Middle Minoan Periods Research Articles

زخرفة الباربوتين على الاواني الرومانية " دراسة لمجموعة اواني باربوتين لم تنشر من قبل في بعض المتاحف المصرية "

زخرفة الباربوتين Barbotine هي نوع من أنواع الزخارف البارزة ، ظهرت على العديد من الأواني الفخارية وعلى اواني البرونز ، وکانت بداية ظهورها خارج مصر منذ العصر الحجري ثم العصر المينوي المبکر والمتوسط ثم العصر الروماني ، بينما داخل مصر اقتصر ظهورها على العصر الروماني وتحديدا في القرنين الاول والثاني الميلادي . تنوعت طرز زخرفة الباربوتين بصفة عامة على الاواني مابين الرقع السميکة ، البروز النتوء ، ، ونبات اللبلاب ، واوراق نباتية يخرج منها عناقيد العنب ،ولکن کانت الزخرفة الاکثر انتشارا بشکل النقط الفصوص . انحصرت زخرفة الباربوتين في مصر خلال العصر الروماني في الزخارف الهندسية الممثلة على هيئة نقط وزخارف نباتية لفروع وأوراق العنب. وفي معظم الحالات تملأ زخرفة الباربوتين معظم مساحة بدن الاناء وتکون هى الزخرفة الرئيسية والوحيدة على الاناء ، واحيانا اخرى تکون جزء زخرفي فقط من المنظر المنفذ على الاواني ، واحيانا اخرى تظهر على اواني ال terra sigillata . وتهدف هذه الدراسة الي إلقاء الضوء على نوع هام من الزخرفة لم يلق اهتماما من قبل ، والتعرف على طرز الزخرفة الخاصة بها ، ونشر بعض الاواني المزخرفة بالباربوتين داخل مصر والتي لم تنشر من قبل . Barbotine Decoration On Six Unpublished Egyptian- Roman Pottery Abstract: Barbotine decoration is a kind of high relief decoration, that appeared on many thin-walled pottery wares, specially drinking ware. It first appeared outside Egypt in the Neolithic period, then the early and Middle Minoan period, and the Roman period, whereby it did not seem to appear in the Classical and Hellenistic Period. Inside Egypt, it appeared only in the Roman period, namely in the first and second centuries A.D. The styles of Barbotine decoration on wares generally varied in the form of protuberances, splotches, thick patches, dots or cloves, ivy decorations and foliage emanating clusters of grapes. However, the most prevalent decoration style was dots. The Barbotine decorations in Egypt during the Roman period were confined to the geometric decorations in the shape of dots. The Barbotine decoration mostly fills most of the area of the ware, where it is the only and principal decoration. In some wares, it is only one part of the decoration. This study aims to shed light on an important kind of decoration, to recognize its relevant kinds of decorative styles, and to bring to light some of the unpublishedBarbotine decoration wares inside Egypt.

Moni Odigitria: A Prepalatial Cemetery and its Environs in the Asterousia, Southern Crete by Andonis Vasilakis and Keith Branigan (review)

Reviewed by: Moni Odigitria: A Prepalatial Cemetery and its Environs in the Asterousia, Southern Crete by Andonis Vasilakis and Keith Branigan Carl Knappett Andonis Vasilakis and Keith Branigan. Moni Odigitria: A Prepalatial Cemetery and its Environs in the Asterousia, Southern Crete. Philadelphia, PA: INSTAP Academic Press, 2010. Pp. xxx + 316, 144 tables, 137 figures, 70 plates. £55; US $80.00. ISBN 9781931534581. Early Minoan tholos tombs are just as prominent in narratives of social complexity in Aegean prehistory as they are in the landscapes of the Mesara and Asterousia. They are held up as examples of at least four phenomena. First, their architecture is contrasted with that of the house tombs of east Crete, signaling the pronounced regionalism of EM Crete. Secondly, their longevity—many in use for a millennium—shows the continuity of Minoan culture through the third and into the second millennium bc. Thirdly, the addition of annexes and the apparent popularity of drinking and pouring vessels indicate the role of funerary feasting. And fourthly, the relative lack of differentiation intra- or inter-cemetery is taken to indicate a community-focussed, egalitarian form of social organization, in contrast to the differential wealth and incipient hierarchy identified at Mochlos in east Crete. Although more and more attention is being devoted to the study of EM society in its own right, most of the above themes do betray a teleological concern with the factors behind the emergence of palatial society in the subsequent Middle Minoan period. With so much interpretative weight riding on the EM tholoi, one would be forgiven for imagining that they constitute a rich corpus for study. In some ways they do, with c. 80 known tholoi. Unfortunately, they have suffered from extensive looting and this, combined with their multi-generational use, often over more than a millennium, means that we do not have the [End Page 231] detailed understanding we would like. Indeed, the excavation and survey that this volume publishes came about in response to extensive looting of the cemetery in 1979/80. Publication does not always follow smoothly from rescue excavation, and the subsequent appearance of some of the looted material in the personal collection of the former Greek president Mitsotakis would not necessarily have added further motivation. So it is to the great credit of the archaeologists involved that they persevered and brought this project through to full publication. There are precious few other detailed publications of EM tholoi, Ayia Kyriaki being one, by one of the present authors, though this nearly 30 years ago and also looted, and Lebena another, receiving a recent book-length treatment; one might also mention current work soon to be published on Apesokari, and Kamilari. As this work is closely connected with Blackman and Branigan’s 1970s survey of the area, known as the Hagiopharango, it is not surprising that the volume begins with a chapter presenting results of a survey of the immediate environs of the tholos cemetery, in the upper catchment of this area. Though perhaps not up to the standards of mapping seen in current surveys, it does give us important contextual information for the use of the tombs. We learn that the earliest occupation comes at the end of the Final Neolithic, and so just a little before the construction of the tombs in EM I. By EM II we see two small hamlets close to the tholos cemetery (sites 3A and 25A), both of which see continuity into MM I and beyond, seemingly outliving the cemetery. After some Late Minoan occupation, there is a long hiatus until a large Roman settlement of perhaps 5 ha, with the surface pottery indicating a span from the first to fifth century ad; this material is presented in an appendix to the chapter by Jane Francis. Chapter 2 treats the excavation and architecture of the cemetery, with a careful account of what excavated areas were disturbed; and indeed there are very few undisturbed, stratified contexts. The principal structures are the two circular stone-built tombs, Tholos A, seemingly the first to be constructed, and Tholos B, which outlives A, with the addition of an annex named here the Rectangular Building. Part II, consisting of Chapters 3...

Unpublished Middle Minoan and Late Minoan I material from the 1962–3 excavations at Palaikastro, East Crete (PK VIII)

Results of excavations in 1962–3 at the Minoan coastal town of Palaikastro were published in theAnnualin 1965 and 1970, asPK VIandPK VII. While those publications did report on all excavated contexts, in some cases this took the form of a preliminary report pending fuller study. The current paper (PK VIII) fills in most of the main gaps, particularly where the Middle Minoan period is concerned, but also with some attention to the Early and Late Minoan periods. Contexts and deposits from different blocks in the town are presented, as well as from outside the main town towards the area known as Sarantari. These provide good evidence for the existence of particular phases of occupation in the town, notably throughout the Middle Minoan period (MM IA, IB, II, IIIA and IIIB), as well as in EM IIB and LM IB. Some of these phases are not very well known at Palaikastro, or in east Crete more generally. This paper thus contributes to a fuller characterisation of certain ceramic phases at the level of both the site and the region, as well as supplementing our knowledge of the long-term occupation of this important coastal town throughout the Middle Bronze Age.

INAA of Minoan ceramics from Kommos, Crete

Ninety-two samples of ceramics from Kommos in south-central Crete, covering the Middle Minoan periods MMI to MMIII have been analyzed by instrumental neutron activation using the SLOWPOKE reactor at the University of Toronto. The sherds represented three basic fabric types: a fine buff fabric, a stone tempered buff fabric, a coarse, stone tempered red fabric. Also included in the study were three sherds from nearby archaeological sites and six Kommos sherds which were archaeologically assessed as exhibiting atypical fabrics. The three fabric types were sortable into two distinct chemical groups, and two similar groups. Little temporal variation in chemical composition was found in the fine buff wares, and the atypical fabrics fitted neatly into three of the chemical groups.

East Cretan White-on-Dark Ware. Studies on a Handmade Pottery of the Early to Middle Minoan Periods. By Philip B. Betancourt.

This study brings together a range of archaeological methodologies and expertise, both traditional and innovative. The East Cretan White-on-dark ware was manufactured during a crucial turning point in Bronze Age history, just prior to the rise of palatial society on the island. University Museum Monograph, 51

Some Chronological Problems in the Middle Minoan Dark-on-Light Pottery of Eastern Crete

Three motifs used in eastern Crete during the Middle Minoan period are catalogued and discussed. Their presence in datable deposits is used to establish the development of the individual motifs and the progression of the style as a whole. Triple plumes were used from MM IA until MM III (or slightly later); linked discs were employed from MM IA until LM IB; discs and loops are only known from MM III/LM IA. There was little appreciable change in the appearance of these conservative designs during this period, though changes can be detected in the form of the vases on which they occur.

Late Minoan Pottery, A Summary

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.

Minoan Sites in the Far West of Crete

When Pendlebury wrote his book The Archaeology of Crete (1939) so few sites of the earlier Minoan periods had been recognized in the parts of Crete west of Mt. Ida that he was led to suggest that this region, over a third of the island in area, was virtually unsettled before L.M. III times. Some years earlier Marinatos had commented upon the fact that, whereas there was evidence of occupation in the west of Crete both during Neolithic times and at the end of the Late Minoan period, hardly any relics assignable to the Middle Minoan period had been identified there. Since then many more caves with traces of Neolithic or Early Minoan occupation have been noted in western Crete, especially during the last few years owing to the researches of M. Paul Faure. At the same time a number of open settlements have been identified, with evidence of occupation during the flourishing period of the Minoan civilization between M.M. I and L.M. I.Notable among these are a couple of sites in the extreme south-west corner of Crete (A. 1, 2), ‘literally at the back of beyond’, as Pendlebury described it. The first of these by the Monastery of Khrisoskalitissa (Virgin of the Golden Stairs) was noted by Pendlebury, who claimed to have found L.M. I sherds there. But much of the pottery recovered by us in 1963 from this and the site at ‘Thrimbokambos’ (A. 2) further south appears to be rather M.M., and some of it M.M. I or earlier (E.M. II) in character.

En gammelkretisk gåde

En gammelkretisk gåde

Minoan Influences in Ancient Syria

SIR ARTHUR EVANS, commenting on the results of Sir Leonard Woolley's recent archaeological investigations in Syria (see NATURE of July 4, p. 20 and August 8, p. 235), pronounces the Minoan impact on inner Syria at so early a date, for which the ceramic relics from Tell-Atchana afford evidence, as “a new historic fact of far reaching importance and revolutionizing all previous ideas”. It is, he points out in The Times of August 19, a step forward of at least two centuries; for although there are no actual imports from Minoan Crete, the starting point in repeated examples of pottery reflecting Cretan models must certainly touch 1700 B.C. Sir Arthur bases this conclusion on the chronological datum of remains of cups, of somewhat thin make, showing white rosettes on a black ground, recalling the “egg-shell ware” bowls of the great age of Minoan Crete of the Second Middle Minoan period, which goes back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but in Syria equating with the succeeding Third Middle Minoan style. At the same time, mixed influence is to be seen in the combination of arcaded zones, characteristically Minoan, with highly conventionalized ducks, which find a parallel in early Palestine, while one of the sherds depicts an uprearing goat charged by another, whereas animal designs were excluded from the vase painting of Cretan Palace art. In concluding with an analysis of motifs, which point to a fusion of Cretan and indigenous religious and symbolic ideas, relating to the cult of the double axe, and reference to tradition of a royal alliance with Cyprus, Sir Arthur holds out the alluring possibility that the spade may yet uncover a royal sepulchre at Tell-Atchana.

Two Protopalatial Houses at Knossos

An interesting feature of the excavations in the West Court at Knossos in 1930 was the discovery of two more walled pits or ‘Koulouras’ lying between that already excavated and the great enceinte wall which was brought to light at the western extremity of the later Court (Fig. 1).At the bottom of each of these Koulouras appeared walls and floors belonging to houses dating from the beginning of the first Middle Minoan period, which had been covered in at the time when the Court was extended and the Koulouras constructed—i.e. in Middle Minoan I. b or at the beginning of Middle Minoan II.