DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.805#0062
[322]
PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT
53
The first section 'of Fig. 48 shows the simple rhombus, the second the same
with tangential lines straight and curving. In the third section on the line
A B, and upon the base D E already obtained in Fig. 46, a palmette is formed
by reversing the template as in Fig. 46c, and so on in the other rhombi. The
curving stems and cross lines are then filled in as in the Goulas gem (Fig. 44),
the result being that shown in PL XII.
Observation.—In order to fit the design into a square or rectangular
surface, as in PL XII., each new band of rhombi must be taken back to a start-
ing point (i), which must be at the same distance from a right or left margin
as was F at the commencement.
Fig. 48.
The complete design as restored in Plate XII. by the aid of the
template symbol may well have decorated the ceiling of a palace hall or
princely sepulchral chamber in the great Mycenaean city where the gem was
found which suggested this practical application of the pictograph. The
typical combination of the volute and vegetable motive which it exhibits
affords in turn a secure chronological standpoint. The design before us
belongs to the same class as the ceiling of Orchomenos and the fragment of wall-
painting from the palace at Tiryns,20 and was, like them, undoubtedly executed
under the immediate influence of the Egyptian style of ceiling decoration
that came into vogue under the Eighteenth Dynasty, and the finest examples
of which are to be seen in the Theban tombs. The colours on Plate XII. have
in fact been supplied from Egyptian analogy.26*
25 Schliemann, Tiryns, PL V.
ffia The tangential curves of this group of
designs are in nearly all eases coloured yellow
as if to imitate gold, and this rule also holds
good in the case of the wall-painting in the
Palace at Tiryns (Schliemann, Tiryns, PI. V.),
The alternation of red and blue fields is also
common in Egyptian ceilings of this class. I
I am indebted to Mr. J. Tylor for some un-
published examples of similar patterns from the
PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT
53
The first section 'of Fig. 48 shows the simple rhombus, the second the same
with tangential lines straight and curving. In the third section on the line
A B, and upon the base D E already obtained in Fig. 46, a palmette is formed
by reversing the template as in Fig. 46c, and so on in the other rhombi. The
curving stems and cross lines are then filled in as in the Goulas gem (Fig. 44),
the result being that shown in PL XII.
Observation.—In order to fit the design into a square or rectangular
surface, as in PL XII., each new band of rhombi must be taken back to a start-
ing point (i), which must be at the same distance from a right or left margin
as was F at the commencement.
Fig. 48.
The complete design as restored in Plate XII. by the aid of the
template symbol may well have decorated the ceiling of a palace hall or
princely sepulchral chamber in the great Mycenaean city where the gem was
found which suggested this practical application of the pictograph. The
typical combination of the volute and vegetable motive which it exhibits
affords in turn a secure chronological standpoint. The design before us
belongs to the same class as the ceiling of Orchomenos and the fragment of wall-
painting from the palace at Tiryns,20 and was, like them, undoubtedly executed
under the immediate influence of the Egyptian style of ceiling decoration
that came into vogue under the Eighteenth Dynasty, and the finest examples
of which are to be seen in the Theban tombs. The colours on Plate XII. have
in fact been supplied from Egyptian analogy.26*
25 Schliemann, Tiryns, PL V.
ffia The tangential curves of this group of
designs are in nearly all eases coloured yellow
as if to imitate gold, and this rule also holds
good in the case of the wall-painting in the
Palace at Tiryns (Schliemann, Tiryns, PI. V.),
The alternation of red and blue fields is also
common in Egyptian ceilings of this class. I
I am indebted to Mr. J. Tylor for some un-
published examples of similar patterns from the