DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7519#0370
POST-MINOAN CRETE 335
with fledgelings picking their way through. Round the top
of this same vase is a frieze of fish. The old Minoan love of
nature has come to the fore again, for the composition of the
panel containing the birds owes nothing to outside influence.1
On one vase only appear human figures. A warrior in a
plumed helmet approaches a woman in a long skirt and a thick
fillet on her hair. Both figures stand on bases, which seem
to have been an artistic convention.2 The drawing is very rude,
particularly when compared with the fishes andthefloraldesigns.
In dating this pottery we shall probably be fairly correct if
we suggest the second half of the eighth century for the first
arrival of the orientalizing influences, and the last quarter of
the same century to about the middle of the seventh for the
polychrome vases.
The vases from Phrati are a peculiar group of their own.
Human figures are common, and so are plastic vases. An
interesting example is a bucket-shaped vase, which shows a
figure of the goddess holding very stylized trees with a bird on
each side of her. Her head is facing and her hair has been
added in relief.3 These vases, which cover practically the
whole of the Orientalizing Period, have few parallels elsewhere,
even in Crete. To the present writer they seem to bear more
resemblance to contemporarv Attic vases than to any other
style.
Many fine examples are known of pithoi decorated in relief
with animals, sphinxes, and human figures. Fragments of
these are among the most common objects to be found on the
surface of a site of this period. Courby,4 in his study of such
vases, divides them into three groups: Neo-Mycenaean, to
include those from the Diktaian cave and examples from
Lyttos, which he seems to date to the Geometric Period ;
Orientalizing, which he dates from 750 to 650 ; and Architec-
tural, 650-550, where the impression is given of a frieze on a
building. It is probable, however, that his Neo-Mycenaean
and his Orientalizing are contemporary at any rate during the
existence of the former.
This pottery is the last Cretan ware which is of a distinctive
local type. From now onwards Cretan vases are poor imita-
tions of the contemporary styles prevalent elsewhere. One
1 Ibid., 283.
2 Cf. the Rhethymnos mitra. Greek and Roman Bronzes, 61.
3 Annuario, X-XII, 330, Fig. 431.
4 Courby, Vases Grecques a Relief, 40 ff.
with fledgelings picking their way through. Round the top
of this same vase is a frieze of fish. The old Minoan love of
nature has come to the fore again, for the composition of the
panel containing the birds owes nothing to outside influence.1
On one vase only appear human figures. A warrior in a
plumed helmet approaches a woman in a long skirt and a thick
fillet on her hair. Both figures stand on bases, which seem
to have been an artistic convention.2 The drawing is very rude,
particularly when compared with the fishes andthefloraldesigns.
In dating this pottery we shall probably be fairly correct if
we suggest the second half of the eighth century for the first
arrival of the orientalizing influences, and the last quarter of
the same century to about the middle of the seventh for the
polychrome vases.
The vases from Phrati are a peculiar group of their own.
Human figures are common, and so are plastic vases. An
interesting example is a bucket-shaped vase, which shows a
figure of the goddess holding very stylized trees with a bird on
each side of her. Her head is facing and her hair has been
added in relief.3 These vases, which cover practically the
whole of the Orientalizing Period, have few parallels elsewhere,
even in Crete. To the present writer they seem to bear more
resemblance to contemporarv Attic vases than to any other
style.
Many fine examples are known of pithoi decorated in relief
with animals, sphinxes, and human figures. Fragments of
these are among the most common objects to be found on the
surface of a site of this period. Courby,4 in his study of such
vases, divides them into three groups: Neo-Mycenaean, to
include those from the Diktaian cave and examples from
Lyttos, which he seems to date to the Geometric Period ;
Orientalizing, which he dates from 750 to 650 ; and Architec-
tural, 650-550, where the impression is given of a frieze on a
building. It is probable, however, that his Neo-Mycenaean
and his Orientalizing are contemporary at any rate during the
existence of the former.
This pottery is the last Cretan ware which is of a distinctive
local type. From now onwards Cretan vases are poor imita-
tions of the contemporary styles prevalent elsewhere. One
1 Ibid., 283.
2 Cf. the Rhethymnos mitra. Greek and Roman Bronzes, 61.
3 Annuario, X-XII, 330, Fig. 431.
4 Courby, Vases Grecques a Relief, 40 ff.