Kameiros is first heard of as a Dorian colony of the eleventh century, and its history extends down to 408 B.C. It was fully and systematically excavated between 1859 and 1864. Far more abundant and comprehensive than the Ialysos results, the Kameiros finds illustrate the history of Greek pottery from the Geometrical period[[166]] down to the time of its decline, and include many fine specimens of the B.F. and R.F. periods, as well as numerous examples of the Rhodian, Corinthian, and other early classes, from the eighth to the sixth century B.C. The most interesting discovery was perhaps that of the pinax, with the fight over the body of Euphorbos, which is described elsewhere (p. [335]). Among the finer specimens of the later period is the polychrome pelike with Peleus wooing Thetis. The majority of these finds are now in the British Museum, together with porcelain, bronze, and other objects illustrating the early pottery; part also went to the Louvre and to Berlin. The latest vases are of the free and careless type of late R.F. Athenian fabrics, and since they are known to be not later than the fifth century they supply valuable evidence for the dating of R.F. vases.

Crete in all probability will, before many years are over, supply a great mass of material for the history of early Greek pottery. Until recent years it has received little attention from travellers or explorers, and few vases of any period have come therefrom into our Museums.[[167]] But Crete has always been looked to by archaeologists for the solution of the Mycenaean problem, and the systematic excavations now at length set on foot are even richer in their yield of Mycenaean and primitive pottery than those of Rhodes, Melos, and Cyprus. Mr. J. L. Myres found at Kamarais in 1894 a series of fragments of painted pottery with designs in opaque colours on a black ground, which he regarded as pre-Mycenaean.[[168]] This theory was subsequently borne out by the discoveries of Messrs. Arthur Evans and D. G. Hogarth at Knossos and elsewhere, which have been very rich in pottery of a similar kind, and also in vases with remarkably naturalistic patterns in relief.[[169]] Other finds have been made in the Dictaean Cave,[[170]] at Zakro[[171]] and Palaeokastro,[[172]] at Phaestos,[[173]] Praesos, Erganos and Kourtes, and Kavousi.[[174]]

Before we turn our attention to the continent of Asia we must hark back to the European mainland, working round by the northern coasts of the Aegaean and Euxine Seas. Macedonia and Thrace have yielded scarcely anything,[[175]] but when we come to the northern shore of the Black Sea we find at Kertch, in the Crimea (the ancient Panticapaeum), a remarkable centre of Greek artistic production. The finds here are practically limited to one period, covering little more than a hundred years, and mainly illustrate the art of the fourth century B.C. There are, however, many magnificent vases, which in style, if not in shape or composition of subjects, must belong to an earlier time—namely, that of the fine red-figured period.[[176]] The excavations have mostly been undertaken by the Russian Government, in whose museum at the Hermitage the collections are now to be seen, but much was done unsystematically by Englishmen and others at the time of the Crimean War. It cannot be said that more than about one-quarter of the total find of 400 vases have any merit; they are chiefly small, with red figures, and of the later fine period; some are polychrome and ornamented with gilding.[[177]] The most remarkable by far is the vase signed by the Athenian Xenophantos (p. [447]); but that with the contest of Athena and Poseidon (Plate [L].) is also an exceptionally fine specimen; and others have interesting subjects relating to the Eleusinian mysteries. At Phanagoria an early B.F. vase of Ionic style came to light.[[178]] Vases have also been found at Olbia on the neighbouring mainland, at Kief, at Temir Gora in Circassia, and on the modern sites of Blisnitza, Iouz Oba, Melek Chesme and Pavlovski-Kourgane in the Crimea.[[179]]

II. ASIA MINOR

The Troad first claims our attention. Here on the site of the second city of Troy, at Hissarlik, Dr. Schliemann found the earliest pottery at present known from Greek soil (see Chapter [VI].). This has been generally dated about 2500–2000 B.C. In subsequent excavations Dr. Dörpfeld proved the sixth city to be the Homeric Troy, the remains from which, including pottery, are all of Mycenaean character. Later finds of pottery from the Troad are of no great importance[[180]]; some are of Aeolic or Ionian origin, and others seem to be from an inferior local fabric, consisting of flat bowls with looped side-handles, carelessly painted in matt-black silhouette with figures of ducks and other animals. Some of these were found in 1855–56 by Mr. Brunton on the sites of New Ilium and Dardanus; others by Mr. Calvert in 1875–76, and by Dörpfeld and Brueckner in 1893. The finds of the two first-named are in the British Museum, together with some poor R.F. vases of late style. From Sigeion two polychrome lekythi have been reported, resembling the Attic white-ground fabric[[181]]; Jahn also records finds of painted vases from Lampsakos and Parion,[[182]] and a fine gilded vase with figures in relief has recently been found on the former site.[[183]]

In Aeolis and Mysia the finds have not been considerable, but some are of importance as throwing light on the existence of local fabrics. In a private collection at Smyrna there is or was a late B.F. vase from Assos, with careless silhouette figures.[[184]] At Pitane a very curious Mycenaean false amphora has been found, with figures of marine and other animals[[185]]; and at Larisa Dr. Böhlau has found fragments of early painted vases, probably a local fabric imitating that of Rhodes.[[186]] MM. Pottier and Reinach, in the course of their excavations at Myrina (1884–85), found pottery of various dates and styles: Mycenaean, Ionian, Corinthian, Attic B.F. and R.F., late R.F., and vases of the so-called Gnatia style (see p. [488]) or with reliefs.[[187]] Among those which can be traced to an Ionic or local fabric there is a very remarkable one with a head of a bearded man. Pergamon does not seem to have yielded any vases, but Kyme may have been a centre of Ionic vase-manufacture (see Chapter [VIII].). Some fragments of an early B.F. krater have been found there which presents similar characteristics to those of the Ionian fabrics mentioned below.[[188]]

Coming lower down the coast of Ionia we meet with the home of an important school of painting in the sixth century, which seems to have centred in the flourishing cities of Phocaea, Clazomenae and elsewhere round the Gulf of Smyrna. The actual finds of such vases in the neighbourhood is not great, but is compensated for by the remarkable series of painted terracotta sarcophagi discovered at Clazomenae, the finest of which is now in the British Museum. These, which obviously represent the characteristics of the Ionian school of painting, show such a close relation with a series of vases found at Naukratis and Daphnae in Egypt, and at Cervetri and elsewhere in Italy,

MAP of ASIA MINOR & the ARCHIPELAGO
Showing sites on which painted vases have been found.
FIG. 6.

that the latter classes can only be regarded as of Ionian origin, or, if not imported, local Italian imitations of the Ionic wares. Such are the Caeretan hydriae which were directly imitated by the Etruscans.[[189]]