Early Cycladic Civilization - Essay Example

These cups dated back a. 1400-1300 BC. They belong to a Mycenaean culture and represent a traditional type of pottery used by the civilization. The interrelationships of form and color in pottery had a long tradition behind them. They were, however, part of a continuum that can be observed over centuries, and certainly beyond the Roman period. The 'essential unity' of the most common kind of fine pottery, the tableware that is 'generally red in color and with a fine clay coating known variously as a glaze.

In reality, while technical details of the potter's craft may well have passed from one center to another, the vessels that were made will usually have evoked the plate made locally for rich households or sanctuaries. Gold- and silversmiths' designs, molds, and plaster casts probably played a major role. The use of red on pots was probably but a gesture in the direction of gold, for the vessels in question would never have appeared side-by-side in a context where close comparisons could be made.

In the case of Mycenaean pottery, fine red tableware will probably have been made for people who had only heard about gold vessels, or who only saw them from a distance at festivals (Mycenaean 20-21). In contrast to the Cycladic Terracotta, red colors reveal in the cups. The characteristic forms of pottery after Alexander's conquests were rather different from those that had existed before. The mold-made, handle-less bowls decorated in relief that became the norm, doubtless reflected Near Eastern dining practices.

The characteristic color of local mold-made pottery continued to be black: one category of bowls 'is covered with the black glaze familiar from Attic pottery of earlier periods (Mycenaean 21). The main difference is a unique ornament and geometric figures in pottery: there are geometric ornaments on the jug. The cups are ornamented with geometric ornaments and circles. These ornaments represent the unique cultural meaning of each civilization and their perception of the world around them. The pottery did not play a sacred role but is found in boreal places.