Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/526

 General Characteristics ok the Mvcenian Period. 469 Homeric Epic became the common property of every human being who understands the Greek language, native industry was employing everywhere, more or less successfully, the same pro- cesses and the same decorative scheme. The industries, manu- factures, and arts that had their seats in the principal centres of this creative activity are not the same throughout in kind or form. Thus, the monuments of one place exhibit a technique of which there is no trace in those of another, and the orna- ments that prevail in certain localities fail altogether elsewhere. Yet, if there are differences between the single instances of this art, resemblances are sensibly greater. In the chrono- logical series that one is necessarily led to form, each group of monuments is allied to the preceding one by features which establish a close connection between the two sets, and all the groups, even those that appear at vast distances from each other, are distinguished by certain characteristics common to all, and distinct from those that bear the impress of Oriental art and those whereon classic culture has put its own mark. The first idea of scholars who tried to class in chronological order the monuments under consideration was to head their list with the prehistoric houses discovered at Thera under a thick bed of ashes and pumice. The Hellenes were aware that the island had been colonized from Laconia and Phoenicia ; the information enabled them to mount back to the fifteenth century b.c. ; but they had preserved no remembrance of that stupendous catas- trophe. How natural the conclusion that the oldest remains of human labour likely to be found in that country were the buildings so recently unearthed ! The induction, however, has been falsified by the result of the excavations. These have shown that in many things the civilization of Thera is higher than that of Troy, and that the oldest seat of i^gean industry should be sought in the first and second village excavated by Schliemann on Mount Hissarlik. The style of building is elementary and rude in both places. At Troy, however, the only facing which appears on the structures consists of a somewhat finer clay than that which serves as mortar ; at Thera, on the contrary, we find a coloured and ornamented plaster lining. Again, Troy shows no sign or token of the brush having been used there. The pottery, like that of the oldest Tirynthian village, is entirely monochrome. This, too, is prevalent at Thera, but along with it are found