Evans, Arthur J.: The Palace of Minos: a comparative account of the successive stages of the early Cretan civilization as illustred by the discoveries at Knossos (Band 3): The great transitional age in the northern and eastern sections of the Palace (London, 1930)

446

IVORIES FROM PALAIKASTRO

Very

young

infants

beltless:

Palai-

kastro

ivories.

four or five years old is shown by the small ivory statuettes in a standing or
a squatting position found at Palaikastro,1 the former of which are repro-
duced from photographic copies in
Suppl. PI. XXXVII, b, and from a sketch
in Fig, 310. The standing type here
seen, with the arms by the sides,
approaches some Middle Kingdom
Egyptian prototypes,1 and the markedly
dolichocephalic form of the heads also
points in that direction. The little squat-
ting figure, which is of very graceful
execution, recalls that of the boy engaged
in some pavement game on the Minia-
ture Fresco fragment illustrated above
in the Coloured Plate XXV. There seems
every reason to believe that the squatting
attitude was an old tradition of Minoan
Art.2 In a more conventional form the
squatting type of naked infant is in fact
already seen in a small stalagmite pendant

from Messara, belonging to the mature Early Minoan phase (Fig. 311, a-c).
In this case the hands are laid on the knees.

Fig. 310. a, b, Ivory Figures of Young
Boys : from Palaikastro (f).

1 R. M. Dawkins, Unpublished Objects from
the Palaikastro Excavations (B. S. A., Suppl.
Paper I, 1923, pp. 125, 126). From their
associations Professor Dawkins was led to the
conclusion that these ivories 'are not likely to
be earlier than L. M. II'. The photograph
was kindly supplied me by Prof. Dawkins.
The sketch (Fig. 310, a, b) is reproduced, by
permission, from B. S. A., Suppl. Paper I,
1923, p. 125, Fig. 107.

2 Dr. H. R. Hall, in his Civilization of
Greece in the Bronze Age (1927), p. 273 note,
refers to these ivory boys as ' probably
Egyptian', and as such they have been in-
cluded in Mr. J. D. S. Pendlebury's extremely
useful work Aegyptiaca : a Catalogue of
-Egyptian Objects in the Aegean Area : with a
foreword by H. R. Hall, Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 1930 (p. 32 and PL III, 52, 53).

With all deference to the opinion expressed
above, and, while agreeing with the view that a
strong Egyptian influence has been here opera-
tive, I would still claim these works as Minoan.
1. The baldness of the heads is here corrected
by dots signifying hairs. 2. The wooden
standing figures of Middle Empire date that
seem to be prototypes of b have the left leg
slightly advanced. 3. The Egyptian squatting
type shows the right forearm not resting on
the ground but raised to the face with the
hand on the lips—the ideograph for a child;
taken over by Harpokrates. 4. The figure
finds a Minoan parallel. 5. The boy's face is
hardly Egyptian. Add to this that a separate
child's head of ivory was found with a tenon
to attach it to the body—a Minoan device.

3 Doubtless derived from an early tholos. It
presentsaresemblance to certain ivory pendants