DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0095
EARLY MINOAN I (WITH SUB-NEOLITHIC) 69
belonging to the late Prehistoric Period in Egypt. On face b of the three-
sided seal (Fig. 37) we see a figure having the legs of a man but with the upper
part of the body bent back and terminating fantastically. A whorl of green
steatite from the early deposit of Hagios Onuphrios near Phaestos (Fig. 38 a)1
shows a curious horned figure apparently with human legs—a rude anticipa-
tion of the Minotaur. In the same way contorted human figures, Minotaurs,
and composite animals are among characteristic designs on the prehistoric
Egyptian seals, amongst which a perforated prism, from Karnak (Fig. 38 b),2
supplies a prototype for the same Cretan form. The influence of these on
Minoan glyptic types reveals itself in many ways.3 On face c for instance
of the Karnak prism a bull-headed human figure is clearly discernible.
Fantastic
Types
derived
from
Early
Egyptian
Cylinders
and
Prism-
Seals.
Rude
Mino-
taurs.
a
b a d
Fig. 38 1;. Prism Seal in Black Steatite from Karnak : c shows a Human
Figure with Bull's Head. A Two-Headed Goat appears on d.
Once more we are led back to a contact between Crete and the Nile
Valley more ancient than the earliest historic dynasty. But the ultimate
connexion of these types leads us even beyond this. As in the case of the
cylinder form of seal itself, with which they are specially associated, and of
many other elements of Early Nilotic culture, the true source may have to
be eventually sought much further afield. The fantastic semi-human types
from which the Minotaur sprang themselves suggest the monstrous creations
that attach themselves to the legends of Gilgamesh and Ea-bani. So, too,
the two-headed composite animals might be taken to be the derivative
modifications of the crossed bulls and lions seen up-reared on the Chaldaean
cylinders.
Remoter
In-
fluences
on Early
Nilotic
Culture.
1 The other side of the whorl is engraved
with signs of a curiously alphabetic character.
(See Scripta Minoa, i, p. 118, Fig. 52^.)
2 Scripta Minoa, p. 123, Fig. 58.
3 See my Further Discoveries of Cretan, &c.
Script, 1898, p. 369. (' Mycenaean' is used for
' Minoan'.) Cf. Scripta Minoa, i, p. 122 seqq.
belonging to the late Prehistoric Period in Egypt. On face b of the three-
sided seal (Fig. 37) we see a figure having the legs of a man but with the upper
part of the body bent back and terminating fantastically. A whorl of green
steatite from the early deposit of Hagios Onuphrios near Phaestos (Fig. 38 a)1
shows a curious horned figure apparently with human legs—a rude anticipa-
tion of the Minotaur. In the same way contorted human figures, Minotaurs,
and composite animals are among characteristic designs on the prehistoric
Egyptian seals, amongst which a perforated prism, from Karnak (Fig. 38 b),2
supplies a prototype for the same Cretan form. The influence of these on
Minoan glyptic types reveals itself in many ways.3 On face c for instance
of the Karnak prism a bull-headed human figure is clearly discernible.
Fantastic
Types
derived
from
Early
Egyptian
Cylinders
and
Prism-
Seals.
Rude
Mino-
taurs.
a
b a d
Fig. 38 1;. Prism Seal in Black Steatite from Karnak : c shows a Human
Figure with Bull's Head. A Two-Headed Goat appears on d.
Once more we are led back to a contact between Crete and the Nile
Valley more ancient than the earliest historic dynasty. But the ultimate
connexion of these types leads us even beyond this. As in the case of the
cylinder form of seal itself, with which they are specially associated, and of
many other elements of Early Nilotic culture, the true source may have to
be eventually sought much further afield. The fantastic semi-human types
from which the Minotaur sprang themselves suggest the monstrous creations
that attach themselves to the legends of Gilgamesh and Ea-bani. So, too,
the two-headed composite animals might be taken to be the derivative
modifications of the crossed bulls and lions seen up-reared on the Chaldaean
cylinders.
Remoter
In-
fluences
on Early
Nilotic
Culture.
1 The other side of the whorl is engraved
with signs of a curiously alphabetic character.
(See Scripta Minoa, i, p. 118, Fig. 52^.)
2 Scripta Minoa, p. 123, Fig. 58.
3 See my Further Discoveries of Cretan, &c.
Script, 1898, p. 369. (' Mycenaean' is used for
' Minoan'.) Cf. Scripta Minoa, i, p. 122 seqq.