DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0527
M. M. Ill: THE TEMPLE REPOSITORIES
485
and it seems to be clear that in all cases these signs had to do with the fabric
itself.1 They are either found on the bottom of inlays or in places where
they would be concealed from the spectator's eye. Thus the T-shaped sign
here seen is frequent, with or without accompanying dots, on the under sides of
the faience roundels for inlaying found in the Room of the Throne at Knossos,2
and, again, in the same position, on the bone inlays in the shape of vesicae
piscis that presented such a variety of marks and numbers from a drain-
shaft of the Domestic Quarter.3 A more probable hypothesis would be that
these disks, coated with gold-foil, had been set in the centre of rosettes
forming a border to the Mycenae draught-board like those of the Royal
board of Knossos.
The conformity of signs and numbers here seen with the Cretan Equa-
! Craftsmen's Marks ' itself supplies a new link of connexion. The equations between
presented between these relics from the Fourth Shaft Grave with those g^tth
of the Temple Repository at Knossos are also of great value as a chrono- Grave
logical datum for the early elements of the Mainland interment. positories.
The ' Sacral Knots' in connexion with the Mycenae draught-board
themselves reveal a dedicatory intention such as that which led to the
deposit of its counterpart in the Reliquary of the Knossian shrine.
The practice of depositing- gaming boards in tombs was of great Custom
. • . -r- -ill • 1 iii 1 of placing
antiquity in Egypt, going back there, as is shown by the clay example Draught-
from El Mahasna, to the Pre-dynastic Period, and finds its most splendid Tombs1"
illustration in the ivory draught-board and men found in the Tomb of Queen Egyptian.
Hatasu. In historic tombs the deceased himself is at times represented in the
act of playing a game. To the Minoan princes who founded the great dynasty Sacred to
of Mycenae, a draught-board was, too, such an indispensable possession that Goddess
it followed them to the grave.4 Nor are the signs of consecration without their and
special significance. The game itself was sacred to their patron divinity, of Dead,
whose realm included the Nether as well as the Upper World, and in the
halls of the Great Goddess it might still be played.
1 I hope to deal with these ' Craftsmen's belonging to a similar board, in Tomb A at
Marks' in the second volume of my Scrifita Kakovatos (L. M. I b). See Ath. Mitth., xxxiv,
Minoa. PI. xiv, 14, 15. The draught-board found in
2 Knossos, Report, 1900, p. 42. the tomb at Old Paphos (Enkomi) shows that
3 lb. 1901, pp. 118, 119. the practice continued to the latest Minoan
4 There were remains of inlays, perhaps Period.
485
and it seems to be clear that in all cases these signs had to do with the fabric
itself.1 They are either found on the bottom of inlays or in places where
they would be concealed from the spectator's eye. Thus the T-shaped sign
here seen is frequent, with or without accompanying dots, on the under sides of
the faience roundels for inlaying found in the Room of the Throne at Knossos,2
and, again, in the same position, on the bone inlays in the shape of vesicae
piscis that presented such a variety of marks and numbers from a drain-
shaft of the Domestic Quarter.3 A more probable hypothesis would be that
these disks, coated with gold-foil, had been set in the centre of rosettes
forming a border to the Mycenae draught-board like those of the Royal
board of Knossos.
The conformity of signs and numbers here seen with the Cretan Equa-
! Craftsmen's Marks ' itself supplies a new link of connexion. The equations between
presented between these relics from the Fourth Shaft Grave with those g^tth
of the Temple Repository at Knossos are also of great value as a chrono- Grave
logical datum for the early elements of the Mainland interment. positories.
The ' Sacral Knots' in connexion with the Mycenae draught-board
themselves reveal a dedicatory intention such as that which led to the
deposit of its counterpart in the Reliquary of the Knossian shrine.
The practice of depositing- gaming boards in tombs was of great Custom
. • . -r- -ill • 1 iii 1 of placing
antiquity in Egypt, going back there, as is shown by the clay example Draught-
from El Mahasna, to the Pre-dynastic Period, and finds its most splendid Tombs1"
illustration in the ivory draught-board and men found in the Tomb of Queen Egyptian.
Hatasu. In historic tombs the deceased himself is at times represented in the
act of playing a game. To the Minoan princes who founded the great dynasty Sacred to
of Mycenae, a draught-board was, too, such an indispensable possession that Goddess
it followed them to the grave.4 Nor are the signs of consecration without their and
special significance. The game itself was sacred to their patron divinity, of Dead,
whose realm included the Nether as well as the Upper World, and in the
halls of the Great Goddess it might still be played.
1 I hope to deal with these ' Craftsmen's belonging to a similar board, in Tomb A at
Marks' in the second volume of my Scrifita Kakovatos (L. M. I b). See Ath. Mitth., xxxiv,
Minoa. PI. xiv, 14, 15. The draught-board found in
2 Knossos, Report, 1900, p. 42. the tomb at Old Paphos (Enkomi) shows that
3 lb. 1901, pp. 118, 119. the practice continued to the latest Minoan
4 There were remains of inlays, perhaps Period.