M. M. I : METAL-WORK, SEALS, FOREIGN RELATIONS 201

continued to influence Cretan signets to the close of the Middle Minoan
Age.1 The pattern on the Cretan prism-seal f represents a secondary
stage of the Egyptian motive, c. On d, on the other hand, the curved
canopy of the scarabs attaches itself to the ' broad arrow ' of the Minoan
hieroglyphic signary.

The waz motive and its Minoan adaptations illustrated by the above Influence
seal types have a special interest in connexion with a remarkable piece symbol

EGYPTIAN SCARABS XIIth DYNASTY

EARLY CRETAN SEAL-STONES

Fig. 150. Egyptian Scarab-types compared with those of Minoan Seals.

of painted plaster, illustrated below,2 which supplies an unique record of the
original fresco decoration of the M. M. II Palace.

A clay sealing (Fig. 151),?j presenting two impressions of what was
apparently an ivory signet, found, in a M. M. I association, N.E. of the room
of the 'Stone Drain-head'4 at Knossos, clearly stands in connexion with
similar ceiling designs going back to the earliest Period of the Palace. The
diagonally connected double coils here seen with their cruciform flowers and
terminal palmettes of pLgyptian character5 are enclosed in a border of

1 See below, p. 705, Fig. 528.

2 See Coloured Plate I, k, p. 231.

3 See too Knossos, Report, 1903, p. 23, Fig. 10.

4 Formerly known as the Room of the
Olive Press'.

5 This motive already occurs on the E. M.
Ill ivory seals, e.g. p. 118, Fig. 87, 5 above,
and may be an adaptation of the Egyptian
' tree ' sign, which was also used as a decorative
motive.