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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 September 2013
The distinction between L.H. IIA and L.H. IIB as stylistic and historical phases was set out by Furumark over twenty years ago, but the terms have still not come into general use. Instead, L.H. II is treated as a unit, roughly equivalent to the fifteenth century B.C. Yet it is now generally agreed that there was an important historical ‘break’ in the middle of the century, marked by the destruction of many sites in Crete, which roughly coincides with the suggested division between L.H. IIA and L.H. IIB. The distinction between material preceding and following this ‘break’ on the mainland is likely to be of importance for the general history of the period.
In his discussion of these phases, Furumark was forced to rely very largely on tomb-groups, and his total material was not very great. He was conscious that additional evidence was needed for L.H. I and L.H. IIA, and commented on the general dearth of stratified material, accepting only one site, Korakou, as showing a L.H. I–II stratification.
Abbreviations. The following abbreviations will be used in addition to those already well-known or self-explanatory.
AR = Archaeological Reports.
CT = A. J. B. Wace, Chamber Tombs at Mycenae (1932).
Eleusis = G. E. Mylonas, Προϊστορικὴ Ἐλευσίς (1932).
FM, FS = Motif, Shape number in A. Furumark, Mycenaean Pottery (1941).
KC = Κρητικὰ Χρονικά.
OpArch, Ath = Opuscula Archaeologica, Atheniensia.
PKU = R. C. Bosanquet and R. M. Dawkins, The Unpublished Objects from the Palaikastro Excavations 1902–1906 (1932).
Pylos i = C. W. Blegen and M. Rawson, The Palace of Nestor at Pylos in Western Messenia i (1966).
Acknowledgements. The study of the Korakou material on which this article is based was carried out at Corinth in the spring of 1968; some points were checked in the spring of 1971. My thanks are due to the Greek Archaeological Service, the authorities of the American School of Classical Studies, and particularly to Dr. C. K. Williams and Miss K. Butt for their invaluable help at Corinth and for photographs of the catalogued vases, and to Mr. K. Wardle for taking photographs of the sherds. I am also grateful to the following for permission to study or refer to unpublished material: Prof. J. L. Caskey (Ay. Irini), Prof. W. A. McDonald (Nichoria), M. S. F. Hood (Knossos), M. R. Popham (Lefkandi). This article was written during tenure of a Sir James Knott Fellowship at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and my visit to Corinth in 1971 was aided by a grant from the Michael Ventris Memorial Fund.
1 In OpArch vi (1950)Google Scholar, ‘The Settlement at Ialysos and Aegean History c. 1550–1400 B.C.’, especially 249–62; this article will here be referred to as Ialysos.
2 CMP 47–52.
3 In his Catalogue (MP 585–643) he attributes 117 numbered vases to L.H. IIA and 147 to L.H. IIB; even including unnumbered pieces and the Prosymna vases, the figures are unlikely to exceed 200 in either case.
4 CMP 37.
5 CMP 28–9.
6 AJA xl (1936) 419Google Scholar; but cf. ADelt xv (1933–1935)Google Scholar Parartema 24–5 for a contrary statement.
7 PAE (1956) 125, (1957) 61Google Scholar.
8 Pylos i 19, 24, 29Google Scholar; ADelt xvi (1960) B 115Google Scholar.
9 Aghios Kosmas 48–50.
10 Eleusis fig. 90; AE (1912) 7–10 figs. 4–5Google Scholar.
11 AJA xxxii (1928) 63Google Scholar.
12 Korakou 2, 36, 127Google Scholar.
13 MP 484–6.
14 CMP 28, 47, 49, 52Google Scholar.
15 BSA li (1956) 123 with n. 6Google Scholar.
16 Korakou 36–44.
17 Ibid. figs. 54–60, also figs. 26 (from X) and 66.1 (from IX).
18 Ibid. figs. 51.2–3 (elsewhere), 4 (VIII), 7 (‘under wall’); 53.3 (VIII), 7, 8, 10 (all elsewhere). Not surely identified are figs. 50.3–4, 51.2, 53.1, 5, 6.
19 Many were found among the ‘wasters’ from the kiln at Berbati (cf. Atti e memorie del primo congresso internazionale di micenologia i (1963) 49, pl. II.4)Google Scholar. I am grateful to Prof. Å. Åkerström for showing me unpublished photographs of the material from Berbati.
20 Korakou figs. 61.2–3; 62.1, 3, 5, 8; 63.1, 3, 5, 6, 11, 13; 64; 69; 72.2; 75.3, also 66.1 already noted as from IX.
21 Ibid. 44–59.
22 Ibid. figs. 67 (cf. p. 49), 70.2.
23 MP 492–5.
24 Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society cxiii (1969) 439Google Scholar; cf. Hesperia xxxiii (1964) pl. 53 fGoogle Scholar.
25 PM iv 360–2Google Scholar; the piece is fig. 301r, which is in the Ashmolean Museum (AE 1941.163) and has all the characteristics of the mainland type, as I have determined.
26 e.g. in th e Skopelos grave (KC iii (1949) 534–73, especially 551–3) and Prosymna T. 28 cist 2 (Prosymna fig. 168): the former held two or more burials, the latter the remains of fourGoogle Scholar.
27 Ialysos 156–7.
28 e.g. those of Vermeule, Greece in the Bronze Age (1964) 112, 117, 124Google Scholar.
29 MP 484–6.
30 AJA xiii (1909) 282 fig. 5aGoogle Scholar.
31 Cf. BSA lxii (1967) 340Google Scholar fig. 2.4, 6, 11–13, all well known on the mainland.
32 Ialysos 157; the argument is strengthened by the evidence of two new examples, ADelt xvii (1961–1962)Google Scholar B pl. 356β, PAE (1967) pl. 158β.
33 BSA xlviii (1953) 73–7Google Scholar.
34 AE (1914) 113–4Google Scholar, pl. 2.1, 3, often thought to be by the same hand.
35 Ibid. 115 fig. 25, pl. 2.2.
36 SG pl. 167.196; Prosymna figs. 656–7.
37 PAE (1962) pl. 159α, (1968) pl. 75α; cf. also Gournia pl. 9.10, PKU 31 fig. 19b (all L.M. IA or in the L.M. IA tradition).
38 PKU 51 fig. 39a (L.M. IB).
39 PM ii 470–1 figs. 276h, 277.
40 Ibid. 474 fig. 281, 479 fig. 286.
41 AM xxxiv (1909) pls. 20–2Google Scholar.
42 e.g. AE (1895) pl. 11.1 (Thorikos), (1910) pls. 8.1, 10.2 (Thebes); AR (1935–1936) 20 figGoogle Scholar. 7 right (Berbati); PAE (1954) 276 figGoogle Scholar. 5 (Analipsis), (1960) pl. 151β (Gouvalari); AJA lxii (1958)Google Scholar pl. 41.14 (Epano Englianos).
43 PM ii 497 fig. 302, Hesperia xxxv (1966)Google Scholar pl. 85a (palms); BSA lxii (1967)Google Scholar pl. 80b (papyrus), cf. 341 and pl. 79a (reeds).
44 MP 481–2; Ialysos 157–62.
45 PAE (1956) pl. 100Υ is surely an import.
46 e.g. PAE (1962) pls. 152–9 from Zakro.
47 MP 484–6.
48 MP 105.
41 Ialysos 252.
50 BSA lxii (1967) 341–3Google Scholar.
51 Mylonas, G. E., Ancient Mycenae (1957) fig. 64Google Scholar; Vermeule, op. cit. (n. 28) pl. 9E.
52 Cf. n. 36 above, also ADelt xvi (1960) B 114Google Scholar (a jar from Voroulia with ‘racket’-leaf trees) and OpAth viii (1968) 89Google Scholar 1.1–2, 91 fig. 2.1–2 for smaller vases.
53 e.g. ADelt iii (1917)Google Scholar figs. 64, 65.2, 68.2, 104–6, 143.1, 4, 146–7 (Theban chamber tombs).
54 Ibid. fig. 146, CT pl. 5.15; New Tombs at Dendra 80; AM lxxxii (1967) 60 fig. 5Google Scholar.
55 e.g. CT pls. 2.5, 5.7; Prosymna figs. 109.213, 246, 345·987, 415.1214.
56 e.g. AM xiv (1889)Google Scholar pls. 9.1, 6, 10.1–2, 5–6; Hesperia xxiv (1955) pls. 73.1, 4Google Scholar.
57 Cf. BICS 16 (1969) 151Google Scholar.
58 BSA lxii (1967) 344Google Scholar.
59 e.g. PM iv 321–31 figs. 262, 268–71, 273Google Scholar.
60 BSA lix (1964) 241–61Google Scholar.
61 Popham, M. R., The Destruction of the Palace at Knossos: Pottery of the Late Minoan IIIA Period (1970) passimGoogle Scholar.
62 The types of this pattern dated L.H. I by Furumark, (MP 323 fig. 54)Google Scholar are assigned stylistically, being in a mixed context, and could as easily be L.H. IIA; those dated L.H. IIA are either accessorial to the ogival canopy or elaborate versions on palatial vases.
63 BSA xlv (1950) 211–13Google Scholar, pl. 21a; Hesperia xxi (1952) 107–8, pl. 26cGoogle Scholar.
