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The Little Palace Well and Knossian Pottery of the Later Third and Second Centuries B.C.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

P. J. Callaghan
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Extract

If the Unexplored Mansion must rest content with a name rendered obsolete by subsequent archaeological activity it is perhaps fitting that the Little Palace Well, which was sunk through its ruins, should glory in a similarly inappropriate title. The well was brought to light by one of nature's not infrequent excesses at Knossos. In winter and spring the area is subjected to occasional heavy downpours which erode the ground surface and reveal traces of ancient occupation. In the early weeks of 1938 subsidence caused by such winter storms exposed the top of the well, which lay just behind the façade of the Unexplored Mansion at a point where the west scarp of Evans's Little Palace excavations towered high above the level of the Minoan ruins. R. W. Hutchinson, who was then Curator at Knossos, conducted a small rescue operation and the results were briefly described in the JHS for that year. The outbreak of the Second World War prevented anything more than preliminary work on the pottery before archaeological activity at Knossos was brought to a halt. The whole and restored pots were transported to Herakleion Museum for safe keeping, and the fragments remained at Knossos and were eventually housed in the new Stratigraphic Museum.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 76 , November 1981 , pp. 35 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1981

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References

Acknowledgements: This study was carried out during my tenure of the Macmillan Studentship at the British School at Athens. The Managing Committee of the British School kindly gave me permission to draw and photograph the pottery and other finds. Mr Y. Tsedakis as Ephor at Herakleion Museum allowed me access to the material kept in the Archaeological Museum's apothekes and made my study lighter by his constant encouragement. Dr. H. W. Catling, as usual, was a very thorough taskmaster in helping to prepare the report for publication and deserves many thanks for his patient supervision. Miss S. Raven is responsible for the photographs of pottery in the Archaeological Museum at Herakleion; Dr. D. Evely for those at Knossos.

Abbreviations other than those in common use:

IHV. Cook, B. F., Inscribed Hadra Vases in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Papers of the Metropolitan Museum, no. 12, 1966.Google Scholar

KDS. Coldstream, J. N. et al. , Knossos, the Sanctuary of Demeter, BSA suppl. 8 (1973).Google Scholar

1 JHS 58 (1938) 233.

2 AR 19 (1972–3) 62–4.

3 Kretika Chron. 21 (1969) 153–76; Annuario 45–6 (1967–8) 94 fig. 44.

4 Hesp. 3 (1934) 376 fig. 61 no. D27, fig. 62 no. D28; 399 fig. 88; 403 fig. 91 no. E69. Corinth VII iii pl. 52 no. 408; pl. 40 no. 546.

5 AAA 5 (1972) 230–44; PAE (1973) 200–12; Annuario 45–6 (1967–8) 55 ff (with bibliography); Kretika Chron. 21 (1969) 153–76.

6 AR 22 (1975–76) 30.

7 Annuario 45–6 (1967–8) 65 fig. 9; 159 fig. 115 right; Kretika Chron. 21 (1969) pl. 1 opp. p. 168 top.

8 Annuario 45–6 (1967–8) 65 fig. 9; Kretika Chron. 21 (1969) pl. 1 opp. p. 168.

9 Annuario 43–4 (1965–6) 569 and 574–7. The developed forms at Phaistos indicate that catastrophe overwhelmed the city no short time after the destruction of Apollonia in 171 B.C.

10 BSA 73 (1978) 15–18 nos. 43–55.

11 Ibid. Nos. 45–8.

12 Ibid. Nos. 49–50.

13 Guerrini, , Vasi di Hadra, Studi Miscellanei 8 (1964) 10–11 no. A7.Google Scholar

14 Ibid. pl. xi.

15 Ibid. pl. 1: A4; pl. xii.

16 Ibid. 10–11 no. A1–2 alone may be assigned to this artist. The dolphins on the other vases are by a different hand.

17 Ibid. pl. i, A1–2.

18 Ibid.

19 Ibid.

20 AD 18 (1963) chron B2, 325 and pl. 375a.

21 The Hippocamp Painter. His name-vase is now in Brussels (Guerrini, op. cit. A15) and its base is of a type used only in the Pseudo-base-ring Workshop.

22 BSA 73 (1978) 20 nos. 75–8.

23 For types from Asia Minor cf. Schaefer, J., Hellenistische Keramik aus Pergamon (1968) pls. 15–16 and fig. 3.Google Scholar The series at Corinth follows a different course of development: Corinth VII iii nos. 389–450 pls. 15, 39, 41, 52, 53. From Athens we have possible ancestral forms in Hesp. 3 (1934) 319 f., nos. A30–31; 336 ff. nos. B21–6. The early 3rd c. B.C. pottery from Menon, 's Cistern (Hesp. 43 (1974) 194–245Google Scholar provides only the curious hybrid no. 6. Brunnen B1 in the Kerameikos, however, has a good series reinforced by well-dated contexts: AM. The Attic evidence seems to indicate a 3rd c. B.C. floruit for the type and Edwards proposes a similar chronology for Corinth. It would seem that Knossos and Ionia retained the shape for some time longer.

24 J. Schaefer, op. cit. pl. 15–16.

25 BSA 73 (1978) 20 no. 77.

26 AAA 5 (1972) 238 fig. 9.

27 BSA 73 (1978) 19 no. 72. This is a rather free votive version of the settlement shape. It would seem that the potters began to convert to neck-handled types some time after 171 B.C., and probably before 150 B.C.

28 BSA 73 (1978) 20 nos. 75–8.

29 Corinth VII iii 83–6.

30 BSA 45 (1950) 181 fig. 20; Guerrini, op. cit. pl. Xe.

31 BSA 73 (1978) 18, nos. 56–9. Examples from a Phaistian destruction deposit (Kretika Chron. 21 (1969) pl. 10 opp. p. 161) seem less developed than the fragments from the well, another piece of evidence implying that the well-fill post-dates the destruction of Phaistos.

32 BSA 45 (1950) 181 no. 7.

33 For example: J. Schaefer, op. cit. pl. 5 and 6 no. C21; pl. 9–10, nos. D31 and D32.

34 The comparanda from Knossos remain unpublished. The small votive versions in BSA 73 (1978) 18, nos. 56–9 cannot be used in this regard since they do not provide faithful copies of the full-sized settlement shapes.

35 Corinth VII iii 74–6.

36 Bielefeld, E., Eine Fundgruppe griechischer Vasen in Deckfarbentechnik (1970) 12 and 15.Google Scholar

37 BSA 73 (1978) 18 f.

38 BSA 45 (1950) 183 fig. 23 a.

39 For the 3rd c. B.C. we have KDS 32, no. E12 and Bielefeld, op. cit. 5, 9, 11. KDS 38, no. G4 dates to the first half of the 2nd c. B.C. We may place BSA 45 (1950) 182 fig. 21 a and c in the late 2nd c. B.C.

40 The short-necked cup; cf. BSA 73 (1978) 6–8 for Classical types. For a cup belonging to the period c. 250–225 B.C. cf. AD 26 (1971) chron. B2 pl. 513 second row, second from left.

41 Bielefeld op. cit. 5.

42 Mon. Piot 14 (1900) fig. 24. For the date of such paintings cf. BSA 75 (1980), ‘The Trefoil Style and Second-Century Hadra Vases’.

43 For Classical tulip cups cf. BSA 73 (1978) 9–10. For a later 3rd-c. B.C. type cf. Bielefeld, op. cit. 16.

44 PAE (1973) pl. 218, bottom.

45 Annuario 45–6 (1967–8) 159 fig. 115; Kretika Chron. 21 (1969) pl. I opp. p. 168, top.

46 Délos xxi, pl. 131 nos. 6000 and 6201; pl. 134 no. 6002.

47 BSA 75 (1980) ‘The Trefoil Style and Second Century Hadra Vases’.

48 BCH 100 (1976) 257 fig. 4.

49 AR 19 (1972–3) 63 fig. 4, right; KDS pl. 13 nos. D15 + 12 which belong together.

50 AR 19 (1972–3) 63 fig. 4, centre; KDS pl. 19 nos. G6–9.

51 BCH 95 (1971) 204–8. For a more detailed analysis of the dating evidence cf. this volume, ‘The Medusa Rondanini and Antiochus III’.

52 AD 26 (1971) chron. B2 pl. 513. For the career of this artist cf. this volume on the Medusa Rondanini.

53 The ‘Rainbow Style’ seems to be a relatively late development in painting and mosaics. Its early date at Corinth (Corinth VII iii no. 129) cannot be supported by the deposit in which it appears.

54 KDS 30 fig. 15: F15 and K22.

55 BSA 45 (1950) 178 fig. 15; pl. 14a.

56 Ibid. pl. 12e from a deposit likely to belong in the early 4th c. B.C.; BSA 52 (1957) 229 fig. 2 of the later 4th or early 3rd c. B.c.; Edgar, C. C., Greek Vases in the Cairo Museum (1911) no. 26247Google Scholar probably of the 3rd c. B.C. or later.

57 Annuario 52–3 (1974–5) 121–69.

58 Ibid. 127 ff, nos. 12–22. The most advanced forms include nos. 25 and 39.

59 Corinth VII iii 125 f. nos. 666 and 679; Agora XII i, 227–8 and 373. no. 1965; Hesp. 43 (1974) 238 no. 54.

60 Corinth VII, iii, nos. 670–1, 683–5; Hesp. 3 (1934) 467 fig. 121.

61 The Knossian casserole is illustrated in BSA 45 (1950) 184 fig. 25d and 185, fig. 28b. For roughly contemporary Attic types cf. Hesp. 3 (1934) 467 fig. 121: D27 and E141.

62 These enigmatic labels should represent the finds from Hutchinson's first three spits which are otherwise unrepresented among the boxes of pottery from the well now in the Knossos Stratigraphical Museum.

63 AR 19 (1972–3) 63–4 fig. 2: the area in the lower centre of the plan.

64 Annuaire du Musée gréco-romain d'Alexandrie (1935–39) 111 f. fig. 49.

65 Guerrini, op. cit. 10 no. A15.

66 B. F. Cook, IHV no. 9 (213 B.C.); no. 27 (before 219 B.C.); Guerrini, op. cit. no. A10 rear panel; Robinson, D. M. et al. , Greek Vases at Toronto II (1930) pl. xcviii, 620–C458 and 621–C457.Google Scholar

67 Breccia, E., La necropoli di Sciatbi II (1912) pl. xxxv 42.Google Scholar

68 For the development of this feature cf. BSA 73 (1978) 16.

69 They are probably descended from the small-handled lekanidai of the Archaic period as BSA 68 (1973) 54, nos. 39–41. Most of the series thereafter remains unpublished, but for some Hellenistic examples cf. KDS 32 no. E19–20; 38 no. G15.

70 Mon Piot 14 pl. vi left; pl. ixe–f; Délos ix pl. ix.

71 BSA 45 (1950) 178, fig. 15.