DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.809#0217
§ 40. Reactions on Middle Kingdom Egypt : Seals and Ceiling
Patterns.
Return wave of Cretan and Aegean influence on Middle Kingdom
Egypt; Spiraliform Aegean patterns in Crete merged with indigenous curvi-
linear system: This independent system already evolved before close of Early
Minoan Age; Linked C- and S-scrolls; ' Tendrilled' S-pallem on Early
Minoan seals: its evolution in Middle Minoan and Mycenaean decorative
designs: This and other elements of Minoan derivation in West Illyrian
Ctilture; Reaction of Minoan sphragistic types on Egyptian patterns; Re-
appear on Mycenae Stelae ; Relation of seal patterns to ceiling designs ; ' Tem-
plate ' ideograph on Middle Minoan seal-stones ; Ceilings reconstructed from
Middle Minoan patterns on seals and vases ; Minoan tradition in Egyptian
ceilings; Possible influence of patterns on cloths and sails; Minoan Scrolls
linked on Scarabs, &c, with Nilotic features.
The undoubted connexions with prehistoric Malta, the ancient Amber
Route to the North, the sources of tin and the distant contact with the Iberic
and even the Britannic West—all this, though deserving of notice, has
a less immediate bearing on our central theme than the fundamental
relations with the Aegean World on one side and the primeval intercourse
with the Nile Valley on the other.
Cretan A new factor, indeed, is introduced about the beginning of the Middle
and Minoan Age, by the opening out of direct commercial communications with
reactions the Syrian ports, perhaps accompanied by actual mercantile plantations on
Kin^dtm6 or off the South-Eastern littoral of Asia Minor. With regard to the influx
Egypt- of oriental elements thus derived fresh evidence is afforded by some dis-
coveries referred to below,1 made in and about the harbour town of
Knossos.
But the Port of Knossos was linked, as we have seen by the Minoan
Made Way, with the important emporium of Komo on the farther coast of
the Island, and it is as the natural channel for two alternating currents
of influence from the Aegean and the Libyan Sea that the ' Great South
Road'—or whatever more primitive through-route had preceded it—fulfilled
its main historic function.
It has already enabled us to find the key to the extraordinary
1 See below, p. 253 seqq.
Patterns.
Return wave of Cretan and Aegean influence on Middle Kingdom
Egypt; Spiraliform Aegean patterns in Crete merged with indigenous curvi-
linear system: This independent system already evolved before close of Early
Minoan Age; Linked C- and S-scrolls; ' Tendrilled' S-pallem on Early
Minoan seals: its evolution in Middle Minoan and Mycenaean decorative
designs: This and other elements of Minoan derivation in West Illyrian
Ctilture; Reaction of Minoan sphragistic types on Egyptian patterns; Re-
appear on Mycenae Stelae ; Relation of seal patterns to ceiling designs ; ' Tem-
plate ' ideograph on Middle Minoan seal-stones ; Ceilings reconstructed from
Middle Minoan patterns on seals and vases ; Minoan tradition in Egyptian
ceilings; Possible influence of patterns on cloths and sails; Minoan Scrolls
linked on Scarabs, &c, with Nilotic features.
The undoubted connexions with prehistoric Malta, the ancient Amber
Route to the North, the sources of tin and the distant contact with the Iberic
and even the Britannic West—all this, though deserving of notice, has
a less immediate bearing on our central theme than the fundamental
relations with the Aegean World on one side and the primeval intercourse
with the Nile Valley on the other.
Cretan A new factor, indeed, is introduced about the beginning of the Middle
and Minoan Age, by the opening out of direct commercial communications with
reactions the Syrian ports, perhaps accompanied by actual mercantile plantations on
Kin^dtm6 or off the South-Eastern littoral of Asia Minor. With regard to the influx
Egypt- of oriental elements thus derived fresh evidence is afforded by some dis-
coveries referred to below,1 made in and about the harbour town of
Knossos.
But the Port of Knossos was linked, as we have seen by the Minoan
Made Way, with the important emporium of Komo on the farther coast of
the Island, and it is as the natural channel for two alternating currents
of influence from the Aegean and the Libyan Sea that the ' Great South
Road'—or whatever more primitive through-route had preceded it—fulfilled
its main historic function.
It has already enabled us to find the key to the extraordinary
1 See below, p. 253 seqq.