Page images
PDF
EPUB

site, see above (p. 129). The collections here shown include objects in silver, bronze, iron, faience and glass, ivory, bone, pottery. Silver objects. These include a large silver bowl and two cups. Bronze objects. These include numerous weapons, utensils and tools. Among the utensils, observe a singular support for a circular vessel, of elaborate design, in twisted bronze work (fig. 95). The tools and the large bronze ingot were found in the remains of a metal foundry. While most of the deposits were of bronze, iron was also found intermixed (see the two specimens exhibited). Iron was found in a few instances, used in knives, pins, and small objects, but not in quantities sufficient to show that its use had become general. Faience and glass. Numerous pieces of faience were discovered, in part of a strongly Egyptian character (in Case B; see fig. 96,

[graphic][merged small]

no. 1042) and in part naturalistic (see the human heads and the head of a horse). The glass found was not plentiful, but of a strongly Egyptian character. Ivory and Bone. For the principal objects in these materials, see above, pp. 127, 130. Pottery. The pottery, which was found in great abundance at Enkomi, is distinguished from that found at other Mycenaean sites by a greater variety of subject in the more elaborate works, and we find representations of chariot groups, cattle, birds, etc., in a singularly rough and frankly conventional style. Terracottas. A few primitive female figures were found, in some cases carrying a baby (cf. p. 121).

Wall-cases 14-21. Antiquities from excavations on various Mycenaean sites in Cyprus, similar in their general character to those already described.

Cases 14, 15 (upper part). Objects from Maroni (midway

between Limassol and Larnaka). (Lower part.) A group of pottery, being (with one exception) the contents of a single tomb at Enkomi (grave 83).

Cases 16-19. Objects from three Mycenaean sites in Cyprus, namely, from Klaudia, a site about six miles from Larnaka; from the Mycenaean cemetery of Curium; and from the neighbourhood of the Hala Sultan Tekké, a Mahomedan mosque of great sanctity on the Salt Lake, near Larnaka.

Cases 20, 21. Objects from Enkomi, and other sites in Cyprus. Cases 22-29 contain Mycenaean vases, excavated by Sir Alfred Biliotti at Ialysos in Rhodes. The excavations were in part carried

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small]

on at the expense of the late Mr. Ruskin, who presented the vases and objects found with them to the Museum.

Cases 30-32 contain examples of Mycenaean pottery from various Greek sites.

After surveying the collections of the Minoan and Mycenaean periods, exhibited on the east side of the First Vase Room, we turn to the west side of the room and to the vases of the succeeding period.

Cases 33-36. Examples of pottery of the 'Dipylon' style (fig. 97). This ware was posterior to the later Mycenaean fabrics. It derives its name from the fact that many examples of it have been found near the Dipylon gate at Athens. The vases are stiff

and ungraceful in form. The decoration consists of geometric arrangements of straight or curved lines, and especially of variations of the maeander (or key pattern) and of the square or diamond chequer. A few animal forms, such as those of birds, horses, and at last of men, are gradually introduced in panels. Certain inscriptions which have been found on vases of this class cannot be older than the seventh century B.C., and since in two cases they were painted before the vase was fired, the Dipylon method of decoration must have continued in use to that date. The later vases are marked, on the whole, by smaller work and greater elaboration of the pattern.

Cases 37-39. Pottery from Rhodes, slightly different in texture from that of Athens, but presenting the same elements of

[graphic][ocr errors][merged small]

decoration. In Case 39 a fragment of a large vase introduces a mythical subject, namely, a Centaur of the primitive form with human forelegs.

A fine lebes from Thebes in the later Dipylon style is placed in Case D. On one side is a large galley with two banks of 19 and 20 rowers. A man (drawn on a quite different scale) is stepping on board at the stern to act as steersman. He either leads a woman, or clasps her wrist on departure. On the other side is a procession of two chariots and a horseman.

Cases 40-41. Miscellaneous pottery from various sites, showing later developments of the geometric style.

See also examples of early Lydian pottery, found in the tombs of Bin Tepé (Thousand Mounds') near Sardes. The wave pattern which surrounds them seems directly imitated from the variegated glass vases, of which a specimen is shown here for comparison.

The imitation of glass in pottery is also shown in the compound vases (or kernoi), with groups of small alabastra, which are plainly imitated from the variegated glass bottles of the same shape. It is supposed that they were employed to hold ritual offerings.

Case D. Up to this point the traces of Oriental influence have been few and doubtful in the potter's work. The seventh century brought with it a more intimate connexion with the East, as Greek colonies established themselves on the coasts of Asia Minor, and generally around the shores of the Mediterranean. The importation of Oriental embroidery, stamped metal and engraved cylinders had the effect of changing the form, the colouring, and the character of the drawing; the figures on the vases are no longer restricted to square panels, but are arranged in continuous friezes, the forms of the vases being shorter and rounder. New decorative themes are introduced, such as the palmette, and the whole system of ornament gains increased richness and variety. But naturally this change had not everywhere an immediate effect ; we see it earliest in islands like Rhodes and Cyprus, which were nearest the East, and in towns like Corinth, whose colonising activity was greatest: but at Athens, where a local pottery was already famous, the change was more gradual, and probably was brought about through the medium of Corinthian commerce at about the middle of the seventh century B.C. This transition state is represented in a class of vases called Phaleron ware, from having been first found on the road to Phaleron * from Athens. In this group it is plain that we have a development of the Dipylon style. The same geometrical motives are continued, but they are combined with figures of animals, and smaller objects filling the empty spaces of the field, as on the early wares of Corinth.

Table-case D contains Phaleron vases (fig. 98). A notable specimen of Phaleron ware from Athens has a strongly Oriental design of two lions confronted. A good example is placed near it in Tablecase D. It is a large oinochoè, with the mouth in the form of a Gryphon's head, and painted with the design of a lioness devouring a deer. This vase appears to have been found at Aegina.

Cases 37, 38 and 42, 43 (lower part). Besides the painted vases already described, this side of the room contains some examples of vases with ornaments in relief. The vases thus adorned are either of a black ware, varying to grey, which has been already referred to above under the name of Bucchero nero ' (p. 175), or of a coarse, reddish ware mainly found at Rhodes.

The patterns in relief are impressed by means of a stamp or by the rolling of an engraved cylinder, like those of Assyria, which

* The ancient Phaleron, pronounced by the modern Greeks Phaleron.

leaves a raised impression of its design, repeated over and over, in a band round the body of the vase. The examples here shown are mostly from Cameiros in Rhodes (with these must be grouped two

[graphic][graphic][subsumed][merged small]

large vases over Wall-cases 27 and 38). The Etruscan examples have been placed in the Italic Room.

Wall-cases 44-53 contain examples of the later fabrics of Cyprus. (The earlier wares of the Bronze Age and Mycenaean period, on the other side of the room, have been described above.)

Cases 44-45. Cypriote wares of the sub-Mycenaean and transitional periods (10th-9th centuries B.C.), showing signs of transition from the Mycenaean to the subsequent Graeco-Phoenician' period.

Cases 46-47. Local Cypriote fabrics of the Graeco-Phoenician period. The Cypriote fabrics show a marked preference for geometric elements of decoration. As compared with the Dipylon wares they

[graphic][graphic][merged small]

make more use of the spiral and concentric circles, and less use of the maeander.

Vases C 853, 854, 855 are examples of a local fabric which is

« PreviousContinue »