204

REACTIONS ON MIDDLE EMPIRE EGYPT

that here appear on face a, partly perhaps of an ideographic character, the
' template' again occurs, flanked by triple groups of the tree sign, while on
b we see decorative scrolls associated with the 'adze' and the ' trowel'.1 It
looks as if the Minoan prince to whom this exquisite signet refers did not
disdain the titles of ' builder and decorator'.

Sugges-
tions of
ceiling
patterns
inM.M.II
poly-
chrome
designs.

BLUE

Fig. 114. Ceiling Pattern restored from Seal-type. FiG' XX% m-m- ,xi Bead"

seal with ' Template Adze and

' Trowel ' Signs.

The seal-types that seem to stand in such close relation to a class of
painted ceilings belong to the acme of M. M. II art, and date from about
the Nineteenth Century before our era. The fine contemporary polychrome
ware—like the later ' Palace style '—continually illustrates the reflection of
architectonic models. A good example is supplied by the Phaestos vase,2
reproduced in Fig. 116,3 which shows the characteristic quadruple S-pattern
with floral designs in the intervals, in the one case derived from the
Egyptian lotus motive,4 in the other of a more naturalistic indigenous aspect.

1 For these, see Scripta Minoa, i, p. 187, much abraded is here completed.

No. 18 and p. 189, No. 20. * See P. of M., i, p. 258. Dr. H. R. Hall,

2 P. of M., i, p. 257, Fig. 192, b. A coloured The Relations of Aegaean with Egyptian Art
illustration is given by Pernier, Mon. Ant., (Journ. Egypt. Arch,, 1914, p. 116), while
xiv, PI. XXXV b. recognizing the Egyptian character of the

3 One of the floral sprays that had been design connects it directly with scarab pat-