Early Greek Vases from Knossos

Abstract

The vases to be discussed in this paper come from two separate excavations at Knossos: the greater number from two tombs excavated by Sir Arthur Evans in 1907, the rest from one of several tombs which I excavated three years ago. The three tombs in question lie a little less than a mile to the north of the Palace, at the foot of the western slope of the hill known as Zafer Papoura (cf. Fig. 1); they are cut into a low bank, immediately to the right of the footpath as one goes from Makry Teichos to Isopata, and are marked in Fig. 1 by a black bar. A glance at the map will shew that this group of tombs is in the same straight line as the group which was excavated by Hogarth in 1899. Hogarth's tombs are at the foot of a rather higher bank which is obviously part of the same formation. There is, however, a break between the two banks, and as the greater part of it is covered by a vineyard it is impossible to tell precisely how closely the two groups of tombs are connected. But even if there is an empty space between them, it is certain the history of the two groups of tombs is the same.