DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1118#0096
452 EWER-HOLDING MINOAN GENII
Seals' brought out during the excavation of 1901, and temporarily reserve 1
in a tin box placed among the stratigraphic stores, resulted in the discover *
of another, abridged version of this hitherto unknown subject (Fig. 376 a\
Here we see a seated figure on what appears to be a wooden seat of the
kind that supplied the prototype of the gypsum throne at Knossos. The
enthroned figure, incomplete above—in which we may venture now to
recognize the Goddess herself performing the ceremonial—pours the con-
tents of a similar jug into a two-handled jar of the same kind. In front of this
are placed the 'horns of Consecration', clearly indicating its religious character.
To the right is a plant or small tree, though the impression is imperfect.
We here see in a simplified form the essential features of the scene
depicted in Fig. 376, a. The vessels themselves are of similar types.
Ewer-holding Minoan Genii and the Part played by them
in Similar Ritual.
Ewer- In the case of the group of ' talismanic' seal-stones illustrated above,
Minoan t'ie vessels themselves are alone depicted, such as were doubtless used
Genii in jj„ j-jjg neac|s 0f households or communities in a rustic ritual. On the
similar .......
ritual. more elegantly designed intaglios, mostly of somewhat later date, with
which we are here concerned, the imagery appears in a more developed
form. The new religious creations, the Minoan Genii, drawn as we have
1 The subject of the ThisbS bead-seal sion due to the weight of superposed materials
(Fig. 376, a) belongs to an otherwise unex- that marks the other beads of the series. The
ampled class of ritual representation. Its very whole of the bead-seals thus present similar
existence could not at the time have been characteristic features in their condition, point-
known to a forger, and the later emergence ing to the conclusion that they had lam
of the Knossian sealing must be regarded as together in the same grave. See below,
overwhelming retrospective evidence of the pp. 515—517, where the subject is more tully
antiquity of the Thisbe bead-seals—from which treated, and compare Fig. 460 a.
this is inseparable—as a whole. All mention My own long studies in this special materia
of this conclusive datum, to which I already as well as the closely allied numismatic branc 1
called attention in 1925 (Ring of Nestor, (re, may be allowed to weigh in support oft
pp. 17-19), has been nevertheless suppressed conclusion, after careful and repeated examin
by those who have endeavoured to impugn tion, that the Thisbe jewels are one and
the genuineness of the bead-seal. The object genuine. If the exact find-circumstances
itself is inseparable from the rest of the series, not forthcoming this deficiency—unavoid
Apart from the identical style of engraving, under treasure trove legislation—is share
moreover, the back view of the series, re- many of the rarest authentic specimen
produced in Fig. 460, p. 516, below shows that Cabinets and Museums. Numerous
this specimen—a in the series—which, like objects, said to have been found wi
the other bead-seals, had some kind of filling jewels, and in their owner's possession,
within its gold plating, betrays a similar depres- all, in my judgement, Minoan.
Seals' brought out during the excavation of 1901, and temporarily reserve 1
in a tin box placed among the stratigraphic stores, resulted in the discover *
of another, abridged version of this hitherto unknown subject (Fig. 376 a\
Here we see a seated figure on what appears to be a wooden seat of the
kind that supplied the prototype of the gypsum throne at Knossos. The
enthroned figure, incomplete above—in which we may venture now to
recognize the Goddess herself performing the ceremonial—pours the con-
tents of a similar jug into a two-handled jar of the same kind. In front of this
are placed the 'horns of Consecration', clearly indicating its religious character.
To the right is a plant or small tree, though the impression is imperfect.
We here see in a simplified form the essential features of the scene
depicted in Fig. 376, a. The vessels themselves are of similar types.
Ewer-holding Minoan Genii and the Part played by them
in Similar Ritual.
Ewer- In the case of the group of ' talismanic' seal-stones illustrated above,
Minoan t'ie vessels themselves are alone depicted, such as were doubtless used
Genii in jj„ j-jjg neac|s 0f households or communities in a rustic ritual. On the
similar .......
ritual. more elegantly designed intaglios, mostly of somewhat later date, with
which we are here concerned, the imagery appears in a more developed
form. The new religious creations, the Minoan Genii, drawn as we have
1 The subject of the ThisbS bead-seal sion due to the weight of superposed materials
(Fig. 376, a) belongs to an otherwise unex- that marks the other beads of the series. The
ampled class of ritual representation. Its very whole of the bead-seals thus present similar
existence could not at the time have been characteristic features in their condition, point-
known to a forger, and the later emergence ing to the conclusion that they had lam
of the Knossian sealing must be regarded as together in the same grave. See below,
overwhelming retrospective evidence of the pp. 515—517, where the subject is more tully
antiquity of the Thisbe bead-seals—from which treated, and compare Fig. 460 a.
this is inseparable—as a whole. All mention My own long studies in this special materia
of this conclusive datum, to which I already as well as the closely allied numismatic branc 1
called attention in 1925 (Ring of Nestor, (re, may be allowed to weigh in support oft
pp. 17-19), has been nevertheless suppressed conclusion, after careful and repeated examin
by those who have endeavoured to impugn tion, that the Thisbe jewels are one and
the genuineness of the bead-seal. The object genuine. If the exact find-circumstances
itself is inseparable from the rest of the series, not forthcoming this deficiency—unavoid
Apart from the identical style of engraving, under treasure trove legislation—is share
moreover, the back view of the series, re- many of the rarest authentic specimen
produced in Fig. 460, p. 516, below shows that Cabinets and Museums. Numerous
this specimen—a in the series—which, like objects, said to have been found wi
the other bead-seals, had some kind of filling jewels, and in their owner's possession,
within its gold plating, betrays a similar depres- all, in my judgement, Minoan.