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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 September 2013
In a previous article I argued that the one major stratified deposit published as LH I and accepted as such by Furumark, from Korakou, was in fact late LH IIA, and considered the implications of this redating for the development of LH II. If this view is accepted, it raises the question: what, then, is LH I ? In this article I wish to describe what I believe to be LH I; as I am not able to make use of a good closed deposit, I shall rely largely upon published material, much of which I have seen or handled, identified by style, shape, and features of manufacture. Since photographs of this material are readily accessible in well-known publications, I show only a few characteristic pieces (plate 20).
Abbreviations. The following abbreviations will be used in addition to those already well known or self-explanatory.
Asine UP—Ålin, P., ‘Unpublished Mycenaean Sherds from Asine’, in Opuscula Atheniensia viii (1968) 87–105.Google Scholar
Ay. Irini—Caskey, J. L., ‘Investigations in Keos Part II: A Conspectus of the Pottery’, in Hesperia xli (1972) 357–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BMA—Forsdyke, J., Catalogue of the Greek and Etruscan Vases in the British Museum vol. i Part I (1925).Google Scholar
Circle B—G. E. Mylonas, O Taphikos Kyklos B ton Mykenon (1972).
Eleusis—G. E. Mylonas, Proistorike Eleusis (1932).
FM, FS—Motif, Shape Number in A. Furumark, Mycenaean Pottery (1941).
Ialysos—Furumark, A., ‘The Settlement at Ialysos and Aegean History c 1550–1400 B.C.’, in Opuscula Archaeological (1950) 150–271.Google Scholar
Pylos iii—Biegen, C. W. and others, The Palace of Nestor at Pylos in Western Messenia vol. iii (1973).Google Scholar
For the sake of consistency, I have used LH I, II, etc., where Furumark's actual usage is Myc. I, II, etc.
Acknowledgements. This article was written during tenure of a Research Fellowship at the University of Birmingham. It results from the study of early Mycenaean pottery that I began for my D.Phil, thesis (The Origins and Development of Early Mycenaean Culture, Oxford, 1970) and am still continuing. I am grateful to all archaeologists who have shown me material, discussed it with me, or provided me with facilities to study it; I should particularly like to thank M. S. F. Hood and M. R. Popham for permission to study and refer to unpublished material from Knossos and Lefkandi, Lord William Taylour for the opportunity to see material from Ay. Stephanos and for the provision of photographs (Plate 20 a–c, e), Professor W. A. McDonald for inviting me to work on and publish the Mycenaean pottery from Nichoria, Dr. C. K. Williams for much help at Corinth and permission to reproduce Plate 20 d, and the Committee of the British School of Archaeology at Athens for permission to reproduce Plate 21. My thanks are also due to Mr. H. Buglass, draughtsman of the Ancient History and Archaeology Department, Birmingham Uniersity, for producing fair copies of my figures.
1 ‘Late Helladic IIA and IIB: Some Evidence from Korakou’, in BSA lxvii (1972) 103–12.
2 Ialysos 186 with n. 6, 187 with n. 2; cf. MP 477, CMP 28, 47, 85, 98.
3 CMP 98.
4 MP 481–4, Ialysos 156–7.
5 Op. cit. (n. 1), especially 108.
6 Ibid. 103–4.
7 See Hesperia xli (1972) 258–9 for a preliminary account of the early Mycenaean pottery from this site; pl. 48b shows typical LH IA pieces (a few are later), pl. 49a–b material found in a deposit immediately succeeding this phase.
8 Ay. Irini 391–2; Thera ii pl. D7: outer two (Akrotiri; also many unpublished).
9 Op. cit. (n. 1) 107 Ay. Irini 396: the LM IB destructiondeposit contained LH IIB goblets and other vases.
10 P. Åström's proposals to bring down the beginning of LM IA (see most recently Report of the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus (1972) 53) would reduce this period still further.
11 Unpublished material from the 1973 excavations.
12 In studying this topic I have benefited greatly from discussion with Mr. R. Howell, and with Dr. D. H. French, to whom I am grateful for a copy of Notes on Prehistoric Pottery Groups from Central Greece (1972), but take sole responsibility for the views expressed, which I first formulated in my thesis.
13 Hesperia xxiii (1954) 15, xxvi (1957) 146, cf. also xxix (1960) 299, for postulated imitations of MM in the earliest phase of MH.
14 See especially Circle B passim, Prosymna ch. iv, Corinth xiii part i.
15 Cf. Hesperia xxxiii (1964) pls. 39:A13 (Vapheio cup), A15 (egg-cup); 40:B6 (hole-mouth jar), B15 (bird-jug), 43:104–40 (motifs of likely Aegean origin).
16 Korakou 32–3.
17 Kythera 291.
18 The Voroulia deposit included examples with and without a deep rim-band; see PAE (1956) pl. 96β, BCH lxxxi (1957) 559 fig. 10, AD xvi (1960) B pl. 93γ, and others unpublished in Chora Museum.
19 e.g. Zygouries fig. 127:10, Asine UP 89 fig. 1:2, Hesperia xxiv (1955) pl. 16d (top two); Korakou (unpublished) (perhaps semi-globular?).
20 Prosymna fig. 654 (alabastron), BSA xxv (1921–3) pl.
21 SG pls. 170:221, 175:945, Circle B pl. 42, Hesperia xxiii (1954) pl. 38:8.
22 PAE (1965) pl. 133α–β (jar, amphora), Korakou fig. 48: right (rhyton); the thickness of the walls and heavy wheelmarking inside make it unlikely that this is a goblet.
23 e.g. SG pl. 173:954, Hesperia xxv (1956) pl. 39d.
24 Kirrha pl. 51:69 (loop-handledjar), Prosymna figs. 652: 431 657 (small jug, pithoid jar).
25 e.g. Prosymna fig. 650, Korakou fig. 48: left, Circle B pl. 225: A–8.
26 e.g. Prosymna fig. 643, Corinth xiii pl. 4:3–5, 5–1.
27 Circle B pl. 234: Τ–19.
28 Malthi. 19:12, 20: 42, AD xx (1965) A pl. gα-ε, xxiii (1968) A pls. 125α, 127α.
29 Ay. Irini 386 pl. 89: E 35, 392 pl. 93: G 39.
30 PM ii fig. 315a, cf. MP 42.
31 MP 40–2.
32 AS Atene xxiii–xxiv (1963) 46 fig. 46, AAA i (1968) 250 fig. 1: left (MM HI), Ay. Irini pl. 89: E 38 (MC), Circle B, pl. 170δ (MH).
33 Cf. profiles in Circle B pls. 218–22.
34 SG pl. 172: 858, AD xx (1965) A pl. 20α.
35 MP 14 (quoting earlier references), Prosymna 392, Asine UP 88.
36 e.g. Asinie UP 91 fig. 2: 5, Ay. Irini pl. 92: G 32.
37 Cf. also Asine UP 104 fig. 7, BSA lxvii (1972) 269 fig. 40: 7 (= PLATE 20b; note uneven rim-band inside).
38 e.g. PAE (1964) pls. 91δ, 93α, BSA lxvii (1972) 269 fig. 40: 22 (Circle B pls. 53ε, 213β are probably LM IA).
39 BM A 766: 1, Asine UP 89 fig. 1: 1.
40 For plant-sprays cf. AD xxii (1967) B pl. 131ς, also AD xvi (1960) B 114 (unpublished in Chora Museum).
41 e.g. Korakou fig. 49: 3, 8–9.
42 Others are PAE (1953) 248 fig. 9: bottom left, (1964) pl. 93α, AD xx (1965) A pl. 14α, xxiii (1968) A pl. 124α.
43 Hesperia xxiii (1954) 160–2 pl. 38: 6–7, Pylos iii fig. 196:1.
44 e.g. Korakou pl. 3:7, cf. SG pl. 167: 192.
45 Kythera 284–5 (shape of cups), 289–91 (decoration).
46 Kythera 283, 290; unpublished material from Knossos, cf. BSA lxii (1967) 337 on the appearance of the pattern in MM IIIB.
47 Kythera 120–3 describes this deposit, which is not fully sealed, but contains a few LM IB and LH IIA; pl. 31:1–3 are Vapheio cups close to LH I; 25 is the fragment with hatched loop.
48 e.g. BSA lxii (1967) 338 fig. 1:4–5, pls. 77a, 78d: bottom left, for linked spirals and circles.
49 Cf. BSA li (1956) 24–7 for a description of the Phylakopi ware, in which polychrome technique is characteristic, and the many unusual vases from Akrotiri, published in Thera i–v.
50 Above, p. 113 n. 21 for VI and II; of I vases, SG pl. 167: 197, 199 are LH IIA, and 193–6 may well be, whereas 190–2 look closer to LH I (these have added white decora tion).
51 Prosymna 116–18 for T. 52.
52 The best accounts of these are, respectively, Archaeology xiii (1960) 130–3 and AD xvi (1960) B 114; cf. also for the former Hesperia xxiv (1955) 32–4, xxv (1956) 156—7, for the latter PAE (1956) 202.
53 Eleusis: Eleusis fig. 89 (several), AJA xl (1936) 422 fig. 8 (several); Stephanos, Ay.: BSA lxvii (1972) 268Google Scholar; Nichoria: op. cit. (n. 7); Volimidia, : PAE (1953) 249 fig. 10 (most).Google Scholar
54 AD xx (1965) A pls. 13α, 14ξ (Samikon; others probable), xxiii (1968) A pls. 68δ, 78rς: right (Epidauros Limera), 122β, 124α, ?β (Makrysia), xxiv (1969) B 68 pl. 59α: right (Athens); Kirrha pl. 51:69 and probably 70, also pl. 52:75, BCH lxii (1938) pl. 24:5 (Krisa); AE (1910) 225, vase 8 sounds like a LH I jar (Thebes); BSA xlvii (1952) 77 pls. 19: 494, 23: 495 (Chalcis) and Lejkandi fig. 10 are probable on the basis of their primitive appearance, but might belater.
55 Lefkandi, unpublished; Zerelia, in Ashmolean Museum; Kalogeros: see Taylour, Lord William, Mycenaean Pottery in Italy (1958) 21Google Scholar, under no. 17.
56 Cyclades: above, n. 8, also Phylakopi pl. 131: 15–16, BSA xvii (1910–11) pl. 14: 3 and many unpublished in various museums from Phylakopi; Aeolian Islands: Tay lour, op. cit. (n. 55) pls. 2:10, 13, 16–19, 3:12, 14, 19–20, 4:13–15, 8: 4, are certain or probable; Trianda: Ialysos 167 fig. 7:104; Miletus, : IstMitt ix–x (1959–1960) 26Google Scholar, pls. 6:1 bottom right (probably) 7:1 top left.
57 The cup-sherds from Enkomi (Dikaios, P., Enkomi (1969) i 229–30Google Scholar, iiia pl. 86:1–2) are more probably LM IA.
58 Kirrha 117 (T. 7), 122 (T. 42), 124 (T. 59) for groups combining Mycenaean and Matt-Painted vase-types.
59 Cf. BSA lxi (1966) 105 on Euboean LH I–II.
60 AD ii (1916) 184–5, Cf. Ialyos 191 n. 4, where they are considered LH IB, CMP 49–50, on the deposit.
61 BSA lxii (1967) pl. 20:1.
62 Circle B pls. 43α, 52γ (Gamma), 65γ (Delta), 170γ (Omicron); it should be noted that the askoi from Mu (pls. 133α, δ—ε, 134ζ are almost certainly LM IA.
63 Op. cit. (n. 52); see also Ay. Irini 392–3 for references to material from Lerna.
64 Athens: op. cit. (n. 54); Myloi: AD xxii (1967) B 182, pl. 131.
65 Such feet are common in the LH I deposits of Nichoria, cf. also the account of the plain goblets from the East Lobby Deposit at Mycenae (n. 66).
66 BSA xxv (1921–1) 155–9, CMP 47.
67 I was able to see most of the decorated pieces shown in PLATE 2 (= BSA xxv (1921–3) pl. 23) in 1972; c, j-k, o are LH I, a—b, p, and probably e, n, are LH IIA, m is plausibly LM IB; the four cups referred to are d, g-i.
68 Prosymna 399 fig. 658.
69 BSA lviii (1963) pl. 31: 23 (in the Ashmolean Museum).
