Mervyn Popham

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, Mackeprangs 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 authors 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.

Further Excavation of the Toumba Cemetery at Lefkandi, 1981

At Easter 1981, as part of a joint Greek-British investigation of the region of ‘Toumba’ at Lefkandi in Euboea, a further area of the known cemetery there was excavated. The Greek Archaeological Service was represented by Mrs. E. Touloupa, previously Ephor of Euboea, and the British School by M. R. Popham and L. H. Sackett: the operation was under the general supervision of the Ephor, Mr. P. Kalligas. Since the results of the previous excavations in this and the other cemeteries have recently been published with a full commentary, we have decided to give a quick and more summary account of the new finds as a supplement to the main publication to which reference is made for detailed discussion.

Al Mina and Euboea

These differing conclusions, regarding early Euboean trade at Al Mina, from leading Students of the School may seem to contain the seeds of another internecine, Lelantine War. So, since the author has a homely interest in the Plain, and counts the two contestants among his friends, he thought he might intervene, though with no pretence to the same expert knowledge of the period in question and with a strong vested interest in Euboean enterprise. The point at issue is the source of a distinctive group of sherds from Al Mina, probably the earliest Greek pottery found on that site; they belong to rather shallow skyphoi, or cups, decorated on each side with two groups of compass-drawn semicircles pendent from the lip and usually overlapping.

A Euboean Centaur

The statuette of a centaur at Plates 8–9 was found during excavations at Lefkandi in Euboea, conducted by the British School at Athens during last summer. Standing 36 centimetres high, it is among the earliest representations of a centaur yet known from the Aegean area, and the largest of terracotta centaurs. Its outstanding interest seemed to the authors to call for a more detailed publication than the normal brief preliminary account of the excavation and its finds. It has an unusual archaeological history, suggesting that it was a valued object before it was eventually buried in a cemetery at Lefkandi. This cemetery, which lies on a small hill called Toumba, overlooking the modern fishing village of Lefkandi, was an unexpected discovery. Trials were made during 1969 in this vicinity in the hope of finding the Submycenaean and Early Protogeometric settlement which went with the nearby cist graves. The virtual absence of remains of this period on the main town site of ‘Xeropolis’ had led to the belief that at this time the inhabitants may have temporarily moved to the Toumba area, a smaller and more easily defensible hill and one with a natural supply of water. However, our trial there found not the settlement we hoped for, but another cemetery.

Euboean Exports to Al Mina, Cyprus, and Crete: a Reassessment

The control groups used in the earlier analysis ( BSA 75 (1980) 151–61) have been enlarged. The range of suspected imports was extended with samples from Cyprus and Crete. It is concluded, as a result, that the majority of exports did originate in Euboea, though it is not possible to distinguish between kilns at Lefkandi, Chalkis, and Eretria. No conclusions were possible in the case of six sherds from Knossos. The results demonstrate early Euboean maritime enterprise.

An East Cretan LM IA Vase at Knossos

A fragment of a jug published from recent excavations at Palaikastro in E. Crete resembles very closely, in its decoration of double-axes and in its size and shape, a bridge-spouted jug from Evans’s excavation in the House of the Frescoes at Knossos. The excavators, who noted the resemblance, were concerned about the date of the vase, LM IA: but implications go beyond this chronological aspect. Stylistically, the lavish use of subsidiary white paint for details of the decoration is without parallel at Knossos. This is, however, a feature of the E. Cretan style where it was practised extensively. These provide firm grounds for believing that the vase found at Knossos is an import from the area of Palaikastro. As such, it is not unique, since similar imports (though few) have been identified in Central Crete, and some others can be added to them. This evidence testifies to hitherto undocumented interrelations between the two regions of the Island at the LM IA stage.