Miny pottery

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Miny amphora from Mycenae from MH III (approx. 1700–1600 BC)

The Minyan Ware (also: minische ceramic or Minyan Ware ) is a ceramic style of the Middle Bronze Age of Greece (ca. 2000-1600 / 1550 BC..), Which was only slightly developed at this time artistically. For Lerna in the Argolis, however, since the excavations of John Langdon Caskey , finds from the last phase of the Early Helladic FH III have been proven.

Another important type of ceramics of the Middle Helladic was matt painted ceramics .

history

Until around 1960, it was assumed that the production of Miny goods coincided with the beginning of the Middle Helladic. With the penetration of Indo-European tribes, who were initially probably Ionians , perhaps also Thracians , only in a second wave of immigration around 1580 BC. Chr. Aioler and Achaier , the new ceramic style developed and took the place of the original varnish ceramics , which occurred in the early Helladic peasant culture . However, today's researchers doubt that the emergence of ceramics was connected with the penetration of the Indo-European peoples, because early forms of this type of ceramic have recently come to light in contexts of finds that come from the late phase of the Early Helladic (FH III).

At the same time as the Miny ceramics, there was the matt- painted ceramics , named after their matt shine , which, according to current research, has no precursors in the Early Helladic period. In the Late Helladic period , the Miny ceramics were slowly replaced by the Mycenaean ceramics , which have a light ground with a dark varnish. The Greuminy ceramics still appeared in the Late Helladic era, the somewhat rarer yellow Miny ceramics lived on in the emerging new Mycenaean ceramics.

etymology

The name "minysch" originally goes back to the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann , who found the type of ceramic in Orchomenos and therefore named it after the Minyans , a mythical tribe who, according to Homer, lived in the same place Orchomenos in Boeotia under the leadership of King Minyas . Although the ceramic has nothing to do with the Minyans with the exception of the place where it was found and was not developed in Orchomenos, the term "Miny ceramic" was chosen by Adolf Furtwängler , Heinrich Bulle and Walter Riezler as a working term at the beginning of the 20th century and henceforth used in the Maintain research as the name of this ceramic.

Production, nature and subgroups

The ceramic is characterized by a refined, (mostly, but not always) turned, polished type on the potter's wheel. According to the locally related occurrence, the genus can be divided into further subgroups, which differ in terms of color, surface structure and turning technique. However, all of them have a Minoan and Anatolian influence.

Grauminy ceramic

The most common Miny ceramic is gray and has a slightly soapy, greasy-looking sheen on the surface. This has given rise to the assumption that the ceramics were supposed to imitate metallic objects, in the case of the gray goods, silver. The hard-burned genus had its center in central Greece. The grauminy vessels are mostly thin-walled and are characterized by sharp profiles. The greasy-looking vessel wall and the clay pot are always the same color in the case of gray goods.

Schwarzminy ceramic

In addition to the Graumynian ceramics, a black genus was also in use in the Peloponnese, especially in the Argolis. Pieces of this ceramic subgroup have so far been very rarely found in Orchomenos, where the largest deposits of Miny ceramics can be found.

Yellow miniature ceramic

There was also a yellow pottery, which is said to have lived on in the late Helladic I in the new, Mycenaean pottery. The production of yellow mynic goods began relatively late (Middle Helladic II and III). The light surface of yellow mynic goods, which are often provided with a matt sheen, has given rise to the yellow mynic goods being viewed more as a type of matt painted ceramic. Yellow Miny ceramics were found in Eutresis, for example.

Red and brown miniature ceramics

There is also said to have been a fourth and fifth, red and brown subgroup, which often also have paintings.

Vessel shapes

According to Fritz Schachermeyr, the vessels of Miny ceramics, especially grauminy ware, were often symmetrical and had two or four handles. Mostly there were open forms, including mainly cups and kantharoi . Other (closed) vessel shapes were:

Locations and distribution

Miny ware was found mainly in central Greece.

Pseudo-Minyan pottery

The pseudo-Miny ceramics so named by Klaus Kilian (in the literature the spelling pseudominysch is also used), in English-language publications also referred to as Gray Ware , which he found during excavations in the lower town of Tiryns , is very unlikely to be associated with Miny ceramics produced in large quantities. This monochrome turntable with a polished gray surface resembles the Minyian ceramics outwardly, but occurs almost only in layers of the late Mycenaean period ( SH III B and SH III C, approx. 13th and 12th centuries BC). In terms of time, it cannot be tied to Miny pottery at other sites (including in western Asia Minor and offshore islands, where the vessel shapes resemble late Mycenaean ones, but also in southern Italy); clear evidence from the Middle Mycenaean period is still missing today. The vessel shapes of the pseudo-Minyan pottery from Tiryns correspond to the 13th century BC. Essentially those of the painted Mycenaean pottery. In the 12th century there also appeared forms that could have parallels in southern Italy. In Chania , West Crete, on the other hand , pseudo-Miny vessels from the 12th century BC were found in the Thessalian Dimini . Discovered, whose forms can be derived partly from that of the Mycenaean painted ceramics, but partly also from the spectrum of forms in Lower Italy.

literature

  • Florens Felten , Walter Gauß, Rudolfine Smetana (Eds.): Middle helladic pottery and synchronisms (= Aegina-Kolonna. Vol. 1 = Austrian Academy of Sciences. Memoranda of the Gesamtakademie. Vol. 42 = Contributions to the chronology of the Eastern Mediterranean. Vol. 14). Proceedings of the International Workshop held at Salzburg October 31st - November 2nd, 2004. Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-7001-3783-2 .
  • Riccardo Guglielmino: Minyan, Minyanizing, and Pseudominyan Wares from Southern and Insular Italy , in: Giampaolo Graziadio et al. (Ed.), Φιλική Συναυλία - Miscellaneous Studies in Mediterranean Archeology offered to Mario Benzi , BAR International Series 2012, Oxford (2013) p. 177-192. online version
  • Andreas Schachner: Investigations on the chronological position of the Grey-Minyian ceramics in Western Anatolia taking into account the Schliemann collection in the Berlin Museum of Prehistory and Early History. In: Acta Praehistorica et Archaeologica. 26/27, 1994-1995, pp. 90-115.
  • Andreas Schachner: Miny goods. In: Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Aräologie . Volume 8: Meek - Mythology. de Gruyter, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-11-014809-9 , pp. 216-218.
  • AJB Wace, CW Blegen: The Pre-Mycenaean Pottery of the Mainland. In: The Annual of the British School at Athens. Vol. 22, 1916/1917-1917/1918 , ISSN  0068-2454 , pp. 175-189.

Web links

Commons : Miny ceramic  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ See Jeanette Forsén: The Twilight of the Early Helladics. A Study of the Disturbances in East-Central and Southern Greece Towards the End of the Early Bronze Age. Paul Åström, University of California 1992, (= Studies in Mediterranean archeology and literature. Vol. 116), ISBN 978-91-7081-031-2 . P. 16.
  2. ↑ Cf. Middle Bronze Age on the greek mainland - Minyan pottery : "ts first examples appeared already from the Early Helladic III period (2300–2000 BC)."
  3. ^ A b Cf. The Prehistoric Archeology of the Aegean (Dartmouth College) - Lesson 9: Middle Helladic Greece ( Memento of May 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ): "Until about 1960, Gray Minyan was often identified as the pottery of northern invaders who destroyed EH civilization ca. 1900 BC and introduced MH material culture into the Greek peninsula. However, Caskey's excavations at Lerna as well as more recently excavated sequences at several other sites have made it abundantly clear that Gray Minyan, rather than being new in the MH period, is the direct descendant of the fine gray burnished pottery of the EH III Tiryns culture. "
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Cf. W. Schiering: Minysche Keramik. In: Lexikon der alten Welt , Artemis-Verlag, Zurich / Munich 1990, unchanged reprint of the one-volume original edition from 1965, ISBN 3-7608-1034-9 , Volume 2, pp. 1968 f.
  5. ↑ In this case, “Achaeans” do not mean the entirety of all Greeks (as used by Homer ), but the individual tribe. See also Achaeans
  6. ↑ See 4.4.1.1 grauminy goods. In: Michael Rechta: The Middle Bronze Age in Thessaly and Macedonia. With the case study of the Pevkakia Magula. : “The grauminy goods are the leading genus of the Middle Bronze Age on the Greek mainland. Schliemann had already called this type of ceramic that. "
  7. ↑ See The Prehistoric Archeology of the Aegean (Dartmouth College) - Lesson 9: Middle Helladic Greece ( Memento from May 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ Cf. Middle Bronze Age on the greek mainland - Minyan pottery : "This pottery was named after Minyas, the mythical king of Orchomenos, since Minyan ceramics were first unearthed in the Middle Helladic strata of this settlement."
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g h See ceramics from Orchomenos
  10. ↑ Kalliope Sarri: Minyan and Minyanizing Pottery. Myth and Reality about a Middle Helladic Type Fossil. In: Anna Philippa-Touchais, Gilles Touchais, Sofia Voutsaki, James Wright (eds.): Mesohelladica. Bulletin de correspondance hellénique: Supplément, vol. 52 , Athens 2010, p. 605
  11. ↑ See Middle Bronze Age on the greek mainland - Minyan pottery : "Minyan ceramics were either handmade or wheelmade."
  12. ↑ See 4.4.1.1 grauminy goods. In: Michael Rechta: The Middle Bronze Age in Thessaly and Macedonia. With the case study of the Pevkakia Magula. : "Soapy surface texture"
  13. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica - Minyan ware
  14. ↑ See The Prehistoric Archeology of the Aegean (Dartmouth College) - Lesson 9: Middle Helladic Greece ( Memento of May 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ): "Yellow Minyan first appears in later MH II or in MH III."
  15. ↑ Cf. The Prehistoric Archeology of the Aegean (Dartmouth College) - Lesson 9: Middle Helladic Greece ( Memento of May 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ): “Because of its light surface color, this last variety is often decorated with dark, matt paint, in which case it is treated by archaeologists as Matt-painted rather than as Minyan. "
  16. ^ Cf. Middle Bronze Age on the Greek Mainland - Matt - painted pottery : "Another type of Matt Painted pottery resembles the Minyan ceramic technique. In this case, the potters followed the production procedure of the Yellow Minyan pottery but the surface of the vases was decorated according to the Matt-painted style. "
  17. ^ A b See Goldman, Hetty: Excavations at Eutresis in Boeotia . Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1931, pp. 144 (English, online [accessed December 23, 2011]).
  18. ↑ Cf. (based on Orchomenos): Ceramics from Orchomenos : "In terms of shapes, cups with high feet, bowls and bowls predominate."
  19. ↑ See The Prehistoric Archeology of the Aegean (Dartmouth College) - Lesson 9: Middle Helladic Greece ( Memento of May 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ): “The most common shapes in all varieties of Minyan are open forms, for the most part goblets and kantharoi [...] "
  20. ↑ a b Cf. Middle Bronze Age on the greek mainland - Minyan pottery : "The most common closed shapes of the Gray Minyan pottery are the amphoriskos, usually a miniature vase found mostly in grave complexes of the Middle Helladic III period (1650-1550 BC) and the jug. "
  21. ↑ a b c cf. Middle Bronze Age on the greek mainland - Minyan pottery : "The most common types of closed shapes were the amphoras, the hydrias and the stamnoi, [...]"
  22. ↑ Cf. Middle Bronze Age on the greek mainland - Minyan pottery : "Central Greece is considered to have been the main production center of Minyan pottery since it is the region where the largest quantities, many Minyan varieties and the most authentic examples occur."
  23. ↑ z. B. Reinhard Jung: ΧΡΟΝΟΛΟΓΙΑ COMPARATA. Comparative chronology of southern Greece and southern Italy from approx. 1700/1600 to 1000 BC Vienna 2006, p. 47ff et al., ISBN 978-3-7001-3729-0 .
  24. ↑ More detailed work on the so-called pseudo-Miny ceramics and connection of some younger forms with Italy in: Reinhard Jung: ΧΡΟΝΟΛΟΓΙΑ COMPARATA. Comparative chronology of southern Greece and southern Italy from approx. 1700/1600 to 1000 BCE Vienna 2006, pp. 47–51 (with extensive references and a summary p. 212).