Evans, Arthur J.: The Palace of Minos: a comparative account of the successive stages of the early Cretan civilization as illustred by the discoveries at Knossos (Band 2,1): Fresh lights on origins and external relations (London, 1928)

208

REACTIONS ON MIDDLE EMPIRE EGYPT

So far as the curvilinear and spiraliform patterns found on these are
concerned, the prototypes are most naturally to be sought in pari materia,
and are to be found in the sphragistic repertory of curvilinear patterns
already, as we have seen, evolved in Crete by the close of the Early Minoan
Age. This was reinforced by the fully developed spiraliform system which
had at this time a considerable vogue in the Aegean, though originating
from its farther shores. But the use of seal-stones, such a prolific source of
decorative design, was still generally unknown in the Cyclades and Aegean
world and it was, as shown above, Minoan Crete that supplied the models
from which the Egyptian engravers drew. Hence the great importance of
the evidence now before us—largely as the result of the exploration of the
Mesara tholoi—of the evolution of an independent curvilinear system on
the ivory and steatite seals of Early Minoan Crete. Here, too, we find the
true prototypes of the ornamental scrolls on the embossed plates and
sculptured reliefs of Mycenae that have been attributed to some vague
' Northern' or ' Trojan' source.

1 W. Max Miiller, Egyptological Researches, ii, p. 7. In the collection of Mr. Theo. M. Davis,
Newport, K.I.

Fig. 117 b. Steatite Pot with Minoan Curvilinear Patterns, Cerigo (Kythera). {^)