Chapter XI

. a general survey of the various fabrics produced from that time in the various centres down to the total decay of the art.

All Italiote pottery, before this direct influence of Hellenism made itself felt, may be called “archaic”; but it must at the same time be borne in mind that these archaic types still went on during the time of Greek influence. They formed, in fact, a “domestic” style, as opposed to the “high-art” style of the Graeco-Italian wares, just as the early Geometrical pottery of Athens is thought to have been in relation to the Mycenaean vases (see Vol. I. p. 279). They must not, however, be regarded—as has been done by some writers—as deliberate archaistic revivals of older fabrics. It is true that they bear a remarkable resemblance in many cases to Aegean, Cypriote, and Geometrical wares; but this likeness is due to other causes, being the result of development, not of direct imitation. A learned Italian, on first seeing some of the local pottery excavated in Apulia, exclaimed, “This is the Mycenaean style of Italy.” Chronologically and ethnographically he was wrong, but artistically he was right; and as Signor Patroni has pointed out, parallels to nearly all the ornamental motives of local Apulian fabrics may be traced in Mycenaean pottery.

There is also a favourite shape, that of a large double-mouthed _askos_, examples of which may be seen in the British Museum (F 508 = Fig. 185, and F 509), which is obviously derived directly from the Mycenaean “false-necked amphora” (see Vol. I. p. 271). It is not a Hellenic type, although it is the forerunner of a form of askos found among the painted vases of Apulia.[2382] Another favourite form, which Signor Patroni calls the _orcio appulo_, a jar with three vertical handles round the nearly spherical body, and wide-spreading mouth, may similarly be derived from the Mycenaean three-handled _pyxis_ (Vol. I. p. 272). Other forms, again, are parallel with those of Cyprus, as is in some cases the system of geometrical decoration, a figure or pattern in a panel with borders of geometrical ornament.

The writers above-mentioned distinguish two main classes of the local pottery of Apulia (including the south-eastern extremity or “heel” of Italy). The central portion of this district was inhabited by a tribe known as the Peucetii, and the extremity by Messapians, or, as they are also styled, Iapygians. The vases, which appear to be the product of the latter race, are found in various places—such as Brindisi, Egnazia or Fasano, Lecce, Nardo, Ostuni, Otranto, Putignano, Rugge, Taranto, and Uzento—and they may best be studied in the museum at Bari. The pottery of the Peucetii, which Signor Patroni calls Apulian, covers the region round Bari, including Putignano on the south, Bitonto and Ruvo on the north, where the local civilisation seems to have been modified by the influence of such centres as Canosa.

[Illustration: FIG. 185. ASKOS OF LOCAL APULIAN FABRIC (BRITISH MUSEUM).]

The typical form of Messapian pottery is a krater with high angular handles, at the highest and lowest points of which are pairs of discs (_rotelle_), a spherical body, and neck sloping inwards, without lip. The form is one which, as we have seen in