DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0287
SOME PHASES OF MYCENAEAN ART 235
of the peculiar type here represented. Perhaps the nearest
approach to it is the axe on one of Mr. Evans' seal-stones—
a white carnelian — from eastern Crete (Fig. 140). But,
as we shall presently see, it is probable that, early in the
second millennium b. c, Thera was occupied by a My-
cenaean stock,1 mixing there- with an earlier island race
whose civilization influenced them as well as their kinsmen
of Continental Greece. The island art in turn influenceof
is under the influence of the still older Trojan y
art. And at Troy not only do we trace the form of axe
immediately preceding, in the process of evolution, that of
the Thera blade, but we find in certain Trojan products a
still closer analogy with our inlaid daggers. We refer to
the very primitive hand-made Trojan pottery which often
Fig. 118. Inlaid Sword from Thera (at Copenhagen)
has an incised linear ornamentation on the rim or inside,
the lines being filled in with white paste, while all the rest
of the surface is a lustrous black. According to the best
authority on the subject,2 this lustrous color was obtained
by washing the vessel in liquid resin and then exposing it
to the action of fire until the resinous coating was carbon-
ized. But in much the same way the lustrous black surface
of the inlaid daggers was produced; that is to say, the
blade, or the separate plate intended to receive the design,
was covered with some black substance in a fluid state, and
1 We use the term, as already explained (page 11)," to designate all Greek
peoples who shared in the Mycenaean civilization, irrespective of their habitat.
2 Hostmann, in Schliemann's Troja, p. 33.
of the peculiar type here represented. Perhaps the nearest
approach to it is the axe on one of Mr. Evans' seal-stones—
a white carnelian — from eastern Crete (Fig. 140). But,
as we shall presently see, it is probable that, early in the
second millennium b. c, Thera was occupied by a My-
cenaean stock,1 mixing there- with an earlier island race
whose civilization influenced them as well as their kinsmen
of Continental Greece. The island art in turn influenceof
is under the influence of the still older Trojan y
art. And at Troy not only do we trace the form of axe
immediately preceding, in the process of evolution, that of
the Thera blade, but we find in certain Trojan products a
still closer analogy with our inlaid daggers. We refer to
the very primitive hand-made Trojan pottery which often
Fig. 118. Inlaid Sword from Thera (at Copenhagen)
has an incised linear ornamentation on the rim or inside,
the lines being filled in with white paste, while all the rest
of the surface is a lustrous black. According to the best
authority on the subject,2 this lustrous color was obtained
by washing the vessel in liquid resin and then exposing it
to the action of fire until the resinous coating was carbon-
ized. But in much the same way the lustrous black surface
of the inlaid daggers was produced; that is to say, the
blade, or the separate plate intended to receive the design,
was covered with some black substance in a fluid state, and
1 We use the term, as already explained (page 11)," to designate all Greek
peoples who shared in the Mycenaean civilization, irrespective of their habitat.
2 Hostmann, in Schliemann's Troja, p. 33.