DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0148
122
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
Meander
Types on
Egyptian
Seals.
True
Laby-
rinth.
On which
side was
the In-
debted-
ness ?
spiral borders.1 In this case, however, the process may have been due to
the first introduction of spiraliform patterns amongst craftsmen used to the
angular system not in textile motives alone but in other branches of decoration.
A suggestive point in connexion with the E. M. Ill meander patterns
is the parallel appearance about the same time of similar designs on
a series of seal types found in Egypt and dating from the Sixth and
immediately succeeding Dynasties2. At times
these designs are fairly elaborate. On a steatite
plaque acquired by Prof. Flinders Petrie at
Memphis (Fig. 91),3 two facing figures of men
with their knees drawn up, in the linear style of
this Period, are seen above a true labyrinth. ' On
completing the corner of this, it appears that there
were five false turns to be avoided before reaching
the centre.'4
These Nilotic seals exhibiting the meander
patterns are of greyish white steatite, and of
various forms, including oblong plaques like the
above, flat-faced seals of semi-oval outline and
button-shaped signets. They belong to a class
which, though partly reproducing Egyptian types, is only half Egyptian
in the dynastic sense of the word, and which seems to have been due to
an element of the population in the Delta or its borders that had maintained
many of the traditions of the prehistoric inhabitants of the Nile Valley.
The meander pattern comes in suddenly on the 4 Egypto-Libyan '
seals of the present class about the time of the Sixth Dynasty, and is
paralleled by the more or less contemporary appearance of similar ' key '
motives on the Cretan seals.
There was no antecedent spiraliform stage in Egypt such as we find on
the Aegean side that might, as suggested above, have contributed to the evolu-
tion of these meander patterns. Nor is there any known source either in
the Nile Valley or on the Asiatic side from which they could have been
4 Op. cit., pp. 15, 16. Petrie observes that
the human figures are ' completely in the style
of the button-seals which belong to the Sixth
to Eighth Dynasties'. He compares the
square labyrinth with classical Cretan types.
The other side of the plaque is engraved
vertically with five double-lined columns having
twenty-two horizontal strokes between each.
Fig. 91. Steatite Plaque
from Memphis (Petrie).
1 Cf. Petrie, Egyptian Decorative Art,
PP- 42, 43-
2 In ceramic decoration such meander
patterns appear as early as the Fourth Dynasty,
e.g. bowl of Sneferus' time. De Morgan,
Origiiies de VEgypte, PI. XL
3 Memphis, iii, PI. XXVI, 2. See too p. 359,
Fig. 259, b.
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
Meander
Types on
Egyptian
Seals.
True
Laby-
rinth.
On which
side was
the In-
debted-
ness ?
spiral borders.1 In this case, however, the process may have been due to
the first introduction of spiraliform patterns amongst craftsmen used to the
angular system not in textile motives alone but in other branches of decoration.
A suggestive point in connexion with the E. M. Ill meander patterns
is the parallel appearance about the same time of similar designs on
a series of seal types found in Egypt and dating from the Sixth and
immediately succeeding Dynasties2. At times
these designs are fairly elaborate. On a steatite
plaque acquired by Prof. Flinders Petrie at
Memphis (Fig. 91),3 two facing figures of men
with their knees drawn up, in the linear style of
this Period, are seen above a true labyrinth. ' On
completing the corner of this, it appears that there
were five false turns to be avoided before reaching
the centre.'4
These Nilotic seals exhibiting the meander
patterns are of greyish white steatite, and of
various forms, including oblong plaques like the
above, flat-faced seals of semi-oval outline and
button-shaped signets. They belong to a class
which, though partly reproducing Egyptian types, is only half Egyptian
in the dynastic sense of the word, and which seems to have been due to
an element of the population in the Delta or its borders that had maintained
many of the traditions of the prehistoric inhabitants of the Nile Valley.
The meander pattern comes in suddenly on the 4 Egypto-Libyan '
seals of the present class about the time of the Sixth Dynasty, and is
paralleled by the more or less contemporary appearance of similar ' key '
motives on the Cretan seals.
There was no antecedent spiraliform stage in Egypt such as we find on
the Aegean side that might, as suggested above, have contributed to the evolu-
tion of these meander patterns. Nor is there any known source either in
the Nile Valley or on the Asiatic side from which they could have been
4 Op. cit., pp. 15, 16. Petrie observes that
the human figures are ' completely in the style
of the button-seals which belong to the Sixth
to Eighth Dynasties'. He compares the
square labyrinth with classical Cretan types.
The other side of the plaque is engraved
vertically with five double-lined columns having
twenty-two horizontal strokes between each.
Fig. 91. Steatite Plaque
from Memphis (Petrie).
1 Cf. Petrie, Egyptian Decorative Art,
PP- 42, 43-
2 In ceramic decoration such meander
patterns appear as early as the Fourth Dynasty,
e.g. bowl of Sneferus' time. De Morgan,
Origiiies de VEgypte, PI. XL
3 Memphis, iii, PI. XXVI, 2. See too p. 359,
Fig. 259, b.