DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.805#0063
54 FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [323]
" It is probable that at the time when these gems were executed this
decorative pattern combining the palmettes and returning curves or spirals
was widely prevalent in Crete. The template symbol itself recurs on two
seal-stones, in one case with palmette and spirals attached, and on the
triangular seal, Fig. 22c, there is a combination of two palmettes and
curving lines going in opposite directions, which may be regarded as a
simplified version of the fuller motive, as seen in the Goulas gem. The
volute form of the latter stone is, as already shown, characteristic of a
class of Cretan gems with purely Mycenaean types, and the connexion that
has been established between the design that it presents and Cretan picto-
graphic symbols on the one hand, and the Egypto-Mycenaean ceiling
decoration on the other, gives us a fresh basis for a chronological equation.
The later pictographic class is once more brought into close relation with
Mycenaean art, while the Egyptian parallels take us once more to the
middle of the second millennium before our era for the approximate date
of the seal-stones on which these suggestive forms occur.
In examining the symbols on the Cretan seal-stones various other
parallels with Mycenaean forms have already been pointed out. The single
figures which occur, such as the young doe or kid in Fig. 245, the dove
pluming its wings on Fig. 31a, fit on both in style and execution to the
Mycenaean class. The ship on Fig. 34a and 28a is found again in all its
typical lines on lentoid beads of Mycenaean fabric found in Crete. The
double axe No. 10, the bent leg No. 5, the bucranium No. 40, all make
their appearance as accessories of Mycenaean seals and gems from Pelo-
ponnesian tombs. The forms of vases seen in Nos. 28 and 29 are elsewhere
held in the hands of Mycenaean daemons, and are the distinguishing types
of a whole series of lentoid and amygdaloid gems of Mycenaean character
found in Eastern Crete, on the ethnographical importance of which more
will be said later on.
It is always possible, as already observed, that some of the smaller objects
seen in the field of the typical Mycenaean gems beside the principal design
may belong to the same pictographic class as the signs on the angular seal-
stones. Such correspondences as those noted above certainly tend to add to
this probability. But, bearing in mind the known tendency of the primitive
artist to fill up the vacant places of the field with supplementary figures, it
does not seem safe to assume that, because small figures identical with the
pictographic forms occasionally found their way on to these more decorative
objects, they are necessarily to be regarded as having in that position a
hieroglyphic value. When however symbols of this character occur in
groups, occupying the whole surface of field, the case assumes a different
complexion, and it is with this phenomenon that we have to deal in the class
of early lentoid gems from Crete represented by Figs. 40 and 41. Of these
ceilings of grottoes near Silsilis, of the of red and Hue, enclosed by yellow tangential
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties. One of curves, affords a close parallel to the Cretan
these, a series of rhomboidal fields alternately design as restored in PI. XII.
" It is probable that at the time when these gems were executed this
decorative pattern combining the palmettes and returning curves or spirals
was widely prevalent in Crete. The template symbol itself recurs on two
seal-stones, in one case with palmette and spirals attached, and on the
triangular seal, Fig. 22c, there is a combination of two palmettes and
curving lines going in opposite directions, which may be regarded as a
simplified version of the fuller motive, as seen in the Goulas gem. The
volute form of the latter stone is, as already shown, characteristic of a
class of Cretan gems with purely Mycenaean types, and the connexion that
has been established between the design that it presents and Cretan picto-
graphic symbols on the one hand, and the Egypto-Mycenaean ceiling
decoration on the other, gives us a fresh basis for a chronological equation.
The later pictographic class is once more brought into close relation with
Mycenaean art, while the Egyptian parallels take us once more to the
middle of the second millennium before our era for the approximate date
of the seal-stones on which these suggestive forms occur.
In examining the symbols on the Cretan seal-stones various other
parallels with Mycenaean forms have already been pointed out. The single
figures which occur, such as the young doe or kid in Fig. 245, the dove
pluming its wings on Fig. 31a, fit on both in style and execution to the
Mycenaean class. The ship on Fig. 34a and 28a is found again in all its
typical lines on lentoid beads of Mycenaean fabric found in Crete. The
double axe No. 10, the bent leg No. 5, the bucranium No. 40, all make
their appearance as accessories of Mycenaean seals and gems from Pelo-
ponnesian tombs. The forms of vases seen in Nos. 28 and 29 are elsewhere
held in the hands of Mycenaean daemons, and are the distinguishing types
of a whole series of lentoid and amygdaloid gems of Mycenaean character
found in Eastern Crete, on the ethnographical importance of which more
will be said later on.
It is always possible, as already observed, that some of the smaller objects
seen in the field of the typical Mycenaean gems beside the principal design
may belong to the same pictographic class as the signs on the angular seal-
stones. Such correspondences as those noted above certainly tend to add to
this probability. But, bearing in mind the known tendency of the primitive
artist to fill up the vacant places of the field with supplementary figures, it
does not seem safe to assume that, because small figures identical with the
pictographic forms occasionally found their way on to these more decorative
objects, they are necessarily to be regarded as having in that position a
hieroglyphic value. When however symbols of this character occur in
groups, occupying the whole surface of field, the case assumes a different
complexion, and it is with this phenomenon that we have to deal in the class
of early lentoid gems from Crete represented by Figs. 40 and 41. Of these
ceilings of grottoes near Silsilis, of the of red and Hue, enclosed by yellow tangential
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties. One of curves, affords a close parallel to the Cretan
these, a series of rhomboidal fields alternately design as restored in PI. XII.