DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12762#0050
KOUMASA
23
middle. The bare feet are modelled with some truth and the toes are well tholos b
shown. Behind, the buttocks and calves are modelled, but the spine is marked figurines
by a groove.
The figure is like those described by Professor Tsountas 1 from Amorgos, Cycladic Figurines
and still more like an example from Naxos.2 No trace of colour was noticed
on any of the Koumasa figures, but traces of red and black to emphasise details,
or perhaps to make them more gay, do exist on certain specimens from the
Cyclades. The Koumasa figures may once have had colour, too, but it could
not be expected to have survived in the circumstances, for it seems that at
Koumasa these figures were used again and again over a long period. In
the Cycladic tombs it was different. When once deposited the figures remained
untouched till our times.
Now each of the figures described represents a nude woman. The sex
is emphasised, or at least indicated, in all, and in the three larger figures the
breasts are shown in relief. But so far archaeology has failed to settle whose
form is represented by these figures either in Crete or in the Cyclades, or with
what intention they were made.3
The simplest and perhaps the most probable hypothesis sees in them the
Mother Goddess worshipped in Crete and the Mgean. The likeness of the
goddess would have been placed in the tomb that she might protect the dead
in the underworld as she protected him in his life on earth.
The relation of these figures to the neolithic figures of Crete and Europe
has been lately dealt with by Sir Arthur Evans.4
It is not easy to decide whether these figures were manufactured in Crete Place of
or brought ready-made from the Cyclades, the home of the type. The three Manufacture
of island marble, Nos. 123, 125, and 127, were almost certainly brought from
the islands. The other three, of coarse-grained marble or of the white lime-
stone used for the palettes described above, may, so far as material goes, have
been made in Crete, although figures of this stone have been found in the
Cyclades also. But their essential difference from the true Cretan figurine
supplies a strong argument in favour of their foreign origin. The true Cretan
type often resembles the Egyptian, and is radically different. In any case,
figures of Cycladic type were far less common in Crete than in the Cyclades.
No example, for instance, was found either in the tholoi of Hagia Triada or
Siva, or in the cemetery of Mochlos, or in most of the Mesara tholoi, all of them
burials contemporary with Cycladic graves and with these tholoi at Koumasa.
No. 122 represents a woman great with child, and so does the Naxian
figure mentioned above. Dr. Clon Stephanos takes this as confirmation of
1 'E<£. 'APX. (1898), o-fA. 193, Uiv. 10 ; 2, 3.
2 Perrot et Chipiez, op. cit., vol. V, p. 335,
fig. 243 ; vol. VI, p. 739, fig. 331. Cf. also Clon
Stephanos in Comptes rendus du Congres archeo-
logique a Athmes (1905), pp. 222-223.
3 A full discussion of this question by Dr.
Tsountas, embodying the opinions of other
scholars, will be found in 'E</>. 'Apx- (1898), <reA..
196-199-
4 Evans, Palace, pp. 50-52, 64, fig. 13, 6-9.
23
middle. The bare feet are modelled with some truth and the toes are well tholos b
shown. Behind, the buttocks and calves are modelled, but the spine is marked figurines
by a groove.
The figure is like those described by Professor Tsountas 1 from Amorgos, Cycladic Figurines
and still more like an example from Naxos.2 No trace of colour was noticed
on any of the Koumasa figures, but traces of red and black to emphasise details,
or perhaps to make them more gay, do exist on certain specimens from the
Cyclades. The Koumasa figures may once have had colour, too, but it could
not be expected to have survived in the circumstances, for it seems that at
Koumasa these figures were used again and again over a long period. In
the Cycladic tombs it was different. When once deposited the figures remained
untouched till our times.
Now each of the figures described represents a nude woman. The sex
is emphasised, or at least indicated, in all, and in the three larger figures the
breasts are shown in relief. But so far archaeology has failed to settle whose
form is represented by these figures either in Crete or in the Cyclades, or with
what intention they were made.3
The simplest and perhaps the most probable hypothesis sees in them the
Mother Goddess worshipped in Crete and the Mgean. The likeness of the
goddess would have been placed in the tomb that she might protect the dead
in the underworld as she protected him in his life on earth.
The relation of these figures to the neolithic figures of Crete and Europe
has been lately dealt with by Sir Arthur Evans.4
It is not easy to decide whether these figures were manufactured in Crete Place of
or brought ready-made from the Cyclades, the home of the type. The three Manufacture
of island marble, Nos. 123, 125, and 127, were almost certainly brought from
the islands. The other three, of coarse-grained marble or of the white lime-
stone used for the palettes described above, may, so far as material goes, have
been made in Crete, although figures of this stone have been found in the
Cyclades also. But their essential difference from the true Cretan figurine
supplies a strong argument in favour of their foreign origin. The true Cretan
type often resembles the Egyptian, and is radically different. In any case,
figures of Cycladic type were far less common in Crete than in the Cyclades.
No example, for instance, was found either in the tholoi of Hagia Triada or
Siva, or in the cemetery of Mochlos, or in most of the Mesara tholoi, all of them
burials contemporary with Cycladic graves and with these tholoi at Koumasa.
No. 122 represents a woman great with child, and so does the Naxian
figure mentioned above. Dr. Clon Stephanos takes this as confirmation of
1 'E<£. 'APX. (1898), o-fA. 193, Uiv. 10 ; 2, 3.
2 Perrot et Chipiez, op. cit., vol. V, p. 335,
fig. 243 ; vol. VI, p. 739, fig. 331. Cf. also Clon
Stephanos in Comptes rendus du Congres archeo-
logique a Athmes (1905), pp. 222-223.
3 A full discussion of this question by Dr.
Tsountas, embodying the opinions of other
scholars, will be found in 'E</>. 'Apx- (1898), <reA..
196-199-
4 Evans, Palace, pp. 50-52, 64, fig. 13, 6-9.