Minoan pottery - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Minoan pottery
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...

is more than a useful tool for dating the mute Minoan civilization

Minoan civilization

The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that arose on the island of Crete and flourished from approximately the 27th century BC to the 15th century BC. It was rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century through the work of the British archaeologist Arthur Evans...

. Its restless sequence of rapidly maturing artistic styles reveal something of Minoan patrons' pleasure in novelty while they assist archaeologists to assign relative dates to the strata

Archaeology

Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

of their sites. Pots that contained oils and ointments, exported from 18th century BC

18th century BC

The 18th century BCE was the century which lasted from 1800 BCE to 1701 BCE.-Events:*1800 BCE: Iron age in India*1800 BCE: Beginning of the Nordic Bronze Age in the period system devised by Oscar Montelius....

Crete

Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...

, have been found at sites through the Aegean

Aegean Sea

The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...

islands and mainland Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

, on Cyprus

Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

, along the coastal Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

and in Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, showing the wide trading contacts of the Minoans. The extremely fine palace pottery called Kamares ware, and the Late Minoan all-over patterned "Marine style" are the high points of the Minoan pottery

Pottery

Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...

tradition.

Traditional chronology

The traditional chronology for dating Minoan civilization

Minoan civilization

was developed by Sir Arthur Evans

Arthur Evans

Sir Arthur John Evans FRS was a British archaeologist most famous for unearthing the palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete and for developing the concept of Minoan civilization from the structures and artifacts found there and elsewhere throughout eastern Mediterranean...

in the early years of the 20th century AD. His terminology and the one proposed by Nikolaos Platon

Nikolaos Platon

Nikolaos Platon was a renowned Greek archaeologist. He discovered the Minoan palace of Zakros on Crete.He put forward one of the two systems of relative chronology used by archaeologists for Minoan history...

are still generally in use and appear in this article.
For more details, see the Minoan chronology

Minoan chronology

Sir Arthur Evans developed a relative dating scheme of Minoan chronology based on the excavations initiated and managed by him at the site of the ancient city of Knossos. He called the civilization that he discovered there Minoan...

.

Evans classified fine pottery by the changes in its forms and styles of decoration. Platon concentrated on the episodic history of the Palace of Knossos

Knossos

Knossos , also known as Labyrinth, or Knossos Palace, is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and probably the ceremonial and political centre of the Minoan civilization and culture. The palace appears as a maze of workrooms, living spaces, and store rooms close to a central square...

. Currently a new method is in its infancy, fabric analysis, which features geologic analysis of coarse and mainly undecorated sherds as though they were rocks. The resulting classifications are based on composition of the sherds.

Origin

Butmir culture

Butmir Culture

Butmir culture existed in Butmir, near Ilidža, Bosnia and Herzegovina, dating from the Neolithic period. It is characterized by its unique pottery, and is one of the best researched European cultures from 2600-2400 BC.-History:...

vessels that represent further development of Impresso tradition may be considered as prototypes of Kamares

Kamares ware

Kamares wares are a distinctive type of ceramic produced in Crete during the Minoan period, dating to MM IA . By the LM IA period , or the end of the First Palace Period, these wares decline in distribution and "vitality"...

style of Minoan pottery, although the link between Butmir (and Impressed Ware in general), on the one hand, and Minoan, on the other, is still a matter of debates.

Early Minoan

A brief introduction to the topic of Early Minoan pottery is stated below. It concentrates on some better-known styles but should not be regarded as comprehensive. A variety of forms is known. The period is generally characterized by a large number of local wares with frequent Cycladic parallels or imports, suggesting a population of checkerboard ethnicity deriving from various locations in the eastern Aegean or even wider. The evidence is certainly open to interpretation, and none is decisive.

FN, EM I

Early Minoan pottery, to some extent, continued, and possibly evolved from, the Final Neolithic (FN) without a severe break. Many suggest that Minoan civilization evolved in situ and was not imported from the East. Its other main feature is its variety from site to site, which is suggestive of localism of Early Minoan social traditions.

Studies of the relationship between EM I and FN have been conducted mainly in East Crete. There the Final Neolithic has affinities to the Cyclades, while both FN and EM I settlements are contemporaneous, with EM I gradually replacing FN. Of the three possibilities, no immigration, total replacement of natives by immigrants, immigrants settling among natives, Hutchinson takes a compromise view:

"The Neolithic Period in Crete did not end in a catastophe; its culture developed into that of the Bronze Age under pressure from infiltration of relatively small bands of immigrants from the south and east, where copper and bronze had long been in use."

Pyrgos Ware

EM I types include Pyrgos
Pyrgos
Pyrgos is an archaeological site of the Minoan civilization near Myrtos in the municipality of Ierapetra on the south coast of Crete.-Archaeology:...

Ware, also called Pattern Burnished Ware. The major form was the "chalice

Chalice (cup)

A chalice is a goblet or footed cup intended to hold a drink. In general religious terms, it is intended for drinking during a ceremony.-Christian:...

", or Arkalochori Chalice, in which a cup combined with a funnel-shaped stand could be set on a hard surface without spilling. (Example). As the Pyrgos site was a rock shelter used as an ossuary, some hypothesize ceremonial usage. This type of pottery was black, grey or brown, and burnished, with some sort of incised linear pattern. It may have imitated wood.

Incised Ware

Another EM I type, Incised Ware, also called Scored Ware, were hand-shaped, round-bottomed, dark-burnished jugs (Example) and bulbous cups and jars ("pyx

Pyx

A pyx or pix is a small round container used in the Catholic, Old Catholic and Anglican Churches to carry the consecrated host , to the sick or invalid or those otherwise unable to come to a church in order to receive Holy Communion...

es"). Favored decor was incised line patterns, vertical, horizontal or herring-bone. (Example, pyxis). These pots are from the north and northeast of Crete and appear to be modelled after the Kampos Phase of the Grotta-Pelos Early Cycladic I culture. Some have suggested imports or immigrations. See also Hagia Photia

Hagia Photia

Hagia Photia is an archaeological site of a fortified ancient Minoan building on eastern Crete. Sitia lies five kilometers to the west.-Archaeology:...

Agyios Onouphrios, Lebena

Painted parallel-line decors of Ayios Onouphrios I Ware were drawn with an iron-red clay slip that would fire red under oxidizing conditions in a clean kiln but under the reducing conditions of a smoky fire would turn darker, without much control over color, which could range from red to brown. A dark-on-light painted pattern was then applied. (Examples 1, Examples 2.) From this beginning, Minoan potters already concentrated on the linear forms of designs, perfecting coherent designs and voids that would ideally suit the shape of the ware. Shapes were jugs, two-handled cups and bowls. The ware came from north and south central Crete, as did Lebena Ware of the same general types but decorated by painting white patterns over a solid red painted background (Example). The latter came from EM I tombs.

Koumasa and Fine Gray Ware

In EM IIA, the geometric slip-painted designs of Koumasa
Koumasa
Koumasa is the site of a prepalatial cemetery on Crete. The cemetery is actually located between Loukia and Koumasa. This Minoan archaeological site was first excavated by Stephanos Xanthoudides from 1904-1906...

Ware seem to have developed from the wares of Aghios Onouphrios. The designs are in red or black on a light background. Forms are cups, bowls, jugs and teapots (Example: "Goddess of Myrtos"). Also from EM IIA are the cylindrical and spherical pyxides called Fine Gray Ware or just Gray Ware, featuring a polished surface with incised diagonals, dots, rings and semicircles. (Example)

Vasiliki Ware

The EM IIA and IIB Vasiliki Ware, named for the Minoan site

Vasiliki, Lasithi

Vasiliki is the name of a village in the municipality of Ierapetra, in the prefecture of Lasithi, on Crete, and the name of the nearby Minoan archeological site. The site took its name from the village.-Geography:...

in eastern Crete, has mottled glaze effects, early experiments with controlling color, but the elongated spouts drawn from the body and ending in semicircular spouts show the beginnings of the tradition of Minoan elegance (Examples 1, Examples 2). The mottling was produced by uneven firing of the slip-covered pot, with the hottest areas turning dark. Considering that the mottling was controlled into a pattern, touching with hot coals was probably used to produce it. The effect was paralleled in cups made of mottled stone.

EM III Pottery

Of the period Hutchinson says:

"... the most remarkable feature is the expansion of central Cretan sites ... at the expense of east Cretan sites ..."

In the latest brief transition (EM III), wares in eastern Crete begin to be covered in dark slip with light slip-painted decor of lines and spirals; the first checkered motifs appear; the first petallike loops and leafy bands appear, at Gournia

Gournia

Gournia is the site of a Minoan palacecomplex on the island of Crete, Greece, excavated in the early 20th century by theAmerican archaeologist, Harriet Boyd-Hawes. Gournia lies in the municipality of Ierapetrain the prefecture of Lasithi.-External links:...

(Walberg 1986). Rosettes appear and spiral links sometimes joined into bands. These motifs are similar to those found on seals. In north central Crete, where Knossos was to emerge, there is little similarity: dark on light linear banding prevails; footed goblets make their appearance (Example).

Middle Minoan

Of the palace at Knossos and smaller ones like it at Phaestos, Mallia

Malia (city)

Malia is a coastal town and a former municipality in the Heraklion peripheral unit, Crete, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Hersonissos, of which it is a municipal unit. It lies 34 km east of Heraklion, the Cretan capital city. The town was the...

and elsewhere, Willetts says:

"These large palaces were central features of sizable cities... Apparently they were also administrative and religious centres of self-supporting regions of the island."

The rise of the palace culture, of the "old palaces" of Knossos

Knossos

and Phaistos

Phaistos

Phaistos , also transliterated as Phaestos, Festos and Phaestus is an ancient city on the island of Crete. Phaistos was located in the south-central portion of the island, about 5.6 kilometres from the Mediterranean Sea. It was inhabited from about 4000 BC. A palace, dating from the Middle Bronze...

and their new type of urbanized, centralized society with redistribution centers required more storage vessels and ones more specifically suited to a range of functions. In palace workshops, standardization suggests more supervised operations and the rise of elite wares, emphasizing refinements and novelty, so that palace and provincial pottery become differentiated.

The forms of the best wares were designed for table and service. In the palace workshops, the introduction from the Levant of the potter's wheel

Potter's wheel

In pottery, a potter's wheel is a machine used in asma of round ceramic ware. The wheel may also be used during process of trimming the excess body from dried ware and for applying incised decoration or rings of color...

in MMIB enabled perfectly symmetrical bodies to be thrown from swiftly revolving clay. The well-controlled iron-red slip that was added to the color repertory during MMI could be achieved only in insulated closed kilns that were free of oxygen or smoke.

Pithoi

Any population center requires facilities in support of human needs and that is true of the palaces as well. Knossos had extensive sanitation, water supply and drainage systems, which is evidence that it was not a ceremonial labyrinth or large tomb. Liquid and granular necessities were stored in pithoi located in magazines, or storage rooms, and elsewhere. Pithoi make their earliest appearance just before MMI begins and continue into Late Minoan, becoming very rare by LMIII (Examples 1, Examples 2). About 400 pithoi were found at the palace of Knossos. An average pithos held about 1100 pounds of fluid. Perhaps because of the weight, pithoi were not stored on the upper floors.

New styles

New styles emerge at this time: an Incised Style, the tactile Barbotine ware, studded with knobs and cones of applied clay in bands, waves and ridges, sometimes reminiscent of sand-dollar tests and barnacle growth (Example), and the earliest stages of Kamares ware. Spirals and whorls are the favorite motifs of Minoan pottery from EM III onwards (Walberg). A new shape is the straight-sided cylindrical cup.

MMIA wares and local pottery imitating them are found at coastal sites in the eastern Peloponnese

Peloponnese

The Peloponnese, Peloponnesos or Peloponnesus , is a large peninsula , located in a region of southern Greece, forming the part of the country south of the Gulf of Corinth...

, though not more widely in the Aegean

Aegean Sea

until MMIB; their influence on local pottery in the nearby Cyclades

Cyclades

The Cyclades is a Greek island group in the Aegean Sea, south-east of the mainland of Greece; and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The name refers to the islands around the sacred island of Delos...

has been studied by Angelia G. Papagiannopoulou (1991). Shards of MMIIA pottery have been recovered in Egypt and at Ugarit

Ugarit

Ugarit was an ancient port city in the eastern Mediterranean at the Ras Shamra headland near Latakia, Syria. It is located near Minet el-Beida in northern Syria. It is some seven miles north of Laodicea ad Mare and approximately fifty miles east of Cyprus...

Kamares, Eggshell Ware

Kamares Ware was named for finds in the cave sanctuary at Kamares on Mt. Ida in 1890. It is the first of the virtuoso polychrome

Polychrome

Polychrome is one of the terms used to describe the use of multiple colors in one entity. It has also been defined as "The practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." Polychromatic light is composed of a number of different wavelengths...

wares of Minoan civilization, though the first expressions of recognizably proto-Kamares decor predate the introduction of the potter's wheel.
Finer clay, thrown on the wheel, permitted more precisely fashioned forms, which were covered with a dark-firing slip and exuberantly painted with slips in white, reds and browns in fluent floral designs, of rosettes or conjoined coiling and uncoiling spirals. Designs are repetitive or sometimes free-floating, but always symmetrically composed. Themes from nature begin here with octopuses, shellfish, lilies, crocuses and palm-trees, all highly stylized. The entire surface of the pot is densely covered, but sometimes the space is partitioned by bands. One variety features extravagantly thin bodies and is called Eggshell Ware (Example 1, Example 2).

Four stages of Kamares ware were identified by Gisela Walberg (1976), with a "Classic Kamares" palace style sited in MMII, especially in the palace complex of Phaistos. New shapes were introduced, with whirling and radiating motifs.(Examples 1, Examples 2, Examples 3, Examples 4, Examples 5, Examples 6, Examples 7, Examples 8, Examples 9, Examples 10)

Age of Efflorescence

In MMIIB, the increasing use of motifs drawn from nature heralded the decline and end of the Kamares style. The Kamares featured whole-field floral designs with all elements linked together (Matz). In MMIII patterned vegetative designs, the Patterned Style, began to appear (Example). This phase was replaced by individual vegetative scenes, which marks the start of the Floral Style. Matz refers to the "Age of Efflorescence", which reached an apogee in LM IA. (Some would include Kamares Ware under the Floral Style.)

The floral style depicts palms and papyrus, with various kinds of lilies and elaborate leaves. It appears in both pottery and frescoes. One tradition of art criticism calls this the "natural style" or "naturalism" but another points out that the stylized forms and colors are far from natural. Green, the natural color of vegetation, appears rarely. Depth is represented by position around the main scene. (Examples 1,

Late Minoan

LMI marks the highwater of Minoan influence throughout the southern Aegean (Peloponnese, Cyclades, Dodecanese, southwestern Anatolia). Late Minoan pottery was being widely exported; it has turned up in Cyprus, the Cylades, Egypt and Mycenae.

Floral style

Fluent movemented designs drawn from flower and leaf forms, painted in reds and black on white grounds predominate, in steady development from Middle Minoan. In LMIB there is a typical all-over leafy decoration, for which first workshop painters begin to be identifiable through their characteristic motifs; as with all Minoan art, no name ever appears.

Rhyta

Dated to LM IA and following also are conical rhyta

Rhyton

A rhyton is a container from which fluids were intended to be drunk, or else poured in some ceremony such as libation. Rhytons were very common in ancient Persia, where they were called takuk...

, or drinking cups, in steatite and also imitated in ceramic. (Example) Some of the rhyta are ornate libation vessels, such as the noted "Bull's-head Rhyton" found at Knossos. The Bull's Head Rhyton, however, was a specific type of which many instances have been found. The bull's head is found in ceramic as well. Other noted stone vases of LM IA and II are the "Harvester Vase" View 1, View 3, View 4, from Hagia Triada

Hagia triada

Hagia Triada is the archaeological site of an ancient Minoan settlement. Hagia Triada is situated on a prominent coastal ridge, with the Mesara Plain below. Hagia triada sits at the western end of the ridge, while Phaistos is at the eastern end...

, which depicts a harvest procession, "the Chieftain Cup", depicting a coming-of-age rite, the Boxer Rhyton (Hagia Triada), showing boxing scenes, the Sanctuary Rhyton, depicting a peak sanctuary to the "mistress of animals" and featuring birds and leaping goats, and others.

Marine style

In LMIB, the Marine Style also emerges; in this style, perhaps inspired by frescoes, the entire surface of a pot was covered with sea creatures, octopus, fish and dolphins, against a background of rocks, seaweed and sponges (Examples 1, Examples 2, Examples 3, Examples 4. The Marine style was the last purely Minoan style; towards the end of LMIB, all the palaces except Knossos were violently destroyed and many of the villas and towns.

Minoan-Mycenaean

Around 1450, the beginning of LM II, the Mycenaean Greeks must have moved into the palace of Knossos. They were well-established by 1400, if the Linear B tablets can be dated to then. The resulting LM II culture is not a break with the Minoan past. Minoan traditions continue under a new administration. However, the vase forms and designs became more and more Mycenaean in character with a large variety of decoration. Style names have multiplied and depend to some degree on the author. The names below are only a few of the most common. Some authors just use the name "Mycenaean Koine"; that is, the Late Minoan pottery of Crete was to some degree just a variety of widespread Mycenaean forms. The designs are found also on seals and sealings, in frescoes and on other artifacts. Often Late Minoan pottery is not easily placed in subperiods. In addition are imports from the neighboring coasts of the Mediterranean. Ceramic is not the only material used: breccia

Breccia

Breccia is a rock composed of broken fragments of minerals or rock cemented together by a fine-grained matrix, that can be either similar to or different from the composition of the fragments....

, calcite

Calcite

Calcite is a carbonate mineral and the most stable polymorph of calcium carbonate . The other polymorphs are the minerals aragonite and vaterite. Aragonite will change to calcite at 380-470°C, and vaterite is even less stable.-Properties:...

, chlorite

Chlorite group

The chlorites are a group of phyllosilicate minerals. Chlorites can be described by the following four endmembers based on their chemistry via substitution of the following four elements in the silicate lattice; Mg, Fe, Ni, and Mn....

, schist

Schist

The schists constitute a group of medium-grade metamorphic rocks, chiefly notable for the preponderance of lamellar minerals such as micas, chlorite, talc, hornblende, graphite, and others. Quartz often occurs in drawn-out grains to such an extent that a particular form called quartz schist is...

, dolomite

Dolomite

Dolomite is a carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate CaMg2. The term is also used to describe the sedimentary carbonate rock dolostone....

and other colored and patterned stone were carved into pottery forms. Bronze ware appears imitating the ceramic ware.

Records of pots and pans

The Linear B tablets contain records of vessels made of various materials. The vessel ideograms are not so clear as to make correlation with discovered artifacts easy. Using a drawing of the "Contents of the Tomb of the Tripod Hearth" at Zafer Papoura from Evans' Palace of Minos, which depicts LM II bronze vessels, many in the forms of ceramic ones, Ventris and Chadwick were able to make a few correlations.

**LM II Vessels**
Ideogram	Linear B	Mycenaean Greek	Classical Greek	Etymology	Examples
202 GOBLET?	di-pa	*dipas (sing)	depas (sing), cup, archaic large vessel.	C.Luvian tappas and H. Luvian (CAELUM)ti-pa-sº 'sky (perceived by Anatolians as a cup covering the flat Earth)' (Yakubovich apud Melchert)	1, 2 (reproduction)
207 TRIPOD AMPHORA	ku-ru-su-pa₃	Not Greek	Not Greek	?	1 (Early Cypriote)
209 AMPHORA	a-pi-po-re-we	*amphiphorewes (pl)	amphiphoreus (sing), an amphora	"port-about" (Hoffman)	1
210 STIRRUP JAR	ka-ra-re-we	*khlarewes (pl)	khlaron (sing), archaic oil jar	"yellow stuff" (Hoffman)	1, 2, 3, 4
211 WATER BOWL?	po-ti-[]-we	?	?	?
212 WATER JAR?	u-do-ro	*hudroi (pl)	hydros (sing), a water-snake	"water (jars)"	1
213 COOKING BOWL	i-po-no	*ipnoi (pl)	ipnos (sing), a baking dish	"Dutch oven"

Palace style

During LMII, Mycenean influence became apparent. The vase forms at Knossos are similar to those on the mainland. The Palace Style showcased by them adapts elements of the previous styles but also adds features, such as the practice of confining decor in reserves and bands, emphasizing the base and shoulder of the pot and the movement towards abstraction (Examples 1, Examples 2, Examples 3). This style started in LM II and went on into LM III. The palace style was pretty much confined to Knossos. In the late manifestation of the palace style, fluent and spontaneous earlier motifs stiffened and became more geometrical and abstracted. Egyptian motifs such as papyrus

Papyrus

Papyrus is a thick paper-like material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge that was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt....

and lotus are prominent.

Plain and Close Styles

The Plain Style and Close Style developed in LM IIIA, B from the Palace Style. In the Close Style the Marine and Floral Styles themes continue, but the artist manifests the horror vacui or "dread of emptiness". The whole field of decoration is filled densely. (Examples 1, Examples 2). The Stirrup Jar is especially frequent.

Subminoan

Finally, in the Subminoan period, the geometric designs of the Dorians become more apparent. (Example)

External links

Dartmouth College: Prehistorical Archaeology of the Aegean website:
University of Oklahoma: Gallery of outstanding Minoan pottery vases, pouring vessels and rhyta.
Doumas Kristos' description of local pottery and Cretan imports from the excavations at Akrothiri (Santorini
Santorini
Santorini , officially Thira , is an island located in the southern Aegean Sea, about southeast from Greece's mainland. It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago which bears the same name and is the remnant of a volcanic caldera...

) (in English)
GiselaWalberg finds little influence between Minoan vase-paintings and glyptic motifs (in English)
Material and Techniques of the Minoan Ceramics of Thera and Crete, Thera Foundation
A LM IA Ceramic Kiln in South-Central Crete, Joseph W. Shaw et al., Hesperia Supplement 30, 2001.
Victor Bryant, Web Tutorial for Potters, under Crete & Mycenae

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