INTERSECTING CIRCLES MECHANICALLY PRODUCED 93

inlays.

moreover, show both the type here reproduced in Fig. 58 with four
segments and another version with three. Faience inlays indeed, of which chtldean
we have fragmentary evidence, already occur in E. M. II, and the possi- sources of
bility always remains that the early ' segmental rosette'
patterns on Minoan pottery go back to roundels for inlaying
of the same segmental class and of indigenous fabric.

In the 'Vat Room' Deposit belonging to the same
epoch—M. M. I a—as that with which we are now dealing,
there occurred remains of faience inlays of very fine texture
together with well-preserved plaques that seem to have
been formed of some white shell'—probably the imported
Tridachna. Some of these when placed together form the
outer circle of a ' roundel' leaving a quatrefoil inner space,
clearly intended to receive some other inlaying material.

For the execution of such patterns some kind of com-
pass was necessary. On the other hand, parallel schemes
were executed on seal-stones by means of tubular drills,
me Circles, (f) A good example of such a design, executed by means of
a drill 6 millimetres in diameter on a crystal bead-seal, is
shown in Fig. 60, b, probably belonging to the early part of M. M. II.2

When it is recalled that evidence is forthcoming of the existence of
Chaldaean inlays of trefoil form,3 it becomes probable than in this as in
other parallel cases we must look for a much more distant source in the
Euphrates Valley. The region where bitumen was so freely used—affording
such an easy medium for decorative incrustations—was in fact the natural
home of the inlayer's Art.

Fie. 00, a, b.
Crystal Bead-
seal, Arkhanes,
with intersect-

Decorative Plant Forms in the Earliest Polychrome Style.
Amongst the earliest specimens of decorative plant forms in the poly-
chrome style the Cup (Fig. 53, 3) also from House B, with its triple spray—
red with white central veins on a buff ground—leads up to the more com-
plete design on a handled bowl (PI. XXVIII, c 1-3) from the M. M. I
deposit in the Early Town drain to the North-West of the site,* here first
reproduced in colours. The fuller development of the motive given in the

Plant
forms in
early
Poly-

chroniy.

1 P. ofM., i, p. 170 and cp. p. 169, Fig. 120. (British School of Archaeology in Egypt, 1930),

2 Said to have been found at Arkhanes. PI. XXV, H. A. r (referred to as ' Babylonic ',

3 Cf.^.«/A£,ii,Pt.I,p.26l,Fig.l56«andcf. J.C.B. LIII).

Petrie, Decorative Patterns oftie Ancient World ' J', of M., ii, Pt. I, p. 369, and Fig. 205.