DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7519#0157
122
THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF CRETE
Asiatic or Anatolian influence may perhaps be seen in the
general layout of the palaces, but such evidence as has been
offered is of a considerably later date.1 Admittedly the
principle of a central court or light area surrounded by buildings
is new, but it is a form which would naturally occur to any one
who wished to set up a monumental structure more than two
rooms deep and more than one storey high.
We have already seen the pyxides imported from the Cyclades
at the very beginning of M.M.i, which may well have been part
of the same consignment as were found at Pyrgos, though that
site had not yet reached the M.M.i stage. On the other side
a little M.M.ifl and much M.M.ib pottery of Knossian fabric
was imported into Phylakope in Melos during the first period
of the second city in Middle Cycladic 1.2 That Minoan in-
fluence reached even further is shown by the jug of local fabric
from Dhrakhmani with the butterfly or double axe pattern
in a Middle Helladic tomb and a two-handled, bridge-spouted
bowl of M.M.itf date found in an Early Cypriote'in tomb at
Lapithos.3
For the origin of the metal prototypes of the fluted cups
with two handles from East Crete we most probably look to the
second city of Troy, while a striking parallel in clay to the
silver vase was found at Ali§ar and is of approximately con-
temporary date.4 Hittite examples and cups from Alaca
Hiiyiik are datable to shortly after 2100.
M.M.i Taking the evidence of foreign connexions, then we may say
Chronology that jyj ]y[ j begins in the centre of the island about the end of
the First Intermediate Period, in the rest of the island some-
where in the Xlth Dynasty, a good date for the early part of it
being given by the Babylonian cylinders. At Knossos and
Phaistos it comes to an end early in the Xllth Dynasty. In the
rest of Crete a development of it runs parallel with M.M.11, the
lower limits of which will be discussed in the next chapter. For
Knossos 2200 to soon after 2000 B.C. are the most probable dates.
1 O.I.C., 269.
2 Phylakopi, Fig. 127 ; Aberg, IV, Figs. 326, 328. It is maintained
by the latter that it is East Cretan. In the example he gives the nearest
parallels are to be found in Figs. 17, 10 and 23, both from pure deposits
at Knossos.
3 Prehistoric Thessaly, 204. The so-called ' Kamares ware ' from
Orkhomenos is light-on-dark Early Helladic ware. Ibid., 194. I
am indebted to Miss V. Grace for permission to refer to the Cypriote
vessel.
4 Cf. Studies, II, 142 ; Schmidt, Anatolia, Fig. 109.
THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF CRETE
Asiatic or Anatolian influence may perhaps be seen in the
general layout of the palaces, but such evidence as has been
offered is of a considerably later date.1 Admittedly the
principle of a central court or light area surrounded by buildings
is new, but it is a form which would naturally occur to any one
who wished to set up a monumental structure more than two
rooms deep and more than one storey high.
We have already seen the pyxides imported from the Cyclades
at the very beginning of M.M.i, which may well have been part
of the same consignment as were found at Pyrgos, though that
site had not yet reached the M.M.i stage. On the other side
a little M.M.ifl and much M.M.ib pottery of Knossian fabric
was imported into Phylakope in Melos during the first period
of the second city in Middle Cycladic 1.2 That Minoan in-
fluence reached even further is shown by the jug of local fabric
from Dhrakhmani with the butterfly or double axe pattern
in a Middle Helladic tomb and a two-handled, bridge-spouted
bowl of M.M.itf date found in an Early Cypriote'in tomb at
Lapithos.3
For the origin of the metal prototypes of the fluted cups
with two handles from East Crete we most probably look to the
second city of Troy, while a striking parallel in clay to the
silver vase was found at Ali§ar and is of approximately con-
temporary date.4 Hittite examples and cups from Alaca
Hiiyiik are datable to shortly after 2100.
M.M.i Taking the evidence of foreign connexions, then we may say
Chronology that jyj ]y[ j begins in the centre of the island about the end of
the First Intermediate Period, in the rest of the island some-
where in the Xlth Dynasty, a good date for the early part of it
being given by the Babylonian cylinders. At Knossos and
Phaistos it comes to an end early in the Xllth Dynasty. In the
rest of Crete a development of it runs parallel with M.M.11, the
lower limits of which will be discussed in the next chapter. For
Knossos 2200 to soon after 2000 B.C. are the most probable dates.
1 O.I.C., 269.
2 Phylakopi, Fig. 127 ; Aberg, IV, Figs. 326, 328. It is maintained
by the latter that it is East Cretan. In the example he gives the nearest
parallels are to be found in Figs. 17, 10 and 23, both from pure deposits
at Knossos.
3 Prehistoric Thessaly, 204. The so-called ' Kamares ware ' from
Orkhomenos is light-on-dark Early Helladic ware. Ibid., 194. I
am indebted to Miss V. Grace for permission to refer to the Cypriote
vessel.
4 Cf. Studies, II, 142 ; Schmidt, Anatolia, Fig. 109.