DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.809#0078
54
IMPULSE FROM THE SOUTH : EARLY NILOTIC
Glaze -
ware
faience
metal-
work.
Agricul-
tural in-
debted-
Varied
indebted-
ness to
Early
Egypt.
undisputed claim to the invention of the glass and glazed wares to which their
name was applied by the Egyptians, a fact explained by the inexhaustible
stores of natron in the Libyan oases. In all faience fabrics the indebtedness of
Crete to dynastic Egypt was great and begins early,1 but the first knowledge
there of this art may mount back to its original source. The art of inlaying
which took such an early root in the Island also goes back beyond the
dynasties. Metal working was also, doubtless, largely influenced and the more
elongated form of copper dagger, with its incipient tang—-the prototype of
Minoan swords—stands in close relation to a still simpler early Nilotic class.
Cretan agriculture may also have owed much to the same Nilotic
source. The beans found in the store-rooms at Knossos were at once
recognized by our workmen as identical with those at present imported
into the Island from Egypt.2 That the Tehenu of the Western Delta
signifies ' Olive-land's may well explain, moreover, the introduction of
olive culture into Crete in Early Minoan times.4 The Delta plantations
themselves would probably have been introduced from Palestine, but there
is no evidence of direct relations between the Syrian coastlands and Crete
during this early period. So, too, of great interest in relation to the early
intercourse with the opposite Libyan Coast and the region that was after-
wards Cyrene is the appearance among the Minoan pictographic signs of
two that seem to represent the Silphium plant and its seed capsules.5 May
not this mysterious vegetable have been cultivated in Crete itself?
The influence of the early Egyptian cylinders has already been noted.
Not only were exotic animal types, lions, crocodiles, cynocephali and other
apes, and perhaps ostriches, taken over from this source on to the Cretan
seals, but we find in their company compound monsters, pointing, as has been
already observed, to the influence on Egypt itself of a cylinder style born still
farther East. Among these is a foreshadowing of the Minotaur himself, while
the meanders of another class of Egyptian seals supply the Labyrinth. The
Hippopotamus Goddess Taurt, the forerunner of the Minoan Genii, is already
seen on a Twelfth Dynasty Egyptian scarab found in Crete.6 The hiero-
1 P. of M., i, p. 85 and Fig. 53. horizontally perforated ledge handles and
2 They called them kovkw, Mia-ipcoiTtKoi: belonging to a somewhat later type than that
' Egyptian beans'.
3 See above, p. 23 and Newberry, Arte.
Egypt, 1915, p. 97 seqq.
4 A great pithos, probably an oil-jar, is seen
on the E. M. Ill seal-stone, P. of M., i, p. 124.
In 1923 remains of two large pithoi came to
light on the Southern slope at Knossos with
on the seal-stone.
5 P. o/M„ i, pp. 284, 285, Figs. 216-19, and
cf. Scripta Minoa, i. Bates, in his Eastern
Libyans (p. 101), inclines favourably to these
identifications.
6 In P. of M., i, p. 200 (see Fig. 148) this is
spoken of as a ' Minoan imitation'. Dr. H. R.
IMPULSE FROM THE SOUTH : EARLY NILOTIC
Glaze -
ware
faience
metal-
work.
Agricul-
tural in-
debted-
Varied
indebted-
ness to
Early
Egypt.
undisputed claim to the invention of the glass and glazed wares to which their
name was applied by the Egyptians, a fact explained by the inexhaustible
stores of natron in the Libyan oases. In all faience fabrics the indebtedness of
Crete to dynastic Egypt was great and begins early,1 but the first knowledge
there of this art may mount back to its original source. The art of inlaying
which took such an early root in the Island also goes back beyond the
dynasties. Metal working was also, doubtless, largely influenced and the more
elongated form of copper dagger, with its incipient tang—-the prototype of
Minoan swords—stands in close relation to a still simpler early Nilotic class.
Cretan agriculture may also have owed much to the same Nilotic
source. The beans found in the store-rooms at Knossos were at once
recognized by our workmen as identical with those at present imported
into the Island from Egypt.2 That the Tehenu of the Western Delta
signifies ' Olive-land's may well explain, moreover, the introduction of
olive culture into Crete in Early Minoan times.4 The Delta plantations
themselves would probably have been introduced from Palestine, but there
is no evidence of direct relations between the Syrian coastlands and Crete
during this early period. So, too, of great interest in relation to the early
intercourse with the opposite Libyan Coast and the region that was after-
wards Cyrene is the appearance among the Minoan pictographic signs of
two that seem to represent the Silphium plant and its seed capsules.5 May
not this mysterious vegetable have been cultivated in Crete itself?
The influence of the early Egyptian cylinders has already been noted.
Not only were exotic animal types, lions, crocodiles, cynocephali and other
apes, and perhaps ostriches, taken over from this source on to the Cretan
seals, but we find in their company compound monsters, pointing, as has been
already observed, to the influence on Egypt itself of a cylinder style born still
farther East. Among these is a foreshadowing of the Minotaur himself, while
the meanders of another class of Egyptian seals supply the Labyrinth. The
Hippopotamus Goddess Taurt, the forerunner of the Minoan Genii, is already
seen on a Twelfth Dynasty Egyptian scarab found in Crete.6 The hiero-
1 P. of M., i, p. 85 and Fig. 53. horizontally perforated ledge handles and
2 They called them kovkw, Mia-ipcoiTtKoi: belonging to a somewhat later type than that
' Egyptian beans'.
3 See above, p. 23 and Newberry, Arte.
Egypt, 1915, p. 97 seqq.
4 A great pithos, probably an oil-jar, is seen
on the E. M. Ill seal-stone, P. of M., i, p. 124.
In 1923 remains of two large pithoi came to
light on the Southern slope at Knossos with
on the seal-stone.
5 P. o/M„ i, pp. 284, 285, Figs. 216-19, and
cf. Scripta Minoa, i. Bates, in his Eastern
Libyans (p. 101), inclines favourably to these
identifications.
6 In P. of M., i, p. 200 (see Fig. 148) this is
spoken of as a ' Minoan imitation'. Dr. H. R.