CONNEXIONS: LIBYAN AND EGYPTIAN FACTORS 55

glyphic writing- stimulated the growth of an independent Minoan system
which, indeed, included a certain number of borrowed signs such as the ankh
or life symbol, the libation vase (qebeh), the bee (byty) of the royal title, and
the Palace sign itself. The long-spouted teapot-like crocks of the Early
Minoan household seem to have been influenced by the copper ewers of con-
temporary Egyptian usage. Even the humble Cretan used ointment pots of
Egyptian shape, and to complete his toilette had the choice of two varieties

Fig. 26. Early Minoan Ivory Seal from Primitive Tholos of Kalathiana

of depilatory tweezers in vogue under the Old Kingdom. Beneath the ilex
shade he played his favourite ' backgammon', such as had been popular at
a much earlier date on the banks of the Nile, and he went to bed with the
aid of a candlestick of proto-dynastic shape.2

Amongst the ivory seals the lion type so frequent under the early
Egyptian dynasties (often used for gaming pieces 3) is specially significant.
An Early Minoan ivory seal from the Kalathiana tholos * shows the king of
beasts not as a devourer but serenely guarding the body of a man seen in
the contracted attitude in which the dead were laid within these primitive
vaults. In this lion guardianship of the departed we recognize an idea, here
already implanted from a Nilotic source, that was to be handed on not only to
the Late Minoan Age but to the sepulchral art of Classical and all later
times. The clear-cut profile, aquiline nose, and high head of the man, though
summarily executed, afford at the same time a valuable ethnic indication.
We have here a type recalling that of the proto-Libyans of Fig. 9.

Hall's view that the scarab was made in Egypt
seems preferable.

2 P. of M., i, p. 578, Fig. 423, <*. From
tholos ossuary of Siva.

3 E.g. Tomb of Zer (Petrie, R. Tombs, ii,
PL VI).

4 Drawn for me by M. E. Gillieron, Ms.
Compare Xanthudides, op. (it., PI. VI