Evans, Arthur J.: Scripta minoa: the written documents of minoan Crete with special reference to the archives of Knossos (Band 1): The hieroglyphic and primitive linear classes (Oxford, 1909)

THE EARLY PRISM-SEALS OF CRETE

131

very frequent occurrence in the island, and it must have continued in vogue during
the early part of the Middle Minoan period. It has a peculiar importance in regard
to our present subject, not only as exhibiting the fullest material for our knowledge
of primitive pictography on Cretan seals, but as affording the antecedent stage to the
more elongated class of prism-seal on which the conventionalized ' pictographic' or
' hieroglyphic' script first appears in a fully developed form. The rude pictorial
figures and signs seen on the present series are often themselves the direct progenitors
of the hieroglyphic characters on the succeeding group. There is indeed already
traceable on this early pictographic series of seals a certain skill in the symmetrical
arrangement of the figures, which in some degree anticipates the grouping of the
hieroglyphic signs in the succeeding period.

A series of these prism-seals has been given in my earlier works on the Cretan
pictographs.' Here it may be sufficient to reproduce some typical examples, and to

Fig. 69. Grey Steatite (Pi

summarize the indications supplied by the materials. Together with the more com-
pact or dumpy type there are also included for these purposes certain prism-seals of
more elongated form, representing, apparently, a somewhat later development of the
type, but still continuing the same pictographic tradition. It is these seals that are
the immediate forerunners of the hieroglyphic class, though the exact line of demarcation
between the two is not easy to lay down. The three-sided seal, for instance, Plate I,
P. 4—which, apart from the decorative motive of face b, presents ideographic pictures of
a ship and three ewers—might from some points of view be regarded as belonging
to the primitive group.

It is noteworthy that a large number of these primitive prism-seals show
a human figure on one or more faces, evidently referring to the owner of the seal.
The associated pictorial elements give an idea of his pursuits and possessions. Thus
on the seal, Fig. 69, obtained by me from the site of Praesos, its owner was evidently
a master of flocks and herds: on face a we see him carrying what appear to be leather
pails suspended from a pole, while on one side is a spouted vessel of Early Minoan
type, and on the other a goat. The owner of the seal reproduced in Fig. 70 is
depicted as a warrior holding a spear, but the goat and suspended vessels show that
he combined a more peaceful calling. The owners of other seals are associated with

Forerun-
ners of
hierogly-
phic types.

Pictogra-
phic figures
on early
prism-

' See Cretan Pictographs and Prae-Phoenictan Script,
pp. 68 seqq. (J. H. S., xiv, pp. 337 seqq.), and Further Dis-

vs, Sec, pp. 331 seqq. and Plates I and II (/. H.S.,