and-polished
ware, and on this lustrous slip the decoration is painted, generally
in white, more rarely in vermilion. Thus we have painted vases,
with light design upon a dark ground.

Having made this step, the artist varied his procedure by applying
the black slip itself as the decoration in bands upon the natural
buff colour of the clay, thus giving a decorative scheme of dark
design upon a light ground. The ware now for the first time gives
evidence of having been fired. The primitive 'bucchero,' still
surviving alongside of the painted pottery, is very closely related
to the imported vases found by Petrie in First Dynasty tombs at
Abydos; and a further link with Egypt is afforded by the fact that
vases of Proto-Dynastic Egyptian form in diorite and syenite were
discovered in the south and east quarters of the palace at Knossos.
Early Minoan I. is thus to be equated with the earliest beginnings
of Dynastic rule in Egypt--that is to say, it dates from about
5500 B.C. if Petrie's date for the First Dynasty be adopted, or
from about 3400 B.C. if the Berlin dating be preferred. From this
period there survive no remains of building at Knossos.

_Early Minoan II_.--The distinguishing characteristic of the second
period of Early Minoan is the greater freedom and originality shown
in the designs of the vases. The style of painted decoration remains
much the same as in the preceding period; but the vases now develop
long spouts or beaks, and are the 'beak-jugs' (Schnabelkanne) of
the German archaeologists. While a tendency may be observed to vary
the straight line decoration of Early Minoan I. by the introduction
of simple curves, there is also a revival of the fashion for the
old incised geometric-patterned ware. A curious development of
this period is found in the mottled ware from Vasiliki, where the
decoration was accomplished neither by incising nor by painting a
design, but by a method of firing in which the vases, first painted
red, were so placed that the hot coals actually came into contact
with the vases at certain points, and produced black patches upon
the red paint. The resultant mottled surface was then hand-polished,
and sometimes, but more rarely, used as the medium for a design
in white. To this period belong the oldest parts of the deposit
at Hagios Onouphrios, and the greater part of the contents of the
bee-hive chamber tomb at Hagia Triada, where, along with incised
and early painted vases, were found