Transi-
tional
M.M.III-
LM.I«
examples,
Fish in
perspec-
tive.

(Talis-
man ic '
designs.

494 AMYGDALOID BEAD-SEALS: EARLY ILLUSTRATION

Its field was particularly adapted for scenes in which animals

picted at full gallop, as on some fine seal

impressions, probably from stones of this

class already discussed,1 belonging to the

M.M. Ill—L.. M. la phase. To the same

great Transitional Age must be ascribed an

instantaneous sketch of a flying-fish, com-
pared above with those of the fresco (Fig.

429),'2 and the perspective rendering of the

skaros—i. kind of parrot wrasse—with its sea

pasture here reproduced in Fig. 430.3 To it,

too, we must set down the hunting scene

depicting the lassoing of large horned sheep,

and the herd of Cretan goats on another

Cornelian gem from Crete (Fig. 431).4

As has been shown above, it is this class

of stone that was the special vehicle of the

talismanic types, belonging in an over-
whelming degree to L. M. I a and the latest
M.M. Ill phase. By the beginning of the
L. M. I b period, and a date round about
1500 B.C., this form of bead-seal seems to
have practically gone out of use, and, among
thirty-eight intaglios of the Vapheio deposit,

only one, presenting the 'covered chalice'5

f ,, J • • s • , • 1 . u Fig- 430. Cornelian Amygda

ot the talismanic series—obviously to be L0ID. Skaros Fish.

1 As, for instance, the racing lions, /-*. of iVf.,
i, p. 716, Tig. 539, a, and the flying leap of
wild goats (16., Fig. 539, c). It is often diffi-
cult in the case of clay sealings to distinguish
the impressions of bead-seals of this class from
those of signet-rings. The amygdaloid gems
as a rule are 'somewhat more bossed.

" P. of M., iii, pp. 128, 129, and Fig. 84.
3 On a cornelian bead-seal from Lappa, in
West Central Crete, obtained by me in 1895
(see op. at., p. 677, Fig. 498).

1 B.M. Cat. No. 34: presented by Mr. W. R.
Paton in 1884.

s 'Ef Apx- lS89> pl- x> [7-

Fig. 431.

Cornelian Ahvbaloid:
of Cretan Goats.

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