THE PERIODS OF MINOAN CULTURE
We must now endeavour to form some idea of the various periods
into which the long enduring culture of the Minoan Empire more
or less naturally falls, and to note some of the characteristic
features of each period. The chief aid in the formation of such
an idea is given by the remains of the pottery which have survived
from each period, and it is largely from the classification of
the pottery at Knossos and other sites that the scheme adopted
by Dr. Evans and other workers has been derived. The deposit left
by Neolithic man on the hill of Kephala averages about 6 metres
in thickness below the later deposit which marks the occupation
of the site by the post-Neolithic culture. We are thus led to an
almost fabulous antiquity for the first occupation of the site.
In the earliest beginnings of human development, progress, with
its consequent accumulation, is slow, and if we allow a rate of
3 feet of deposit for each thousand years, we shall probably not
be very far wrong. Such an allowance brings us to about 10,000
B.C. as the time when Neolithic man began his first settlement on
the hill of Knossos.
_Neolithic Age_.--The remains found in the deposit of this period
are naturally of a very simple and primitive character. They consist
of pottery, handmade without any use of the wheel, and hand-burnished,
black in colour, and, in the latest specimens, adorned with incised
ornament, which is sometimes filled in with a white chalky substance.
While this description is characteristic of the deposit generally, a
gradual progress in the potter's art is traceable from the virgin soil
upwards. In the earliest stratum, immediately above the depositless
virgin soil, the pottery, for the depth of the first metre, was entirely
plain, unfired, polished within and without, with no appearance of
narrowed necks or moulded bases. The next metre shows the beginning
of incised ornament, but in almost inappreciable quantity, and
the third and fourth metres show the gradual, but extremely slow,
growth of this species of decoration, the proportion of incised
vases in the fourth metre only reaching 3 per cent. The fifth metre
deposit, however, discloses one important innovation. The proportion
of incised vases is scarcely greater than in the preceding stratum,
but almost all of them have the incisions filled in with the white
chalky substance already alluded to, forming a geometric design of
white upon black. Along with this new development of the incised
ware goes a development of the unincised, whose surface is now not
only polished to the highest degree of lustre, but is thereafter
rippled in vertical lines by the pressure of some blunt instrument,
so as to produce an undulating effect, like that of the ripple
marks on sand. The rippling of the unincised pottery continues
along with the chalk filling of the incised through the remainder
of the Neolithic series, and, in fact, appears to have enjoyed
an even superior popularity. In the sixth metre from the virgin
soil indications begin to present themselves of the fact that the
Neolithic period is about to draw to a close, for some of the pottery
is beginning to assume the shapes which are characteristic of the
painted ware of the earliest Minoan period, and in the following
metre paint begins to make its appearance as a means of decoration
in rivalry with the incision and rippling of the earlier strata.
From this point, then, we begin to get into touch with the genuine
Minoan periods, of which, according to Dr. Evans's classification,
there are three--Early, Middle, and Late Minoan--each in its turn
subdivided into three sub-periods.
_Early Minoan I_.--The pottery of this period takes over in great
part the style of the primitive hand-burnished black ware inherited
from the preceding age. But though this supplies the greater proportion
of the material, it is not the characteristic feature. This is
supplied by the fact that the potter now begins to use paint as a
means for producing the lustrous black surface which his Neolithic
predecessor produced by hand-burnishing. A lustrous black glaze
medium is spread as a slip over the surface of the clay, so as to
produce an effect generally similar to that of the hand-polished
ware, and on this lustrous slip the decoration is painted, generally
in white, more rarely in vermilion. Thus we have painted vases,
with light design upon a dark ground.
Having made this step, the artist varied his procedure by applying
the black slip itself as the decoration in bands upon the natural
buff colour of the clay, thus giving a decorative scheme of dark
design upon a light ground. The ware now for the first time gives
evidence of having been fired. The primitive 'bucchero,' still
surviving alongside of the painted pottery, is very closely related
to the imported vases found by Petrie in First Dynasty tombs at
Abydos; and a further link with Egypt is afforded by the fact that
vases of Proto-Dynastic Egyptian form in diorite and syenite were
discovered in the south and east quarters of the palace at Knossos.
Early Minoan I. is thus to be equated with the earliest beginnings
of Dynastic rule in Egypt--that is to say, it dates from about
5500 B.C. if Petrie's date for the First Dynasty be adopted, or
from about 3400 B.C. if the Berlin dating be preferred. From this
period there survive no remains of building at Knossos.
_Early Minoan II_.--The distinguishing characteristic of the second
period of Early Minoan is the greater freedom and originality shown
in the designs of the vases. The style of painted decoration remains
much the same as in the preceding period; but the vases now develop
long spouts or beaks, and are the 'beak-jugs' (Schnabelkanne) of
the German archæologists. While a tendency may be observed to vary
the straight line decoration of Early Minoan I. by the introduction
of simple curves, there is also a revival of the fashion for the
old incised geometric-patterned ware. A curious development of
this period is found in the mottled ware from Vasiliki, where the
decoration was accomplished neither by incising nor by painting a
design, but by a method of firing in which the vases, first painted
red, were so placed that the hot coals actually came into contact
with the vases at certain points, and produced black patches upon
the red paint. The resultant mottled surface was then hand-polished,
and sometimes, but more rarely, used as the medium for a design
in white. To this period belong the oldest parts of the deposit
at Hagios Onouphrios, and the greater part of the contents of the
bee-hive chamber tomb at Hagia Triada, where, along with incised
and early painted vases, were found copper daggers with very short
triangular blades, a number of rude stone seals, and very primitive
idols, rudely imitating the human form. There are still no traces
of any surviving building on the hill of Knossos, nor is there any
definite link with Egypt to afford an opportunity for determining
the date of the period.
[Illustration XXIV: THE BASILICA. STONE LAMP. THE ROYAL VILLA, KNOSSOS
(_p_. 108)]
_Early Minoan III_.--In this period the proportion of painted vases
steadily increases, though for a time there is also a revival of
the incised ornament, attributed by Dr. Evans to influence from
the Cyclades, which at this time also gave to Crete the idea of
the flat, banjo-shaped human figurines which are characteristic
of the early deposits of Melos and Amorgos.
The use of the potter's wheel probably now begins, and the clay is
carefully sifted and fired, the favourite colour scheme being white
on lustrous brown or black slip, though sometimes the alternative
scheme of dark upon light is adopted; and vases are sometimes fashioned
out of very thin clay, in anticipation of the fine egg-shell Kamares
ware of Middle Minoan II. The chief decorative motive is a horizontal
band, or more than one, around the upper part of the vase. On these
bands the chief ornament is the zig-zag, and curves directly derived
therefrom, and the spiral begins to appear as a form of decoration.
It is uncertain whether the credit for the origination of this
favourite form of decorative motive is to be attributed to Egypt
or to Crete. Miss Hall[*] regards the Early Minoan III. spirals
as late-comers in the field, attributing the first development of
the spiral to the painters of Egyptian pre-Dynastic vases; but Mr.
H. R. Hall[**] denies the right of the volutes on the pre-Dynastic
vases to be regarded as spirals at all, considers that the true
spiral appears suddenly in Egypt as 'a new and unprecedented thing'
about the beginning of the Middle Kingdom, and infers that in its
use the Cretans were original, and the Egyptians merely borrowers;
while Dr. Evans[***] denies originality to both, and holds that
the use of the spiral was first developed on the European side
of the Ægean.
[Footnote *: 'The Decorative Art of Crete in the Bronze Age,' p.
9.]
[Footnote **: Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology,
vol. xxxi., part 5, pp. 221, 222.]
[Footnote ***: 'Scripta Minoa,' p. 126.]
The fact that the seals of this period show motives derived from
the Egyptian Sixth Dynasty 'button-seals' suggests that Early Minoan
III. is to be equated with the end of the Old Kingdom in Egypt.
This, however, is but a slight help as to the positive date of
the Minoan period, owing to the huge gap between the different
systems of Egyptian chronology. All that can be said is that on
Petrie's system of dating the Minoan period which is contemporary
with the end of the Sixth Dynasty would date about 4000 B.C., and
on the Berlin system about 2475 B.C. Though the two cultures are
contemporaneous, it is, of course, by no means to be inferred that
the art of Early Minoan III. has left us any relics which are worthy
of being placed on a level with the wonderful work of the Egyptian
Old Kingdom artists. The primitive pictographs on the bead-seals
of this period mark the beginnings of this form of Minoan script,
which persisted until Late Minoan I., when it was at last superseded
by the linear form of writing which had made its appearance in
Middle Minoan III.
_Middle Minoan I_.--With this period we have distinct advance in
more directions than one. The Minoan artist is beginning to feel
his way towards that polychrome style of decoration which reached
such a remarkable development in the Kamares vases of the succeeding
stage. In the decoration of his ware, which does not exhibit any
marked advance in form upon that of Early Minoan III., he has begun
to supplement the familiar white on the dark slip by adding yellow,
orange, red, and crimson. The Petsofa figurines, already alluded
to, which belong to this period, have a colour scheme of black
and white, red and orange. Along with this development of the use
of colour goes a corresponding advance in design. The motives of
the former period are continued, but are much more developed, and
more freely handled. Instead of being stiffly disposed in bands
round the vessel, they are now frequently grouped with the idea
of covering the ground of the vases in a graceful manner without
any attempt at formal definition of the limits of each article of
the design, the artist's idea being simply to fill, in a manner
satisfying to the eye, the space upon which he had to work. The
zonal system still persists side by side with the freer style,
and is often very skilfully handled as a means of decoration. One
of the characteristic features of Middle Minoan ceramic art--the
use of relief to enhance the effect of the polychrome decoration
through the addition of contrasts of light and shade--is seen coming
into use in the earliest part of the period.
Decoration is still geometric, and was to continue so for long.
Not until Middle Minoan III. do we get a really naturalistic style
of decorative art. But in Middle Minoan I. there are indications
which, though slight, seem to point to a striving after realism
on the part of some of the artists of the period. This tendency
is apparent even in some of the geometric designs, which are so
disposed as to form an approach to naturalistic patterns. But the
most remarkable example of the tendency is seen in a fragment of
a vase from Knossos, figured by Dr. Mackenzie,[*] on which the
figures of three of the Cretan wild goats are followed by that
of a gigantic beetle with a tail. 'The subject of the design,'
says Dr. Mackenzie, 'in its naturalistic character is so advanced
that, were it not for the company in which the fragments occur,
we should be tempted to assign it to a much later age.' It is
unfortunate that only a part of the design has survived, and that
no parallel to it has ever been found. Was it merely a sport, the
freak of some ancient potter who was weary of the conventional
designs of his time, and tried his hand at something new, combining
the wild life that he could see from the window of his workshop
with that which crawled upon its floor, without ever dreaming of
the problem he was setting for the students of 4,000 years later to
exercise themselves upon? The style of the goat and beetle fragment
is dark upon light. The goats are surrounded by an incised outline,
and filled in with lustrous black glaze; the beetle is drawn freely
in the black glaze, without incision, almost as though it had been
a humorous afterthought of the potter.
[Footnote *: _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, vol. xxvi., part I,
plate ix. 3.]
Middle Minoan I. has no surviving link with Egyptian art, a fact
which may be explained by the consideration that from the end of the
Sixth Dynasty to the establishment of the Eleventh, Egypt appears
to have been passing through a time of great confusion. The period
is practically a Dark Age so far as Egyptian history is concerned.
[Illustration XXV: (1) KNOSSOS VALLEY
(2) EXCAVATING AT KNOSSOS]
_Middle Minoan II_.--We now come to the period when the first undoubted
traces of the Cretan palaces begin to reveal themselves. The chief
architectural remains of the period are, however, not at Knossos,
but at Phæstos. There the Theatral Area, at least, was in existence
early in this period, possibly in the later part of the preceding
one. But at Knossos the chief evidence for the high state of
civilization attained in this period is the pottery, which reaches a
very advanced development. This is the age of the splendid polychrome
vessels of the type called 'Kamares,' from the cave on Mount Ida
where they were first discovered by Mr. J. L. Myres. The vases
and cups of this fabric, from the delicacy of their forms, the
grace of their designs, and the richness of their colour, are among
the most notable survivals of Minoan ceramic art. The clay is fine
and carefully sifted, and the walls of the vessels are of extreme
thinness and delicacy, approaching to that of the finest egg-shell
china. The designs upon the vases are often moulded in low relief
as well as painted, and the thinness of their walls, the form of
their handles, and the knobs upon them, which are evidently meant to
suggest rivets, show that the potters of the time were endeavouring
to emulate the achievements of their brother artists, the metal
workers. The designs upon the vases themselves are conventional,
the idea being to produce a rich and harmonious effect of form
and colour rather than to secure any imitation of Nature. Indeed,
the patterns are very largely geometric; the zig-zag, the cross,
and concentric circles occur frequently; and when plant life is
imitated it is skilfully conventionalized, as in the case of the
water-lily cup, perhaps the most beautiful specimen of the ware
of the period, on which the white petals start from a centre at
the foot of the cup and enfold its body. The ground of this cup
is lustrous black, and the white of the petals is accentuated by
thin lines of red, while a geometric pattern moulded in low relief
runs round the rim of the cup above the waterlilies (Plate XXIX.
4). The colours of the vases are varied, consisting chiefly of
white, orange, crimson, red, and yellow, and each colour is used
in several shades. 'Black shades into purple, white into cream;
brown has sometimes a red, and sometimes an olive tint; yellows
are either pale or orange; and red is not only a crude vermilion,
but is weakened to pink, or strengthened with shades of orange
and cherry and terra-cotta.' In the decoration of the vases both
styles flourish side by side, dark design upon light ground, and
light upon dark. In some vessels of the period there is a combination
of conventionalized naturalistic ornament and geometric design.
A distinct link between Egypt and Middle Minoan II. is afforded by
the fact that at Kahun, close to the pyramid of Senusert II., near
the Fayum, Professor Petrie discovered vases which are unquestionably
of Kamares type, while the synchronism with the Twelfth Dynasty was
fully established by Professor Garstang's discovery at Abydos of
fragments of a polychrome vessel of late Middle Minoan II. type in
an untouched tomb, which also contained glazed steatite cylinders
with the names of Senusert III. and Amenemhat III. Middle Minoan
II., then, equates with the times of the Twelfth Egyptian Dynasty,
a period which was in many respects the most brilliant of Egyptian
history.
When we come to inquire, however, as to positive date, we are still
met, though almost for the last time, by the great discrepancy
between the systems of Egyptian dating. The Twelfth Dynasty is
placed by Professor Petrie at about 3400 B.C., by the traditional
dating about 2500 B.C., while the modern German school brings down
the date as low as 2000 B.C. No more can be said than that Middle
Minoan II. certainly does not begin earlier than 3400 B.C., and
can scarcely begin later than 2000 B.C. The period closes with the
evidence of a great catastrophe at Knossos, in which the palace was
burned; and, as already mentioned, the fact that Phæstos shows no
evidence of such a disaster at this point has roused the suspicion
that the Lords of Phæstos may have been responsible for the destruction
of the greater palace.
_Middle Minoan III_.--To this period belong the beginnings of the
second palace at Knossos. The western portion of the palace probably
dates largely from this time, though it was altered and extended
later; and we must place here the Temple Repositories, and certain
other chambers on the northeast side of the Central Court, though
they were covered up and built over in Late Minoan I. At all events,
a very great and splendid building must have existed upon the site
at this time. Egypt was passing through the dark period between the
Thirteenth and Seventeenth Dynasties, which includes the domination
of the Hyksos; but the civilization of Crete, on the contrary, was
continually and steadily advancing. To this age belong many of
the most interesting and precious relics of the Minoan culture.
The art of the period gradually undergoes a great change from that
of Middle Minoan II. Polychrome decoration steadily declines, and
is superseded by monochrome. The beautiful lustrous black glaze
ground of the vases is replaced by a dull purple slip on which
the decoration is often laid in a powdery white paint. The best
designs are found in this white upon a lilac or mauve ground. In
the designs themselves conventionalism and geometric ornament pass
away, and are followed by a development of naturalism. Dr. Mackenzie
has pointed out that it is to this growth of naturalism that we
must trace the gradual disappearance of polychrome decoration.
'Once we have the portrayal of natural objects, such as flowers,
which becomes so rife before the close of the Middle Minoan Age,
it soon becomes apparent that a scale of colours, which in their
relation to each other were capable of producing polychrome effects
of great beauty, was quite inadequate towards the reproduction of
the natural colours of objects. Thus green, for example, which is
the first necessity towards the rendering of leaves and stems, did
not exist in the colour repertory of the vase painter. The ceramic
artist must thus have felt that with his limited scale of colours
he could not produce the same natural effects as the wall-painter
with his. On the other hand, he must have been equally conscious
that natural objects such as flowers did not look natural in a
polychrome guise which was not that of Nature. The only solution
of the colour difficulty in the circumstances was a compromise in
the shape of a convention. Thus the tendency came into being to
make all natural objects either simply light on a dark ground,
or dark on a light ground.'[*]
[Footnote *: _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, vol. Xxvi., part I,
pp. 257, 258.]
The two flowers most generally used for the purpose of ornamentation
are the lily and the crocus. For the first time the importance of
pottery as an evidence of the condition of the art of the period
is second to that of other artistic products. It is to Middle Minoan
III. that there belongs the wonderful fabric of faïence, of which so
many specimens were discovered in the Temple Repositories. In them
the same tendency towards naturalism reveals itself. The wild-goat
suckling its kid, the flying-fish, the porcelain vases, one of them
with cockle-shell relief, and another with ferns and rose-leaves
on a ground of pale green, are all instances of the naturalistic
growth. Evidence is also afforded of a great delight in scenes
connected with the sea, and we have the flying-fish and the seal
with the seaman in his skiff defending himself against the attacks
of the sea-monster, to witness to the Minoan appreciation alike
of the curiosities and the dangers of the deep.
Fresco-painting also begins to leave survivals, and we have particularly
the fresco of the Blue Boy gathering white crocuses. At the beginning
of the period the old form of pictographic writing is still in
general use, but by the close of Middle Minoan III. the earlier
type of the linear script, Class A, has made its appearance and
is extensively used. The Middle Minoans of the Third period were
the fabricators of the huge knobbed and corded _pithoi_, or jars,
some of them with the curious 'trickle,' ornament, which is surely
decoration reduced to its last straits. The artist merely dabbed
quantities of brown glaze paint around the rims of his jars, and
allowed it to trickle down the sides at its own will. The result
is curious, but can scarcely be called beautiful (Plate IX. 2).
'Ab-nub's child, Sebek-user, deceased,' whose statuette was found
at Knossos, gives us a point of connection between the earlier
part of Middle Minoan III. and the Thirteenth Egyptian Dynasty,
while the alabastron of Khyan links the later portion of the period
with the Hyksos domination in Egypt. The King who built the great
tomb at Isopata, already described, must have reigned at Knossos
during this period.
_Late Minoan I_.--In this period we come into touch with a great
deal of the fine work of the Royal Villa at Hagia Triada, which
has been already described. A considerable portion of the area
of the palace at Knossos, dating from the preceding age, is now
covered up by new construction, and the second palace begins to
assume the form which was completed in the subsequent period. In
pottery the naturalistic style still persists, but the technique
begins to modify, and the white design on a dark ground occurs
less frequently than design in dark glaze paint on the natural
light ground of the clay. Ornament begins to partake increasingly
of a marine character; the octopus, the Triton shell, the nautilus,
and seaweed, appear as designs, and are executed in lifelike fashion,
which contrasts strongly with the later conventionalized method
of representing them. Indeed, Middle Minoan III. And Late Minoan
I. and II. show a distinct appreciation of and delight in all the
beauty and wonder of the sea, which suggest the important part
which it played in the lives of the Cretan populace. 'At ports
where sailors and fishermen and divers for sponge and purple went
and came, it was natural for an imaginative race to acquire that
sense of the magic and mystery of the sea, that curiosity about
the life in its depths, which found expression in these ceramic
pictures.'[*]
[Footnote *: R. C. Bosanquet, _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, vol.
xxiv., part 2, p. 322.]
[Illustration XXVI: GREAT STAIRCASE, PHÆSTOS (_p_. 120)
_G. Maraghiannis_]
Along with the marine designs went naturalistic representations
of flowers and grasses--the lily and the crocus, already familiar
from earlier work, the Egyptian lotus in a form adapted to the taste
of the Minoan artist, and ivy leaves and tendrils. A peculiarly
graceful design on a vase from Zakro shows an adaptation of the
Egyptian lotus, presenting that favourite Nilotic motive in a style
more flexible and easy than that of the native representations of
it. The design in this case is painted in white on a reddish-brown
ground, and its peculiarity is that the white was laid on after the
vase had been fired, and can be removed with the finger (Plate XXIX.
2). The three vases from Hagia Triada, the Boxer, the Harvester, and
the Chieftain, belong to this period, as do also the frescoes of
the Hunting Cat and the Climbing Plants, and probably the Royal
Gaming Board from the palace at Knossos. At this time, too, we
come upon the long bronze swords which had succeeded the daggers
of the preceding ages. Hieroglyphic writing is now superseded by
the linear script of Class A, which now comes into regular use,
although at Knossos the documents in this script, according to
Dr. Evans, are only to be found in the stratum belonging to the
last period of Middle Minoan, their place being supplied by Class
B, which occurs only at Knossos.
At Hagia Triada and Gournia the older forms of vase are mingled
with early specimens of the type variously known as 'Bügelkanne,'
'Vases à Étrier,' or 'Stirrup-vases.' These vases, named from the
stirrup-like appearance of their curving handles, may more correctly
be called 'false-necked vases,' from the fact that the neck to
which the handles unite is closed, and another neck is formed,
farther away from the handles, for convenience in pouring. The
false-necked vase is the characteristic pottery type of Late Minoan
III., and occurs very frequently on the Mycenæan sites of that
period. The seals with fantastic forms of monsters, such as those
found in such numbers at Zakro, date from the beginning of Late
Minoan I., and to this period also belong the earlier of the Shaft-
or Circle-Graves at Mycenæ, so that now for the first time Minoan
can be equated with Mycenæan. We are still without any system of
dating that is absolutely certain, but this is the last period
of which such a remark is true. The next period brings us into
touch with Egyptian synchronisms whose date is certain to within
a few years.
_Late Minoan II_.--To Late Minoan II. belong the great glories
of the second palace at Knossos, which arrived at its greatest
splendour just before the time at which it was to be destroyed.
Now were built the Throne Room and its antechamber, and the Royal
Villa with its daïs and throne and columned hall, while the walls
of the completed palace were covered with the splendid frescoes
of whose beauties the Cup-Bearer and the spectators watching the
games give us evidence. The reliefs in hard plaster, such as the
bull's head and the King with the peacock plumes, show the style
of decoration which gave variety on the walls to the paintings on
the flat. In pottery the change of style and decoration is gradual,
but quite pronounced. The chief characteristic of the time is the
fabrication of large decorated vases and _pithoi_, such as the
beautiful papyrus relief vase of the Royal Villa, nearly 4 feet
in height (Plate XXIII.; see also Plate XXX.). Naturalism still
survives in occasional designs, but the bulk of the design is
conventional, and the composition of the various elements is often
extremely skilful. A typical form of vessel of this period is the
long narrow strainer, which is borne by the Cup-Bearer in the palace
fresco, and of which various specimens have been found. In many
cases these strainers were made of variegated marble, though pottery
was also used for them.
The bronze vessels from the north-west house at Knossos, and the
swords from the earlier Zafer Papoura graves, testify to the skill
with which metal was wrought. One of these swords from the chieftain's
grave, the short weapon which the noble of Late Minoan II. carried
along with his long rapier, perhaps for parrying thrusts, as the
gallants of Queen Elizabeth's time used their daggers, has a pommel
of translucent agate, and a gold-plated hilt engraved with a design
of a lion chasing and capturing a wild-goat. Great bronze vessels
were wrought with splendid conventional designs, and some of the
stone vases of the period are amazing in the skill with which they
were worked and decorated. 'How the hard material was worked with
precision in the _inside_ of vessels which have only the narrowest
of neck orifices, and that in an age of soft bronze tools, is as
great a mystery as the mode of working diorite and granite in
prehistoric Egypt.'[*] Perhaps the most splendid specimen is the
great amphora, 2 feet high by 6 feet in circumference, with its
two magnificent spiral bands, which was found in the so-called
Sculptor's Workshop at Knossos, beside the smaller vessel which
had only been roughed out when the catastrophe of the palace came.
[Footnote *: D. G. Hogarth, _Cornhill Magazine_, March, 1903, p.
329.]
The linear script, Class B, now supersedes the earlier type, Class
A.
In this period we come for the first time into a sphere where there
is practically an absolute certainty in dating; for now we have the
Keftiu appearing in the tomb frescoes of the Eighteenth Dynasty
at Thebes, with their vessels of characteristic Minoan type, and
their purely Minoan style of dress and general appearance. Sen-mut's
tomb gives us a date about 1480 B.C., and Rekh-ma-ra's may bring
us down to 1450 B.C., or thereby. It is somewhat striking that
the periods of greatest splendour alike for the Egyptian Empire
and for the Minoan should virtually coincide. In either case, the
duration of the culmination of splendour was short. The magnificence
of the Egypt of Hatshepsut, Tahutmes III., and Amenhotep III., was
speedily to be clouded and dimmed by the disasters of the reign
of Akhenaten; but even before the glory of the Eighteenth Dynasty
had passed away, the sun of the Minoan Empire had set. Late Minoan
II., with all its triumphs of architecture and art, was brought to
an abrupt close by the sack of the palaces, probably about 1400
B.C., and the great frescoes of the palace at Knossos were the last
evidences of a magnificence which was never to be revived again
on Cretan soil.
During this period intercourse between Crete and Egypt must have
been frequent and close. It is not only indicated by the evidence
of the Sen-mut and Rekh-ma-ra tombs, but by the parallelism in
the styles of art in the two countries. The art of each remains
truly national, but the frescoes of Knossos and Hagia Triada and
those of the Eighteenth Dynasty in Egypt are inspired by the same
spirit, though in either case the result is modified by national
characteristics.
[Illustration XXVII: THE HARVESTER VASE, HAGIA TRIADA (_p_. 124)
_G. Maraghiannis_]
_Late Minoan III_.--This, the last period of the Minoan civilization,
commences with the destruction of the palace of Knossost somewhere
before 1400 B.C., and presents no definite line of termination.
The great style of art represented by the preceding period does
not at once degenerate into barbarism. If, as seems probable, the
men who destroyed the Cretan palaces were Mycenæans of the mainland,
more or less of the same stock as the Cretan representatives of the
Minoan tradition, we can see how the catastrophe of the palaces
need not have been followed by any immediate catastrophe of the art
of Crete. At the same time the true spirit of the Minoan race had
been destroyed, and degeneration of the standard of art naturally
followed. The level of artistic work in the earlier part of the
period is still high--in fact, it is that of what is considered
the best Mycenæan art--the technical skill which produced the
masterpieces of the Palace period still survives, but the inspiration
which gave it life is gone. Originality in design vanishes first,
and is gradually followed by skill in execution; the old types are
reproduced in more and more slovenly fashion, and at last even
the material employed follows the example of degeneration. This
period of gradual decadence is, however, the period of greatest
diffusion of the products of Minoan, or, rather, as we may now
call it, of Mycenæan art. At Ialysos in Rhodes, and in the lower
town of Mycenæ, types parallel with the work of Crete are found,
and Tell-el-Amarna furnishes specimens of pottery whose degeneracy
from the type of the Palace period declares them to belong to these
days of decadence. Specimens of Late Minoan III. work are found
at Tarentum, and the island of Torcello, near Venice, and even
as far west as Spain. One of the characteristic features of the
period is the fact that the stirrup-vase, found at Hagia Triada
and Gournia in Late Minoan I., but almost totally wanting in Late
Minoan II., now becomes common.
Towards the close of the period the site of the palace at Knossos
was partially reoccupied by a humbler race of men, who used the
rooms that had once witnessed the pride of the Minoan Sovereigns,
dividing them up by flimsy partition-walls to suit their smaller
needs. An age of transition succeeded, during which the character
of the Cretan population was gradually modified by successive waves
of invasion from the mainland, until Crete assumed the guise of
'the mixed land,' under which Homer knew it; and finally came the
great invasion of the Dorians, which brought in for Crete, as for
the rest of Greece, the dark age which preceded the dawn of the
true Hellenic culture.