EARLY MINOAN II

95

'signet' type. Many perforated cones and conoids also probably go back
to this Period.

Other ivory seals are known in the shape of birds' heads, the hole
for suspension passing from the top through the beak. Specimens were
found in an E. M. II deposit at Sphungaras in Eastern Crete 1 (Fig. 65), and
similarly shaped seals occurred in the primitive tholos of Kumasa.

To the limits of this Period must be also carried back the finer class of
compact three-sided bead seals of steatite with designs more fully and
pictorially executed than the Primitive Linear Class.2

The materials of the seals are still soft, such as soapstone and ivory.

Fig. 65. Ivory Seal,
Sphungaras (§).

Fig. GG. Gold Bracelet, Mochlos (f).

The use of hard stone for glyptic purposes seems to have been as yet
unknown. But beads were already made of cornelian, amethyst, and crystal."

The perfection already attained by the Minoan goldsmiths was perhaps
the most surprising revelation produced by the Mochlos discoveries.
Characteristic examples of their work will be seen in Figs. 66-68. Some
of the gold chains brought to light are of almost microscopic fineness,
and may vie for instance with the most refined fabrics of the Alexandrian
goldsmiths of the Ptolemaic Age Several forms of ornament, such as the
' diadems ' or gold bands, the pins, pendants, and bracelets, present points
of affinity with types from contemporary Cycladic tombs, where, however,
the precious metal used was silver.1 Others, again, recur in the Second

Excel-
lence of
E.M. II
Gold-
smiths'
Work.

1 Edith H. Hall, Excavations in Eastern
Crete: Sphoungaras (Philadelphia, 1912),
PP. 52> 53. and Fig. 25, a.

2 In Scripta Minoa, p. 130, I was inclined to

bead-seal of this class in a pure E. M. II deposit.

3 Beads of these materials occurred in
a necklace from Tomb XIX (E. M. II) at
Mochlos (Seager, op. at., p. 72 and Fig. 41).

bring down the first appearance of this class See Fig. 67.

of prism-seal to the E. M. Ill Period. I have 4 A silver ' diadem ' from Siphnos (Tsuntas
since learnt of the authenticated discovery of a 'E<£. 'Apx-> 1899, PI- X, I, p. 123), with the