DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12762#0132
PLATANOS
105
1899. This is an oblong slab with a hole at each corner, and shows very the
clear marks of rubbing. Length -085 m., breadth -035 m. cemetery
The other five are long narrow slabs pierced at each end. stone object
2008, however, at one end has a nick at each side instead of a hole ; 1900
has the ends rounded off; and 2011 is as thick as it is broad. In length they
run from 40 m. to -13 m.1
(c) Obsidian
Of obsidian a fair number of pieces were found, knife blades, cores, and Obsidian
rough chips. Two complete knife blades, 1908, 1909 (Plate LIV), are worthy
of mention, because they are very transparent and almost colourless save for
a black tinge in places that makes them look like white glass a little smoked.
They were found in Tholos B. Length -06 m. and -07 m.
They are not, I think, of the usual Melian obsidian, but are of a particu-
larly choice kind, probably from some other source. I have lately been informed
by Signor della Seta, Director of the Italian School at Athens, that blades and
cores of a like transparent obsidian have been found in a cave at Aspre Petra
in Kos, and that this kind of obsidian comes from the volcanic islet of Gyali
between Nisyros and Kos.
It is not then improbable that these two blades from Tholos B are of this
obsidian, and in that case we shall have a second iEgean source of obsidian
in Minoan times.2
In 1922 Mr. Wace, then Director of the British School at Athens, gave me
some pieces of a similar, almost transparent, obsidian sent him from Addis
Abbaba in Abyssinia, where it is found in quantities.3
Tholos B also produced a core of a transparent obsidian like that of the
blades, which indicates that the blades were flaked off in Crete.
Rich scent bottles of obsidian set with gold at brim and base have been
found in twelfth dynasty surroundings at Illahun and Dahmour in Egypt, and
a similar scent jar of obsidian in excellent preservation, also of the twelfth
dynasty, has recently been found by the French in a tomb in the Egyptian colony
of Byblos in Phoenicia. According to the finders, the obsidian used for these
vessels came from Nubia, which the Egyptians had recently possessed them-
selves of, and from which they also procured gold.4
I imagine that a careful examination of the many fragments of obsidian
found in Cretan excavations would discover other specimens of this transparent
1 For similar stones from Koumasa and argu- 2 A. della Seta, R. Arckeologica Italiana di Atene,
ments against the interpretation of them as (Dicembre 1922), fig. 8.
' brassards ' see p. 20. Of the Platanos examples , B uet in his ch ter on obsidian ,pkh_
the broad slab, 1899, is the only one With a , . £ glfi ff ) ^ ^ ^
shape at all resembling such brassards from R£maif Emperors obsidian w/s brought from the
other sites. Of. Schhemann, Ihot, London (1880), f Ab inia an(1 that mirror* were made
p. 566, No. 1257. f{. j
Dechelette, op. cit., II, p. 227, fig. 72.
Peet, The Stone and Bronze Ages in Italy and 1 Les Travaux archeologiques en Syrie de 1920-
Sicily, p. 307, fig. 161. 1922 (Paris, 1923), pp. 25-36 and 38.
O
105
1899. This is an oblong slab with a hole at each corner, and shows very the
clear marks of rubbing. Length -085 m., breadth -035 m. cemetery
The other five are long narrow slabs pierced at each end. stone object
2008, however, at one end has a nick at each side instead of a hole ; 1900
has the ends rounded off; and 2011 is as thick as it is broad. In length they
run from 40 m. to -13 m.1
(c) Obsidian
Of obsidian a fair number of pieces were found, knife blades, cores, and Obsidian
rough chips. Two complete knife blades, 1908, 1909 (Plate LIV), are worthy
of mention, because they are very transparent and almost colourless save for
a black tinge in places that makes them look like white glass a little smoked.
They were found in Tholos B. Length -06 m. and -07 m.
They are not, I think, of the usual Melian obsidian, but are of a particu-
larly choice kind, probably from some other source. I have lately been informed
by Signor della Seta, Director of the Italian School at Athens, that blades and
cores of a like transparent obsidian have been found in a cave at Aspre Petra
in Kos, and that this kind of obsidian comes from the volcanic islet of Gyali
between Nisyros and Kos.
It is not then improbable that these two blades from Tholos B are of this
obsidian, and in that case we shall have a second iEgean source of obsidian
in Minoan times.2
In 1922 Mr. Wace, then Director of the British School at Athens, gave me
some pieces of a similar, almost transparent, obsidian sent him from Addis
Abbaba in Abyssinia, where it is found in quantities.3
Tholos B also produced a core of a transparent obsidian like that of the
blades, which indicates that the blades were flaked off in Crete.
Rich scent bottles of obsidian set with gold at brim and base have been
found in twelfth dynasty surroundings at Illahun and Dahmour in Egypt, and
a similar scent jar of obsidian in excellent preservation, also of the twelfth
dynasty, has recently been found by the French in a tomb in the Egyptian colony
of Byblos in Phoenicia. According to the finders, the obsidian used for these
vessels came from Nubia, which the Egyptians had recently possessed them-
selves of, and from which they also procured gold.4
I imagine that a careful examination of the many fragments of obsidian
found in Cretan excavations would discover other specimens of this transparent
1 For similar stones from Koumasa and argu- 2 A. della Seta, R. Arckeologica Italiana di Atene,
ments against the interpretation of them as (Dicembre 1922), fig. 8.
' brassards ' see p. 20. Of the Platanos examples , B uet in his ch ter on obsidian ,pkh_
the broad slab, 1899, is the only one With a , . £ glfi ff ) ^ ^ ^
shape at all resembling such brassards from R£maif Emperors obsidian w/s brought from the
other sites. Of. Schhemann, Ihot, London (1880), f Ab inia an(1 that mirror* were made
p. 566, No. 1257. f{. j
Dechelette, op. cit., II, p. 227, fig. 72.
Peet, The Stone and Bronze Ages in Italy and 1 Les Travaux archeologiques en Syrie de 1920-
Sicily, p. 307, fig. 161. 1922 (Paris, 1923), pp. 25-36 and 38.
O