soription or even list of the Jlyoeiixaii works;
they may be found fully illustrated in the works
mentioned below.
These two periods were not without their rec- ords. In C'l-ete have been found tablets of clay bearing inscriptions in at least two ditl'ercnt sys- tems of writing, neither of which has been de- ciphered. See Wkitixc.
The ethnological i-elations of these civilizations are a.s yet an unsolved problem. Some scholars hold that we have here a more or less homo- geneous race, developing along its own lines, but largely inlluenced by the intercourse w'ith the East, "which is clearly proved for the Mycentean and later pre-!Mycena>an periods. Some even go so far as to deny any Hellenic or Indo-European character to this race. Such views ])rol)ably go too far. More probable is the view that, while the Stone Age and the earlier Bronze Age reveal to us the presence of a pre-Greek i)eoj)le, possibly the ancestors of the later Carians and Eteocre- tans, the llycena5an remains belong to the con- (liiering Greek race, the Achaeans of the Homeric poems hich contain a reminiscence of this early age of splendor, as preserved by the Greek colo- nists of Asia Alinor. This is not to say that all the descriptions of the poems apply to life in this early age, for the poet has naturally used cus- toms of his own time: and it is merely the gen- eral conditions and the traditional glories of the past that he has embodied in his verses. The chronological limits of these periods are deter- mined by the presence of datable Egyptian ob- jects in western sites, and more closely perhaps by the presence of ^ligean importations in Egj^jt. The details are still much disputed, but the gen- eral results show that the later developments of the pre-Mycenaean Period may be placed from C.2500 B.a to 1800 B.C., while the Mycempan products were known in Egypt at least as early as n.c. 1550 in a well-developed form. The ily- C'ena?an Age ends about B.C. 1000, or possibly a little later, and for a century or more before that time there is an obvious decline in artistic power. It must be remembered, however, that though superseded, the peculiar Jlycem^an motives do not seem to have been lost, for they reappear at various points in the following period, especially in some of the local varieties of painted vases. BIBLIOORAPIIY. Schuchhardt, Schliemaiin's- AusgrabiDuieii im Lichte der heutigen ^yis.1en- srhaft (Leipzig, 1800), the best resume of the subject. English translation, edited by Leaf (London. 1801) ; Jlilchhufl'er, Anfimyc der Kuiist in Griecheiihind (Leipzig, 1883), a thorough and scientific discu.ssion of the subject: Jlitchell, History of Ancient Scnlpttire (New York, 1883), Vol. I. chap X., where Milchhiiffer's work is summarized : Baumeister, "Mykenai," "Tirjnis," "Kyklopenbau" in Dcnknuilrr des klassisclirn Altcrtliionn. admirably illustrated (Munich, 1884-88) : Perrot and Chipiez, Histoirr de Vart drills I'antiqtiitc. Volume VI. (Paris, 1894) ; the English translation is sadly inac- curate and cannot be recommended; the work is r-ichly illustrated: Tsountas and Manatt, The Mycenwan Age (Bo.'iton, 1807), a valuable summary at the date of publication; Hall. The Oldest CiviIi-:atlon in Greece (London and Phila- delphia, 1001); Ridgeway, The Early Age of Greece (Cambridge, 1001) ; valual)le for its ma- terial, but the author's theories are not gener- ally accepted. Most of the recent reports and discussions are to l)e found in the periodicals named above.
HI. E.RLY Hellenic Perioo. Tlie dark age, from the Dorian invasion to the rise of sculpture in the Seventh Century B.C., is bridged, from an archicologieal point of view, chielly by the paint- ed vases, the earliest varieties of which have been already mentioned. It seems clear that we are now in the presence of a new element. The whole style of ornamentation is changed. For the Age of Bronze we now find the Age of Iron. Gold ornaments are nuich rarer. The whole style of the pottery has changed. The prevailing deco- ration, not merely on vases, but on metal or- naments, is the 'geometric,' i.e. meander-pat- terns, circles, and various combinations of straight lines. The situation well agrees with the overturning of the old Achaean kingdoms by the invading Dorians, as pictured in Greek legend.
Tlie funereal urns and other representatives of the so-called "Dipylon style" ( from the Dipylon gate of Athens, in ancient tombs near which the finest specimens of this class have been discov- ered) appear to extend over a period from about B.C. 1000 to about B.C. 700 at latest. The pat- terns upon this pottery are "geometric," derived from carving and textile fabrics, rather than from nature, as in the Mycenaean ware. The human and animal figures upon them are emi- nently schematic and conventional. Figures of nautical scenes (sea-fights and the like) and funeral processions are prominent. The figured examples seem to be introduced later than those with merely a geometric pattern, though this style continues in use till the end. It is not im- probable that Athens was the seat of its manu- faetui'e.
The Mycensean influences seem to have sur- vived on the islands and the Asiatic coast, where also the connection with the Orient was main- tained, and in consequence we find in these re- gions the development of a number of local types, all strongly influenced by Oriental motives, and yet with well-marked peculiarities. The favorite decoi'ation is with rows of animals; lions, boars, panthers, ' cattle, deer, as well as griffins and s))hinxes, appear, either in procession, or grouped heraldically. By the Seventh Century these have crowded back the geometric types, and, further, the merely ornamental decoration begins to give place to actual scenes, eitlier of daily life or from the legends of the past. For the pottery, see VA.SES.
About the opening of the Seventh Century begins the class of Corinthian vases still strong- ly Oriental, but later exhibiting the mythological scenes. The commercial im|)ortance of Corinth during the Seventh and Sixtli centuries gave this ware a wide distribution, and many of the best specimens have been found in Italy. Chalcis also developed a local style of wide distribution, and both Corinth and Chalcis contriliuted to the formation of the Athenian style, which, beginning at the end of the Sixth Century B.C.. as the result of a gradual transition from the Dipylon methods rapidly became so popular as practically to drive out of the general market all other styles. The reddish color of the clay was artificially heightened, and the decoration was apjdied in a very lustrous black paint, relieved only by the occasional employment of purple, red, and white. Toward the end of this period a new
