76
JFROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE.
[345]
on some of these early seal-stones. The origin of the designs on Figs. 70«
and 71a from Egyptian scarab motives has already been illustrated by the
sketch on p. 327.
Fig. 72a is a design of decorative character, also probably derived from a
Twelfth Dynasty original, the well-known type, namely, of a scarab with its
face divided into two halves, each containing a divergent spiral pattern.
This design is followed on the remaining sides of the stone by a
rude animal and the head of a bull or ox between two ' swastika '-like
figures and with a branch above.
72a. 12b. lie.
Fig. 72.—Black Steatite (Bought in Candia).
Fig. 73a may also be traced to the same Egyptian source. Fig. 735
seems to represent a butterfly—another anticipation of Mycenaean art.
73a. Tib. 73c
Fig. 73.—Steatite (Ceete, Phaestos Deposit).
The analogies supplied by these earlier classes of Cretan seal-stones are
of fundamental importance to the present inquiry. Some of these more
primitive types are the immediate forerunners of the later 'hieroglyphic'
group, and indeed in their forms and symbolism are hardly distinguishable
from them. What is true of the one must to a large extent be true of the
other, and, as already pointed out,36 the personal relation in which these earlier
stones clearly stand to their possessor warrants us in believing that the same
holds good of the later class.
See pp. 301, 302,
JFROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE.
[345]
on some of these early seal-stones. The origin of the designs on Figs. 70«
and 71a from Egyptian scarab motives has already been illustrated by the
sketch on p. 327.
Fig. 72a is a design of decorative character, also probably derived from a
Twelfth Dynasty original, the well-known type, namely, of a scarab with its
face divided into two halves, each containing a divergent spiral pattern.
This design is followed on the remaining sides of the stone by a
rude animal and the head of a bull or ox between two ' swastika '-like
figures and with a branch above.
72a. 12b. lie.
Fig. 72.—Black Steatite (Bought in Candia).
Fig. 73a may also be traced to the same Egyptian source. Fig. 735
seems to represent a butterfly—another anticipation of Mycenaean art.
73a. Tib. 73c
Fig. 73.—Steatite (Ceete, Phaestos Deposit).
The analogies supplied by these earlier classes of Cretan seal-stones are
of fundamental importance to the present inquiry. Some of these more
primitive types are the immediate forerunners of the later 'hieroglyphic'
group, and indeed in their forms and symbolism are hardly distinguishable
from them. What is true of the one must to a large extent be true of the
other, and, as already pointed out,36 the personal relation in which these earlier
stones clearly stand to their possessor warrants us in believing that the same
holds good of the later class.
See pp. 301, 302,