DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.809#0048
24 IMPULSE FROM THE SOUTH: EARLY CONNEXIONS
Exquisite
ivory
carvings
of Hiera-
konpolis.
Tradi-
tions pre-
served in
Minoan
Art.
extraordinary artistic development attained by craftsmen of this old indigenous
stock in the late pre-dynastic epoch. It is not only for the purpose of general
comparison with the later achievements of Minoan Art in the same material
that it has been thought worth while to give some illustrative specimens of
these in Fig. 9 and Suppl. PI. I. For the evidence tends more and more to the
conclusion that it is all part of the same story, and that, as already suggested,
this gifted Nilotic race actually found a foothold on Cretan soil. There
is indeed good warrant for concluding not only that there was a direct
tradition with regard to many technical processes and cultural ideas, but
that something of the inborn artistic spirit of the old Nilotic people may
have been physically infused into the indigenous Cretan population. The
choicest flowers of the Minoan civilization that was afterwards to arise may
well be regarded as, in part at least, the result of this engrafting.
Of the examples shown J the male head (Fig. 9, b i, 2) with the domed
crown and short pointed beard, the youth of remarkably individual expression
wearing the native 'sheath' (a), and the cloaked figure (e) present charac-
teristic ethnic traits. The side-locks of the women are noteworthy, and
their waved hair, delineated with infinite delicacy in g, anticipates the most
modern fashion. Similar ondulation also characterizes the tresses of the
most beautiful of the Minoan ivories—the Child God, to be reproduced in the
Third Volume of this work. The modelling of all the figures is excellent,
and the pose of e combines dignity and grace. The collared hound recalls
the celebrity of the Libyan hunting dogs in historic Egypt, where one at least
is certainly found with a name still preserved in modern Berber.2 Various
objects, moreover, show processional rows both of human figures and animals
which have a long later history in Crete as well as the Nile Valley. The
processional animals reappear on ivory seals of Early Minoan date from the
ossuary tholoi of Mesara,3 the Libyan connexions of which are set forth below.
Something has already been said of the progress of this pre-dynastic
Egyptian race in navigation and of the existence of the ' Great Port' for
1 Fig. 9, a is published, op. cit., PI. X. 2,
minus the face, while only the head of the dog
is represented (PI. XII. 7). / 1 and 2 (appa-
rently parts of the same figure), and g and h,
appear here for the first time.
1 On a stela of Antef I (Xlth Dyn.) see
especially R. Basset, Les Chiens du Roi Antef,
in Sphinx, vol. i, 1897, p. 89 seqq. Antef s
al/aker is clearly the Berber, abekkur or abaikur
= greyhound. Cf. Daressy, R. T. xi, 1889;
Remarques et notes, § xviii, pp. 79-80; O. Bates,
Eastern Libyans, pp. 80, 81. This Hierakon-
polis dog (as others) is lop-eared, but a prick-
eared hound occurs in a proto-Libyan con-
nexion on the Gebel-el-'Arak handle (Suppl.
PI. xii, b, c). The Egyptian hieroglyphic type is
also prick-eared and so is the early Cretan
breed, e.g. P. of M., i, p. 197, Fig. 145.
3 E. g. P. ofM., i, p. 118, Fig. 87, 2 and 4 b.
Exquisite
ivory
carvings
of Hiera-
konpolis.
Tradi-
tions pre-
served in
Minoan
Art.
extraordinary artistic development attained by craftsmen of this old indigenous
stock in the late pre-dynastic epoch. It is not only for the purpose of general
comparison with the later achievements of Minoan Art in the same material
that it has been thought worth while to give some illustrative specimens of
these in Fig. 9 and Suppl. PI. I. For the evidence tends more and more to the
conclusion that it is all part of the same story, and that, as already suggested,
this gifted Nilotic race actually found a foothold on Cretan soil. There
is indeed good warrant for concluding not only that there was a direct
tradition with regard to many technical processes and cultural ideas, but
that something of the inborn artistic spirit of the old Nilotic people may
have been physically infused into the indigenous Cretan population. The
choicest flowers of the Minoan civilization that was afterwards to arise may
well be regarded as, in part at least, the result of this engrafting.
Of the examples shown J the male head (Fig. 9, b i, 2) with the domed
crown and short pointed beard, the youth of remarkably individual expression
wearing the native 'sheath' (a), and the cloaked figure (e) present charac-
teristic ethnic traits. The side-locks of the women are noteworthy, and
their waved hair, delineated with infinite delicacy in g, anticipates the most
modern fashion. Similar ondulation also characterizes the tresses of the
most beautiful of the Minoan ivories—the Child God, to be reproduced in the
Third Volume of this work. The modelling of all the figures is excellent,
and the pose of e combines dignity and grace. The collared hound recalls
the celebrity of the Libyan hunting dogs in historic Egypt, where one at least
is certainly found with a name still preserved in modern Berber.2 Various
objects, moreover, show processional rows both of human figures and animals
which have a long later history in Crete as well as the Nile Valley. The
processional animals reappear on ivory seals of Early Minoan date from the
ossuary tholoi of Mesara,3 the Libyan connexions of which are set forth below.
Something has already been said of the progress of this pre-dynastic
Egyptian race in navigation and of the existence of the ' Great Port' for
1 Fig. 9, a is published, op. cit., PI. X. 2,
minus the face, while only the head of the dog
is represented (PI. XII. 7). / 1 and 2 (appa-
rently parts of the same figure), and g and h,
appear here for the first time.
1 On a stela of Antef I (Xlth Dyn.) see
especially R. Basset, Les Chiens du Roi Antef,
in Sphinx, vol. i, 1897, p. 89 seqq. Antef s
al/aker is clearly the Berber, abekkur or abaikur
= greyhound. Cf. Daressy, R. T. xi, 1889;
Remarques et notes, § xviii, pp. 79-80; O. Bates,
Eastern Libyans, pp. 80, 81. This Hierakon-
polis dog (as others) is lop-eared, but a prick-
eared hound occurs in a proto-Libyan con-
nexion on the Gebel-el-'Arak handle (Suppl.
PI. xii, b, c). The Egyptian hieroglyphic type is
also prick-eared and so is the early Cretan
breed, e.g. P. of M., i, p. 197, Fig. 145.
3 E. g. P. ofM., i, p. 118, Fig. 87, 2 and 4 b.