Evans, Arthur J.: The Palace of Minos: a comparative account of the successive stages of the early Cretan civilization as illustred by the discoveries at Knossos (Band 1): The Neolithic and Early and Middle Minoan Ages (London, 1921)

M. M. II. THE TOWN MOSAIC

13

consecrating emblem seems itself to indicate that the inlays had formed part
of an object belonging to a sanctuary of the great Minoan Goddess. This
conclusion, it will be seen, fits in with the parallelism already established with
the Terra-cotta Sanctuary, and enhances the probability that the Chest which
the Town Mosaic seems to have adorned had found a place in the same
sanctuary chamber.

The scale inlays themselves should by no means be regarded as merely

of decorative import, and seem in-

deed to form an integral part of the
composition itself as a conventional
representation of a rocky landscape.
As an indication of a rocky or
mountainous site this convention is
of very early oriental usage. It
was indeed already employed by
the Sumerians at an epoch anterior
to the Semitic domination and at
least as earl)1 as the beginning of the
Third Millennium B.C. (Fig. 232).1
At a later date, on the well-known
stela on which Hammurabi is seen
receiving the law from Shamash,2 the
seated figure of the Sun God has his
feet on a scaled base similar to that
of earlier usage, which here stands
for his Holy Mountain. So, too, at
a later period the same convention
in a more stylized form survives in
Assyrian and Phoenician art/5 The peak, moreover, on which the Minoan
Goddess stands in the later sealings of the Central Palace shrine at Knossos
shows the same scale-like formation.4

Double
Axe Mark
on these:
Sign of
Consecra-
tion.

Scales old
Oriental
Conven-
tion for
Rocks.

Fig. 232. Sumerian. Perforated Plaque
showing Scales as indication of Rocky
Ground on which a Male Figure pours
a Libation to a Goddess (c. 2900 b. c. ;
LouvreV

1 The Scale convention is here seen on a
perforated plaque of about Eannatum's reign,
c, 2900 b. c., representing a votary before a
seated Goddess (L. Heuzey, Description des
Monuments, 209; Louvre Catalogue, No. 11;
L. AY. King, History of Snmer and Akkad, p. 68,
Fig. 20). On this subject see A. Reichel,
Studien zur kretisch-mykenischen Kunst (/ah-
reshefte d. Oesterreichischen Arch. Inst., vol. xi
(1908), p. 251 seqq.).

- J. de Morgan, Minwires de la Delegation
en Perse, T. iv (1902), Deuxieme Serie, PI. 3.

3 Notable examples are supplied by the
Cypro-Phoenician silver bowls.

4 Compare, too, the base of the faience relief
with the goat and kids from the Temple
Repositories, p. 510, Fig. 366, below. The
same scaledike formation constantly appears
as the equivalent of rocks on the borders of
Minoan intaglios.