DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0314
262 THE MYCENAEAN AGE
To take but one instance ; we have noted the perfection
which metal-work had already reached at the epoch of the
acropolis graves, but the question of origin has been left
unsolved. On the gold votives from those graves no motive
is so familiar as the spiral, and it is always in repousse.
But when we go back to the Burnt City on Hissarli'k
we find an entirely different technique. There the spiral
is formed by coiling a wire which is then soldered to the
object it is to adorn. This is obviously the original pro-
cess, whose result is to be copied later by the goldsmith's
hammer and ultimately by the sculptor's chisel. But where
was the transition made from the primitive Trojan to the
developed Mycenaean technique ? We have no hesitation
in assuming that in this as in other progress the Islanders
were the intermediaries.
The opinion prevails, to be sure, that metal-work was so ,
little advanced in the Islands as to render its influence
Scarcity of upon the Mycenaean far from probable ; but this
metals ^ew Tes^s Up0n insufficient observation. It is
based solely upon the scarcity of metals in the Carian
graves and in the remains of Thera. But most of
these graves are exceedingly primitive, as we know from
the fact that the pottery found in them usually bears
nothing but incised ornamentation. They do not, there-
fore, represent the acme of the island-culture. Again,
even the few bronze weapons they have yielded are, after
all, more numerous than those of the ordinary Mycenaean
tombs, while other offerings of metal, especially of silver,
are by no means wanting. Thirdly, the graves belong to a
people who are already giving way before the more power-
ful Mycenaean intruders, and betaking themselves, as Koh-
ler* has justly observed, to the smaller and more barren
i Ath.Mitth., 1884. p. 161.
To take but one instance ; we have noted the perfection
which metal-work had already reached at the epoch of the
acropolis graves, but the question of origin has been left
unsolved. On the gold votives from those graves no motive
is so familiar as the spiral, and it is always in repousse.
But when we go back to the Burnt City on Hissarli'k
we find an entirely different technique. There the spiral
is formed by coiling a wire which is then soldered to the
object it is to adorn. This is obviously the original pro-
cess, whose result is to be copied later by the goldsmith's
hammer and ultimately by the sculptor's chisel. But where
was the transition made from the primitive Trojan to the
developed Mycenaean technique ? We have no hesitation
in assuming that in this as in other progress the Islanders
were the intermediaries.
The opinion prevails, to be sure, that metal-work was so ,
little advanced in the Islands as to render its influence
Scarcity of upon the Mycenaean far from probable ; but this
metals ^ew Tes^s Up0n insufficient observation. It is
based solely upon the scarcity of metals in the Carian
graves and in the remains of Thera. But most of
these graves are exceedingly primitive, as we know from
the fact that the pottery found in them usually bears
nothing but incised ornamentation. They do not, there-
fore, represent the acme of the island-culture. Again,
even the few bronze weapons they have yielded are, after
all, more numerous than those of the ordinary Mycenaean
tombs, while other offerings of metal, especially of silver,
are by no means wanting. Thirdly, the graves belong to a
people who are already giving way before the more power-
ful Mycenaean intruders, and betaking themselves, as Koh-
ler* has justly observed, to the smaller and more barren
i Ath.Mitth., 1884. p. 161.