'74

BOW-LIKE MOTIVES ON ZAKRO SEALINGS

Bow-like
objects on
Zakro
sealings. times

primitive Libyan type, the composite construction of the sign on the Disk
is marked by the central protuberances, and in other representations the
cross-lines of the sinews wound round the bow are distinctly shown.1

Bow-like Objects on Zakro Sealings.
The objects seen on the Zakro sealings which show cross-lines, some-
bordering their middle sections, sometimes nearer their points,

Influence
of holy
bow

Fic. 13G. Zakro Sealings with Bow-like Motives.

must answer to bows of this composite form. It should be borne in
mind, however, that like other elements in the fantastic series of seal-types
here seen, these are simply absorbed as decorative elements in their
kaleidoscopic variations. They are grouped with lions' masks and the
heads of bulls or homed sheep, above the head or below it, sometimes
as a transformation of the horns, sometimes held in the mouth, occurring
either singly.or in pairs, and at times taking the full curve of a strung
bow. Some specimens of the twofold representations above the heads are
given in Fig. 136, a, i, c.

' Snake Frames' influenced by Holy Bow.

The 'frames' seen in the series of signet-types given above, though
their outlines conform to those of these bow-types, are themselves certainly
not bows. The knobbed termination as well as the absence of any sign of
the string clebar such a conclus

1 The best examples of this are to be seen
in the case of the bows of the young warrior
and the charioteer on the gold bead-seal from
Thisbe (Ring of Nestor, &•{., p. 31, Fig. 33),

But the possibility remains that this

and of the hunting Goddess (op. at., p. 21.
Fig. 24), though the outline of the bows, which
in these cases are strung, is less well charac-
terized.