yoo

THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.

be taken to establish a general contemporaneity between the two
deposits.

™'.ddle It will be seen from an analysis of some of the most characteristic of

Mmoan

and early these Zakro seal-types that they represent a combination of living forms with

Egyptian
elements.

a b i

Fig. 523. Sealings from Zakro showing Decorative Motives of Early

Derivation.

decorative motives drawn, like the examples, p. 201, Fig. 150, above,
from an earlier sphragistic cycle which was itself essentially due to Egyptian

influence. The inclusion in the Hoard of certain
sealings presenting hieroglyphic groups shows that
some of the signets used dated in fact from the
first two Periods of the Middle Minoan Ao;e.
Other types are clearly of early tradition. Thus
the meander or labyrinth, a specimen of which from
this Hoard has been already given,1 perpetuates
a Fourth Dynasty tradition. The cordiform patterns
visible on Fig. 523, a,recur in company with lateral
scrolls on sealings from the Temple Repository,
Fig. 524. These in turn betray connexions with the Middle Kingdom
motive of the canopied papyrus symbol {waz) that appears already on
M. M. I signets.2 The cruciform pattern on c runs parallel with oval types
of the same design on Egyptian papyrus sealings of Twelfth and early
Thirteenth Dynasty date.:! It is interesting to note, moreover, as a chrono-
logical index, that this pattern occurs in the same circular form as c on one
of the early grave stones of the Shaft Graves at Mycenae.4

Fig. 524. Cordiform
Pattern on Sealing
from Repository.

1 See above, p. 359, Fig. 260.

2 See above, p. 20t, Fig. 150.

3 Cf. Petrie, Kahun, PI. X. 20 ; Illahun, &c,
PI. X. 176; Griffith, Historical Papyri from
Kahun (ib.), pp. 47 seqq., and compare the

M. M. II signet, Scripia Minoa, i, p. 141, Fig.
89/7. Compare, too, Fig. 491, c, above.

4 Illustrated with other comparative material
in a later Section of this work.