MINOAN PASSION FOR ROCK SCENERY

453

approach in form to that of the Cup-bearer Fresco. On the counterpart of imi-
this, the inlaid dagger-blade of Queen Aah-hotep,1 showing a lion pursuing oueeri™
a bull at a headlong gallop, a similar rocky border appears above with Aah-,
a speckled inner space recalling a not infrequent ceramic method of dagger,
indicating granulated materials. This feature in the engrailed work, as well
as the 'flying gallop' there depicted,2 supplies a clear indication of the influence
of Minoan Art on Egypt in the first quarter of the seventeenth century b. c.

Rock borders, as we have
seen, are also commonly as-
sociated with marine pieces,
as in the case of the faience
composition from the Temple
Repository, which includes the
flying-fish3 and the pictorial
panel with a similar subject
from Phylakopi.4 On an M. M.
II gem impression, from the
Hieroglyphic Deposit of the
Palace at Knossos, we already
see a fish and octopus in a pool
surrounded by similar rock-
work.5 The passion for rock scenery at that epoch was, indeed, so great Artistic
that on another impression (Fig. 265) from the same Deposit0 the design MiSnoans°
simply seems to represent a grotto with overhanging crags and rocky for rock
pinnacles, but with no other visible adjunct, the portrayal of Nature for
Nature's sake being sufficient for the artist. It looks as if it might have
been intended to depict a sea-tunnelled arch like that in the cliff of Trypeti
on the site of the harbour town of Knossos itself. A third sealing' shows
a couchant roe beside a stream, beyond which rises a rocky steep with triple
summits, the peaks in this case not descending from the upper border but
forming a natural horizon.

Though not so abundant as those of the terrestrial class, remains of rock-
work designs associated with marine forms, recalling the relief work of the
latter half of the Middle Minoan Age, also occurred in the fresco heap. These

Fig. 205.

Grotesque Rocks (M. M. II b Seal-
impression, Knossos). (J)

1 P. o/M., i, Fig. 537.
Ibid., i, p. 713 seqq. (see S. Reinach, Rev.
Arch., 1900-1).

1 Ibid., i, p. 520, Fig. 379.

* Ibid., p. 54r, Fig. 393 {Excavations at

Phylakopi, PI. III).

5 Ibid., p. 273, Fig. 202, b.

6 From a drawing by Monsieur E. Gillieron,
pere. See, too, ibid.. Fig. 202, c.

7 Ibid., i, p. 273, Fig. 202, a.