DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3044#0014
FOREWORD
selves, with their impressions, which are on deposit in the CMS Redaktion, and with published
and unpublished photos in my own files.
It should be noted that some words are used here in special senses. The word "Aegean" re-
fers to the civilization which existed on Crete, the Cycladic islands and the mainland during the
Bronze Age. "Class" refers to shape and material. Classes are usually broken down into subclasses
on the basis of material and/or shape characteristics. "Typology" refers to the classification of ma-
terial, shape and method of production but not to aspects of the motifs. "Group" pertains to the
particular manner of execution of the seals and their motifs. Thus, from the point of view of
shape and material a seal may belong to Class X, while from the point of view of style, it be-
longs to Group Y. I avoid using the word "style" and instead usually refer to the less specifically
defined "style-groups" and "style-complexes". Groups contain seals with closely definable stylis-
tic and typological features; complexes are more broadly defined and correspond to "Gruppe" in
the sense used by Pini in his important lecture, "Ein Beitrag zur chronologischen Ordnung der
friihkretischen Siegel". These two terms are based not only on the form elements and syntax of
the motifs, but also on the relation between technique, quality of workmanship, seal material and
shape.
With the study of this material, the problem of circular reasoning arises. For example, it
can be objected that the motifs date the shapes and the shapes help date the motifs. With his
usual succinctness Henri Frankfort describes the question of circular constructs with regard to the
study of a different kind of seals: "Thus a continuous checking and evaluating of stylistic and
stratigraphic data leads to the chronological order...[this work] presents, we think, a clear case of
the "circular argument" which seems to underlie all scientific reasoning. The method must, here,
as everywhere, find its justification in the "economy of hypotheses", the coherence of the result-
ing structure, and the completeness with which it accounts for the phenomena."6
It must be acknowledged that the study of early Cretan seals, with special reference to strati-
graphically datable examples presents certain problems. Among these is the fact that less than a
fourth of the material stems from dated contexts. Furthermore, the extant material is but a tiny
percentage of what the Minoans actually produced. Thus, certain classes and groups of seals are
abundantly represented and others hardly at all. One is repeatedly obliged to speculate on the
lifespans of shapes, motifs and style-groups and it is not impossible that in general these estimates
may be too short. Finally, consciously or unconsciously one is tempted to date seals to the bet-
ter known periods and less so to the unknown ones. These points are mentioned here, as an a-
wareness of the range of the methods used is a prerequisite for meaningful work.
NOTES-FOREWORD
1 The only major groups of seals known to me which are excluded are sixty Three-sided Prisms in "serpentine"
from the Giamalakis collection (for reasons of economy) and the seals now in press for the supplement vol-
ume to CMS I, which I. Sakellarakis is preparing for the Athens National Museum. Other seals are known
in the Metaxas collection which Kenna and Sakellarakis did not include in CMS IV, the catalogue of the col-
lection, and those purchased subsequent to its publication. Finally, several newly discovered and unpublished
seals (particularly from Archanes) may provide evidence for or against some of the statements in the follow-
ing chapters.
selves, with their impressions, which are on deposit in the CMS Redaktion, and with published
and unpublished photos in my own files.
It should be noted that some words are used here in special senses. The word "Aegean" re-
fers to the civilization which existed on Crete, the Cycladic islands and the mainland during the
Bronze Age. "Class" refers to shape and material. Classes are usually broken down into subclasses
on the basis of material and/or shape characteristics. "Typology" refers to the classification of ma-
terial, shape and method of production but not to aspects of the motifs. "Group" pertains to the
particular manner of execution of the seals and their motifs. Thus, from the point of view of
shape and material a seal may belong to Class X, while from the point of view of style, it be-
longs to Group Y. I avoid using the word "style" and instead usually refer to the less specifically
defined "style-groups" and "style-complexes". Groups contain seals with closely definable stylis-
tic and typological features; complexes are more broadly defined and correspond to "Gruppe" in
the sense used by Pini in his important lecture, "Ein Beitrag zur chronologischen Ordnung der
friihkretischen Siegel". These two terms are based not only on the form elements and syntax of
the motifs, but also on the relation between technique, quality of workmanship, seal material and
shape.
With the study of this material, the problem of circular reasoning arises. For example, it
can be objected that the motifs date the shapes and the shapes help date the motifs. With his
usual succinctness Henri Frankfort describes the question of circular constructs with regard to the
study of a different kind of seals: "Thus a continuous checking and evaluating of stylistic and
stratigraphic data leads to the chronological order...[this work] presents, we think, a clear case of
the "circular argument" which seems to underlie all scientific reasoning. The method must, here,
as everywhere, find its justification in the "economy of hypotheses", the coherence of the result-
ing structure, and the completeness with which it accounts for the phenomena."6
It must be acknowledged that the study of early Cretan seals, with special reference to strati-
graphically datable examples presents certain problems. Among these is the fact that less than a
fourth of the material stems from dated contexts. Furthermore, the extant material is but a tiny
percentage of what the Minoans actually produced. Thus, certain classes and groups of seals are
abundantly represented and others hardly at all. One is repeatedly obliged to speculate on the
lifespans of shapes, motifs and style-groups and it is not impossible that in general these estimates
may be too short. Finally, consciously or unconsciously one is tempted to date seals to the bet-
ter known periods and less so to the unknown ones. These points are mentioned here, as an a-
wareness of the range of the methods used is a prerequisite for meaningful work.
NOTES-FOREWORD
1 The only major groups of seals known to me which are excluded are sixty Three-sided Prisms in "serpentine"
from the Giamalakis collection (for reasons of economy) and the seals now in press for the supplement vol-
ume to CMS I, which I. Sakellarakis is preparing for the Athens National Museum. Other seals are known
in the Metaxas collection which Kenna and Sakellarakis did not include in CMS IV, the catalogue of the col-
lection, and those purchased subsequent to its publication. Finally, several newly discovered and unpublished
seals (particularly from Archanes) may provide evidence for or against some of the statements in the follow-
ing chapters.