that this in-
terval, during which Gournia was deserted, coincides with the era of greatest splendor at Knossos (Late
Minoan II), and that the partial revival of our Town followed the destruction of Knossos at the close
of the Palace Period. It was in this last epoch of Gournia history that certain ledges of soft lime-
stone about three-quarters of a mile east of the town were utilized for sepulchre.
This is proved by many characteristics of style common to the latest pottery from
the town and the vases from the rock-shelter burials.
Technically,this pottery is superior to that of the Town Period; its clay is
more perfectly levigated, it breaks in a cleaner section, the surface is more even,
and is harder, less absorbent; chalky pigments have been discarded and all decora-
tion is now drawn in an iron-oxide paint of uniform quality. Certain shapes, notably
of small vases, are very successful and the pattern is often well disposed. But one
detects immediately a paucity of ideas. To illustrate by comparison: the pottery of the Town Period is
faulty in execution but rich in invention, like the coinage of ancient
Greece; the Reoccupation pottery is perfectly made but lacks artistic
merit, like our own metallic currency. There is a further distinction:
the pottery on Plate X belongs to a class that was spread from one end
of the Mediterranean to the other; the pottery represented on Plates
VI-IX, although it has many points of resemblance to wares from other
sites, yet possesses a marked and consistent individuality.
Among shapes on Plate X, the biigelkanne, always two-handled, and
often with a foot (Nos. 1-3, 41), holds a prominent place; its body is
usually globular, but we have one flat-topped specimen, No. 1. Large
bowls with a rim-band and the lip pinched into a slight spout, are char-
acteristic of late houses at Gournia (No. 4). Many burial vases are small, made either for toilet pur-
poses or as special offerings to the dead; one brightly painted biigelkanne, not illustrated on our Plate,
is only 4 cm. high. A cup with one or more handles and
trough-spout protruding from the rim is a favorite
form (Nos. 29, 30). In general, handles are larger in
proportion to the body of the vessels, and stand out
farther from the body, than in preceding periods.
Three tendencies are observable in decoration:
(1) Sparsity and repetition of design—some vases are
decorated only by a few narrow stripes and curves, many
have no other decoration except on the shoulder; (2)
degeneration of patterns, especially of plant and marine
designs (Figs. 24,25); (3) imitation of ornament used in
fine metal work. A design, often likened to pendants hanging from a necklace, may have had its origin
in the very ancient ' ripple' pattern, and there are other instances of survivals. A detail so character-
istic that it might be called a trade-mark of this Late Minoan III pottery is a fine ribbon of paint
on the outside of the handles and another attached to the neck-band and looped around the
bases of the handles and spouts. The potter's bold attempt to picture animals resulted in grotesque
failurej(No. 44).
45
A T Gournia as on most Aegean sites, pottery is the chief guide to chronology. Even with-
/\ out the confirming testimony of other excavations, the student would recognize a lapse of
/ % considerable time between the Town Period represented by pottery shown on Plates VI-IX
L JL and the Reoccupation of a few houses in which were found such vases as appear on the up-
per part of Plate X. The hiatus cannot be bridged at our site. By comparison, we find that this in-
terval, during which Gournia was deserted, coincides with the era of greatest splendor at Knossos (Late
Minoan II), and that the partial revival of our Town followed the destruction of Knossos at the close
of the Palace Period. It was in this last epoch of Gournia history that certain ledges of soft lime-
stone about three-quarters of a mile east of the town were utilized for sepulchre.
This is proved by many characteristics of style common to the latest pottery from
the town and the vases from the rock-shelter burials.
Technically,this pottery is superior to that of the Town Period; its clay is
more perfectly levigated, it breaks in a cleaner section, the surface is more even,
and is harder, less absorbent; chalky pigments have been discarded and all decora-
tion is now drawn in an iron-oxide paint of uniform quality. Certain shapes, notably
of small vases, are very successful and the pattern is often well disposed. But one
detects immediately a paucity of ideas. To illustrate by comparison: the pottery of the Town Period is
faulty in execution but rich in invention, like the coinage of ancient
Greece; the Reoccupation pottery is perfectly made but lacks artistic
merit, like our own metallic currency. There is a further distinction:
the pottery on Plate X belongs to a class that was spread from one end
of the Mediterranean to the other; the pottery represented on Plates
VI-IX, although it has many points of resemblance to wares from other
sites, yet possesses a marked and consistent individuality.
Among shapes on Plate X, the biigelkanne, always two-handled, and
often with a foot (Nos. 1-3, 41), holds a prominent place; its body is
usually globular, but we have one flat-topped specimen, No. 1. Large
bowls with a rim-band and the lip pinched into a slight spout, are char-
acteristic of late houses at Gournia (No. 4). Many burial vases are small, made either for toilet pur-
poses or as special offerings to the dead; one brightly painted biigelkanne, not illustrated on our Plate,
is only 4 cm. high. A cup with one or more handles and
trough-spout protruding from the rim is a favorite
form (Nos. 29, 30). In general, handles are larger in
proportion to the body of the vessels, and stand out
farther from the body, than in preceding periods.
Three tendencies are observable in decoration:
(1) Sparsity and repetition of design—some vases are
decorated only by a few narrow stripes and curves, many
have no other decoration except on the shoulder; (2)
degeneration of patterns, especially of plant and marine
designs (Figs. 24,25); (3) imitation of ornament used in
fine metal work. A design, often likened to pendants hanging from a necklace, may have had its origin
in the very ancient ' ripple' pattern, and there are other instances of survivals. A detail so character-
istic that it might be called a trade-mark of this Late Minoan III pottery is a fine ribbon of paint
on the outside of the handles and another attached to the neck-band and looped around the
bases of the handles and spouts. The potter's bold attempt to picture animals resulted in grotesque
failurej(No. 44).
45