THE EARLY AGE OF GREECE VOL.I by W.Ridgeway 1901

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78 PREHISTORIC REMAINS AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION.
inscri])t ions '
PREHISTORIC REMAINS AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION. 77
Cei'tain it is that neither in the (lieck Jour. Ilt'll. Stud., V. 58.
J).
reign of Amenophis III. as their date. The same explorer
alphabet of historical times, nor coins, have been found in any
found a vase of Mycenean style (though not a false-necked
of the great Mycenean
sites in the strata which contained the
amphora) in a tomb at Kahun, which he assigns to about
Mycenean objects. These two facts must make us set the end
11 (JO B.C. He also found at Tel-el-Amarna a large quantity of
of the Mycenean age on the mainland before 800 B.C. But as
fragments of Mycenean pottery in an environment which
it extended over a long period, its prime cannot well have been
indicates the period 1400 1340 B.C.
later than the twelfth century B.C.
False-necked vases are seen in a fresco in the tomb of
The scarcity of silver as compared with gold has been
Rameses III. {circa 1200 B.C.). Wall-paintings in three tombs
already noticed. Yet by the time of Solomon. 900 B.C., that
at Thebes of about the time of Thothmes III. (1600 B.C.)
have
metal was very plentiful in Palestine. Under the xviiith
been supposed to show Mycenean vases, but this is doubtful,
dynasty {circa 1400 B.C.) the Phoenicians supplied Egypt with
as the vessels depicted are not the characteristic false-necked
silver, and under the new empire the supply had so increased
amphorae.
that it was evidently much cheaper than gold, for the later
This evidence makes it fairly probable that the Mycenean
texts always name silver after gold, whilst the older texts name
civilization w^as fully developed in some parts of the Aegean
them in reverse order*. From this consideration alone it would
area by at least 1200 B.C., and p(jssibly two or three centuries
be haixl to fix the date of the full
Mycenean age any later than
earlier.
It must not be assumed that because the Mycenean style is
the tenth century B.C.
The absence of silver from the prehistoric remains of Attica
found lingering in certain areas, such as Cyprus, into the sixth
is especially noteworthy, for that district in historical times
century B.C., its beginnings therefore must be late everywhere
deiived immense supplies of silver from the mines of Laurium,
in Greece, or even in Cyprus.
which Aeschylus describes as ' a well of silver.'
According to
It will suffice for the present to point out that urdess the
Xenophon these mines had been work(Ml time out of mind".
course of development was suddeidy broken by conquest, there
When it is remembered that Thoricus stands actually on the
is no reason why the IVIyceuean culture should have come to a
silver district, it is all the more astonishing that no articles of
sudden end all over the Aegean. At ]\leni(li in Attica it
passed
silver have been found in the excavations. It is therefore hard
gradually into the art of the classical period. The doctrines of
to place the Mj'cenean period in Attica at a later date than the
cataclysmic historians and archaeologists have wrought much
tenth century
B.C. These considerations confirm the date
mischief. The ftjrnicr Um ottcn a.ssumt: that a con(|U('st
means
inferred from the Egyptian evidence for the great days of
a conq)lete change of po|)ulation, whilst th(> latter have fixed
Mycenean art.
their c^yes (jnly on the finest- works of Mycenean pottei'V, and
We have very scanty data respecting the physical characteristics
have a-sunied that, this great i)Ui'sL of art is due to the
of the Mycenean people. The skulls discovered have
in(;oining of soint; new i-ace. They might as well assume that
usually bt'en too decomposed to admit- of measurement, but
the ))otteiy of W'edgewood and I'alissy prove that a new race
Ml- Bent''' was able to presei-ve one of those found by him in
had entered Kngland
in the ISth, and FiMiiee in the Kith
Antipai'os. Its measurements show it t< be abnoi-mally
'I'he century. humble \essels of evei'yday life are historirallv
d()lich()ee|)hali(*.
far moi(! important, than the works of fine art, tor the hitter
The evidence derivable from the Island statuettes, as far as
(iily I'epresent
the life of t he \i'V\ few, the former show us that
lli(l\viiy, Orii/iii of Mctdllic Ciinwncii. ])]).
llfl 7; l*'i'rnini, Ai'jii/ptcii, ]). (ill .
of the masses.
-
Dc Vfrli!/., II. 2.