From this point, then, we begin to get into touch with the genuine
Minoan periods, of which, according to Dr. Evans's classification,
there are three--Early, Middle, and Late Minoan--each in its turn
subdivided into three sub-periods.
_Early Minoan I_.--The pottery of this period takes over in great
part the style of the primitive hand-burnished black ware inherited
from the preceding age. But though this supplies the greater proportion
of the material, it is not the characteristic feature. This is
supplied by the fact that the potter now begins to use paint as a
means for producing the lustrous black surface which his Neolithic
predecessor produced by hand-burnishing. A lustrous black glaze
medium is spread as a slip over the surface of the clay, so as to
produce an effect generally similar to that of the hand-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.
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