686

THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.

Triple
gradation
beneath
Bull-
hunting
Scenes.

But, apart from the clearly marked architectural setting reproduced in
Fig. 503, b, the double gradation that we see beneath the animal has a special
value since it represents a recurring feature on a parallel series of gem-types,
which reappears beneath the closely related reliefs on the zones of
steatite rhytons and other vessels of transitional M. M. Ill—L, M. I date.
This base in its fuller form as indicated, for example, on two more or less

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c d

Fig. 504. Bull-hunting Scenes on Seal-impressions, a and b showing Triple
Gradation below, (a, b, c, Zakro Hoard; d, M. M. Ill b Deposit, Knossos ) (§)

Evi- contemporary sealings, Fig. 504, a and 6, from the Zakro Hoard, shows
their ap- a triple gradation, and the association in which this feature appears on
mTpTiace these examples is of special importance since they belong to a series of types
Wails. evidently taken from bull-hunting scenes that had already appeared on the
Palace walls. Fig. 504, c, also from the same Hoard, which illustrates
a similar episode, would doubtless have presented a similar graduated base
had its lower part been preserved.1 The same may be said of d, from the

1 The copies of the Zakro sealings, Fig. 504, xxii, PI. IX, 96, 97, and PI. X, 123. do not
a, b, c, were specially executed for this work. bring out some of the details. PI. X, 123,
The phototypes of them given in J. H. S., which answers to Fig. 504, a, is described in the