314 



DISCOVERY 



the layer in which they are found. Or a pot may 

 be displaced in the earth. A safeguard, however, 

 against mistakes is afforded by the abundance of pots, 

 which makes the differentiation of general classes easy. 



Pots, then, are found at the lowest levels, just abov^e 

 virgin soil, for the earliest people used them and 

 broke them. The slowness of development in that 

 long-drawn-out period (the Neolithic or Later Stone 

 Age) is clearly indicated. There are some seven yards 

 of deposit belonging to it at Knossos, and the latest 

 ware shows little or no improvement on the first. The 

 pottery is hand-made, the clay coarse, generally of a 

 sooty-greyish colour and more or less burnished. The 

 relics consist of the rims and handles of pots, rims of 

 basins, bowls, and plates and similar fragments, too 

 incomplete to suggest original shapes. Two interest- 

 ing points, however, can be seen. The pots were 

 hand-polished both inside and out, and incised lines, 

 or lines simply scratched on the surface, were used as 

 ornamentation. This primitive manifestation of an 

 artistic impulse was later extended bj^ the filling of 

 the incised lines with a white substance for greater 

 effect. Similar ware has been found at Troy and in 

 Egypt, and Dr. Mackenzie ' has thought that these 

 were an importation from the ^Egean. 



The irresistible impulse manifested even in primi- 

 tive people to decorate their ordinary vessels is further 

 illustrated by the fact that the polishing was gradually 

 heightened, and the glitter thrown into relief by 

 ripples, made with a blunt instrument, probably bone, 

 and suggestive of the ripples on the surface of water. 

 Among the latest Neolithic ware found at Knossos 

 are two remarkable specimens of incised ware, the 

 design being that of a twig with leaves. On each 

 side of the stem is a row of small oblong punctuated 

 points, filled in with white chalk. This, it must be 

 remembered, in a period which ended about 3000 B.C. 



The Bronze Age, which followed, and which brought 

 with it the Minoan period at Knossos, is remarkable 

 for the first use of paint. The transition was gradual 

 and slow, and indeed, at the beginning of the Bronze 

 Age, there is a falling off in the quality of the pottery. 

 This was due to an interesting result of the discovery 

 of metal, which turned the attention of skilled artists 

 to the new medium, and left the fashioning of stone and 

 clay to inferior hands. On the manufacturing side, 

 however, it is probable that a great step forward 

 was taken at that time. The fact that the claj' is now 

 of a tcrra-cotta or brick colour, as opposed to the 

 former peaty grey of Neolithic times, has led to the 

 surmise that the potter's kiln was now used for baking. 



The first paint invented was an almost lustreless 

 black, which was developed gradually into a lustrous 

 black. Even this development was at first used as a 



' Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. xxiii, p. 159. 



mere imitation of the Neolithic black hand-polished 

 vases. The paint was applied all over the vase, 

 inside as well as outside, whenever the neck was wide 

 enough. Neolithic incisions again were imitated by 

 white geometric patterns painted over the black 

 background. This style was not usual till the end of 

 the Early Minoan period (E.M. III). 



It was not till the beginning of the Middle Minoan 

 period that any serious development took place. Then, 

 however, it came in leaps and bounds. The potter's 

 wheel had been introduced, probably from Egypt, at 

 the end of E.M. I, and henceforth pots were " thrown " 

 precisely as they are to-day. One can well imagine 

 the keenness with which this great if simple invention 

 was exploited. The fashioning of clay with thumb 

 and fingers on a rotating wheel led so easily and in- 

 evitably to fineness of technique that the potter was 

 soon imitating the thinness of metal, and bj' the end 

 of M.M. II was producing "egg-shell" vases. In 

 design the angiilar geometric patterns were displaced 

 by the end of the Early Minoan period by curves 

 and spirals, the logical outcome of the use of a brush. 

 Colour meanwhile became lavish and brilliemt. There 

 were two styles : either the whole pot was first painted 

 black to provide a background for a light design, or 

 a dark design was painted on the original light-coloured 

 clay. It was the first of these styles that naturaUy 

 lent itself to colour displaj-, and the name " poly- 

 chrome " (" many-coloured ") has been given to it. 

 The other style (monochrome, or one-coloured) relied 

 for its effect on a simple black-and-white contrast. In 

 the latter case the light natural background was im- 

 proved by a fine buff clay " shp " or wash. Quite 

 naturally it was the polychrome style that mostly 

 exercised the artists at first. Bright orange, lustre- 

 less white, yellow, red, crimson on a black background 

 were exploited to a sometimes fantastic extent as long 

 as the noveltj' of colour lasted. 



The next development took place in the second 

 Middle Minoan period (M.M. II). Relief was then 

 introduced, which created an effect of light and shade 

 on the black varnish. Mere blobs of colour, which 

 constituted the original form of relief, soon developed 

 into raised lumps and horns (the so-called " Barbo- 

 tine " ware). Middle Minoan " Kamares,"- or f>oly- 

 chrome pottery, chiefly consisted of cups, " tea-cups," 

 jugs, amphorae (or two-handled jars), and fruit-stand 

 vases.' In the M.M. II period large storage jars, or 

 pithoi, made their first appearance. They were as big 

 as a man, and almost exactly like the Cretan storage 



' So called because the first specimens were found by Professor 

 Myrcs in a cave on the slope of Mount Ida above the village of 

 Ivamares. 



3 The three best specimens are reproduced in colour in the 

 Journal oj Hellenic Studies, vol. xxiii, plate v. 



