DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16205#0069
APPENDIX E. EARLY MINOAN III WARE FROM THE NORTH TRENCH
OF the deposits of early pottery on the Gournia hill, the largest was that traversed by the
North Trench1 (see Plan). Here, on the borders of the town, but quite apart from house-
walls, a triangular area measuring c. 17 m. on two sides, and c. 14 m. on the third, was
found to be packed with thousands of bits of broken pottery. In the centre of this area the
sherds lay a metre deep and crowded close together; owing to the denudation of the soil, the depth was
less toward the outside, and the sherds proportionately fewer. There were no traces of stratification.
Waste-deposits of pottery have been found at Melos {Phylakopi, pp. 82,83, 244), among the
Knossos houses {B.S.A.,\!\, p. 72), at Zakro {id., VII, pp. 123-129), and at Naukratis in Egypt
{Naukratis, p. 20). They are explained either as accumulations of ex-voto offerings or merely as heaps
of refuse thrown out in course of preparations for rebuilding. The early and uniform character of the
Gournia deposit points to the latter explanation, although emphasis may well be laid on the fact that
in the havoc wrought by denudation, some of the original deposit may have disappeared.
About 200 baskets of fragments taken from the North Trench in 1904, and a few specimens of the
ware found the same year at Vasiliki (PI. XI I, 29, 30,34, 35) and Gournia (Fig. 15,8-10) serve as the basis
of this brief study. The clay of which this ware is made shades from a buff to a brick-red color accord-
ing to the firing; for all the finer vases it is well sifted. Occasionally a gray clay with black particles is
found. The ware seems to have been hand-made. At least there are no certain traces of the wheel
either on the bottom fragments or the inner surfaces of fragments from the sides of vases. The lines,
on the contrary, are disjoined, as if the revolution of the vase had been slow, and the transition from
neck to rim as in the amphora-like vessels is gradual, not sharp. The shapes, however, are always
regular, and sometimes, especially in the case of cups, are fashioned of very thin clay.
The decoration is applied in one of the following ways: (1) Directly upon the surface of the clay,
without the medium of a slip, a dark paint is applied either (a) to the entire surface of the vase or (b) to
FIG. 41. POTTF.RY FROM THE NORTH TRENCH, GOURNIA. SCALE C. 3:8
those portions only which are to be decorated with a light design; on this dark ground the designs are
painted in white; or (2) the decoration itself, confined in this case to simple patterns like bands and loops,
is painted dark on the ground of the clay. This second technique with dark design paint is rarely used for
small vases, but appears on large, coarse vessels. The inside of the vase is left unpainted except for
a narrow band about the mouth. The body-paint varies in color: it is either red or else it shades from
an iron black to brown. It is semi-lustrous, casting a slight reflection when turned in the light and
not soaking deep into the clay. The white paint used for the design is chalky and sometimes so fugi-
tive that it could be rubbed away with a stroke of the hand, although in general it is more stable than
the white paint of the Middle Minoan 1 Period. It frequently has a yellowish tinge.
No whole vases were found. Most of the fragments, however, could be assigned to one of the
following shapes: (1) cups; (2) hole-mouthed jars; (3) beaked-jugs; (4) lids; and (5) miscellaneous.
This list does not include coarse, unpainted vessels like pithoi and three-legged kitchen pots. The three
principal types of cups are shown in Fig. 41, 1-3. The largest fragment recovered from a hole-mouthed
jar is fragment 34 of PI. XII, from Vasiliki. Spouts of beaked jugs were numerous (see Fig 41,4); they
were generally decorated with festoons of black paint or merely with knobs of clay on their necks.
They are the prototypes of PI. VI, 13, 14 and 15, and indicate a much less exaggerated type of beak
than that found at Phylakopi,2 and in the 11—IV strata at Troy.3 Two types of lids may be distinguished:
(1) a lid with an overlapping edge and two handles near the rim (Fig. 42,9 a, b) and a flat lid with, pre-
sumably, a single handle in the middle. Under the head 'miscellaneous'are included jugs with ver-
tical necks and flaring rims (Fig. 42,2), low dishes with spreading sides (Fig. 42,1), large circular dishes
with vertical sides (Fig. 42, 11 a, b), a pyxis, and a fragment of an open-work dish (Fig. 42,6).
1 For a fuller account of this ware and for further illustrations, see Trans. Univ. Pa., 1905, Vol. I, Part III, p. 195 ff.
2 Cf. Phylakopi, PI. IX.
3 Troja und llion, I, Beilage 35, pi S. 265, 11, IV, V.
4 In 1903, before the North Trench at Gournia had been explored, fragments of this style of pottery were discovered
at Knossos (B. S. A., IX, pp. 17-19). In the following year the ware came to light at Knossos {B. S. A., X, pp. 18-21),
at Palaiokastro (id. pp. 196-202, fig. 2), at Hagia Photia (PI A 4), as well as at Vasiliki and Gournia. In 1905 the
The commonest principle of decoration is a horizontal band of ornament around the upper part
of the vase, and within the horizontal band the fundamental motive is the zigzag. The simplest form
in which it survives (Fig. 41,1 and a, Fig. 42, 9 a, PI. A 4) is a design which was found in such
abundance wherever pottery of this period came to light, that it may safely be taken as a means,
of identification of the ware. Many of the other designs have an up and down character which
suggests near relation to a zigzag. The arcs in Fig. 41,3 and b, c, are direct translations of the zigzag
into curvilinear design, and in Fig. 41 d, e, Fig. 42, 4, 10, if the circular device be regarded as the down-
ward line in a zigzag, we have again a scheme which is akin to a simple zigzag line.
Occasionally decoration is applied in more than one zone (Fig. 42, 10, 12). Instances of vertical
decoration do not occur except in case of the drip pattern {cf. PI. XII 27). Panel decoration is also
rare: it is enough to call attention in Fig. 41, 5 to the vertical division of the field into alternating
panels of buff-colored clay and black paint with superadded white design.
The quirks which accompany the arcs in Fig. 41 c {cf. Fig. 42,3)probably owed their existence to the
ease with which they could be made by a turn of the brush. They enjoyed a long life during subsequent
periods of vase-painting. Another important motive in the decoration of this ware is the spiral, which
seems to have begun its career in Aegean art shortly before the Early Minoan III period. Examples
of its use in this pottery are Fig. 42, 4, 10. Naturalistic motives are limited to such leaf-like designs as
are shown in Fig. 42, 6, 7. Evidently the decorators of these vases did not seriously attempt to rep-
resent natural objects: rather, in experimenting with straight and curved lines, they chanced upon
designs which looked like natural objects. They saw the resemblance and were pleased by it. A
more incongruous combination of linear and curvilinear motives is the geometric animal, if such it
really be, shown in Fig. 42, 8. What the potter seemingly did here was to add horns and legs to a
hatched oval which suggested to him a resemblance to an animal's body.
FIG. 42. POTTERY FROM THE NORTH TRENCH, GOURNIA. SCALE C. 3:8
In general, the decoration of this ware marks the transition from linear to curvilinear design, when
the brush has finally superseded the incising instrument and artists are led by the freedom which the
new implement brings, into many experiments which result now in incongruous combinations, now in
fresh and harmonious designs foreshadowing the beauties of later stages of Cretan decorative art."
And this leads us to consider the place in the sequence of Cretan pottery to which our fragments
should be assigned. Dr. Evans {B. S. A., IX, p. 19, and Essai de Classification, p. 6), Mr. Dawkins
{B. S. A., XI, pp. 268-271), as well as our own expedition assigned them to the Early Minoan III
Period. More recently Dr. Mackenzie {J. H. S., XXVI, p. 243 fT, and PI. IX) has published as belong-
ing to the Middle Minoan I class, fragments which present close analogies to the North Trench ware.
The difference in name is not important so long as it be remembered that the ware in question differs
but little in its simpler phases from the Early Minoan III ware from Knossos, and hardly perceptibly,
in its later stages, from Middle Minoan I ware. On the whole, however, the designs of the fragments
from the North Trench are simpler than those which characterize the Middle Minoan I period. More-
over, fragments like those from the North Trench were found in the Vasiliki pits above Early Minoan
II ware,5 whereas they rarely appeared in the Middle Minoan deposits below the level of the floors of the
Gournia houses. Accordingly, I should still prefer to assign them to the Early Minoan 111 class.
It is tempting to see in the white painted designs of this pottery a connection with the white-
filled neolithic pottery of Central Europe. But the presence of a neolithic stratum on Cretan soil,
as well as the rapid and unbroken development of Cretan ceramics, especially in the eastern end of the
island, obviate the necessity of assuming foreign influence0; and to me it seems wiser to explain from
within the phenomena of the development of Cretan ceramics.
excavations at Palaiokastro added forty-one more vases of exactly the same fabric to the list (B. S. A., XI, pp. 268-271,
fig. 5), and in 1906, during supplementary excavations at Vasiliki, Mr. Seager unearthed the finest specimens of the ware
that have yet appeared. They are to be published shortly in the Trans. Univ. Pa. They not only add to our knowledge
of shapes, but they show how gradually vases of this fabric merge into the Middle Minoan I style.
8 See Trans. Univ. Pa., Vol. I, Part 111, 1905, p. 211.
6 Cj. D. Mackenzie, B. S. A., XII, p. 225.
E. H. Hall.
OF the deposits of early pottery on the Gournia hill, the largest was that traversed by the
North Trench1 (see Plan). Here, on the borders of the town, but quite apart from house-
walls, a triangular area measuring c. 17 m. on two sides, and c. 14 m. on the third, was
found to be packed with thousands of bits of broken pottery. In the centre of this area the
sherds lay a metre deep and crowded close together; owing to the denudation of the soil, the depth was
less toward the outside, and the sherds proportionately fewer. There were no traces of stratification.
Waste-deposits of pottery have been found at Melos {Phylakopi, pp. 82,83, 244), among the
Knossos houses {B.S.A.,\!\, p. 72), at Zakro {id., VII, pp. 123-129), and at Naukratis in Egypt
{Naukratis, p. 20). They are explained either as accumulations of ex-voto offerings or merely as heaps
of refuse thrown out in course of preparations for rebuilding. The early and uniform character of the
Gournia deposit points to the latter explanation, although emphasis may well be laid on the fact that
in the havoc wrought by denudation, some of the original deposit may have disappeared.
About 200 baskets of fragments taken from the North Trench in 1904, and a few specimens of the
ware found the same year at Vasiliki (PI. XI I, 29, 30,34, 35) and Gournia (Fig. 15,8-10) serve as the basis
of this brief study. The clay of which this ware is made shades from a buff to a brick-red color accord-
ing to the firing; for all the finer vases it is well sifted. Occasionally a gray clay with black particles is
found. The ware seems to have been hand-made. At least there are no certain traces of the wheel
either on the bottom fragments or the inner surfaces of fragments from the sides of vases. The lines,
on the contrary, are disjoined, as if the revolution of the vase had been slow, and the transition from
neck to rim as in the amphora-like vessels is gradual, not sharp. The shapes, however, are always
regular, and sometimes, especially in the case of cups, are fashioned of very thin clay.
The decoration is applied in one of the following ways: (1) Directly upon the surface of the clay,
without the medium of a slip, a dark paint is applied either (a) to the entire surface of the vase or (b) to
FIG. 41. POTTF.RY FROM THE NORTH TRENCH, GOURNIA. SCALE C. 3:8
those portions only which are to be decorated with a light design; on this dark ground the designs are
painted in white; or (2) the decoration itself, confined in this case to simple patterns like bands and loops,
is painted dark on the ground of the clay. This second technique with dark design paint is rarely used for
small vases, but appears on large, coarse vessels. The inside of the vase is left unpainted except for
a narrow band about the mouth. The body-paint varies in color: it is either red or else it shades from
an iron black to brown. It is semi-lustrous, casting a slight reflection when turned in the light and
not soaking deep into the clay. The white paint used for the design is chalky and sometimes so fugi-
tive that it could be rubbed away with a stroke of the hand, although in general it is more stable than
the white paint of the Middle Minoan 1 Period. It frequently has a yellowish tinge.
No whole vases were found. Most of the fragments, however, could be assigned to one of the
following shapes: (1) cups; (2) hole-mouthed jars; (3) beaked-jugs; (4) lids; and (5) miscellaneous.
This list does not include coarse, unpainted vessels like pithoi and three-legged kitchen pots. The three
principal types of cups are shown in Fig. 41, 1-3. The largest fragment recovered from a hole-mouthed
jar is fragment 34 of PI. XII, from Vasiliki. Spouts of beaked jugs were numerous (see Fig 41,4); they
were generally decorated with festoons of black paint or merely with knobs of clay on their necks.
They are the prototypes of PI. VI, 13, 14 and 15, and indicate a much less exaggerated type of beak
than that found at Phylakopi,2 and in the 11—IV strata at Troy.3 Two types of lids may be distinguished:
(1) a lid with an overlapping edge and two handles near the rim (Fig. 42,9 a, b) and a flat lid with, pre-
sumably, a single handle in the middle. Under the head 'miscellaneous'are included jugs with ver-
tical necks and flaring rims (Fig. 42,2), low dishes with spreading sides (Fig. 42,1), large circular dishes
with vertical sides (Fig. 42, 11 a, b), a pyxis, and a fragment of an open-work dish (Fig. 42,6).
1 For a fuller account of this ware and for further illustrations, see Trans. Univ. Pa., 1905, Vol. I, Part III, p. 195 ff.
2 Cf. Phylakopi, PI. IX.
3 Troja und llion, I, Beilage 35, pi S. 265, 11, IV, V.
4 In 1903, before the North Trench at Gournia had been explored, fragments of this style of pottery were discovered
at Knossos (B. S. A., IX, pp. 17-19). In the following year the ware came to light at Knossos {B. S. A., X, pp. 18-21),
at Palaiokastro (id. pp. 196-202, fig. 2), at Hagia Photia (PI A 4), as well as at Vasiliki and Gournia. In 1905 the
The commonest principle of decoration is a horizontal band of ornament around the upper part
of the vase, and within the horizontal band the fundamental motive is the zigzag. The simplest form
in which it survives (Fig. 41,1 and a, Fig. 42, 9 a, PI. A 4) is a design which was found in such
abundance wherever pottery of this period came to light, that it may safely be taken as a means,
of identification of the ware. Many of the other designs have an up and down character which
suggests near relation to a zigzag. The arcs in Fig. 41,3 and b, c, are direct translations of the zigzag
into curvilinear design, and in Fig. 41 d, e, Fig. 42, 4, 10, if the circular device be regarded as the down-
ward line in a zigzag, we have again a scheme which is akin to a simple zigzag line.
Occasionally decoration is applied in more than one zone (Fig. 42, 10, 12). Instances of vertical
decoration do not occur except in case of the drip pattern {cf. PI. XII 27). Panel decoration is also
rare: it is enough to call attention in Fig. 41, 5 to the vertical division of the field into alternating
panels of buff-colored clay and black paint with superadded white design.
The quirks which accompany the arcs in Fig. 41 c {cf. Fig. 42,3)probably owed their existence to the
ease with which they could be made by a turn of the brush. They enjoyed a long life during subsequent
periods of vase-painting. Another important motive in the decoration of this ware is the spiral, which
seems to have begun its career in Aegean art shortly before the Early Minoan III period. Examples
of its use in this pottery are Fig. 42, 4, 10. Naturalistic motives are limited to such leaf-like designs as
are shown in Fig. 42, 6, 7. Evidently the decorators of these vases did not seriously attempt to rep-
resent natural objects: rather, in experimenting with straight and curved lines, they chanced upon
designs which looked like natural objects. They saw the resemblance and were pleased by it. A
more incongruous combination of linear and curvilinear motives is the geometric animal, if such it
really be, shown in Fig. 42, 8. What the potter seemingly did here was to add horns and legs to a
hatched oval which suggested to him a resemblance to an animal's body.
FIG. 42. POTTERY FROM THE NORTH TRENCH, GOURNIA. SCALE C. 3:8
In general, the decoration of this ware marks the transition from linear to curvilinear design, when
the brush has finally superseded the incising instrument and artists are led by the freedom which the
new implement brings, into many experiments which result now in incongruous combinations, now in
fresh and harmonious designs foreshadowing the beauties of later stages of Cretan decorative art."
And this leads us to consider the place in the sequence of Cretan pottery to which our fragments
should be assigned. Dr. Evans {B. S. A., IX, p. 19, and Essai de Classification, p. 6), Mr. Dawkins
{B. S. A., XI, pp. 268-271), as well as our own expedition assigned them to the Early Minoan III
Period. More recently Dr. Mackenzie {J. H. S., XXVI, p. 243 fT, and PI. IX) has published as belong-
ing to the Middle Minoan I class, fragments which present close analogies to the North Trench ware.
The difference in name is not important so long as it be remembered that the ware in question differs
but little in its simpler phases from the Early Minoan III ware from Knossos, and hardly perceptibly,
in its later stages, from Middle Minoan I ware. On the whole, however, the designs of the fragments
from the North Trench are simpler than those which characterize the Middle Minoan I period. More-
over, fragments like those from the North Trench were found in the Vasiliki pits above Early Minoan
II ware,5 whereas they rarely appeared in the Middle Minoan deposits below the level of the floors of the
Gournia houses. Accordingly, I should still prefer to assign them to the Early Minoan 111 class.
It is tempting to see in the white painted designs of this pottery a connection with the white-
filled neolithic pottery of Central Europe. But the presence of a neolithic stratum on Cretan soil,
as well as the rapid and unbroken development of Cretan ceramics, especially in the eastern end of the
island, obviate the necessity of assuming foreign influence0; and to me it seems wiser to explain from
within the phenomena of the development of Cretan ceramics.
excavations at Palaiokastro added forty-one more vases of exactly the same fabric to the list (B. S. A., XI, pp. 268-271,
fig. 5), and in 1906, during supplementary excavations at Vasiliki, Mr. Seager unearthed the finest specimens of the ware
that have yet appeared. They are to be published shortly in the Trans. Univ. Pa. They not only add to our knowledge
of shapes, but they show how gradually vases of this fabric merge into the Middle Minoan I style.
8 See Trans. Univ. Pa., Vol. I, Part 111, 1905, p. 211.
6 Cj. D. Mackenzie, B. S. A., XII, p. 225.
E. H. Hall.