SEALS AND CEILING PATTERNS

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extended field of decoration such as friezes on ceilings. The suggestion, Sphrag-

indeed, based on the appearance of the 'template' sign, that seal-stones Jo'ceiling
were used by craftsmen as patterns for decorative designs on a larger scale Pattern-
may almost be said to prove itself. The evidence supplied by a design on a
bead-seal of' convoluted ' form (Fig. 112, a),1 noted by me at an early stage of

Fig. 112. a, M. M. II Bead-seal with Linked S-coils and 'Tree'; b, c, Contemporary

Bead-seal with ' Template ' Signs.

these investigations, may be here summarized. In this case we see a decora-
tive unit which, even at a time when the Cretan palaces were still unknown,
suggested the reconstruction of a painted ceiling of the Egyptian class.2 We
now possess the actual remains of such ceilings from palatial chambers.

This suggestion was confirmed by the appearance amongst the hiero- ' Tem-
glyphic signs on a face of a contemporary prism-seal (Fig. 112, 6) of the object ^'a^e
recognized as a decorator's ' template ' for sten-
cilling, and this reappears on another face of
the same three-sided seal (Fig. 112, c) enclosing
the tree-symbol, referred to above, with a curvi-
linear attachment below. This object, indeed,
seems to have been ingeniously constructed for

giving both the upper arch and the lower double « b

curve of the outlines of the ' tree ' (Fig. 113, a, 6), F™- J13- *.' Template'; b, with
and it is evident that, turned in different positions, ' Tree ' SlGN INSERTED-

it gave the skeleton as it were of a typical ceiling

pattern such-as that restored in Fig. 114. A further illustration is supplied
by the fine cornelian prism-seal, already illustrated in this work,3 on one face
of which, accompanied by a hieroglyphic inscription, appears a seated cat,
probably the personal badge of a Minoan prince, whose further titles are
given on the other faces of the seal (Fig. 115, a, b). Among the three signs

L_:

1 The seal-stone, a white cornelian, was
found near Goulas in Mirabello. See A. E.,
Cretan Pictographs, 6-v., p. 50 (319), Fig. 42,
and P. of M., i, p. 275, Fig. 204, c. '

2 See A. E., Cretan Pictographs, &c. (J. H.S.,

xiv, 1894, p. 319 seqq. and coloured Plate
(XII) : Quaritch, 1895, p. 50 seqq. and Plate).
3 P. of M., p. 277, Fig. 207, a, and cf.
Scripta Minoa, i, p. 153, PI. XXIII, and
pp. 270, 271.