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The naturalism of the first Late Minoan period has narrower limits than has been usually estimated. Not only is the stock of themes scanty (Fig. ssss1 is an exception); but also the reproduction of nature is purely superficial, knows nothing of perspective or shading, and stylizes the forms into the style of decorative drawing: thus, for instance, the marine world is represented without any indication of water. Of course, this does not mean that such abstraction from reality is not an advantage from the point of view of decorative art. Often the vase-shapes show a cultivated feeling for form in the way the body swells and contracts, but appear simple and constrained when compared with the fine lines of contour in the next period. Among new types that emerge may be mentioned the ‘stirrup vase’ (Fig. ssss1) and the ‘funnel vase’ (Figs. ssss1 and ssss1).

The superiority of these Cretan vases to all contemporary ceramic output showed itself in a vigorous export. The Egyptian finds of this ware give as a date the XVIII dynasty, approximately 1500 B.C., a date confirmed by some Egyptian objects found in Crete. Cretan vases were also exported in quantities to Melos and Thera: there the native industry loses itself in imperfect imitations of this imported ware. The Cretan civilization also enters the Greek mainland, especially the Argolid. The shaft graves of Mycenae (ssss1), from which the Late Minoan civilization transplanted to the mainland has been named ‘Mycenean,’