DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0561
M.M. Ill: THE SNAKE GODDESS AND RELICS 519
bushels of which were taken out, were the ordinary sea-shells of the
neighbouring coast, many varieties being included, though cockles were the
most abundant. But they had been streaked and banded with brilliant
artificial tints—crimson, venetian-recl, orange, brown, green, and black—taste-
fully applied in unison with the natural lines and hues. The Minoans, in their
taste for brilliant colour effects, would hardly have hesitated to ' o-ild refined
Fig. 378. Painted Sea-shells from Floor of Shrine.
gold or paint the lily', but in this case, at any rate, the process was
harmonized with Nature.
This custom of strewing the floors and altar ledges of their little shrines
with sea-shells and pebbles clearly marks the religion of a people long-
accustomed to look towards the sea as a principal source of livelihood. It
appears indeed to go back in Crete to a very remote epoch. As already
noted,1 a primitive clay female idol was found in a Neolithic deposit at
1 See above p. 37, and cf. Man. Ant., xix, 'squatting' type (cf. p. 48, above, Fig. 13, 3).
1908, p. 151 seqq. The clay image (p. 152, A fiectunculus shell had been flattened at the
Fig. 8) seems to have belonged to the early bottom to be used as a miniature cup (Fig. 11).
bushels of which were taken out, were the ordinary sea-shells of the
neighbouring coast, many varieties being included, though cockles were the
most abundant. But they had been streaked and banded with brilliant
artificial tints—crimson, venetian-recl, orange, brown, green, and black—taste-
fully applied in unison with the natural lines and hues. The Minoans, in their
taste for brilliant colour effects, would hardly have hesitated to ' o-ild refined
Fig. 378. Painted Sea-shells from Floor of Shrine.
gold or paint the lily', but in this case, at any rate, the process was
harmonized with Nature.
This custom of strewing the floors and altar ledges of their little shrines
with sea-shells and pebbles clearly marks the religion of a people long-
accustomed to look towards the sea as a principal source of livelihood. It
appears indeed to go back in Crete to a very remote epoch. As already
noted,1 a primitive clay female idol was found in a Neolithic deposit at
1 See above p. 37, and cf. Man. Ant., xix, 'squatting' type (cf. p. 48, above, Fig. 13, 3).
1908, p. 151 seqq. The clay image (p. 152, A fiectunculus shell had been flattened at the
Fig. 8) seems to have belonged to the early bottom to be used as a miniature cup (Fig. 11).