DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7519#0084
THE EARLY MINOAN PERIOD
49
to Sub-Neolithic must have been a very short period. At
Knossos the most common Sub-Neolithic shapes seem to be
open bowls, ladles, handleless cups, hemispherical or with a
base, and pedestalled bowls. Slightly later come a few frag-
ments of the burnish technique described below, and with
them several fragments which have stripes in chalky white
paint or more rarely in crimson. This perhaps was a revival
of Neolithic tradition. Still fewer have a dark on light tech-
nique, and it is perhaps permissible to regard these as imports
from the East.1
At Pyrgos and Arkalokhori the material is richer. Un-
fortunately neither site is stratified and both contain later
pottery. It is therefore on stylistic grounds that the attri-
butions must be made. We see here an advance on the
Sub-Neolithic shapes of Knossos in the tall grey chalices with
a burnished decoration perhaps representing grained wood
(PI. IX, i, c).2 One of these has a crinkly rim suggesting a
metallic origin, or more probably the irregular rim of Cretan
gourds. This shape and fabric are peculiar to the centre of
the island, though burnish decoration has been found in a
settlement at Ellenais near Amari West of Ida.3
Suspension pots come in with a high neck imitating gourds
and with their handles pierced vertically as opposed to the
horizontal piercing of the Neolithic Age. These, too, have a
grey surface and are frequently decorated with incised patterns
(PI. IX, i, a and b).
In this part of the island the incision, while more elaborate
and covering more of the vase than in Neolithic times, is careless
and consists mainly of thin chevrons divided by vertical lines
or of rough wedge-shaped dots. Often the vase looks as if
it had been merely scratched by a child, so random and irre-
sponsible is the decoration.
The painted ware from Pyrgos (PI. IX, 2, a) is entirely dark
on light. It seems to correspond more to the painted ware of
1 The paint approximates more to the reddish-brown lustre of the
East than to the clear matt red of the South. Evans, P. of M., I,
63, quotes Mackenzie as to its being the first appearance of true
glazed technique in the Aegean.
* P. of M., I, 69, where the shape is eventually derived from
a wooden bowl with withy handles set on a stand. Hazzidakis,
B.S.A., XIX, 39, thought the decoration was an irregular spiral.
Frankfort, Studies, II, 88, sees in it a rough geometric design, but
!t seems too irregular for that.
*y.H.s., 1932, 255.
4
49
to Sub-Neolithic must have been a very short period. At
Knossos the most common Sub-Neolithic shapes seem to be
open bowls, ladles, handleless cups, hemispherical or with a
base, and pedestalled bowls. Slightly later come a few frag-
ments of the burnish technique described below, and with
them several fragments which have stripes in chalky white
paint or more rarely in crimson. This perhaps was a revival
of Neolithic tradition. Still fewer have a dark on light tech-
nique, and it is perhaps permissible to regard these as imports
from the East.1
At Pyrgos and Arkalokhori the material is richer. Un-
fortunately neither site is stratified and both contain later
pottery. It is therefore on stylistic grounds that the attri-
butions must be made. We see here an advance on the
Sub-Neolithic shapes of Knossos in the tall grey chalices with
a burnished decoration perhaps representing grained wood
(PI. IX, i, c).2 One of these has a crinkly rim suggesting a
metallic origin, or more probably the irregular rim of Cretan
gourds. This shape and fabric are peculiar to the centre of
the island, though burnish decoration has been found in a
settlement at Ellenais near Amari West of Ida.3
Suspension pots come in with a high neck imitating gourds
and with their handles pierced vertically as opposed to the
horizontal piercing of the Neolithic Age. These, too, have a
grey surface and are frequently decorated with incised patterns
(PI. IX, i, a and b).
In this part of the island the incision, while more elaborate
and covering more of the vase than in Neolithic times, is careless
and consists mainly of thin chevrons divided by vertical lines
or of rough wedge-shaped dots. Often the vase looks as if
it had been merely scratched by a child, so random and irre-
sponsible is the decoration.
The painted ware from Pyrgos (PI. IX, 2, a) is entirely dark
on light. It seems to correspond more to the painted ware of
1 The paint approximates more to the reddish-brown lustre of the
East than to the clear matt red of the South. Evans, P. of M., I,
63, quotes Mackenzie as to its being the first appearance of true
glazed technique in the Aegean.
* P. of M., I, 69, where the shape is eventually derived from
a wooden bowl with withy handles set on a stand. Hazzidakis,
B.S.A., XIX, 39, thought the decoration was an irregular spiral.
Frankfort, Studies, II, 88, sees in it a rough geometric design, but
!t seems too irregular for that.
*y.H.s., 1932, 255.
4