DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1117#0151
ARTISTIC INFLUENCE OF SEA-SHELLS
Whorl-
shells
in rela-
tion to
spirali-
form
motives.
Dolium
or ' Tun-
shell ' in
Minoan
Art.
Mi
■■■r)
a special impulse to the use of shells in connexion with her sanctuaries.
The Pectunculus shells—one of them flattened below—found at Phaestos1
associated with a clay female idol of the squatting Neolithic type and
small clay cups of offering, find their analogy at a much later date in the
varied assortment of natural sea-shells, streaked and banded-with brilliant
~*^-fv-Y— artificial tints, that came to light with the
faience figures of the Snake Goddess
and her votaries in the ' Temple Re-
positories ' at Knossos,2 and which there
—as elsewhere waterworn pebbles and
sherds—seem to have been strewn on
the floor of her shrine. It is perhaps
a suggestive fact that a female idol from
Central Crete of a sub-Neolithic or
Early Minoan class should have been
carved out of Tridacna shell.3
The influence of shell motives on
Minoan decorative Art has hardly received sufficient recognition. It is in
fact omnipresent, though often inextricably interwoven with spiraliform
patterns of old Aegean inheritance. It is a moot point whether the simple
coils that appear among decorative elements before the close of the Early
Minoan Age may not have been simply clue to the suggestion supplied by
one or other of the common whorl-shells.1
Amongst these, the capacious Dolium or ' Tun-shell'5 seems specially
to have impressed the Cretan artists. The greatest tour de force of a
Minoan lapidary was in fact the carving out of a block of liparite—the
volcanic glass obtained from the Aeolian Islands—of an almost exact copy
of the higher spired variety of the shellG known as Dolium perdix.
Both this variety and Dolium galea (Fig. 76)—' the helmet Tun-shell
—occur in the refuse pits of Knossos, and would seem to have formed
a favourite article of food.' The latter is distinguished by its more globular
Fig. 76. Dolium galea.
M.,ii, Pt I, p. 196, Fig. 105, may itself, in
part at least, have been due to this whorl-
shell suggestion.
" The name of Turn/a has been recently
applied to this genus in place of Dolium.
'■ See P. ofM., ii, Pt. II, Suppl. PL XXXM.
7 Dolium ga.'aa also occurred in the 'Tem-
ple Repositories'. This is at present the
The 'tendril' motive illustrated in P. of commoner variety on the neighbouring coast.
1 A. Mosso, Mm. Ant., xix (1908), p. 151
seqq.; P. of M., i, p. 37 and p. 5T9.
" P. of M., i, pp. 517—19, and Figs. 377,
378.
* Hid., p. 48, Fig. 13, 20, and cf. ii, Part I,
p. 46. It was at first believed to be of
alabaster as there described. The idol is in
my own possession.
Whorl-
shells
in rela-
tion to
spirali-
form
motives.
Dolium
or ' Tun-
shell ' in
Minoan
Art.
Mi
■■■r)
a special impulse to the use of shells in connexion with her sanctuaries.
The Pectunculus shells—one of them flattened below—found at Phaestos1
associated with a clay female idol of the squatting Neolithic type and
small clay cups of offering, find their analogy at a much later date in the
varied assortment of natural sea-shells, streaked and banded-with brilliant
~*^-fv-Y— artificial tints, that came to light with the
faience figures of the Snake Goddess
and her votaries in the ' Temple Re-
positories ' at Knossos,2 and which there
—as elsewhere waterworn pebbles and
sherds—seem to have been strewn on
the floor of her shrine. It is perhaps
a suggestive fact that a female idol from
Central Crete of a sub-Neolithic or
Early Minoan class should have been
carved out of Tridacna shell.3
The influence of shell motives on
Minoan decorative Art has hardly received sufficient recognition. It is in
fact omnipresent, though often inextricably interwoven with spiraliform
patterns of old Aegean inheritance. It is a moot point whether the simple
coils that appear among decorative elements before the close of the Early
Minoan Age may not have been simply clue to the suggestion supplied by
one or other of the common whorl-shells.1
Amongst these, the capacious Dolium or ' Tun-shell'5 seems specially
to have impressed the Cretan artists. The greatest tour de force of a
Minoan lapidary was in fact the carving out of a block of liparite—the
volcanic glass obtained from the Aeolian Islands—of an almost exact copy
of the higher spired variety of the shellG known as Dolium perdix.
Both this variety and Dolium galea (Fig. 76)—' the helmet Tun-shell
—occur in the refuse pits of Knossos, and would seem to have formed
a favourite article of food.' The latter is distinguished by its more globular
Fig. 76. Dolium galea.
M.,ii, Pt I, p. 196, Fig. 105, may itself, in
part at least, have been due to this whorl-
shell suggestion.
" The name of Turn/a has been recently
applied to this genus in place of Dolium.
'■ See P. ofM., ii, Pt. II, Suppl. PL XXXM.
7 Dolium ga.'aa also occurred in the 'Tem-
ple Repositories'. This is at present the
The 'tendril' motive illustrated in P. of commoner variety on the neighbouring coast.
1 A. Mosso, Mm. Ant., xix (1908), p. 151
seqq.; P. of M., i, p. 37 and p. 5T9.
" P. of M., i, pp. 517—19, and Figs. 377,
378.
* Hid., p. 48, Fig. 13, 20, and cf. ii, Part I,
p. 46. It was at first believed to be of
alabaster as there described. The idol is in
my own possession.