GOLD HEART AND FISH

411

presents an intaglio of a flying
eagle executed in a conven-
tional style very characteristic
of the closing Middle Minoan
phase.1 Beneath this were
linear marks, which, however,
cannot be identified with signs
of either of the linear scripts. Fig- 273. Heart-shaped Pendant of Gold (f).
A heart-shaped pendant of rock crystal closely resembling the above occurred
at Gournia,2 and one described as of' magnetite' was derived from a tomb
at Avgo,3 also in East Crete. These jewels,
in which we may reasonably recognize amulets,
do not show the side projections—interpreted

Fig. 274. Gold Fish (Scaxvs Cretensis) (f).

Fig. 275. Cornelian.
Amygdaloid showing Ska-
ros Fish.

as truncated arteries—of the Egyptian heart emblem and hieroglyph. The
Soul of the deceased was weighed in this form by H or us against the feather
of Truth (Ma'at), but we do not know the exact significance that the
Minoans may have attached to their form of the amulet.

A striking contrast to this solid ornament is presented by the small but Gold
very realistic figure of a fish shown in Fig. 274, which consists of two thin Sca'rus
plates of gold fastened together by means of a slight overlap of the rims Cretensis-
and filled internally with some kind of plaster. The gold plates had been

1 Compare, for example, a series of flying
birds on sealings from Hagia Triada belonging
to the closing phase of M. M. III. Many of
the Zakro monsters show the same type of
wings. Other examples of similar heart-shaped
pendants are known in metal-work. For de-

generation of these see E. J. Forsdyke, B. S. A.,
xxviii, p. 288.

2 Boyd Hawes, Gournia, pp. 55, Fig. 35,
3<z, ib (B. E. Williams).

3 H. R. Hastings, Am. Joum. Arch., N. S.,
ix, 1905, p. 284, and PI. X, Fig. 23.