DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7476#0055
SOCKET-RINGS OF SPEAR-HEADS
39
same way be regarded as belonging to the regular Minoan series. The
socket in this case is not solid, but formed of a tongue of metal beaten
round a mandril. It thus shows a slit along the side, and for that reason
was often encircled at the lower extremity by a metal ring or collar. Good
examples of spear-heads of this type were found in a M.M. Ill medium in
Grave XX at Mochlos
(Fig. 27). The slit and
ring is often visible on the
Shaft-Grave spear-heads—
the ring fulfilling a distinct
function in holding the
socket together.
The ring or circlet is
well exemplified in a large
spear-head from the Sixth
Shaft Grave (Fig. 2S), the
socket of which, as restored
by Gillieron,1 is shown in
Fig. 29.
It is of special interest here to note that, for the apotheosis of this con-
fining and strengthening circlet, we must turn to the remarkable spear-like
Egyptian weapon on which the name and titles of King Karnes, in the grand
style, are set forth in engraved characters on the blade. At the same time the
boss of the rine at the base of the socket is adorned with an engraved band
of diagonally arranged lilies inlaid with gold (Fig. 30). The lilies here are of
the conventional Egyptian type, but the choice of this flower as a motive
of inlaid gold-work on a weapon and, it may be added, the alternating posi-
tion of the lilies recalls the arrangement of a Minoan dagger-blade. Thus,
both in its socketed form in the ring at its base and in its decorative
motive, this spear-head—belonging to the first decade of the sixteenth
century js. c.—exhibits elements that point at least to an incipient stage of
that Minoan influence which so clearly declares itself on the axe-head and
da<jGfer-blade of Karnes's successor, Aahmes.2
In the cast spear-heads of the Later Bronze and Early Iron Age this
Fig. 30. End of Socket of Spear-head of King Kames,
showing Ring with inlaid 'Lily-work'. (J).
1 The joint, which is obscured in Gillieron's
metal reproduction, is restored in the drawing
(Fig. 29).
2 Now in the Ashmolean Museum. It has
now been shown that this and analogous
weapons were used as swords rather than as
spears. The ring here is fixed by the process
known as' burning on '. Sir J. Evans, Archaeo-
logia, liii (1892), p. 86.
39
same way be regarded as belonging to the regular Minoan series. The
socket in this case is not solid, but formed of a tongue of metal beaten
round a mandril. It thus shows a slit along the side, and for that reason
was often encircled at the lower extremity by a metal ring or collar. Good
examples of spear-heads of this type were found in a M.M. Ill medium in
Grave XX at Mochlos
(Fig. 27). The slit and
ring is often visible on the
Shaft-Grave spear-heads—
the ring fulfilling a distinct
function in holding the
socket together.
The ring or circlet is
well exemplified in a large
spear-head from the Sixth
Shaft Grave (Fig. 2S), the
socket of which, as restored
by Gillieron,1 is shown in
Fig. 29.
It is of special interest here to note that, for the apotheosis of this con-
fining and strengthening circlet, we must turn to the remarkable spear-like
Egyptian weapon on which the name and titles of King Karnes, in the grand
style, are set forth in engraved characters on the blade. At the same time the
boss of the rine at the base of the socket is adorned with an engraved band
of diagonally arranged lilies inlaid with gold (Fig. 30). The lilies here are of
the conventional Egyptian type, but the choice of this flower as a motive
of inlaid gold-work on a weapon and, it may be added, the alternating posi-
tion of the lilies recalls the arrangement of a Minoan dagger-blade. Thus,
both in its socketed form in the ring at its base and in its decorative
motive, this spear-head—belonging to the first decade of the sixteenth
century js. c.—exhibits elements that point at least to an incipient stage of
that Minoan influence which so clearly declares itself on the axe-head and
da<jGfer-blade of Karnes's successor, Aahmes.2
In the cast spear-heads of the Later Bronze and Early Iron Age this
Fig. 30. End of Socket of Spear-head of King Kames,
showing Ring with inlaid 'Lily-work'. (J).
1 The joint, which is obscured in Gillieron's
metal reproduction, is restored in the drawing
(Fig. 29).
2 Now in the Ashmolean Museum. It has
now been shown that this and analogous
weapons were used as swords rather than as
spears. The ring here is fixed by the process
known as' burning on '. Sir J. Evans, Archaeo-
logia, liii (1892), p. 86.