DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0288
236 THE MYCENAEAN AGE
this coating was afterwards " set" by a gentle heat.1 The
black liquid employed by the artists of the daggers was
probably not resin but some substance better suited to their
purpose. For the rest the similarity of treatment at My-
cenae and Troy seems so close that the sole apparent con-
necting link between the Mycenaean and Egyptian daggers
— namely, the lustrous black background of their designs
— may well be a matter of mere coincidence.
Vessels every way similar to the primitive Trojan ware,
as we shall see, are found in Greece as well, and indeed
continued to be fabricated there long after more advanced
styles of pottery had appeared. There is no reason, then,
why we need deny to the art of inlaying, as exemplified in
the daggers and the silver cup, a Hellenic origin, whether
on the mainland or, with greater probability, in the islands.
Although we have seen reason to believe that lime-
plaster is alluded to in the Odyssey, in neither of the epics
Fresco ^° we mee*; with mention of wall-paintings even
pamtmg jn princejy palaces. Hence, it might have seemed
a reasonable inference that such painting was of post-
Homeric origin. All the more surprising is the revelation
made at Tiryns and Mycenae, that centuries before the
Homeric epoch there were palaces, and even pri-
and My- vate houses in Greece, whose walls were covered
cenae , ,
with polychrome designs. But even before the
Argive palaces were uncovered, fragments of wall-painting
had come to light in the island of Thera — the only spot
in the Greek world (as we have seen) which has
as yet produced a fellow to the inlaid daggers
of Mycenae. These paintings were discovered under con-
ditions that could leave no doubt of their high antiquity.
They were found, namely, in the ruins of houses buried
1 Athanasios Koumanoudes, in 'Atyvaiov, ix. p. 166.
this coating was afterwards " set" by a gentle heat.1 The
black liquid employed by the artists of the daggers was
probably not resin but some substance better suited to their
purpose. For the rest the similarity of treatment at My-
cenae and Troy seems so close that the sole apparent con-
necting link between the Mycenaean and Egyptian daggers
— namely, the lustrous black background of their designs
— may well be a matter of mere coincidence.
Vessels every way similar to the primitive Trojan ware,
as we shall see, are found in Greece as well, and indeed
continued to be fabricated there long after more advanced
styles of pottery had appeared. There is no reason, then,
why we need deny to the art of inlaying, as exemplified in
the daggers and the silver cup, a Hellenic origin, whether
on the mainland or, with greater probability, in the islands.
Although we have seen reason to believe that lime-
plaster is alluded to in the Odyssey, in neither of the epics
Fresco ^° we mee*; with mention of wall-paintings even
pamtmg jn princejy palaces. Hence, it might have seemed
a reasonable inference that such painting was of post-
Homeric origin. All the more surprising is the revelation
made at Tiryns and Mycenae, that centuries before the
Homeric epoch there were palaces, and even pri-
and My- vate houses in Greece, whose walls were covered
cenae , ,
with polychrome designs. But even before the
Argive palaces were uncovered, fragments of wall-painting
had come to light in the island of Thera — the only spot
in the Greek world (as we have seen) which has
as yet produced a fellow to the inlaid daggers
of Mycenae. These paintings were discovered under con-
ditions that could leave no doubt of their high antiquity.
They were found, namely, in the ruins of houses buried
1 Athanasios Koumanoudes, in 'Atyvaiov, ix. p. 166.