DISCOVERY 



313 



The Discoveries in Crete 



By George Glasgow, B.A. 



(Continued from August No., p. 252) 



VII 



Crete is the only land of the " prehistoric " Near 

 East which has left no record of itself besides that 

 revealed by excavation. And even the writing on 

 the clay tablets cannot yet be read. We none the 

 less get a vivid impression of Cretan life on its artistic 

 side, and for this the main credit is due to the unique 

 value of potterj' in archaeology. Pottery is almost 

 indestructible. WTiile it may decompose in soil that 

 b damp enough, and the design may be obhterated 

 when fire plajs on it directly and when there is 

 enough air for oxidisation, yet the actual fabric, being 

 made originally of clay baked hard by extreme 

 heat, can never be destroyed by fire. It cannot rust. 

 It cannot be pounded into dust, because a small sherd 

 has a tremendous power of resistance. WTiile the 

 stone ruins at Knossos will one day vanish from 

 exposure to the weather, the pottery will remain. 

 Even the defects of pottery are as valuable to the 

 archaeologist as its qualities. Its brittleness led to a 

 constant deposit of breakages. The replacing of 

 breakages in what was a household necessity led to 

 continuous production. Its cheapness made it value- 

 less to looters. When palaces were raided and burnt, 

 metal objects were " lifted " either for their actual 

 value or their potential value in the melting-pot. The 

 pots remained. Thousands of sherds ha\'e been found 

 on every site in Crete. Even when fragments cannot 

 be pieced together, they reveal the kind of clay, 

 decoration and thickness of the original vase, and 

 complete examples are often found in tombs, where 

 they were placed as offerings to the dead. 



Pottery has been the chief instrument in the for- 

 mulation of a system of dating. By assuming a lapse 

 of a thousand years for every yard of deposit — except 

 in the Stone Age, when the accumulation of debris 

 was quicker because huts were built of ephemeral 

 material such as mud and wickerwork— each succes- 

 sive layer is relatively dated according to its depth 

 from the surface. Pots provide the nucleus for this 

 scheme because they are found in large numbers in 

 ever}' layer. Other objects take their place according 

 to the tj-pe of pots they are found with. The process 

 is not simple. There are complicating factors, and even 

 potterj' creates difficulties and irregularities. At 

 Knossos, for instance, when the first palace was built, 

 the top of the hill was levelled and a portion of the 

 former deposit thus cut awaj'. Obviously, too, heir- 

 looms would belong to an earlier time than that of 



[Continued 07i p. 314 



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