History of Ancient Pottery 28

History of Ancient Pottery 28

An interesting class is formed by the =black punctured ware=, in which

the clay is black throughout, without a slip, but partly polished. Most

of these vases are small jugs with a narrow neck, swelling body, and

small foot, and they are ornamented with punctured dots, usually in

triangular patches, but sometimes irregularly distributed. In Cyprus

they are mostly found in the early necropolis at Kalopsida, but they

also occur in the late Mycenaean tombs at Enkomi. The special interest

of this ware is that it is found in Egypt, under such circumstances

that it can fairly be dated; notably at Khata'anah in conjunction with

scarabs and flint chips of the twelfth and thirteenth dynasties

(2500–2000 B.C.). It is also found in the Fayûm, where Prof. Petrie

obtained some good specimens.[829]

 

Allied to this is the Cypriote _bucchero_ ware, of plain black clay

without slip, ornamented with ribs or flutings. It is only found in the

later tombs, and can be traced through the subsequent transitional

period.[830]

 

Of the remaining fabrics the most conspicuous is that termed by Mr.

Myres the =base-ring ware=, which is marked off from other Bronze-Age

types by its flat-ringed base in all cases. The clay is dark and of

fine texture, with thinly-glazed surface. The ornament is either in

relief or painted in matt-white, the patterns being exclusively of a

basket or network type (Plate XI., figs. 1, 2). The reliefs, when they

occur, consist of scrolls or raised seams curving over the body,

obviously in imitation of the seams of a leather bottle; they sometimes

end in a leaf-ornament,[831] and at other times take the form of a

snake. This fabric is very commonly found in the later tombs with

Mycenaean vases, and hardly earlier. It has been found in Egypt and at

Lachish.[832]

 

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PLATE XI

 

[Illustration:

 

EARLY CYPRIOTE POTTERY (BRITISH MUSEUM).

1, 2, “BASE-RING” BLACK WARE; 3, 4, 7, INCISED RED AND BLACK WARES;

5, 6, “WHITE-SLIP” WARES.

]

 

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Among the rarer varieties of unpainted wares Mr. Myres includes white

base-ring ware (plates and bowls), imitations of straw-plait or

wicker-work, and plain _wheel-made wares_ with red or black slip, of

peculiar form.[833]

 

Among the Painted Pottery by far the most widely-spread local fabric is

that styled by Mr. Myres the =white-slip ware=, which appears in the

tombs of the later Bronze Age, and is more than any other associated

with Mycenaean vases. In cemeteries such as Enkomi, Curium, and

Maroni[834] it has been found in large quantities in almost every tomb,

and its range is not limited to Cyprus. The characteristics of this

ware are a black gritty clay, worked very thin, and a thick white

creamy slip with which it is covered both inside and out; it is

exceedingly brittle, and perfect specimens are comparatively uncommon.

The ornament is laid on in a black pigment, often turning to red by the

action of fire; the most common form is that of a hemispherical bowl

with a flat triangular handle, notched at the apex. Almost the only

other forms are a long-necked flask or bottle of the lekythos type and

a large jug with cylindrical body (like an _olpe_) and a flat

thumb-piece above the handle.

 

Mr. Myres[835] points out that the scheme of decoration seems intended

to imitate the binding and seams of a leather bowl; it usually consists

of a band of various patterns (lattice-work, zigzags, lozenges, or

lines of dots) round the rim, from which similar bands descend

vertically, but do not meet at the bottom. Similarly the handle seems

intended to represent two pieces of flexible wood bound together. In

the case of the jugs the patterns follow a similar principle, giving

the effect of a decoration in panels to the upper part. Specimens of

this ware are given in Plate XI., Nos. 5, 6.

 

Beyond the confines of Cyprus isolated specimens of this ware have been

found at Athens, Hissarlik, Thera, Lachish in Palestine, and at Saqqara

and Tell-el-Amarna in Egypt, in the last-named instance along with

Mycenaean vases.[836] The resemblance of some white-slip wares to the

Dipylon vases is not a little curious.[837] But it can hardly be

thought that the one influenced the other.

 

The other local painted wares are by no means so common. They are, in

fact, almost limited to specimens of an unpolished _white ware_, with

fine cream-coloured clay, on which patterns such as groups of straight

or wavy lines, chevrons, chequers, and triangles filled with hatched

lines are painted with a pigment varying from dull black to dull red.

The commonest forms are one-handled bowls and small bottles, either

globular or sausage-shaped. The latter are distinguished by often

having long tube-like spouts attached and by the numerous perforated

projections for the attachment of strings, handles being generally

absent at first, but when they are introduced the projections remain as

an ornamental survival. In a few isolated specimens the surface is

covered with a polished slip. Others again are covered with a _black

glaze_,[838] on which are painted in dull red groups of short parallel

lines, which (as Mr. Myres points out) seem to have been executed at a

single stroke with a cluster of brushes.

 

* * * * *

 

The =Mycenaean pottery= which has been found on not a few sites in

Cyprus, and of late years in such surprising quantities at Enkomi and

in the neighbourhood of Larnaka and Limassol (Maroni, Curium, etc.),

belongs properly to another section of this chapter, and would not call

for discussion in this connection, but for the fact that in Cyprus it

presents certain features which seem to be almost exclusively local. At

all events it is advisable to consider how far Mycenaean pottery in

Cyprus differs from that found in Rhodes, Crete, or Mycenae.

 

Two points claim our attention in the first instance: (1) that in point

of technique the Cypriote finds fall absolutely into line with those in

other parts of the Mycenaean world; (2) that the range of subjects

depicted on the vases found in Cyprus is wider and in a measure more

developed than elsewhere. To what extent we may be permitted, bearing

both facts in mind, to predicate a local fabric of Mycenaean pottery in

Cyprus, must for the present remain an open question; at the same time

it seems extremely probable that the larger vases, which it will be

necessary to discuss in detail, are, if not of local manufacture, at

all events a fabric made specially for exportation to Cyprus, as we

shall see was the case with a later variety of black-figured Attic ware.

 

The peculiarity of the Cypriote-Mycenaean pottery is that whereas on

other sites the decoration is confined to linear ornaments, and animal

or vegetable subjects drawn almost exclusively from the aquatic world

(such as cuttle-fish, shell-fish, or seaweed), in Cyprus we find

represented not only animals, such as bulls, deer, goats, and dogs, but

even human figures, both male and female, and monsters such as Sphinxes

and Gryphons. Having regard to what M. Pottier[839] calls the law of

the _hierarchie des genres_, it does not seem impossible that this may

imply a _late survival_ of Mycenaean art in Cyprus, and although this

view has been hitherto strongly contested in certain quarters, it finds

support from other evidence obtained in recent excavations. The whole

chronology of Cypriote pottery is still in a very unsettled state, and

until it can be definitely shown that the Cypriote Geometrical style

began concurrently with the appearance of Geometrical pottery in

Greece, it is still admissible to urge that Mycenaean art prevailed

here for some time subsequent to its disappearance from the greater

part of the Hellenic world. For this the accepted date is the end of

the tenth century B.C., but it is not necessary to extend its influence

in Cyprus more than two centuries longer, _i.e._ beyond the eighth

century, at the latest.

 

If we accept the view generally held that the Mycenaean civilisation

was Achaean, and that after the Dorian invasion its representatives

were driven in an easterly direction and settled on the coast of Asia

Minor; and if again we regard this as an historical version of the

Greek traditions of the Trojan war and the subsequent migrations of the

Achaean heroes[840]; we may then consider that the stories of Teucer’s

foundation of a new Salamis and of an Argive colonisation of Curium

find their verification in the Mycenaean settlements recently

discovered on those two Cypriote sites. The extent and richness of the

old Salamis at Enkomi at any rate seems to suggest that it may have

flourished as a Mycenaean settlement for some centuries.

 

But to return to the pottery. Two forms are eminently characteristic of

the Cypriote varieties. Of these, one—the “false amphora” (p. 271)—is

not peculiar to the island, but is found wherever Mycenaean pottery has

penetrated; though especially common in Cyprus, it is in fact the most

popular of all Mycenaean shapes. The other is a large krater, found in

two varieties, either a straight-sided deep bowl with wide mouth and no

neck, or a spheroidal vessel on a high stem, with a low straight neck

of less diameter than the body. It is this latter class which appears

to be of local manufacture and presents such a variety of painted

decoration.

 

Up to the year 1895 only some half-dozen of these kraters were known,

one of which was found by General Cesnola in the rich necropolis at

Agia Paraskevi near Nicosia[841]; another he alleged to have come from

Amathus, but it was no doubt found at Maroni, not so far distant, where

for many years a Bronze-Age cemetery has been known. In the above-named

year two more came to light at Curium,[842] one of the same type as

General Cesnola’s, with figures driving two-horse chariots; the other

having in addition the unique subject of a series of women, each figure

in a separate panel, represented as waving their arms or holding

flowers.[843] These were speedily followed by the rich and valuable

series from Enkomi now in the British Museum, since which time other

interesting specimens have been obtained for the Museum in various

excavations or have found their way into the hands of local collectors

(see Plate XII.).

 

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PLATE XII

 

[Illustration: MYCENAEAN VASES FROM CYPRUS (BRITISH MUSEUM).]

 

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Native imitations of the Mycenaean vases, which have been described as

“sub-Mycenaean wares,” have been found in considerable numbers on most

of the sites where the genuine Mycenaean ware exists. They fall

technically under the heading of painted white ware (p. 251),[844] the

difference being that the decoration is in _matt_ colour (varying from

black to red) on an unpolished drab ground. The patterns mostly follow

Mycenaean models, but some are new. They are well represented on the

Mycenaean site at Curium,[845] especially in one or two tombs of

transitional character, and in some cases the decoration is of a

distinctly Geometrical type, illustrating the development of the

succeeding style. In any case it is not difficult to distinguish them

from the genuine Mycenaean fabrics.

 

* * * * *

 

In these so-called sub-Mycenaean vases we can trace the best evidence

of the transition from the Bronze Age to the succeeding or

Graeco-Phoenician period. But on the whole the line of demarcation is

clearly defined, as for instance by the forms and position of the

tombs, which become larger and lie deeper; by the appearance of iron

implements and bronze fibulae; and by the fact that all the native

pottery is now made on the wheel. Relations with continental Greece are

evidenced by the occasional importation of Geometrical pottery of the

Dipylon type (as in the great vase found at Curium), dating from the

ninth and eighth centuries B.C. As we have already seen, the first

Hellenic settlements in Cyprus seem to have followed on more or less

immediately after the Dorian invasion, in the sites of Salamis, Curium,

Kerynia, Paphos, and others which afterwards became the capitals of

small Hellenic kingdoms.

 

On the other hand, the Phoenician thalassocracy, which began about the

ninth century B.C., never had much foothold in Cyprus, less at any rate

than was formerly supposed. Politically at all events the Phoenician

influence was comparatively small, even in their settlements at Kition

and Amathus[846]; we read of expeditions of the kings of Tyre in the

tenth and eighth centuries, the object of which was to force the former

town to pay tribute; but subsequently they were compelled by the

Assyrian domination under Sargon to retreat westwards. In the seventh

century a new power arose in the shape of Egypt, and in the sixth

Cyprus became a tributary of Amasis.[847] Throughout, however,

relations with Greece were maintained, and we read that in 501 B.C. the

Cypriote princes joined the Ionians in their revolt against Persia, a

fact which shows the strength of the Hellenic element.

 

Nevertheless the term “Graeco-Phoenician,” which has been adopted to

describe the art of this period, is convenient, and can hardly be

improved upon, if we bear in mind that the term “Phoenician” really

represents the combination of Egyptian and Assyrian elements of art

which filtered through that race into Cyprus, and in which sometimes

the one, sometimes the other has the predominance. This is seen perhaps

more clearly in the sculpture, metal-work, and terracottas, as for

instance in the incised bronze and silver bowls,[848] than in the

pottery. Painted pottery was never a feature of Oriental art, and the

Phoenician influence in the pottery is confined to borrowed motives of

Oriental character, like foreign words in a language. Another proof

that Cyprus resisted the Phoenician domination is afforded by the

curious fact that though the Greeks of the mainland adopted the

Phoenician alphabet entirely, in Cyprus, on the other hand—where, above

all, we should have expected to find it—its place is taken by a

syllabary, the forms of which appear to bear some relation to the

Lycian, Carian, and Pamphylian alphabets. That this syllabary, which is

universally employed for inscriptions down to the fourth century, is of

a very high antiquity is shown by its close affinities with the

newly-discovered Cretan script, and by the fact that single characters

of a similar type are often found engraved on the handles of Mycenaean

vases in Cyprus. Each character represents a syllable, not a letter

(except in the case of vowels), and the dialect is thought to be

largely influenced by Aeolic.

 

Mycenaean influence, as might be expected, was slow to die out in

Cyprus, and the pottery is no exception. It is seen not only in the

patterns, such as the concentric circles—an invention of the

Cypriote-Mycenaean pottery, which forms a favourite and almost

universal motive at a later date—but in the subjects and technique. The

practice of painting figures in outline, not in silhouette, as in the

birds and beasts of the Enkomi kraters, the use of dull red and black

pigments on an unglazed light-coloured surface, and many other details

are an heritage from the Bronze Age, extending over many a succeeding

century. With these are combined the influences of the early Attic

pottery,[849] in the panels of Geometrical patterns, and the later

rosette and conventionalised lotos-flower, which, with the concentric

circles, form the stock-in-trade of the “Graeco-Phoenician” potter. The

British Museum collection includes one or two remarkable isolated

specimens which illustrate this principle. It is for instance

instructive to compare the Sphinxes on a krater from Enkomi[850] with

those on a large amphora lately acquired from the Karpas,[851] or the

oinochoe from General Cesnola’s collection with a chariot-scene (Plate

XIII.),[852] with those from Mycenaean sites similarly decorated. On

the other hand, the extraordinary large vase from Tamassos,[853] with

its crudely and childishly drawn figures, combines a curious admixture

of Greek and Oriental motives, and early as it must be, is not

Mycenaean in conception or technique.

 

Oriental influence is not, however, altogether wanting in the pottery.

The lotos-flowers and rosettes, of which we have already spoken, are

derived respectively from Egypt and Assyria, and the conventionalised

palm-trees, which also appear, are of course purely Oriental. So too,

again, the typically Oriental subject of the sacred tree between two

animals appears in various forms. But here again we are met with the

surprising fact that the Oriental element is far stronger in Greece

than in Cyprus, as will be seen later in the account of the early

Hellenic fabrics; and no doubt it is due to this cause that the

Geometric style was not driven out from Cyprus as it was from Greece,

but continued for many centuries.

 

In attempting a detailed description of the Graeco-Phoenician pottery,

it will be seen that any chronological system is impossible. The

conservative tendency of Cypriote art caused the same methods of

decoration to be employed with extraordinary persistency during a

period of time which saw the whole development of Hellenic

vase-painting from its earliest beginnings to its decline, and though

there is a certain amount of variety, there is no development properly

speaking, and the latest fabrics are, artistically speaking, on the

same level as the earliest. It might be thought that the evidence of

excavations would compensate for this absence of artistic criteria; but

such is not the case. As a general rule in tombs containing imported

Greek vases, the dates of which can be fixed within reasonable limits,

native pottery is conspicuous by its absence, as may be seen from the

results obtained at Curium. In any case, in the tombs richest in

Hellenic pottery, as at Poli, the local wares are largely of a

definitely late character, and so far distinct from the Geometrical and

Orientalising fabrics as to form a class by themselves. Another

difficulty which has to be taken into account, is that caused by the

frequency of re-burials in Cypriote tombs. Of this there were countless

instances at Amathus and Poli, so much so that explorers of the latter

site were actually led to believe that the Geometrical pottery was

contemporaneous with remains of the Hellenistic age with which it was

frequently found.[854] But where trustworthy evidence can be obtained,

it entirely militates against this possibility.

 

The principal sites[855] on which “Graeco-Phoenician” pottery has been

found are: Amathus, Curium, Dali (Idalion), Kition, Lapathos, Poli

(Marion-Arsinoe), Paphos, Salamis, Soli, and Tamassos. Other sites are

not at present identified, but the finds were made in the neighbourhood

of the modern Achna, Ormidhia, and other villages, and in the Karpas.

Of these sites the richest are Amathus, Dali, Curium, and Poli; but in

the finest collection of vases of this class, that of General Cesnola

at New York, the alleged sites are not always to be accepted with

certainty.

 

[Illustration: FIG. 75. JUG WITH CONCENTRIC CIRCLES: GRAECO-PHOENICIAN

PERIOD (BRITISH MUSEUM).]

 

Graeco-Phoenician pottery is, as has been said, exclusively wheel-made,

and almost always supplied with a “base-ring.” Reliefs and incised

ornaments are never found, but instances of moulded wares, combining

the vase with the statuette, are not wanting, especially among the

later varieties. The designs are usually painted in a non-lustrous

black pigment, varied with the use of opaque purple and white,

corresponding to the pigments employed by Hellenic potters. The ground

is either white, without any polish or slip—as in the painted white

ware of the Bronze Age and sub-Mycenaean fabrics—or else covered with a

more or less lustrous red slip, varying from a bright orange or deep

red to a dark brown (the latter usually with unpolished surface).

Purple is employed only on the white wares, white only on the red. The

typical decoration of the white wares consists of lotos-patterns,

tree-ornaments, and water-fowl. Generally speaking, these are earlier

than the red. On the lustrous red wares the decoration is usually

confined to simple patterns of concentric circles, vertical and

horizontal, maeander crosses, lozenges and triangles. Fig. 75, from

Curium, is a typical specimen of the more elaborate types, and another

is shown in Plate XIII.

 

The forms are at first very varied, but gradually crystallise into some

half-dozen main types: dishes, bowls on stems, lekythi with one or two

handles, jugs with globular bodies, and large amphorae with vertical

side-handles. Of these the jug is by far the commonest. Among the

peculiar forms in the earlier tombs (eighth to sixth centuries) may be

mentioned _aski_ in the form of birds or oxen (the latter a Mycenaean

survival), and a kind of flask with barrel-shaped body, on which the

decoration of concentric circles, etc., does not follow the usual

horizontal system of classical pottery, but is disposed vertically, in

contradiction to all artistic feeling (see Plate XIII.). The circles

are often very fine and close, and were produced by holding a brush

full of paint close to the surface of the vase as it was turned on the

wheel. The drawing of the circles in different planes, without regard

to the lines of the vase, was easily effected by placing it in

different positions. In the period of Hellenic importations the

principal form is the jug with ovoid body and modelled spout, and flat

dishes are also common.

 

* * * * *

 

Unpainted pottery is almost as common as painted in the

Graeco-Phoenician period, and calls for a few words of separate

treatment. For the most part it comes under the heading of Domestic

Ware, or earthenware vessels similar to those in ordinary use at the

present day. They are made of plain, unrefined, usually reddish, clay,

without any slip or polish, and include various forms of jugs, bowls,

and plates, as well as the large wine-amphorae with pointed bases

universally found at all periods. Many lamps and small “cup-and-saucer”

double bowls occur in this category. In the earlier tombs of the

Transitional period, pottery of a black-slip ware, with reeded body, is

frequently found, chiefly in the form of jugs and kraters. Plain black

wares, like the Italian _bucchero_, are also rarely found; as are

vessels covered with a fine red slip and polished.

 

* * * * *

 

In most of the painted pottery of the Graeco-Phoenician period,

especially in its earlier phases, the technical methods are those which

we have already described in speaking not only of the “sub-Mycenaean”

or Transitional fabrics, but also of the painted white ware of the

Bronze-Age tombs. That is to say, that the decoration is in dull colour

on a lustreless and (usually) unpolished white or drab ground. The

colour, however, is usually not red, as in the earlier stages, but

black, red being used chiefly as an accessory or for picked-out

details. The latter varies from a pale brick-red to deep purple. The

system of decoration is often extremely elaborate, although the range

of subjects is limited. Apart from geometrical or conventional

patterns, such as the stylised palmette, lotos-flower, stars, or trees,

we only find water-fowl, fish, a few quadrupeds such as bulls or

deer,[856] and finally human figures. But the last are exceedingly

rare, and confined to the white wares, the best example being perhaps

the very Oriental design of two warriors driving in a chariot,[857] or

the worshippers rendering homage to seated deities on the fine vase