Minoan Pottery
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Minoan pottery has been used as a tool for dating the mute
Minoan civilization The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from 3500BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000BC, and then declining from 1450BC ...
. Its restless sequence of quirky maturing artistic styles reveals something of Minoan patrons' pleasure in novelty while they assist archaeologists in assigning relative dates to the
strata In geology and related fields, a stratum ( : strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as ei ...
of their sites. Pots that contained oils and ointments, exported from 18th century BC
Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...
, have been found at sites through the Aegean islands and mainland
Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
, on
Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...
, along coastal
Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
and in
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
, showing the wide trading contacts of the Minoans. The pottery consists of vessels of various shapes, which as with other types of
Ancient Greek pottery Ancient Greek pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it (over 100,000 painted vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum), it has exe ...
may be collectively referred to as "vases", and also "terracottas", small ceramic figurines, models of buildings and some other types. Some pieces, especially the cups of
rhyton A rhyton (plural rhytons or, following the Greek plural, rhyta) is a roughly conical container from which fluids were intended to be drunk or to be poured in some ceremony such as libation, or merely at table. A rhyton is typically formed in t ...
shape, overlap the two categories, being both vessels for liquids but essentially sculptural objects. Several pottery shapes, especially the
rhyton A rhyton (plural rhytons or, following the Greek plural, rhyta) is a roughly conical container from which fluids were intended to be drunk or to be poured in some ceremony such as libation, or merely at table. A rhyton is typically formed in t ...
cup, were also produced in soft stones such as
steatite Soapstone (also known as steatite or soaprock) is a talc-schist, which is a type of metamorphic rock. It is composed largely of the magnesium rich mineral talc. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occur in the ...
, but there was almost no overlap with metal vessels. Pottery
sarcophagus A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek ...
chests were also made for cremated ashes, as in an example now in Hanover. The finest achievements came in the Late Minoan period, with the palace
pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...
called
Kamares ware Kamares ware is a distinctive type of Minoan pottery produced in Crete during the Minoan period, dating to MM IA (ca. 2100 BCE). By the LM IA period (ca. 1450), or the end of the First Palace Period, these wares decline in distribution and "vital ...
, and the Late Minoan all-over patterned "Marine Style" and "Floral Style". These were widely exported around the
Aegean civilizations Aegean civilization is a general term for the Bronze Age civilizations of Greece around the Aegean Sea. There are three distinct but communicating and interacting geographic regions covered by this term: Crete, the Cyclades and the Greek mainland ...
and sometimes beyond, and are the high points of the Minoan pottery tradition. The best and most comprehensive collection is in the
Heraklion Archaeological Museum The Heraklion Archaeological Museum is a museum located in Heraklion on Crete. It is one of the greatest museums in Greece and the best in the world for Minoan art, as it contains by far the most important and complete collection of artefacts ...
(AMH) on Crete (where most pieces illustrated are held).


Traditional chronology

The traditional chronology for dating
Minoan civilization The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from 3500BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000BC, and then declining from 1450BC ...
was developed by Sir
Arthur Evans Sir Arthur John Evans (8 July 1851 – 11 July 1941) was a British archaeologist and pioneer in the study of Aegean civilization in the Bronze Age. He is most famous for unearthing the palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete. Based on ...
in the early years of the 20th century AD. His terminology and the one proposed by
Nikolaos Platon Nikolaos Platon (Greek , Anglicised ''Nicolas 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 Minoan chronology used by archaeologists f ...
are still generally in use and appear in this article. For more details, see the
Minoan chronology The Minoan chronology dating system is a measure of the phases of the Minoan civilization. Initially established as a relative dating system by English archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans between 1900 and 1903 based on his analysis of Minoan pottery d ...
. 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 (also Cnossos, both pronounced ; grc, Κνωσός, Knōsós, ; Linear B: ''Ko-no-so'') is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and has been called Europe's oldest city. Settled as early as the Neolithic period, the na ...
. A new method, fabric analysis, involves geologic analysis of coarse and mainly non-decorated sherds as though they were rocks. The resulting classifications are based on composition of the sherds.


Production and techniques

Little is known about the way the pottery was produced, but it was probably in small artisanal workshops, often clustered in settlements near good sources of
clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
for potting. For many, potting may well have been a seasonal activity, combined with farming, although the volume and sophistication of later wares suggests full-time specialists, and two classes of workshop, one catering to the palaces. There is some evidence that women were also potters. Archaeologists seeking to understand the conditions of production have drawn tentative comparisons with aspects of both modern Cretan rural artisans and the better-documented Egyptian and Mesopotamian Bronze Age industries. In
Linear B Linear B was a syllabic script used for writing in Mycenaean Greek, the earliest attested form of Greek. The script predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries. The oldest Mycenaean writing dates to about 1400 BC. It is descended from ...
the word for potter is "ke-ra-me-u". Technically,
slips Slips (or SLIPS) may refer to: *Slips (oil drilling) *SLIPS (Slippery Liquid Infused Porous Surfaces) *SLIPS (company) *SLIPS (Sri Lanka Interbank Payment System) *Slip (cricket), often used in the plural form *The Slips, a UK electronic music duo ...
were widely used, with a variety of effects well understood. The
potter's wheel In pottery, a potter's wheel is a machine used in the shaping (known as throwing) of clay into round ceramic ware. The wheel may also be used during the process of trimming excess clay from leather-hard dried ware that is stiff but malleable, a ...
appears to have been available from the MM1B, but other "handmade" methods of forming the body remained in use, and were needed for objects with sculptural shapes.
Ceramic glaze Ceramic glaze is an impervious layer or coating of a vitreous substance which has been fused to a pottery body through firing. Glaze can serve to color, decorate or waterproof an item. Glazing renders earthenware vessels suitable for holding ...
s were not used, and none of the wares were fired to very high temperatures, remaining
earthenware Earthenware is glazed or unglazed nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below . Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids by coating it with a ce ...
or
terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...
. All of these characteristics remain true of later Greek pottery throughout its great period. The finest wares often have very thin-walled bodies. The excavation of an abandoned LM
kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay int ...
at Kommos (the port of
Phaistos Phaistos ( el, Φαιστός, ; Ancient Greek: , , Minoan: PA-I-TO?http://grbs.library.duke.edu/article/download/11991/4031&ved=2ahUKEwjor62y3bHoAhUEqYsKHZaZArAQFjASegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw1MwIv3ekgX-SxkJrbORipd ), also transliterated as Phaesto ...
), complete with its "wasters" (malformed pots), is developing understanding of the details of production. The styles of pottery show considerable regional variation within Crete in many periods.


Early Minoan

This is only a brief introduction to the topic of Early Minoan pottery, concentrating on some of the better-known styles; it should not be regarded as comprehensive. A variety o
forms
are known. The period is generally characterized by a large number of local wares with frequent
Cycladic The Cyclades (; el, Κυκλάδες, ) are an island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The nam ...
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 local 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 catastrophe; 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 Ware, also called "Burnished Ware". The major form was the "
chalice A chalice (from Latin 'mug', borrowed from Ancient Greek () 'cup') or goblet is a footed cup intended to hold a drink. In religious practice, a chalice is often used for drinking during a ceremony or may carry a certain symbolic meaning. Re ...
", or Arkalochori Chalice, in which a cup combined with a funnel-shaped stand could be set on a hard surface without spilling. 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 A pyx or pix ( la, pyxis, transliteration of Greek: ''πυξίς'', boxwood receptacle, from ''πύξος'', box tree) is a small round container used in the Catholic, Old Catholic and Anglican Churches to carry the consecrated host (Eucharist) ...
es"). Favored decor was incised line patterns, vertical, horizontal or herring-bone. These pots are from the north and northeast of Crete and appear to be modeled after the Kampos Phase of the Grotta-Pelos early Cycladic I culture
Some
have suggested imports or immigrations. See also Hagia Photia.


Agyios Onouphrios, Lebena

The painted parallel-line decoration of Ayios Onouphrios I Ware was 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 turn darker, without much control over color, which could range from red to brown. A dark-on-light painted pattern was then applied. 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 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. File:Early Minoan pottery, 3000-2600 BC, AMH, 144548.jpg, File:Early Minoan pottery, 3000-2600 BC File:Tonvase Koumasa 01.jpg, Bird shaped clay vessel from Koumasa, 2600–2300 BC, AMH. File:Minoan pottery, Kyparissi, 2600-1900 BC, AMH, 144562.jpg, Burnished cup, Kyparissi, 2600-1900 BC, AMH


Vasiliki Ware

The EM IIA and IIB Vasiliki Ware, named for the Minoan site 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 1Examples 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. File:Vasiliki ware tea pot archmus Heraklion.jpg, Another style of "teapot", Vasiliki, 2400 - 2200 BC, AMH File:Vasiliki ware, jug, 2400-2200 BC, AMH, 144530.jpg, Vasiliki ware, jug, 2400-2200 BC File:Tonkrug Vasiliki 01.jpg, Teapot in the white style, 2300–2000 BC, AMH File:Pottery from Vasiliki, 2300-1900 BC, AMH, 144823.jpg, White style jug, 2300-1900 BC File:Vasiliki ware from Phournou Koryphi 2.JPG, Other shapes; two "egg-cups" at rear File:Vasiliki teapots with elongated spouts AMH Heraklion.jpg, White style teapots, AMH


EM III Pottery

In the latest brief transition (EM III)

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 ( el, Γουρνιά) is the site of a Minoan palace complex on the island of Crete, Greece, excavated in the early 20th century by the American archaeologist, Harriet Boyd-Hawes. The original name for the site is unknown. The modern nam ...
(Walberg 1986). Rosettes appear and spiral links sometimes joined into bands. These motifs ar
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 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 (also Cnossos, both pronounced ; grc, Κνωσός, Knōsós, ; Linear B: ''Ko-no-so'') is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and has been called Europe's oldest city. Settled as early as the Neolithic period, the na ...
and
Phaistos Phaistos ( el, Φαιστός, ; Ancient Greek: , , Minoan: PA-I-TO?http://grbs.library.duke.edu/article/download/11991/4031&ved=2ahUKEwjor62y3bHoAhUEqYsKHZaZArAQFjASegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw1MwIv3ekgX-SxkJrbORipd ), also transliterated as Phaesto ...
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. Th
forms
of the best wares were designed fo

In the palace workshops, the introduction from the Levant of the
potter's wheel In pottery, a potter's wheel is a machine used in the shaping (known as throwing) of clay into round ceramic ware. The wheel may also be used during the process of trimming excess clay from leather-hard dried ware that is stiff but malleable, a ...
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 Pithos (, grc-gre, πίθος, plural: ' ) is the Greek name of a large storage container. The term in English is applied to such containers used among the civilizations that bordered the Mediterranean Sea in the Neolithic, the Bronze Age and ...
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
. 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 The Peloponnese (), Peloponnesus (; el, Πελοπόννησος, Pelopónnēsos,(), or Morea is a peninsula and geographic regions of Greece, geographic region in southern Greece. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmu ...
, though not more widely in the Aegean until MMIB; their influence on local pottery in the nearby
Cyclades The Cyclades (; el, Κυκλάδες, ) are an island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The nam ...
has been studied by Angelia G. Papagiannopoulou (1991). Shards of MMIIA pottery have been recovered in Egypt and at
Ugarit ) , image =Ugarit Corbel.jpg , image_size=300 , alt = , caption = Entrance to the Royal Palace of Ugarit , map_type = Near East#Syria , map_alt = , map_size = 300 , relief=yes , location = Latakia Governorate, Syria , region = ...
.


Kamares Ware

Kamares Ware Kamares ware is a distinctive type of Minoan pottery produced in Crete during the Minoan period, dating to MM IA (ca. 2100 BCE). By the LM IA period (ca. 1450), or the end of the First Palace Period, these wares decline in distribution and "vital ...
was named after finds in the cave sanctuary at Kamares on Mt. Ida in 1890. It is the first of the virtuoso
polychrome Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery or sculpture in multiple colors. Ancient Egypt Colossal statu ...
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 fluen
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

. 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, wit
Examples 2Examples 5Examples 6Examples 7Examples 8Examples 9
File:Cup with Kamares ware motif, Phaistos, 1800-1700 BC, AMH, 144927.jpg, Cup from
Phaistos Phaistos ( el, Φαιστός, ; Ancient Greek: , , Minoan: PA-I-TO?http://grbs.library.duke.edu/article/download/11991/4031&ved=2ahUKEwjor62y3bHoAhUEqYsKHZaZArAQFjASegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw1MwIv3ekgX-SxkJrbORipd ), also transliterated as Phaesto ...
File:Decorated cups Phaistos archmus Heraklion.jpg, Cups from
Phaistos Phaistos ( el, Φαιστός, ; Ancient Greek: , , Minoan: PA-I-TO?http://grbs.library.duke.edu/article/download/11991/4031&ved=2ahUKEwjor62y3bHoAhUEqYsKHZaZArAQFjASegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw1MwIv3ekgX-SxkJrbORipd ), also transliterated as Phaesto ...
File:Krater Kamares-Stil 02.jpg,
Krater A krater or crater ( grc-gre, , ''kratēr'', literally "mixing vessel") was a large two-handled shape of vase in Ancient Greek pottery and metalwork, mostly used for the mixing of wine with water. Form and function At a Greek symposium, krat ...
from
Phaistos Phaistos ( el, Φαιστός, ; Ancient Greek: , , Minoan: PA-I-TO?http://grbs.library.duke.edu/article/download/11991/4031&ved=2ahUKEwjor62y3bHoAhUEqYsKHZaZArAQFjASegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw1MwIv3ekgX-SxkJrbORipd ), also transliterated as Phaesto ...
File:Fruchtschale Kamares-Stil 05.jpg, Dish from Phaistos File:Small pithos, fish in a net, Phaistos, 1800-1700 BC, AMH, 144972.jpg,
Pithos Pithos (, grc-gre, πίθος, plural: ' ) is the Greek name of a large storage container. The term in English is applied to such containers used among the civilizations that bordered the Mediterranean Sea in the Neolithic, the Bronze Age and ...
with fish in a net, Phaistos File:Kamaes ware, Phaistos, 1800-1700 BC, AMH, 144938.jpg, Phaistos File:Pithos Kamares-Stil 02.jpg File:Kamares ware, AMH, 144915.jpg File:Minonan pottery jug, babotine decoration, 2100-1950, BM, GR 2002.5-10.2, 142751.jpg, Jug with barbotine decoration, 2100-1950


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. 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.


Late Minoan

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


Floral style

Fluent movemented designs drawn fro
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.


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

. The Marine Style is more free flowing with no distinct zones, because it shows sea creatures as floating, as they would in the ocean. The Marine style was the last purely Minoan style; towards the end of LMIB, all the palaces except Knossos were violently destroyed, as were many of the villas and towns. This was because of the eruption of the volcano on the island of Thera during LMIA. The explosion caused a tsunami which hit the northern coast of Crete, and devastated the coastal settlements where the bulk of the palace complexes were located.


Rhyta

Dated to LM IA and following also are conical rhyta, or drinking cups, in
steatite Soapstone (also known as steatite or soaprock) is a talc-schist, which is a type of metamorphic rock. It is composed largely of the magnesium rich mineral talc. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occur in the ...
and also imitated in ceramic.
Example
Some of the rhyta are ornate libation vessels, such as the noted

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 1View 3View 4
from Hagia Triada, which depicts a harvest procession,
the Chieftain Cup
, depicting a coming-of-age rite, th

(Hagia Triada), showing boxing scenes

depicting a peak sanctuary to the "mistress of animals" and featuring birds and leaping goats, and others. File:Ewer of Poros, 1500-1450 BC, AMH, 145214.jpg, Marine Style "Ewer of Poros", 1500-1450 BC File:Ewer from Phaistos, Reed Painter, 1500-1450 BC, AMH, 145026.jpg, Floral Style ewer from Phaistos, 1500-1450 BC File:Minoan jug, papyrus flowersy, Palaikastro, 1500-1450 BC, AMH, 145071.jpg, Floral Style ewer with
papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...
, from Palaikastro, 1500-1450 BC File:Clay bulls head rhyton, Palaikastro, 1500-1450 BC, AMH 4581, 145069.jpg, Clay bulls head rhyton, Palaikastro, 1500-1450 BC, AMH Image:Bull's head vase.JPG, Bull's-head Vase from LM II


Minoan-Mycenaean

Around 1450 BCE, the beginning of LM II, the
Mycenaean Greeks Mycenaean Greece (or the Mycenaean civilization) was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BC.. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainland ...
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 ceilings, in frescoes and on other artifacts. Often Late Minoan pottery is not easily placed in sub-periods. In addition are imports from the neighboring coasts of the Mediterranean. Ceramic is not the only material used:
breccia Breccia () is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a fine-grained matrix. The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means "rubble". A breccia may have a variety of di ...
,
calcite Calcite is a Carbonate minerals, carbonate mineral and the most stable Polymorphism (materials science), polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on ...
, chlorite,
schist Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock showing pronounced schistosity. This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a low-power hand lens, oriented in such a way that the rock is easily split into thin flakes o ...
,
dolomite Dolomite may refer to: *Dolomite (mineral), a carbonate mineral *Dolomite (rock), also known as dolostone, a sedimentary carbonate rock *Dolomite, Alabama, United States, an unincorporated community *Dolomite, California, United States, an unincor ...
and other colored and patterned stone were carved into pottery forms. Bronze ware appears imitating the ceramic ware.


Palace style

During LMII, Mycenean influence became apparent. Th
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
. This style started in LM II and went on into LM III. The palace style was mostly 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 ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...
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
. The Stirrup Jar is especially frequent.


The Middle East Style

IIIC


Subminoan

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


Discovery and recognition

Minoan wares were already familiar from finds on the Greek mainland, and export markets like Egypt, before it was realized that they came from Crete. In most 19th-century literature they are described as "Mycenaean", and the recognition and analysis of styles and periods had gone some way on this assumption. Only in the 1890s were the first finds on Crete recognised and published, from a cave at Kamares. These were found by a local archaeologist who allowed the young
John Myres Sir John Linton Myres Kt OBE FBA FRAI (3 July 1869 in Preston – 6 March 1954 in Oxford) was a British archaeologist and academic, who conducted excavations in Cyprus in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Life He was the son of t ...
to publish them; Myres had realized that they were the same ware as finds in Egypt published by
Flinders Petrie Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie ( – ), commonly known as simply Flinders Petrie, was a British Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and the preservation of artefacts. He held the first chair of Egypt ...
. For several decades analysis of Minoan pottery was essentially stylistic and typological, but in recent decades there has been a turn towards technical and socio-economic analysis.


Written 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''Documents in Mycenaean Greek'' Page 326. were able to make a few new correlations.


See also

*
Poppy goddess The name poppy goddess is often used for a famous example of a distinctive type of large female terracotta figurine in Minoan art, presumably representing a goddess, but not thought to be cult images, rather votive offerings. It was discovered ...
, a LM figurine *
Thrapsano Thrapsano ( el, Θραψανό) is a former municipality in the Heraklion regional unit, Crete, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Minoa Pediada Minoa Pediada ( el, Μινώα Πεδιάδα, "Minoan Pla ...
, then and now, a village known for pottery


Notes


References

* Betancourt, Philip P. 1985. ''The History of Minoan pottery'' Princeton University Press. A handbook. * Cappel, Sarah et al., eds., ''Minoan Archaeology: Perspectives for the 21st Century'', 2015, Presses universitaires de Louvain, , 9782875583949 * Hutchinson, ''Prehistoric Crete'', many editions hardcover and softcover * Matz, Friedrich, ''The Art of Crete and Early Greece'', Crown, 1962 * Mackenzie, Donald A., ''Crete & Pre-Hellenic'', Senate, 1995, * "Oxford", ''The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean'', Eric H. Cline (ed.), 2012, Oxford UP,
google books
* Palmer, L. A., ''Mycenaeans and Minoans'', multiple editions * Preziosi, Donald and Louise A. Hitchcock 1999 ''Aegean Art and Architecture'' * Platon, Nicolas, ''Crete'' (translated from the Greek), Archaeologia Mundi series, Frederick Muller Limited, London, 1966 * Traunmueller, Sebastian, "Pots and Potters", in Cappel
google books
* Willetts, ''The Civilization of Ancient Crete'', Barnes & Noble, 1976, * Yakubovich, Ilya, ''Sociolinguistics of the Luvian Language'', Brill, 2010,


Further reading

*Betancourt, Philip P. 2007. ''Introduction to Aegean Art.'' Philadelphia: INSTAP Academic Press. *Boardman, John. 2001. ''The History of Greek Vases: Potters, Painters, Pictures.'' New York: Thames & Hudson. *MacGillivray, J.A. 1998. ''Knossos: Pottery Groups of the Old Palace Period'' BSA Studies 5. ( British School at Athens)
Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2002
*Preziosi, Donald, and Louise A. Hitchcock. 1999. ''Aegean Art and Architecture.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press. *Walberg, Gisela. 1986. ''Tradition and Innovation. Essays in Minoan Art'' (Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp Von Zabern)

Bibliography (see Pottery) *Edey, Maitland A., ''Lost World of the Aegean'', Time-Life Books, 1975


External links

*Dartmouth College: Prehistorical Archaeology of the Aegean website:





* ttp://www.noteaccess.com/APPROACHES/AGW/SanPottery.htm Doumas Kristos' description of local pottery and Cretan imports from the excavations at Akrothiri(
Santorini Santorini ( el, Σαντορίνη, ), officially Thira (Greek: Θήρα ) and classical Greek Thera (English pronunciation ), is an island in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km (120 mi) southeast from the Greek mainland. It is the ...
) (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 * Victor Bryant,

', under ''Crete & Mycenae'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Minoan Pottery Ancient pottery Ancient Greek vase-painting styles
Pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...