DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0128
102
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
Dove
Pen-
dants :
Aegean
Range.
Chrono-
logical
limits of
E. M. II.
In this connexion may be mentioned an interesting indication of
a sympathy between the popular religion of Crete and the Cyclades at
this Epoch. In Tomb IV at Mochlos was found a chalcedony dove,
vertically pierced for suspension as an amulet, and resembling similar
dove pendants of stone found in Early Cycladic tombs.1 We are thus led
to infer that the later Minoan Dove cult goes back to a primitive religious
stratum with a wide Aegean extension.
A series of phenomena, indeed, bears witness to the amount of common
elements in the culture of Crete and the other Aegean lands, including
the Anatolian littoral. This, no doubt, was largely the outcome of very
ancient affinities, but the correspondence in small details of ornament and
design also points to a close continued intercourse.
It has been shown that the Egyptian associations of the beginning of
the Early Minoan Age point rather to the Late Pre-dynastic Period or, at
most, to the time of the earliest dynasties. Much of this very ancient
tradition unquestionably lived on into the Second Early Minoan Period. It
may even have been kept alive by some surviving remains of the older pre-
dynastic element in the Delta or, as has been suggested above, by colonial
representatives on Cretan soil. On the other hand, as already demonstrated,
we now begin to come in contact with elements—well illustrated by certain
forms of imported and imitative stone vases—which bring us down to the
Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Dynasties. The E. M. II Period must, on the whole,
be regarded as roughly contemporary with these. This would represent an
interval of time extending from about 2800 to 2400 before our Era.
Fig. 73. Plan of 'House Tomb', Mochlos Tomb IV, showing But
and Ben Plan. (The Left Wall also served for Tomb V.)2
1 Mochlos, Fig. 20, IV, 7 ; 'E</>. 'APX., 1898, PI. VIII, 16, 17, 23.
2 See p. 72 above.
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
Dove
Pen-
dants :
Aegean
Range.
Chrono-
logical
limits of
E. M. II.
In this connexion may be mentioned an interesting indication of
a sympathy between the popular religion of Crete and the Cyclades at
this Epoch. In Tomb IV at Mochlos was found a chalcedony dove,
vertically pierced for suspension as an amulet, and resembling similar
dove pendants of stone found in Early Cycladic tombs.1 We are thus led
to infer that the later Minoan Dove cult goes back to a primitive religious
stratum with a wide Aegean extension.
A series of phenomena, indeed, bears witness to the amount of common
elements in the culture of Crete and the other Aegean lands, including
the Anatolian littoral. This, no doubt, was largely the outcome of very
ancient affinities, but the correspondence in small details of ornament and
design also points to a close continued intercourse.
It has been shown that the Egyptian associations of the beginning of
the Early Minoan Age point rather to the Late Pre-dynastic Period or, at
most, to the time of the earliest dynasties. Much of this very ancient
tradition unquestionably lived on into the Second Early Minoan Period. It
may even have been kept alive by some surviving remains of the older pre-
dynastic element in the Delta or, as has been suggested above, by colonial
representatives on Cretan soil. On the other hand, as already demonstrated,
we now begin to come in contact with elements—well illustrated by certain
forms of imported and imitative stone vases—which bring us down to the
Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Dynasties. The E. M. II Period must, on the whole,
be regarded as roughly contemporary with these. This would represent an
interval of time extending from about 2800 to 2400 before our Era.
Fig. 73. Plan of 'House Tomb', Mochlos Tomb IV, showing But
and Ben Plan. (The Left Wall also served for Tomb V.)2
1 Mochlos, Fig. 20, IV, 7 ; 'E</>. 'APX., 1898, PI. VIII, 16, 17, 23.
2 See p. 72 above.