DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.809#0069
CONNEXIONS: LIBYAN AND EGYPTIAN FACTORS 45
whether many of the contracted bodies of the dead that lie within may not
themselves be of Libyan extraction. Their long skulls, at times somewhat
domed in the posterior region,1 may not be conclusive on this point, since
dolichocephaly was early established in the Island, but it would at least be
in keeping with such a conclusion. The comparison suggested by the con-
tracted skeletons with the well-known Libyan practice of 'trussing' the
dead is also of a general nature. A specific resemblance is to be found,
however, in the perforated foot-shaped amulets of stone found in some of the
tholoi which fit in with the indigenous Nilotic practice of attaching such to
d e
Fig. 20. Comparative Series of Stone Palettes and Vases : a-c, Pre-dynastic
Egypt ; d-f Cretan Tholos Ossuaries, Mesara.
the ankles.2 It is clear that these burials extend over a considerable interval
of time, from the First Early Minoan Period to at least the beginning of the
Middle Minoan Age, and we should reasonably expect that any immigrant
element would in process of time have blended with the native Cretan.
The evidence as a whole seems to be best explained by the suggestion
already made that some settlement in the Island of the earlier Delta people
had actually taken place, perhaps as a result of Mena's Conquest. It may
have been reinforced from time to time by later immigration.
The question even arises whether some of the other, in this case partly
negroized elements, with whom the ' proto-Libyan' race stood in close
relations in the Nile Valley, may not also have found their way to this Cretan
district in their wake. In this connexion, indeed, it seems worth while
calling attention to a hitherto unpublished relic, obtained by me in 1894 from
1 Cf. Xanthudides, op. at., PL LIX, pp. 126, burials belong to the Vlth Dynasty and imme-
127.
2 See P. of M., i, p. 125; also Cemeteries
of Abydos, Pt. I, PL VII; Garstang, Mahasna
and Bet Kkalbfp. 3oo,and PL XXXIX. These
Shell in-
lay of
Negro-
ized type.
diately succeeding period. Many of the typical
' button-seals' are allied to the Cretan. Some
of the skeletons were contracted.
whether many of the contracted bodies of the dead that lie within may not
themselves be of Libyan extraction. Their long skulls, at times somewhat
domed in the posterior region,1 may not be conclusive on this point, since
dolichocephaly was early established in the Island, but it would at least be
in keeping with such a conclusion. The comparison suggested by the con-
tracted skeletons with the well-known Libyan practice of 'trussing' the
dead is also of a general nature. A specific resemblance is to be found,
however, in the perforated foot-shaped amulets of stone found in some of the
tholoi which fit in with the indigenous Nilotic practice of attaching such to
d e
Fig. 20. Comparative Series of Stone Palettes and Vases : a-c, Pre-dynastic
Egypt ; d-f Cretan Tholos Ossuaries, Mesara.
the ankles.2 It is clear that these burials extend over a considerable interval
of time, from the First Early Minoan Period to at least the beginning of the
Middle Minoan Age, and we should reasonably expect that any immigrant
element would in process of time have blended with the native Cretan.
The evidence as a whole seems to be best explained by the suggestion
already made that some settlement in the Island of the earlier Delta people
had actually taken place, perhaps as a result of Mena's Conquest. It may
have been reinforced from time to time by later immigration.
The question even arises whether some of the other, in this case partly
negroized elements, with whom the ' proto-Libyan' race stood in close
relations in the Nile Valley, may not also have found their way to this Cretan
district in their wake. In this connexion, indeed, it seems worth while
calling attention to a hitherto unpublished relic, obtained by me in 1894 from
1 Cf. Xanthudides, op. at., PL LIX, pp. 126, burials belong to the Vlth Dynasty and imme-
127.
2 See P. of M., i, p. 125; also Cemeteries
of Abydos, Pt. I, PL VII; Garstang, Mahasna
and Bet Kkalbfp. 3oo,and PL XXXIX. These
Shell in-
lay of
Negro-
ized type.
diately succeeding period. Many of the typical
' button-seals' are allied to the Cretan. Some
of the skeletons were contracted.