DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0515
M. M. Ill: THE TEMPLE REPOSITORIES
473
The board as completed is 0-965 metre in length and 0-553 wide, and
it is to be noted that several of the component parts are exact multiples
of the whole. Thus the diameter of the larger medallions answers to |
of the length, that of the smaller medallions to that of the marguerites
to ~.
The framework of the board is compacted of ivory pieces, and it is
probable that there was originally a wooden panel supporting those below.
Some pieces of ivory reliefs, including small argonauts, for which there is no
place on the surface of the board, point to the probability of there having
been ornamental sides below. The analogy, moreover, of Egyptian draught-
boards and of the Mycenaean specimen found at Enkomi in Cyprus
suo-o-ests that the board itself may have also served as the top of a box
that once contained the pieces of the game.
The daisies or marguerites of the outer border had central bosses Character
of I n
consisting of convex disks of rock crystal, set perhaps on a gold back- tars;a
ground. Within this border, round the central and lower part of the board work-
was a second band of plaster coated with blue paste or kyanos, some Mar-
sections of which were preserved in position. There can be little doubt fn^Ar-
that these had been covered with crystal plaques that had fallen off. gonauts.
Cj rv s t cil
Beginning now at the top of the board, the left-hand corner of which is plaques
reproduced in Fig. 338, the angles formed by the beautiful argonaut reliefs T^yanos,
were set round with crystal plaques, one of which was found with traces of and Silver
its original kyanos backing. Like the marguerites, the argonauts had also aC m&'
been adorned with a central boss of crystal. There next follows a very
beautiful group of four large medallions inserted among crystal bars backed
with silver plates. The curving cloisons of these medallions are formed of
ribbed ivory, to the surface of which the original coating of thin gold plate
was still partly adhering. The sockets thus formed are set with petal-
shaped plaques of crystal, the outer row entirely lined with silver plates, the
inner with blue eyes of kyanos, inserted in the silver. The inner circle of
these medallions encloses a rosette pattern which, as already shown, goes
back in Cretan intarsia work at least to the beginning of the Middle Minoan
Age.1 The vesicae piscis here are of ivory, doubtless originally gold plated,
and they surround a central plate of silver-lined crystal with incurving
sides.
These four upper medallions stand within a framework that might suggest,
the plan of a four-towered stronghold. Three disks in a kind of outer ward,
1 See above p. 170, and Fig. 120, and compare p. 268.
473
The board as completed is 0-965 metre in length and 0-553 wide, and
it is to be noted that several of the component parts are exact multiples
of the whole. Thus the diameter of the larger medallions answers to |
of the length, that of the smaller medallions to that of the marguerites
to ~.
The framework of the board is compacted of ivory pieces, and it is
probable that there was originally a wooden panel supporting those below.
Some pieces of ivory reliefs, including small argonauts, for which there is no
place on the surface of the board, point to the probability of there having
been ornamental sides below. The analogy, moreover, of Egyptian draught-
boards and of the Mycenaean specimen found at Enkomi in Cyprus
suo-o-ests that the board itself may have also served as the top of a box
that once contained the pieces of the game.
The daisies or marguerites of the outer border had central bosses Character
of I n
consisting of convex disks of rock crystal, set perhaps on a gold back- tars;a
ground. Within this border, round the central and lower part of the board work-
was a second band of plaster coated with blue paste or kyanos, some Mar-
sections of which were preserved in position. There can be little doubt fn^Ar-
that these had been covered with crystal plaques that had fallen off. gonauts.
Cj rv s t cil
Beginning now at the top of the board, the left-hand corner of which is plaques
reproduced in Fig. 338, the angles formed by the beautiful argonaut reliefs T^yanos,
were set round with crystal plaques, one of which was found with traces of and Silver
its original kyanos backing. Like the marguerites, the argonauts had also aC m&'
been adorned with a central boss of crystal. There next follows a very
beautiful group of four large medallions inserted among crystal bars backed
with silver plates. The curving cloisons of these medallions are formed of
ribbed ivory, to the surface of which the original coating of thin gold plate
was still partly adhering. The sockets thus formed are set with petal-
shaped plaques of crystal, the outer row entirely lined with silver plates, the
inner with blue eyes of kyanos, inserted in the silver. The inner circle of
these medallions encloses a rosette pattern which, as already shown, goes
back in Cretan intarsia work at least to the beginning of the Middle Minoan
Age.1 The vesicae piscis here are of ivory, doubtless originally gold plated,
and they surround a central plate of silver-lined crystal with incurving
sides.
These four upper medallions stand within a framework that might suggest,
the plan of a four-towered stronghold. Three disks in a kind of outer ward,
1 See above p. 170, and Fig. 120, and compare p. 268.