DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1066#0154
CRETE AND GREECE
THERE has been wanting to the story thus
far woven some light from the mainland of
Greece. Some may even ask was not Greece possibly
the home of this pre-Hellenic civilization, which
would thus have descended to her on her own
soil ? We have given the credit to Crete, since all
stages of development through the Bronze Age
are represented there, whereas in Greece it is not
possible to produce the earlier stages in such com-
pleteness. The mainland finds which first reflect
to any degree this high civilization belong to the
First Late Minoan era, the earliest so-called
Mycenaean. Occasional discoveries of pre-Mycen-
aean achievement are being made to-day, and
doubtless more will follow, but after all that Greece
has undergone in the way of excavation it is un-
likely that we do wrong in denying the claim of
Hellas to be the first torch-bearer of Europe. If we
must call in Crete to explain the genesis and rise
of art on the mainland, by the Late Minoan period
Greece must be called in to throw light on the new
influences which were reaching Crete. They will
make clearer the fall of Crete, although at first
they were not of a wholly destructive character.
For Greece it is more difficult than for Crete to
THERE has been wanting to the story thus
far woven some light from the mainland of
Greece. Some may even ask was not Greece possibly
the home of this pre-Hellenic civilization, which
would thus have descended to her on her own
soil ? We have given the credit to Crete, since all
stages of development through the Bronze Age
are represented there, whereas in Greece it is not
possible to produce the earlier stages in such com-
pleteness. The mainland finds which first reflect
to any degree this high civilization belong to the
First Late Minoan era, the earliest so-called
Mycenaean. Occasional discoveries of pre-Mycen-
aean achievement are being made to-day, and
doubtless more will follow, but after all that Greece
has undergone in the way of excavation it is un-
likely that we do wrong in denying the claim of
Hellas to be the first torch-bearer of Europe. If we
must call in Crete to explain the genesis and rise
of art on the mainland, by the Late Minoan period
Greece must be called in to throw light on the new
influences which were reaching Crete. They will
make clearer the fall of Crete, although at first
they were not of a wholly destructive character.
For Greece it is more difficult than for Crete to