III.

Pottery and Art

Minoan civilization is remarkable for the fine nature of its art. Pottery was made on Crete even from Neolithic times. In the Prepalatial period, however, distinctive new styles of pottery began to emerge; among them were jugs with spouts in the shape of beaks, from c. 2600-c. 2200 bc a plain grey ware with red linear designs, and in the late Prepalatial period style of pottery with white spiral decoration on a dark background. The introduction of the potter’s wheel in the Protopalatial period made possible the so-called Kamares ware, an extremely finely potted ware with a light-on-dark style of decoration. In the Neopalatial period, pottery generally declined, in the variety of its decoration, but the repetitiveness of design is itself a reflection of the technical mastery that had been achieved. Despite the excellence of some types of pottery, fresco-painting seems to have replaced pottery as the innovative medium of the period. The frescoes, that decorate the palaces and villas of the Neopalatial period are extraordinarily naturalistic. The scenes that they portray are both secular and religious: there are magical gardens, monkeys, and wild goats, fancifully dressed goddesses, and depictions of processions, of sport, and of oxhides being stretched and sewn. Superb metalwork was also accomplished: bronzesmiths mastered elaborate techniques of casting, and the gold jewellery was made of fine gold thread decorated with minute grains of gold.