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 4,2): Camp-stool Fresco, long-robed priests and beneficent genii [...] (London, 1935)

HAD PRIEST-KINGS EARLY EGYPTIAN TRADITIONS ? 9S7

Fmpii'e : £'ie repeated missions, indeed, of the Keftiu chieftains to Pharaoh's
■iziers strongly bear out this conclusion. It may be noted, indeed, as
symptom of political solidarity that the royal 'crook' symbol of the
, 5iiephefd of the People', as we see from the signary of Class B now
introduced, was set beside the Minoan ' throne' sign. The centralized and
bureaucratic regime of which the clay documents of this epoch give evidence
and the autocratic rule to which they point is quite in keeping with this.
Evidently the Priest-kings of Knossos in some sort regarded themselves as
Pharaohs overseas. Is it too much to voice a suspicion that they may even
have cherished pretentions to a lineage reaching back to kings before Mena ?
The presence of the 'cupped block' of old Nilotic and ' proto-Libyan' cult
in the Temple Tomb is in any case a highly suggestive phenomenon.

Fig. 94 2, a, b, c. Lower Part of Porphyry Bowl showing Moulded
Base below, of a Late Pre-dynastic Class : from Early Dumping Ground
N.W. of the Palace. (See p. 984.)

Fig. 942 d. Lower Part of Marbli
' Bowl, Hierakonpolis.

Fig. 942 e. Section of Lower Part of
Breccia Bowl, Hierakonpolis (Late Pre-
dynastic as d.)