284

THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.

of this Period the ships are all single-masted, but two-masters appear on some
Late Minoan gems.

But of all the evidences of transmarine enterprise the most remarkable
is afforded by certain hieroglyphic signs and gem-types which, if my inter-
pretation be correct, connect themselves with the culture of the Silphium
plant, of which Cyrene was in Classical times the exclusive centre.

Among the most frequently repeated characters of the hieroglyphic
series is a ^-like type, which in its completer form shows a foliate stem and

a

k

m

Fig. 217. Heart-like Signs
of Minoan Signary, perhaps
the Seed Vessels ofSilphium.

Fig. 216. *-like signs of Minoan Hieroglyphic
Signary : apparently representing Silphium.

4b

Fig. 21!

a

. Coins of Cyrene with Figures of
Silphium Plant and Seed.

Fig. 219. Combination of
^ and Heartlike Signs on
M. M. II Cornelian Seal-
Stone.

what may be taken for a triple bunch of fruits or flowers above (see Fig. 216).
Whatever may have been the plant here indicated, it is clear that it played
an important part in Minoan economy, the sign itself, indeed, frequently
recurring in formulas that seem to represent official titles. But we have
only to refer to the conventionalized figures that often stand for the Silphium
plant on the Greek coins of Cyrene to see how very close is the parallel
that they present. On the early tetradrachm, Fig. 218, a,1 we see the plant
drawn in a more or less naturalistic style, but in Fig. 218, b and c taken
from the field of coins, where it is shown in a conventional and abbreviated
1 L. Miiller, Numismatique de TAfrique ancienne, I, p. 9, No. 2.