Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/174

 Thera and its Prehistoric Ruins. 153 less smoothed over with the polisher. All these vases are im- perfectly baked, save a few specimens which are quite plain, and burnt to a vivid red. Curiously enough, it is in the better class of vases where we detect particles of marble, which would have disappeared had they been subjected to high temperature. Indeed so slight was the baking, as to have led M. Fouqu^ to suspect that the pieces had never been placed in the furnace.^ However hot may be a Grecian summer, we very much doubt its potency to harden clay enough to make it serviceable for utilitarian purposes, as these vases undoubtedly were. All seem to have been used, but none show traces of haying gone on the fire. The vessels are uniformly covered with an engobe, either applied with the brush or by dipping the vessel into a coloured bath. This is conjectured from the fact that the ground-colour extends now to the interior of the vase, now is confined to the inside of the spout ; which would not be the case had there been immersion. Among the pieces found almost intact, or which have been pieced together, are huge jars analogous to the :r/floi found in such profusion at Hissarlik, pots with rounded, protuberant sides, pitchers, flagons, goblets, cups, plates, amphorae, — a whole host in fact. We feel that the potter not only varied his shapes so as to appropriate them to different uses, but that he was at pains to please the eye with a good outline, enlivening the whole with colour, and the subtle charm and grace of proportion. Generally the colours are brown, black, maroon, white, and red. As a rule there is a band round the neck and where the handles are joined on to the body ; the ornament is purely geometrical: hatchings, stripes, broken lines, tears, and dots fill up the fields. A more complicated scheme shows interlaced rings, spirals, and undulating lines, seemingly in imitation of waves. Side by side with floriated designs we also find attempts to suggest birds and quadrupeds, but to what species they belong is not made clear.^ The civilization which obtained at Thera before the eruption which cut short its further progress, was in some measure advanced. It was still of an elementary nature, in that it demanded of stone the material for its weapons; but the gold rings and saw made of copper prove that it had ^ FouQUE, Santorin, 2 A. DuMONT, Les ciramiques de la Grhe propre.