The Excavations at Phylakopi in Melos, 1911: § 5.—Melos and the Mainland

Extract

A small quantity of the ware generally called Urfirniss was found lying on the rock, chiefly in the south-eastern part of the excavation, that is to say in rooms 1 and 2. From its position it would seem to belong to the earlier part of the First City, although the extreme scarceness, in the deposit, of the incised fabrics, warns us against a too early date. It was so much broken that nothing can be said of the shapes, but the characteristic coating of reddish-brown slightly lustrous paint was quite recognisable. It is of some importance as an early link with the mainland, as similar pottery has recently been found in great abundance in the lowest stratum at Tiryns by the German excavators, who consider that this Tirynthian Urfirniss is allied to early Cycladic pottery. These Melian pieces may well be of Cycladic origin, and an instance of this connexion.

Work carried out in the course of the last ten years on prehistoric sites has given an interest to another class of pottery which it did not yet possess when Phylakopi was first excavated. Thus it came about that only ten lines, and that in the section devoted to ‘odds and ends,’ were given to the very considerable finds of that ware to which Schliemann gave the name of Minyan. This name will be used here without any discussion of its propriety; it is convenient and has been generally adopted. This much may be said for it; so much of this pottery has been found at Orchomenos and in the neighbourhood of Drachmani (Elatea) that it is reasonable to believe that it was made in Boiotia and Phokis.