DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.809#0232
SEALS AND CEILING PATTERNS 207
corners, and as clearly designed as is possible in such minute work to indicate
a linked spiral decoration. That Minoan textile fabrics for ordinary use were
embroidered with connected spiral patterns is, at a somewhat later epoch,
indicated by the loincloths of some of the Minoans bearing offerings to
Thothmes 111 or his Vizier, as shown in the Tomb of Men-Kheper-re-senb.1
Whether or not the patterns of Minoan cloths and sails influenced those
of Egyptian ceilings, it would appear that these or allied products of Egyptian
textile art had a powerful reaction on Minoan decorative designs.
Great as was the influence of the Nile Valley on the Cretan arts and
crafts from Late Pre-dynastic times onwards, it would be, nevertheless,
difficult to point to any evidence of an artistic reaction of Minoan Crete on
Egypt earlier than the beginning of the Middle Empire. The spiraliform
class of decoration, as already noted, comes in at that time with a rush, and
is a new and sudden introduction into Egyptian art.2
Unquestionably the main source of this new decorative element in Minoan
Egypt was seal-stones, and its most intensive manifestation is to be seen on ]jnke™on
the scrolls that now invade cylinders and the newly introduced scarab scarabs
type of seals. It may be also observed, as regards the scarabs, that this Nilotic
class of seals—being; itself an innovation of the beginning of the Middle eatures-
Kingdom—offered a free field, unhampered by tradition, for the spread of
the novel fashion in decoration. These scarab types were at the same
time early linked with Nilotic features such as the lotus sprays 3 and with
amuletic symbols such as the waz or papyrus wand, the ankh or life sign, the
nefer, and ra or sun. The new type of decoration, however, begins from the
first to appear in Egypt on other objects besides scarabs.*
1 E. g. the figure holding a characteristic of a monarch of the name of Mentuhotep,
ox-head rhyton (W. Max Mtiller, Egyptological attributed to the Eleventh Dynasty (c. 2160-
Researches, ii, PI. VIII and cf. PI. XX). 2000 p.. a). So, too, as a motive of ceiling
2 H. R. Hall, The Relations of Aegean with decoration, we see it already in the Tomb of
Egyptian Art {Journ. of Egypt. Arch., 1914, Hepseba, of Senusert (Sesostris) I's time,
p. 115). Cf. W. Max Mtiller, Egyptological c. 1980-1939 B.C., at Assiut, where simple
Researches, ii (1910), p. 6 : ' Petrie's statement spiral scrolls form heart-shaped canopies for
about the sudden appearance of connected palmettes. A small detail of this is given by
scrolls {Egyptian Decorative Art, pp. 20, 21) Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, i, PI. VIII. 7,
can now be given more emphatically.' but with wrong colouring (cf. Newberry,
3 Already on a beautiful Twelfth Dynasty Scarabs, p. 81, n. 3). In this connexion, too,
scarab of the Turin Museum (Petrie, Egyptian it may be observed that the interlocked S-scroll
Decorative Art, p. 22, Fig. 18) we see lotus appears as a border on an exquisitely worked
flowers and buds springing from the running scarab surrounding the cartouche of the same
spiral border. king (P. E. Newberry, op. cit., p. 80, Fig. 82).
4 It is found already on the base of a statuette
corners, and as clearly designed as is possible in such minute work to indicate
a linked spiral decoration. That Minoan textile fabrics for ordinary use were
embroidered with connected spiral patterns is, at a somewhat later epoch,
indicated by the loincloths of some of the Minoans bearing offerings to
Thothmes 111 or his Vizier, as shown in the Tomb of Men-Kheper-re-senb.1
Whether or not the patterns of Minoan cloths and sails influenced those
of Egyptian ceilings, it would appear that these or allied products of Egyptian
textile art had a powerful reaction on Minoan decorative designs.
Great as was the influence of the Nile Valley on the Cretan arts and
crafts from Late Pre-dynastic times onwards, it would be, nevertheless,
difficult to point to any evidence of an artistic reaction of Minoan Crete on
Egypt earlier than the beginning of the Middle Empire. The spiraliform
class of decoration, as already noted, comes in at that time with a rush, and
is a new and sudden introduction into Egyptian art.2
Unquestionably the main source of this new decorative element in Minoan
Egypt was seal-stones, and its most intensive manifestation is to be seen on ]jnke™on
the scrolls that now invade cylinders and the newly introduced scarab scarabs
type of seals. It may be also observed, as regards the scarabs, that this Nilotic
class of seals—being; itself an innovation of the beginning of the Middle eatures-
Kingdom—offered a free field, unhampered by tradition, for the spread of
the novel fashion in decoration. These scarab types were at the same
time early linked with Nilotic features such as the lotus sprays 3 and with
amuletic symbols such as the waz or papyrus wand, the ankh or life sign, the
nefer, and ra or sun. The new type of decoration, however, begins from the
first to appear in Egypt on other objects besides scarabs.*
1 E. g. the figure holding a characteristic of a monarch of the name of Mentuhotep,
ox-head rhyton (W. Max Mtiller, Egyptological attributed to the Eleventh Dynasty (c. 2160-
Researches, ii, PI. VIII and cf. PI. XX). 2000 p.. a). So, too, as a motive of ceiling
2 H. R. Hall, The Relations of Aegean with decoration, we see it already in the Tomb of
Egyptian Art {Journ. of Egypt. Arch., 1914, Hepseba, of Senusert (Sesostris) I's time,
p. 115). Cf. W. Max Mtiller, Egyptological c. 1980-1939 B.C., at Assiut, where simple
Researches, ii (1910), p. 6 : ' Petrie's statement spiral scrolls form heart-shaped canopies for
about the sudden appearance of connected palmettes. A small detail of this is given by
scrolls {Egyptian Decorative Art, pp. 20, 21) Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, i, PI. VIII. 7,
can now be given more emphatically.' but with wrong colouring (cf. Newberry,
3 Already on a beautiful Twelfth Dynasty Scarabs, p. 81, n. 3). In this connexion, too,
scarab of the Turin Museum (Petrie, Egyptian it may be observed that the interlocked S-scroll
Decorative Art, p. 22, Fig. 18) we see lotus appears as a border on an exquisitely worked
flowers and buds springing from the running scarab surrounding the cartouche of the same
spiral border. king (P. E. Newberry, op. cit., p. 80, Fig. 82).
4 It is found already on the base of a statuette