DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2533#0015
PREFATORY NOTE xv
which probably came into Crete from elsewhere, and which were never assimilated in their
complete purity of character. This course in the history of ceramic decoration seems to
me more probable than that the elements of the Mycenaean style were engrafted from
Crete upon the ware of those centres, notably the Argolid, where the Mycenaean style has
hitherto been supposed to have had its native home. As far as the Heraeum is concerned,
there appears to me to be no room for Mr. Mackenzie's hypothesis. For we have there,
as I have endeavored to trace it,1 a continuous and organic development from the incised
and early painted ornamentation of the Neolithic ware, through the dull-colored linear
ornament with free-hand drawing of the early Mycenaean ware, to the fully developed
forms of that style; and it appears to me that, out of the principle of free-hand drawing
with spirals and curved lines and waved patterns in the dull-colored vases, the natural-
istic ornament of the period of advanced ceramic art in the Mycenaean age naturally
follows. There is no room in the chain of development for the intrusion of the peculiar
early Minoan vase.
One important point Mr. Mackenzie has succeeded in making highly probable, namely,
that the use of glaze-color in vase decoration, which is to be found at the very earliest
period in Crete, may have originated there, and may have spread thence to other parts
of the Mycenaean area. This is most probable in view of the large numbers of such
specimens found in Crete; though all sites of the ancient world have not yet been exca-
vated. But the introduction of such a technical innovation is readily made from one part
of the world into another ; not so the introduction of a characteristic style. The isolated
specimens of distinctively Cretan Mycenaean ware which have been found in other parts of
the Mycenaean world do not justify the conclusion of such a predominant influence on the
part of the Cretan style, when we consider the paucity of these isolated specimens in
their proportion to the pure Mycenaean ware found in the Argolid and elsewhere. We
must wait for a careful differentiation between the peculiar Mycenaean ware found in Crete
and the ware which is purely Mycenaean and corresponds to the predominant class of
Mycenaean vases found in the Argolid, and, comparing their relative numbers, we must
then ask whether there is not actual evidence which makes it probable that a great
quantity of Mycenaean ware may have been imported into Crete from the Argolid. I may
finally add that the evidence from Troy confirms me in this supposition; for we there
find a pronounced and distinctive form of primitive ware with its characteristic material,
shape, and ornaments; while the advent of the Mycenaean style in the sixth layer is
foreshadowed in the adoption of spiral ornaments in the previous layer, which, though
incised in the predominant system of Trojan vases, manifests a decorative feeling intro-
duced and adopted from elsewhere. Dr. Diirpfeld says of these ornaments :2 " Ebenso
neu, aber nicht eigentlich troisch, sind die eingetieften Spiralen, welche in der Zeit der
dritten Periode aufkommen." These designs correspond to the usual ornaments as we
find them on the earliest dull-colored vases in the beginning of the Mycenaean period.
These remarks on the Cretan question in its relation to our discoveries may, as I have
1 Vol. I. pp. 53 ff. 2 Troya und Ilion, 1902, p. 279.
which probably came into Crete from elsewhere, and which were never assimilated in their
complete purity of character. This course in the history of ceramic decoration seems to
me more probable than that the elements of the Mycenaean style were engrafted from
Crete upon the ware of those centres, notably the Argolid, where the Mycenaean style has
hitherto been supposed to have had its native home. As far as the Heraeum is concerned,
there appears to me to be no room for Mr. Mackenzie's hypothesis. For we have there,
as I have endeavored to trace it,1 a continuous and organic development from the incised
and early painted ornamentation of the Neolithic ware, through the dull-colored linear
ornament with free-hand drawing of the early Mycenaean ware, to the fully developed
forms of that style; and it appears to me that, out of the principle of free-hand drawing
with spirals and curved lines and waved patterns in the dull-colored vases, the natural-
istic ornament of the period of advanced ceramic art in the Mycenaean age naturally
follows. There is no room in the chain of development for the intrusion of the peculiar
early Minoan vase.
One important point Mr. Mackenzie has succeeded in making highly probable, namely,
that the use of glaze-color in vase decoration, which is to be found at the very earliest
period in Crete, may have originated there, and may have spread thence to other parts
of the Mycenaean area. This is most probable in view of the large numbers of such
specimens found in Crete; though all sites of the ancient world have not yet been exca-
vated. But the introduction of such a technical innovation is readily made from one part
of the world into another ; not so the introduction of a characteristic style. The isolated
specimens of distinctively Cretan Mycenaean ware which have been found in other parts of
the Mycenaean world do not justify the conclusion of such a predominant influence on the
part of the Cretan style, when we consider the paucity of these isolated specimens in
their proportion to the pure Mycenaean ware found in the Argolid and elsewhere. We
must wait for a careful differentiation between the peculiar Mycenaean ware found in Crete
and the ware which is purely Mycenaean and corresponds to the predominant class of
Mycenaean vases found in the Argolid, and, comparing their relative numbers, we must
then ask whether there is not actual evidence which makes it probable that a great
quantity of Mycenaean ware may have been imported into Crete from the Argolid. I may
finally add that the evidence from Troy confirms me in this supposition; for we there
find a pronounced and distinctive form of primitive ware with its characteristic material,
shape, and ornaments; while the advent of the Mycenaean style in the sixth layer is
foreshadowed in the adoption of spiral ornaments in the previous layer, which, though
incised in the predominant system of Trojan vases, manifests a decorative feeling intro-
duced and adopted from elsewhere. Dr. Diirpfeld says of these ornaments :2 " Ebenso
neu, aber nicht eigentlich troisch, sind die eingetieften Spiralen, welche in der Zeit der
dritten Periode aufkommen." These designs correspond to the usual ornaments as we
find them on the earliest dull-colored vases in the beginning of the Mycenaean period.
These remarks on the Cretan question in its relation to our discoveries may, as I have
1 Vol. I. pp. 53 ff. 2 Troya und Ilion, 1902, p. 279.