Yule, Paul: Early Cretan seals: a study of chronology (Marburger Studien zur Vor- und Frühgeschichte, Bd. 4) (Mainz, 1981)

168 DECORATIVE ELEMENTS

mind one of the Egyptian anch sign.

The double axe appearing in no. 11 is engraved on a 34c Bell-shaped Bottle, the shape of
which is typologically more closely related to the Old Palatial Bottles and Petschafte than to the
Neopalatial Lentoids and Amygdaloids. However, the motif is carved in a technique similar to
that which one finds on seals of the "talismanic" group. A compromise dating in MM HI-LM
I seems reasonable for this seal.

1 27

During the Late Bronze Age representations of double axes are not uncommon on seals.

INDEX: Double Axes

1 CS 95a, 96c; CMS HI 393a*, 394a*. 2 Knossos Te*. 3 Knossos Td*. Tf*. 4 CMS 112 155c*; CS 20a. 5
Knossos P59a2; CMS I 425b, Similar: CM 109d; CMS IV 135a; XII 106c, 109c; Knossos P58a; Priv. Coll., Eng-
land, side b. 6 Knossos P70a. 7CMS 115 231*. 8 CMS 115 233*. 9 CMS 115 234*. 10 CMS 115 239*, Sim:
CMS 115 232*. 11 CMS XII 97; X 291.

55: LANDSCAPE ELEMENTS AND LANDSCAPES

This category of decoration includes not only landscapes and landscape elements but also
underwater scenes. "Landscape", as the term is used here, refers to a view of a natural or urban
setting, such as can be taken in from one point of view. In contrast, "landscape elements" refer
to foliage or to suggestions of scenery usually deployed in peripheral areas of the composition.
From a technical point of view, landscape is the more developed mode of representation of the
two as the artist must integrate subject with setting, instead of-simply filling in the empty spaces
of the composition with fill elements.

The use of landscape elements begins relatively early and occasionally examples appear on
seals of the EM III-MM IA (-?) Border/Leaf Complex. For example, in no. 1 the only details giv-
en are the branches posed above and below the goat. There is, for the moment hardly any evi-
dence to demonstrate the interest in landscape or landscape elements in the succeeding MM IB
glyptic.

In MM II, however, the situation changes. No. 2, engraved on a Petschaft of the MM II (-?)
Hieroglyphic Deposit Group, shows two goats whose forefeet rest on a pyramid of six convention-
al rocks. While in this design one can speak only of landscape elements, such are more elaborate
than those of the Prepalatial Period. In nos. 3 and 4, both of which are sealing designs from the
MM IIB Hieroglyphic Deposit in Knossos, the animals are integrated into definite landscape set-
tings. In no. 3 a quadruped is posed resting in a definite foreground against a backdrop of con-
ventionalized rocks. No. 4 shows a fish posed together with a cuttlefish. The billowing forms a-
bove and below suggest a scene which takes place in a grotto. No. 5, engraved on an lib Dis-
coid in hard stone of the MM II (-III?) Drilled Lions Group, depicts a standing or seated lion
above whose back a landscape element is placed. This same kind of frond is frequently used in
the same position in animal compositions on seals of the Neopalatial Period.

Nos. 6 and 7, both from the MM IIB Phaistos sealing deposit, show landscape scenes. In no.
6 a goat perched on a rock is flanked by what appears to be two dogs which leap as if attacking.
On the lower edge of no. 7 plants grow in front of and on the far side of the lion. In the lower