DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7382#0137
NOTE ON AEGEAN POTTERY OF THE
BRONZE AGE FOUND IN EGYPT
The following list is almost entirely a precis of the notes made by my wife in Cairo,
in the winter of 1928.
I have stopped short with the end of the Bronze Age, first because nothing Geometric
has as yet come to light in Egypt,1 and secondly because objects of the Orientalizing
Period centre round Naucratis and have been dealt with at length in the publications
of that site.
As will be seen from a glance at the accompanying map, the finds are well scattered
from south of the Delta to Lower Nubia. Their absence from the Delta is due solely
to the fact that expense has made excavation in that region almost impossible.
The finds from the two earliest sites are the most important from the chronological
point of view. Lahun and Harageh give a definite date for Kamares ware (M.M. II),
for the former at least can be accurately dated to the reign of Senusert II of the Xllth
Dynasty, c. 1903-1887. The fine vase from Abydos also is well stratified in a Xllth
Dynasty grave.
In discussing the later period, I would like to say that I do not employ the terms
"Late Minoan" and "Late Helladic" in any controversial sense, but merely in order
shortly to distinguish truly Cretan pottery from pottery which seems to show more
affinities with typical examples from the Mainland and Rhodes.
Late Minoan I a is found at Anibe in Nubia. Late Minoan I b at Lahun and in a
grave at Saqqara, the former in a rather doubtful context—the latter in an undoubted
XVIIIth Dynasty grave. To Late Minoan I b also belong the fine oenochoe known as
the Marseilles vase and a squat bowl said to come from Armant.2 Late Helladic I is
found at Abousir, and in the above-mentioned grave at Saqqara.
Late Minoan II is not found in Egypt,3 unless we are to count as such the fragments
from the tomb of Mentu-her-khepshef at Thebes. That vase, however, seems to be
more closely connected with the pseudo-Palace style of the Mainland.
Late Minoan III does not appear at all in Egypt.4 All the pottery that has hitherto
gone under that name approximates in decoration and fabric to that of Rhodes5 and
the Mainland. This pottery first appears in the Palace of Amenhotep III and is found
in quantities during the succeeding reign at Tell el Amarna. It continues down through
the XlXth Dynasty, where it appears as far south as Assuan, and is found in a XXth
1 The Geometric vase in the Cairo Museum, Room 39 (v), Case D, No. 26,134, is a gift and does not come
from Egypt.
2 Context quite unknown.
3 See above, p. 4. 4 Cf. p. xviii, note 4.
6 The importance of this early contact with Rhodes and the persistent connection between the two places
I hope to show in my report to Professor Maiuri on the Egyptian finds at Ialysos.
Ill
BRONZE AGE FOUND IN EGYPT
The following list is almost entirely a precis of the notes made by my wife in Cairo,
in the winter of 1928.
I have stopped short with the end of the Bronze Age, first because nothing Geometric
has as yet come to light in Egypt,1 and secondly because objects of the Orientalizing
Period centre round Naucratis and have been dealt with at length in the publications
of that site.
As will be seen from a glance at the accompanying map, the finds are well scattered
from south of the Delta to Lower Nubia. Their absence from the Delta is due solely
to the fact that expense has made excavation in that region almost impossible.
The finds from the two earliest sites are the most important from the chronological
point of view. Lahun and Harageh give a definite date for Kamares ware (M.M. II),
for the former at least can be accurately dated to the reign of Senusert II of the Xllth
Dynasty, c. 1903-1887. The fine vase from Abydos also is well stratified in a Xllth
Dynasty grave.
In discussing the later period, I would like to say that I do not employ the terms
"Late Minoan" and "Late Helladic" in any controversial sense, but merely in order
shortly to distinguish truly Cretan pottery from pottery which seems to show more
affinities with typical examples from the Mainland and Rhodes.
Late Minoan I a is found at Anibe in Nubia. Late Minoan I b at Lahun and in a
grave at Saqqara, the former in a rather doubtful context—the latter in an undoubted
XVIIIth Dynasty grave. To Late Minoan I b also belong the fine oenochoe known as
the Marseilles vase and a squat bowl said to come from Armant.2 Late Helladic I is
found at Abousir, and in the above-mentioned grave at Saqqara.
Late Minoan II is not found in Egypt,3 unless we are to count as such the fragments
from the tomb of Mentu-her-khepshef at Thebes. That vase, however, seems to be
more closely connected with the pseudo-Palace style of the Mainland.
Late Minoan III does not appear at all in Egypt.4 All the pottery that has hitherto
gone under that name approximates in decoration and fabric to that of Rhodes5 and
the Mainland. This pottery first appears in the Palace of Amenhotep III and is found
in quantities during the succeeding reign at Tell el Amarna. It continues down through
the XlXth Dynasty, where it appears as far south as Assuan, and is found in a XXth
1 The Geometric vase in the Cairo Museum, Room 39 (v), Case D, No. 26,134, is a gift and does not come
from Egypt.
2 Context quite unknown.
3 See above, p. 4. 4 Cf. p. xviii, note 4.
6 The importance of this early contact with Rhodes and the persistent connection between the two places
I hope to show in my report to Professor Maiuri on the Egyptian finds at Ialysos.
Ill