Bamboula, Pottery classification

Continued from scan 4

… mental basic types of clay - the lustrous smooth buff and the olive - continued to be used in recognizable continuity right on through the Late Bronze, submycenean, Protogeometric, Geometric and even Classical periods. Other types, of course, may have been added such as the Attic reddish mixture. But the heritage of Mycenean potters was never lost. In Cyprus, however, the tradition ends rather abruptly sometime around the beginning of LC III [handwritten: near the close of the LM IIIB period] coincidentally at the period when Mycenae ceased to function as a world economic power. If there was a flourishing colony of Mycenean potters in the Levant, more especially in Cyprus, why did they, after so tenaciously holding the Mycenean pottery tradition in the face of alien cultures, suddenly abandon it completely? What happened to them? There is no more lustrous smooth buff and olive in the Levant after this point. If my supposition that local potters produced some or many of the bowls during LC II-early LC III in these techniques be correct, the explanation will be that they thought of the technique as alien and exotic, and abandoned it as soon as the external stimulation of Mycenean imports ceased. [handwritten: and even probable] It is barely possible that the color variety which existed among LC III ware, [handwritten: certainly] particularly bowls, namely a reddish brown hue and a greenish gray hue, is a pale reflection of the Mycenean color tradition. But, of course, the clay is always coarse and dull and remains so in the continuation of the reddish brown and greenish gray propensities of Cypriote white painted ware. It is noteworthy that this local Cypriote tradition was so powerful that it prevailed against the influx of Greeks during and after the Dorian invasion. And al- hough shapes and motifs from the mainland exercised their influence on the new pottery of the Cypro-Greeks, the local type of clay and paint held undisputed sway and was never challenged by the introduction of the standard mainland technique.

A final consideration suggested by study of the material at Bamboula is that, since the same offshades of color and clay occur among pottery found here as occur at sites in the known Mycenean world, there is no reason to suppose that the Myceneans hesitated to export pots of less attractive and excellent finish along with those of the absolutely 'standard' variety. One

Marginal note, illegible, ~3 words

Right margin, handwritten, illegible