Late Minoan Pottery, A Summary

Abstract

It is some time since the development of Late Minoan pottery has been considered as a whole and adequately illustrated. In many respects, Mackeprang's account, published nearly thirty years ago, still remains the most concise, readable, and well-illustrated summary of the subject; but it is limited to the Late Minoan III period and, inevitably, is now in need of revision.It seems worth while, therefore, despite the still serious gaps in our knowledge, to attempt to give a general outline of Late Minoan pottery, taking the opportunity both to include illustrations of new material where this is appropriate and to revise and augment the charts of characteristic motives given by Pendlebury. The purpose of this article does not go beyond giving a very broad account; it is not a detailed analysis though such a study is indeed required.Should there be a discernible Knossian bias in this article, it may be due partly to the author's work having been largely centred there and partly to his belief that, in several stages of the pottery of the island, it was Knossos which set the standard.The pottery of the end of the Middle Minoan period is, in general, dull and uninteresting. The impetus which led to the technical and artistic achievement of Middle Minoan II seems to have exhausted itself. At Knossos, the Palace suffered a catastrophe, the result of an earthquake as Evans thought, though the widespread signs of fire could well indicate attack and deliberate destruction. Large deposits of pottery of this period were found there: they are characterized by masses of ill-made table ware, mostly undecorated, and by badly proportioned large vases. Decoration consists for the most part of a roughly executed ripple pattern or a solid black glaze occasionally relieved by a spiral or other motive in white paint. Elsewhere in Crete the picture is much the same; the pottery is poor in standard and there is a suggestion of sterility.