M. M. Ill : SEAL TYPES AND GREATER ART

695

the plaques of the gypsum dadoes. In a basement near the 1 Stepped Porch '
of the Central Court of the Palace was found the lower part of a clay seal-
impression on which three warriors, with the Minoan 8-shaped shields, are
depicted as if on the march above a similar dado band with the same spiral
decoration, Fig. 516.1 We may here trace the reflection of a processional
fresco of this kind on the Palace walls.

In the recumbent ox, Fig. 518, c, with his head turned away from the
spectator, we have apparently an excerpt from a Cattle-piece which about this
time seems from its constant repetition to have attained a considerable
vogue. A fuller type is illustrated by the banded agate lentoid shown in
Fig-. 517 ;2 in this a second ox is shown in front as if in the act of rising. It
is interesting to note that two lentoid intaglios from the Vapheio tomb :;
present almost exact replicas of this design,
so much so that they may be regarded as
coming from the same workshop. In all
three cases, moreover, we see the same
significant stepped base, here consisting of
a double gradation.4 The lower limits of
the Vapheio tomb, as appears from the
associated pottery, are L. M. I 5, but the
fragments of three sealings, in a fine large
style, from the ' Bays Entrance ' Deposit at
Knossos, enable us to carry back a variant
of this type, in which the head of the animal
behind is seen more in profile, to the closing phase of M. M. III.

Among other subjects of natural inspiration that appear on the clay
sealings of the Repository Hoard, the fragmentary specimen, Fig. 518, d,
shows part of a group of a goat and kid, very freely treated. It almost looks
like a scene of parturition. In e we see the heads of dogs or wolves, and in
f four owls probably of the small species—Carine Noclua—still so abundant
in Crete—the bird of Athena. The marine subjects, the crab, g, the conch-
shells, h, and symmetrically grouped cockles, t, recall the contemporary

Excerpts
from
Cattle
pieces in
vocrue.

Fig. 517 .Agate Lentoid (£)

Various
types of
Reposi-
tory Sea'
ings.

1 Cf. ring from cemetery at Phaestos with
similar design shown (upside down) Mon. Ant.,
xiv, p. 593, Fig. 55.

2 Purchased in Athens, but its associations
pointed to a Cretan source.

3 'E<£. 'APX., 1889, PI. X, 9, 10. One is
described as a sardonyx, the other as cornelian.
On an agate lentoid from the Lower Town

of Mycenae the front animal turns bis head
back (op. tit, 1888, PI. X, 20). Other
variants on gems point to a larger group of
animals.

4 On a three-sided agate from the Pelopon-
nese (Furtwangler, Antike Gemmen, PI. Ill,
19, and Ba-lin Cat., No. 49 c?) the double
gradation is repeated beneath a similar design.