A Chart of Mycenaean and Late Minoan Pottery

Abstract

The Late Bronze Age pottery of Greece and Crete is most impressive for its great variety of shapes and decorations and the remarkable quality of the clay and baking. It is not surprising that it was exported to other countries as a luxury item. The efforts of many scholars have made it possible to arrange this vast wealth of pottery according to style and period. But the classification is so complex that it is only with great effort that one can penetrate the world of Minoan and Mycenaean pottery. Simplification is, therefore, necessary. This chart, showing representative examples from each period, was designed with the problems of the non-specialist in mind. The division of the periods follows the generally accepted scheme. The horizontal lines divide the pottery into roughly contemporary groups. Late Minoan IA must antedate Late Helladic I because the latter was created as a result of the direct influence of the former.2 LM IB and LH IIA are roughly contemporary; the end of these periods is dated rather confidently ca. 145o B.c. (the end of the reign of Tuthmosis III).' LM II pottery is characteristic of the period ca. 1450-1400 B.C. but it is not representative of all Crete, its production eing lim ed, as far as we know, to Knossos.4 The samples of LM III pottery have been taken from a recent article by Marvyn Popham.5 As seen in the chart, Mycenaean pottery of the same period is far better documented.