DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0289
SOME PHASES OF MYCENAEAN ART 237
under masses of pumice and lava thrown up by a volcanic
eruption which geologists assign to a date as remote as
2000 e. c.1
Just this remote antiquity, together with the fact that at
the time of their discovery they stood absolutely alone in
their kind, kept these Theraean paintings from being recog-
nized at their real value in the history of Greek culture.
The house walls at Thera were built in the same way as
at Mycenae and Tiryns, while the roofs were composed of
beams laid from wall to wall and close together, these being
covered in turn with a layer of earth and stones. To this
style of roofing there is one exception. In the centre of a
large chamber (16 by 20 feet) was found a circular block of
stone, which had evidently served as the base for a wooden
column ; and as the cross-beams, inserted in the walls of
this chamber, and actually found in their original position,
have a uniform upward inclination to the centre, we cannot
escape the conclusion that these beams carried a conical
roof with this column as its central support. The walls of
these chambers are coated, as at Mycenae and Tiryns, with
a plaster of pure lime unmixed with sand, which receives a
smooth finish and is then painted with designs in simple
colors — black, white, red, blue and yellow. These designs
at Thera are limited to simple bands of color, flowers and
foliage, while the frescoes of Mycenae and Tiryns, as we
have seen, advance to a vivid portrayal of human and
animal life. This alone would indicate the higher antiquity
1 This is the chronology of Fouqne', who studied the geological formation
of the island during his excavations there in 1866, but his views have recently
been called in question by Dr. Washington (" On the Possibility of Assigning a
Date to the Santorini Vases," Am. Journal of Archaeology, 1894, p. 504 ff.), and
Cecil Torr (Memphis and Mycenae, Cambridge, 1896, pp. 70 ff.). On the pre-
historic remains of Thera, see Fouque", Santorin et ses Eruptions ; Furtwangler
and Loschke, Myk. Vasen.
under masses of pumice and lava thrown up by a volcanic
eruption which geologists assign to a date as remote as
2000 e. c.1
Just this remote antiquity, together with the fact that at
the time of their discovery they stood absolutely alone in
their kind, kept these Theraean paintings from being recog-
nized at their real value in the history of Greek culture.
The house walls at Thera were built in the same way as
at Mycenae and Tiryns, while the roofs were composed of
beams laid from wall to wall and close together, these being
covered in turn with a layer of earth and stones. To this
style of roofing there is one exception. In the centre of a
large chamber (16 by 20 feet) was found a circular block of
stone, which had evidently served as the base for a wooden
column ; and as the cross-beams, inserted in the walls of
this chamber, and actually found in their original position,
have a uniform upward inclination to the centre, we cannot
escape the conclusion that these beams carried a conical
roof with this column as its central support. The walls of
these chambers are coated, as at Mycenae and Tiryns, with
a plaster of pure lime unmixed with sand, which receives a
smooth finish and is then painted with designs in simple
colors — black, white, red, blue and yellow. These designs
at Thera are limited to simple bands of color, flowers and
foliage, while the frescoes of Mycenae and Tiryns, as we
have seen, advance to a vivid portrayal of human and
animal life. This alone would indicate the higher antiquity
1 This is the chronology of Fouqne', who studied the geological formation
of the island during his excavations there in 1866, but his views have recently
been called in question by Dr. Washington (" On the Possibility of Assigning a
Date to the Santorini Vases," Am. Journal of Archaeology, 1894, p. 504 ff.), and
Cecil Torr (Memphis and Mycenae, Cambridge, 1896, pp. 70 ff.). On the pre-
historic remains of Thera, see Fouque", Santorin et ses Eruptions ; Furtwangler
and Loschke, Myk. Vasen.