Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/425

 370 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. . . . These works are primitive ; but they testify to a curious mind, already on the alert, longing to invent new forms, and undoubtedly well gifted."^ The following question naturally arises: was the pottery which has been brought out from under volcanic ashes of native make, or taken there by some trading and industrial people that would have forestalled the Phoenicians by some centuries ? Difficult though it may be to advance even a conjecture on the name of the people that fulfilled perhaps such a function, the fact that no potter s clay is to be found at Thera is not without significance ; what pottery is used in the island at the present day is imported from Milos or Anaphos ; but the geolo- gist is aware that it was not so in ancient times, ere the island was torn asunder by the eruption. We have said on what sure grounds M. Fouqu^ rested his theory, as to the vases in question having been manufactured on the spot. He even thinks that he can put his finger, on the map, whence the potters got the requisite plastic clay.^ This piece of information is not without importance : it pre-disposes the historian to picture to himself the coasts and islands of the Archipelago as inhabited, about the time when Thera was partly destroyed, by tribes which the sea placed in constant communication with one another, none of which, how- ever, held a sufficiently commanding position, to provide for the needs of less-favoured tribes, or have its productions ac- cepted on a wide area. Every district, whether on the mainland or in the isles interposing between Europe and Asia, had its local manufactory. These assumed more or less importance according to the fertility of the soil or the materials placed at the disposal of the artisan. Paros, Naxos, and the adjacent islands have an abundance of marble. Here, owing to the ease with which the rock can be worked, sculpture had its bejng. But along these coasts, marble served to fashion objects other than idols ; of it were also made vases of great capacity, which had this advantage over clay wares, that they required no baking and would last longer. In this way is explained why the art of the potter remained so long stationary in the islands. Like those of the marble figurines, the shapes of the baked wares from Antiparos are all heavy, and the decorations so ^ A. DuMONT, Les ceramit/ues, *-* See ante, Vol. I. p. 148.