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A Minoan Alabastron in Dublin
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 September 2013
Abstract
The alabastron in the Classical Museum, University College, Dublin, is described. It is suggested that it was found by Sir Arthur Evans in the ‘Throne-room’ at Knossos, and presented to Dublin by D. G. Hogarth, Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum. Evidence for its discovery in the notebooks of Evans and Duncan Mackenzie is discussed.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1987
References
Acknowledgements. I am grateful to the authorities of University College, Dublin, for permission to publish this vase and to the authorities of the Ashmolean Museum and Ashmolean Library, Oxford, for permission to publish photographs and excerpts from the Knossos excavation records in their care. I would also like to thank Professor Peter Warren, Hjördis von Arbin, Ann Brown, and Michael Vickers for their help with my research and David Symons for many helpful discussions and suggestions. Finally, thanks are also due to Reiltin Murphy for the line-drawings of UCD 1691 and Albert Glaholm for the photographs.
Abbreviations
E/NB Arthur Evans, Excavation Notebook.
M/DB Duncan Mackenzie, Daybook (inked copy).
M/NB Duncan Mackenzie, Notebook (pencil copy).
PM Evans, Arthur, The Palace of Minos i–iv (London 1921–1935).Google Scholar
OTKT Palmer, L. R. and J. Boardman. On The Knossos Tablets (Oxford 1963).Google Scholar
1 PM iv. 938 and fig. 877.
2 Warren, P., Minoan Stone Vases (London 1969) 6.Google Scholar
3 Two other registration numbers are visible on the piece. V6042 just below the rim refers to the original system of registration in use in the museum c. 1910. UCD 405 can be seen on the base of the piece. This number corresponds to a different object in the museum register and should be discounted.
4 Warren, op. cit. (see n. 2 above) 5.
5 Browne, H., University College Dublin Museum of Ancient History Report (Dublin 1913) 8, 20.Google Scholar
6 Ibid. 8.
7 This problem has been briefly summarized in two recent publications: Brown, A., Arthur Evans and the Palace of Minos (Oxford 1983) 40, 43 and pl. 17bGoogle Scholar; von Arbin, H., ‘The Alabastron—Shaped Vases Found in the “Throne Room” at Knossos’, Opuscula Atheniensia xv (1984) 7–16.Google Scholar The latter work also contains a short general discussion of these vessels and a convenient catalogue and photographs of all the known examples including UCD 1691.
8 There are three notebooks in all, one by Evans and two by Mackenzie. The latter two include a pencil version, presumably Mackenzie's field notebook, and a tidier version written in ink known as the daybook. The two are often identical but in the inked version the account is more carefully written and at times clarified or slightly expanded. It is the inked version which contains detailed plans of the areas excavated. Both of Mackenzie's notebooks have been consulted but any quotations have been taken from the inked copy. It should also be noted that Mackenzie's notebooks have no page numbers and all references are given by the date of entry.
9 E/NB 1900, 33.
10 Ibid. 30, 39. Because the two plans are virtually identical only one, that from p. 39, has been reproduced (FIG. 1).
11 Ibid. 46.
12 See PM iv. 939 fig. 910 and A. Evans, Stone Vases Palace of Knossos 1900 entry no. 24 (FIG. 3).
13 Mackenzie's notebook and daybook entries for 18 Apr. 1900 indicate that he was working in the south-west corner of the site and at the southern end of the main north-south corridor of the western wing but not in the ‘Throne Room’ which would explain the omission.
14 For a detailed description and useful plan of the area, see J. Boardman, ‘The Date of the Knossos Tablets’, in OTKT 22 fig. 4 and 23 ff. A similar plan can be found in M/DB 1900 entry for 17 Apr.
15 E/NB 1900, 44–5; M/DB and M/NB 1900 entries for 16–17 Apr.
16 Ibid. 45.
17 Ibid.; M/DB and M/NB 1900 entries for 16–17 Apr. Also see Evans, , ‘Knossos Summary Report of the Excavations in 1900’, BSA 6 (1899–1900) 31–2.Google Scholar
18 Warren, , ‘Two Palatial Stone Vases from Knossos’, BSA 60 (1965) 154–5.Google Scholar
19 Evans, , BSA 6 (1899–1900) 41.Google Scholar
20 The ‘1913’ notebook contains various notes and sketches including some dated 1907. It is not possible to be sure exactly when this undated entry was written.
21 E/NB 1913, 23a.
22 PM i. 5 fig. 1.
23 PM i. 422.
24 PM iv. 938 and fig. 877.
25 PM iv. 938 and fig. 877.
26 PM iv. 938 and fig. 877.
27 PM iv. 938.
28 PM iv. 939 fig. 910.
29 There are four photographs of alabastra and lids in an album of photographs of stone objects from Knossos. The album (no. 16) is in the care of the Department of Antiquities, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. These photographs plus the drawings in Evans's excavation and Stone Vase notebooks account for the following pieces:
Alabastra Sources Soureces
AM 1911.611 (Oxford) Stone Vase notebook, no. 24 (see FIG. 3); photograph, Ashmolean Museum (PLATE 26, top centre).
HM 883 (Heraklion) PM iv. 939 fig. 910 (top left).
HM 884 (Heraklion) PM iv. 939 fig. 910 (top right).
HM 882 (Heraklion) PM iv. 939 fig. 910 (centre bottom).
HM 62 (Heraklion) Unpublished photograph, Ashmolean Museum.
There is a drawing in Evans's Stone Vase notebook of an undecorated alabastron (no. 21, see FIG. 3). The diameter is given as 38 cm. Of the two undecorated examples in Heraklion it is closest in size to HM 61 (diameter 36 cm.). However, the sketch is not in sufficient detail to make a secure identification possible.
Lids Sources
AE 768 (Oxford) Photograph, Ashmolean Museum (PLATE 26, upper left corner).
Lids Sources
HM 63 (Heraklion) PM iv. 939 fig. 910 (to left of HM 883); photograph, Ashmolean Museum (PLATE 26, centre bottom); unpublished photograph, Ashmolean Museum (with HM 62); unpublished photograph, Ashmolean Museum.
HM 64 (Heraklion) PM iv. 939 fig. 910 (on HM 883); Stone Vase notebook, no. 24 (FIG. 3); E/NB 1900, 46.
30 AE 768 (upper left corner); HM 63 (centre bottom).
31 In OTKT both Palmer and Boardman mention the existence of an additional alabastron fragment from the Stratigraphical Museum, Knossos. It is said to come from a box containing material from one of the test pits dug at the edge of the anteroom to the ‘Throne Room’ in 1913. See Palmer, L. R., ‘The Find-Places of the Knossos Tablets’, in OTKT 246Google Scholar; Boardman, , ‘The Date of the Knossos Tablets’, in OTKT 101.Google Scholar
32 The entry for this piece in the Ashmolean accessions register includes the following comments: ‘Source: Crete Cnossus. “floor of Throne Room” Remarks: Given by A. J. Evans.’
33 Special thanks are due to Ann Brown of the Ashmolean Museum for her help in making there letters available to me.
34 Letters dated 7, 15, 17 Nov. 1910.
35 The original copy of this typewritten letter was sent to Browne but a carbon copy was kept for reference in the Ashmolean files.
36 AM 1911.602 (bronze ring-headed pin), AM 1911.604 (bronze sword).
37 This information was supplied by Michael Vickers of the Ashmolean Museum.
38 The handles of AM 1911.611 have many perforations (see FIG. 3 and PLATE 26).