DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.809#0218
REACTIONS ON MIDDLE EMPIRE EGYPT 193
phenomenon of the discovery at Knossos, and at Knossos alone, though on
the Northern Coast, of a whole series of imported stone vessels of pre-
dynastic and proto-dynastic Egyptian fabric. So, too, when we find in the
primitive ' beehive' ossuaries of the Mesara district, which lie in close
relation to this through-route or its branches, side by side with primitive
stone figures of pre-dynastic type, others of Cycladic shape * and cut out of
Island marble, we recognize the operation of the Aegean counter-current.
These figurines, as their associations show, reached the Island in the closing
Early Minoan phase, and illustrate an exceptional invasion of Crete by
Aegean forms, of which we have other evidence, at that epoch.2 The
intensive current of Aegean influence that now sets in, moreover, is marked,
as already noticed, by the appearance in the Island of a curvilinear class of
decoration, largely of indigenous Minoan growth, but which links on to
a spiraliform system much in evidence in the Cyclades at this time, and which
■ itself had a wider Neolithic range in the Balkan lands and their borders to
North and East.
In connexion with the pure spiraliform class the small stone bowl Spirali-
(Fig. 104, a) which was among the earlier relics from Tholos B at Platanos,3 Aegean
is of special interest. The receptacle itself, with its fiat collar and perforated patterns
handles, is the lineal descendant of the massive pots of conglomerate
and other materials of Late Pre-dynastic usage in Egypt, a type of which
the remains of more than one example has come to light on the site of
Knossos.4 This type, it may be observed, was imitated in a large Nilotic class
of painted clay bowls such as those presenting designs of the early river-
craft, and which in other cases draw these decorative features from
suggestions supplied by the material itself. Thus the compact coils often
distributed about the surface5 are the ornamental equivalents of the
round pebbles of conglomerate or, as has been suggested, of nummulitic
limestone. These isolated coils, indeed, though true spirals, never under-
went any systematic evolution in the Nile Valley and entirely passed away.
1 For examples of the two classes from Fig. 31, and ii, p. 194, Fig. 104, a. It is to be
Kumasa see Xanthudides, Vaulted Tombs of observed, 'however, that in the case of the
Mesara, p. 22 seqq., and Plates IV and Platanos pot, as in that of the imitative Cretan
XXII. The imported nature of the Cycladic vessels generally, the handle is perforated ver-
figurines in Crete is illustrated by the frequent tically after the manner of contemporary clay
cases of mending. pots and not horizontally as the early Nilotic
2 See P. of At., i, p. 112 seqq. specimens.
3 Xanthudides, op. at, p. 102 and PI. XI, 5 Petrie and Quibell, Naqada and Ballas,
No. r9o4 a. PI. XXXV, No. 670.
* See above, P. of M., i, p. 65, Fig. 28 and
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phenomenon of the discovery at Knossos, and at Knossos alone, though on
the Northern Coast, of a whole series of imported stone vessels of pre-
dynastic and proto-dynastic Egyptian fabric. So, too, when we find in the
primitive ' beehive' ossuaries of the Mesara district, which lie in close
relation to this through-route or its branches, side by side with primitive
stone figures of pre-dynastic type, others of Cycladic shape * and cut out of
Island marble, we recognize the operation of the Aegean counter-current.
These figurines, as their associations show, reached the Island in the closing
Early Minoan phase, and illustrate an exceptional invasion of Crete by
Aegean forms, of which we have other evidence, at that epoch.2 The
intensive current of Aegean influence that now sets in, moreover, is marked,
as already noticed, by the appearance in the Island of a curvilinear class of
decoration, largely of indigenous Minoan growth, but which links on to
a spiraliform system much in evidence in the Cyclades at this time, and which
■ itself had a wider Neolithic range in the Balkan lands and their borders to
North and East.
In connexion with the pure spiraliform class the small stone bowl Spirali-
(Fig. 104, a) which was among the earlier relics from Tholos B at Platanos,3 Aegean
is of special interest. The receptacle itself, with its fiat collar and perforated patterns
handles, is the lineal descendant of the massive pots of conglomerate
and other materials of Late Pre-dynastic usage in Egypt, a type of which
the remains of more than one example has come to light on the site of
Knossos.4 This type, it may be observed, was imitated in a large Nilotic class
of painted clay bowls such as those presenting designs of the early river-
craft, and which in other cases draw these decorative features from
suggestions supplied by the material itself. Thus the compact coils often
distributed about the surface5 are the ornamental equivalents of the
round pebbles of conglomerate or, as has been suggested, of nummulitic
limestone. These isolated coils, indeed, though true spirals, never under-
went any systematic evolution in the Nile Valley and entirely passed away.
1 For examples of the two classes from Fig. 31, and ii, p. 194, Fig. 104, a. It is to be
Kumasa see Xanthudides, Vaulted Tombs of observed, 'however, that in the case of the
Mesara, p. 22 seqq., and Plates IV and Platanos pot, as in that of the imitative Cretan
XXII. The imported nature of the Cycladic vessels generally, the handle is perforated ver-
figurines in Crete is illustrated by the frequent tically after the manner of contemporary clay
cases of mending. pots and not horizontally as the early Nilotic
2 See P. of At., i, p. 112 seqq. specimens.
3 Xanthudides, op. at, p. 102 and PI. XI, 5 Petrie and Quibell, Naqada and Ballas,
No. r9o4 a. PI. XXXV, No. 670.
* See above, P. of M., i, p. 65, Fig. 28 and
II. o