NEOLITHIC AGE

B. C. 12000-3000.-Evolution of pottery.-Polished stone implements.-Dress.-"The first nine epochs designated as Minoan immediately succeed the Neolithic Age. Its deposit reaches to a depth of 17 feet below the surface of the soil, while below it the Neolithic remains are found, at one testing-point to a farther depth of nearly 21 feet, at another to one of 26 feet. Mr. Evans seeks to fix its date by certain connections that its remains show with those of early Egypt. If we thus allow about 3 feet of deposit for every millennium, we get a great age for the Neolithic strata that are below. Progress moves slowly in the dim early periods, and we need not shrink from the dates of 10,000 or 12,000 B.C. which are thus given to the first settlement of man upon the hill at Knossos. The black hand-burnished ware, or 'Bucchero' that it had inherited from Neolithic times is not what is most characteristic of Early Minoan. It was the achievement of the Early Minoan Age to produce, by painting on the flat, the geometric effects that hitherto had been produced by the white filling, and it is possible that the very pigment used was the same white gypsum treated differently. The invention once made, there were rapid developments. A lustrous black glaze was spread as a slip over the surface, so that the lustreless white patterns over it gave the effect of the best old incrusted ware; and the black glaze, once discovered, was seen itself to have possibilities as decoration, and was in other vases laid on in black bands on the natural light buff of the clay."-R. M. Burrows, Discoveries in Crete, pp. 44-48.

"Except in the case of Egypt pottery is our only guide in the study of neolithic civilisation. The objects of wood and leather and the clothing have all disappeared in the destruction caused by damp and weather and the lapse of time. Only the implements of bone and stone and the terra cotta vases have remained. The walls are very rare and without mortar, and even bricks are late in appearing. Modeling and design had their first expression in pottery, and by means of this we can follow the progress of the people in their first steps towards civilisation. A plastic material like clay is not alone sufficient for pottery, for it loses moisture in drying and contracts. It is necessary to add something to the clay to prevent the vase from breaking after it is made. The firing of pottery presents another difficulty, for if the clay is very greasy and tenacious, it does not keep its shape, but cracks in the furnace. Some substance had to be mixed with the earth to render it porous, so that the vapour from the water could escape easily. The potters of the neolithic age had discovered that by adding powdered carbon to the clay this effect was obtained. Henceforward black pottery was not a caprice of fashion but a technical necessity. . . . After having learnt to polish the surface of the vases by burnishing with the bone or smooth stone spatula, the potters observed that when these black vases were placed in the flame or upon hot coals they became red in the parts where the fire was hottest; to avoid producing these red, yellow, or drab marks, which were the effect of firing by an open fire, they discovered how to bake fine pottery so that it was bright and black as ebony.

"In the neolithic soil of Phaestos were found the three stone axes. They are oval-shaped flints, sharpened on one side to give a cutting edge, and with the other end left rough where it would be fixed on the handle. . . . Among the ruins of the

primitive palace of Phaestos we had proof of the skill of the Cretans of the neolithic age in working stone, and in piercing the axes in order to fasten them to the handle, besides making double axes. In a niche we found some pieces of polished stone, fragments of broken axes; and amongst these a round piece of very hard green stone, about the size of a common cork. To make a hole in an axe they used a cane and some sand and water. The cane was spun round quickly and the stone was pierced by it with the help of the sand, and a circular hole was made. When half through, the stone was turned and the drilling recommenced on the opposite side. . . . When the first palace of Phaestos was built, the age of bronze was reached, the age of copper was past, and probably no flint weapons had been made for centuries. The sight of these useless fragments collected in a niche of the early palace convinced me that the tradition of the neolithic age was not spent and that the cult of the ancestor was still alive. One of the most important things (in my opinion) which came to light in my excavations beneath the foundations of the palaces of Phaestos was the discovery that even in the neolithic age the Cretans had learnt the art of giving colour to their pottery by a decoration of red and brown lines. From the pile dwellings beyond the Alps, in Sicily and the Balkan Peninsula, from Greece to Troy, from France to Spain, female figures, decorated in the same manner, represent the rst traces of female costume in the stone age. The linen in which the neolithic bodies in Egypt are wrapped is so fine as to allow us to believe that semi-transparent robes may have been made at that period, as was the case under the early dynasties. The neolithic linen of Egypt is like canvas, so far apart are the threads of the web, and it was woven in so thin a texture that with the embroideries it might have a similar effect to this figure. The woman who is pouring out the liquid has a sort of white skirt made from the skin of an animal. as have also the men who bear offerings. torso is not bare but covered by a bodice with sleeves which end above the elbow. Broad blue bands pass round the neck and down the sleeve; the girdle, too, is formed by a strip of blue, and a band of the same colour probably crosses on the breast, for another priestess, turned to the right, has the same kind of sash. The next figure, a woman with two pails hung from her shoulders, wears a long blue dress with the lower edge adorned by flounces. The neck and sleeves are edged by a band of three colours, and this woman also has a red sash edged with two black lines passing obliquely across the chest. We know that from the time of the first dynasties in Egypt the priests wore panther's skins at the religious func tions, and here, too, the priestesses also wear a skin tight to the waist, with an appendage like a tail."-A. Mosso, Dawn of Mediterranean civilisation, pp. 79-195.-See also EUROPE: Prehistoric period.

MINOAN AGE

The

the whole Aegean area. Objects of foreign, and particularly of Egyptian make, and of known date, are found at sufficiently numerous points in this series, to permit us to regard the EarlyMinoan period as contemporary with Dynasties I-VI in Egypt; the many-coloured pottery of the Middle-Minoan is found on Egyptian sites accurately dated to Dynasty XII; and at Cnossus the deposits classed as Middle-Minoan-3 yield an Egyptian statuette of Dynasty XIII and an inscription of the Shepherd-King Khyan, between 1900 and 1600. The Late-Minoan period is more precisely dated still. Its first two phases, 'L. M. 1 and 2' are contemporary with Dynasty XVIII, and datable to 1600-1400; they serve in turn to date the royal tombs at Mycenae, and the Vaphio tomb in Laconia with its magnificent embossed gold-cups." There was sudden destruction of the Cnossian Palace, to which last phase belong the third city at Phylakopi, the later graves at Mycenae and Ialysus, the 'Sixth City' at Troy, and the large Minoan settlements in Cyprus and Sicily. "Rather later than these, but still within the Late-Minoan period, comes the attempt . . . to occupy Thessaly: and the first contact with the west coast of Asia Minor.

"Then, with the cessation of intercourse with Egypt, Palestine, and Cyprus, and the simultaneous, though gradual, introduction of iron, first for tools, then for weapons-it had been known as a 'precious metal' in the Ægean since 'L. M. 3' or even 'L. M. 2'; of a new sort of costume which required safety-pins (fibula); of a new type of decorative art, non-representative, with a limited stock of stiff geometrical designs based on basketwork and incised ornament; and of the practice of cremation-wholly new in the Ægean, but long familiar in the forest-clad north, begins a new period, the Early Iron Age, with a new distribution of settlements, and centers of power and industry, and almost total extinction of the Late-Minoan culture, which was still relatively gh, though already far gone in decadence, by the eleventh century."-J. L. Myres, Dawn of history, pp. 173-175.

B. C. 3000-2200.-Early Minoan age.-At the opening of this period potters discovered a black glaze for coating the wares on which they painted white or red bands or sometimes stripes. Naturally as time went on, the shapes of these vases became more regular. From this fact we must conclude the invention of the potters' wheel. Vase decoration, too, became more varied when potters began to depict the human body. At first this work was done in the geometric style-that is, with straight lines alone. We must remember that at this time the chief centre of culture was Melos rather than Crete. Undoubtedly this was due to the fact that here were available large quantities of hard stone from which could be fashioned all manner of sharp or pointed instruments such as knives and razors, as well as weapons. These wares were exported to the nearby Cyclades, to Troy and to the mainland of Greece. Unfortunately, we know little of the life and customs of these early people. They usually lived in rectangular stone houses with one or more rooms according to the wealth of the owner. Many of the chieftains built palaces of which the ones at Troy and Tiryns are best known. Rough walls of Cyclopean masonry were constructed about these palaces to prevent raids from neighbouring chieftains or even from foreign invaders. It is interesting to note that due to their geographic isolation the palaces of Crete remained unprotected. The most important families built sub

terranean dome-shaped tombs modelled after those in which they lived. Here they placed articles of daily use for the disembodied spirit.-R. M. Burrows, Discoveries in Crete, ch. 3.-A. Mosso, Dawn of Mediterranean civilisation, ch. 6.-C. Tsountas and I. Manatt, Mycenaan age, pp. 44-55.-"The great innovation of the age was the introduction of copper most probably from Egypt and Cyprus. Silver and gold became known in the same period. For a long time, however, stone maintained its place in the useful arts. Equally important was the adoption of the system of picture writing, pictographs. They are found in Crete on seals of ivory, stone, and other material, in the form of cylinders, buttons, and prisms. Their near resemblance to Egyptian types proves a close intercourse between these two countries."-G. W. Botsford, Hellenic history, ch. 2.

B. C. 2200-1600.-Middle Minoan Age.-"During this period the chief seats of culture were Cnossus and Phaestus in central Crete, where we find Minoan civilization at its most brilliant height. By this time pottery had become really a fine art of which the specimens of the Kamares type are the most beautiful. In the egg-shell thinness of their walls they may be compared with the best Haviland china of today. At first artists paid little attention to a realistic representation of nature but aimed to create a brilliant harmony of colors. Gradually, however, the color scheme became more simple and artists attempted to depict natural objects as they really existed. This was also a period of the great Palace of Cnossus. By the end of this age pictographs gave way to linear writing in pen and ink."-A. Evans, Scripta Minoa, i, 19f.—C. H. and H. Hawes, Crete, the forerunner of Greece. pp. 136-139.-"Hieroglyphic writing is at its best, and the first kind of linear signs, Class A, though apparently only just come into fashion, had made rapid progress. They could indeed be used so flexibly that we find inside two cups of the period an inscription written in ink, in a cursive hand. If we are to judge too from the fact that the lines of the letters show a tendency to divide, it was written with a reed pen. What the medium was on which such pen and ink were ordinarily used, we cannot tell; imported papyrus, or palm-leaves, perhaps, or even parchment. The invention, we may be sure, once made, was not confined to the inside of pottery. The king who built the stately Tomb to rest in at Isopata, between the harbour and the town, on the hill that overlooked the sea, may have had his deeds recorded, not on clay tablets, but on something more worthy of a literature."R. M. Burrows, Discoveries in Crete, pp. 64-65.

B. C. 1600-1200.-Late Minoan or Mycenaean age.-"Before the end of the Middle Minoan Age, the inventive spirit of Crete had achieved its utmost and had begun to stagnate, no longer creating new forms but satisfying itself with stereotyped conventions. For a time, however, we find a political advance. Power, concentrating in Cnossus involved the downfall of country towns. The palace attained the acme of its grandeur (about 1500). To this period belong most of the frescoes still preserved as well as a remarkably realistic style of reliefs. In vase ornamentation the characteristic development was the 'palace' style, which sacrificed the natural to a desire for decorative unity. The age attained great skill in bronze work and in inlaying metals. In writing, linear script superseded the pictographs, and a new and improved linear style usurped the place of the old. Before this age has far adyed the interest shifts, from Crete to Trov,

re

EGEAN CIVILIZATION

terial for building and for a great variety of furniture. Among the most remarkable of skilled industries was the cutting and engraving of precious stones, which included practically all known to the moderns excepting the diamond. On these gems the engraver skillfully wrought varied scenes from nature and human life. The highest development of art is found in the work of the goldsmith-an achievement of the painstaking experience of centuries. This metal was more common than silver. Among his products were beads adorned with scenes in intaglio and rings with similarly decorated bezels used as seals. He could inlay gold, as well as ivory and other material, on bodies of different substance, so as to produce a polychrome effect. He wrought bracelets, diverse artistic patterns repoussé on thin plate and graceful drinking cups. Famed for beauty are the two gold cups from a beehive tomb at Vaphio, Laconia. The scenes which adorn them are bold, spiritual, and lifelike."-G. W. Botsford, Hellenic history, ch. 2.

Natural conditions had favored the growth of just such a Minoan world: "easy livelihood from small secluded corn-lands, and abundant culture of fruit-bearing trees; supplemented by upland pasturage, and the harvest of the sea. Easy intercourse with many similar lands, or coast plains of the same land, identical in natural economy, almost infinitely various in mineral resources and in artistic and industrial dialect. Intercourse less easy, but within the power of moderate seamanship in the sailing season, with a venerable centre of art and luxury, like Egypt. Above all, a landscape of cxceptional beauty, of brilliant atmosphere; grandly contrasted profile of ridge and promontory; infinitely various form and colouring of spring flowers and sponge-diver's trophies, seaweed, shells, and sea-anemones. It is not surprising, then, that it is here that man first achieved an artistic style which was naturalist and idealist in one; acutely observant of the form and habit of living things, sensitive to the qualities and potentialities of raw, material, wonderfully skilled in the art of the potter, painter, gem-engraver, and goldsmith; and above all, able to draw inspiration from other styles and methods, without losing the sureness of its own touch, or the power to impress its own strong character on its works of art."-J. L. Myres, Dawn of history, pp. 180-181.

B. C. 1600-1200.-Minoan architecture.--Private Dwellings.-The Palace.-"Private dwellings of the wealthy were surprisingly modern. They were built on no fixed plan, but followed the necessity of the site and the taste of the owner. Some were three or four stories high and comprised a multitude of rooms. The owners furnished them comfortably and developed cooking to a high degree of perfection."-G. W. Botsford, Hellenic history, ch. 2.-"Private houses were constructed of mixed timber and stone with stuccoed fronts, many windows, and flat roofs. They crowded one another along narrow tortuous alleys on uneven ground, more stair than street; and the general effect of a Minoan town must have been very like what is still to be seen in the Cretan villages. The palace architecture gives the impression of great luxury based on abundant wealth of oil and other produce; supplemented by skill in applied science, mechanical, hydraulic, sanitary, which is unparalleled till modern times. On to a central court, entered by an elaborate gateway, opened halls of reception, with deep porticoes and antechambers. Others, more secluded, opened on to terraces and bastioned platforms

EGEAN CIVILIZATION

down the slope. Between and behind these principal suites, winding corridors gave access to magazines and smaller living rooms. Staircases led to upper stories, with two or even three floors in some places. Practical convenience laid greater stress on inner planning, and room-decoration by fresco and fine stone panelling, than on external design. Only the plinths of a few original walls, facing on to the great courts, show any promise of a fine façade; and there was in any case so much rebuilding and patchwork addition, that the general effect must have been that of a crowded village rather than a single residence."-J. L. Myres, Dawn of history, pp. 184-185.-"Naturally the palace was incomparably larger and more magnificent than the richest private dwellings. The residence of the King at Cnossus occupied more than five acres and stood at least four stories high. Its irregularity of plan may be due to additions and modifications by successive rulers. It comprised an immense central court, smaller courts, long corridors, a theatral space, audience rooms, sanctuaries, an industrial quarter, and 'a system of drainage not equalled in Europe between that day and the nineteenth century.' We may notice more particularly the room in which the throne of gypsum stands against the wall and is flanked on both sides with long benches of the same material. Here in the midst of his noble councillors sat the king on the 'oldest throne in Europe,' presumably to receive embassies and to transact business with his subjects. The industrial quarter swarmed with artists and artisans whose labors extended over a wide range of activities from the preparation and storage of wine and olive oil in huge earthenware jars to the finest gold work and elaborate mural frescoes. One chamber, fitted up with benches and 'a seat for the master,' is thought to be a school room, in which the young learned to mould clay into little tablets and to inscribe them with linear writing. Elsewhere were the archives in which those tablets were stored by the thousands. Although the script has not yet been deciphered, the inscriptions thus far discovered seem to be accounts of stores and of receipts and dues. A larger tablet, a case shrine has the appearance of a list of rings. If the Cretans possessed a literature of songs, epics and chronicles, as is not unlikely, it must have been written on perishable material, for nothing of the kind has been discovered."-G. W. Botsford, Hellenic hist., ch. 2.

B. C. 1400-1200.-Decline and fall of Minoan culture. "In the main, the Egean was at peace in the Minoan Age, a striking contrast with the wear-and-tear of the Hellespontine bridge, as sucIcessive 'cities' reveal it at Troy. In the south, on the contrary, it is difficult to trace any nonÆgean enemy either in Crete or even in the islands, down to the fall of Cnossus; and it remains obscure whether this last catastrophe was not due to internal discord; the circumference, as has been recently suggested, turning against the centre, and terminating its tyranny. Cretan tradition told also, later, how a lord of Cnossus went on a Sicilian expedition, with all his force, and never came back. But at this point in the story, Egyptian records come to our aid where Cretan archives are still dumb. They know of a change in the name and behaviour of the 'people from over-sea'; and they give a clue to the decline and fall of the Cretan culture."-J. L. Myres, Dawn of history, pp. 188-189.-See also GREECE: Egean or Minoan civilization.

"These conditions were suddenly brought to an end by the destruction of the palace. The black