MINOAN SIGNET-RINGS—RELIGIOUS CHARACTER

5"

unique among the finger-rings of both the Ancient and the Modern World.
In the Minoan case, as already shown, this peculiarity is explained by the
origin of the Minoan form from a type of perforated bead for suspension,
with an engraved facet. This form of bead is of Early Minoan date,1 and the
process of evolution by which it gave origin to the
signet-ring is here once more illustrated in Fig. 454.2
This derivation accounts for the fact, otherwise un-
explained, that many of the later Minoan signet-rings
are provided with hoops too small to fit the finger.
Fundamentally they were seals for suspension.

It will be seen from the series given in Fig. 454
—including the ideal type c—that the ivory bead-seal Fig. 455. Gold Signet-

from a primitive tholos ossuary of Mesara,3 with its *ING ?J?,Jr™ £RYSTAL
1 ' ' Bezel(M.M.III):Sphouk-

reversed figures of ants, presents three rounded gakas (f).

ridges, which still survive in the advanced ring-
type d. From two perforations in the loop of this ivory bead-seal it is
almost certain that it was originally coated with gold plates.

Probably the earliest example of an actual finger-ring of this class
preserved to us is one that has been contained in one of the sepulchral jars
of the Sphoungaras Cemetery in East Crete, which presents the unique
peculiarity of having been set with a crystal intaglio (Fig. 455).l The design,
which is of a purely ornamental character, shows a cross-hatched background,
akin to the network often seen on M. M. II signets. Its date indeed can
hardly be later than the earlier phase of M. M. III. In this case the hoop
consists of two rings.

Although, as shown above, it seems possible to trace the origin of the
typical Minoan signet-ring from a form of gold-plated bead-seal of ivory or
soft stone of E. M. Ill date, the earlier links in the connexion are still to
seek. The first record of the fully developed type of gold signet-rings is
supplied by seal impressions belonging to the latest Middle Minoan

This ivory bead-seal is illustrated by
Xanthudides, Vaulted Tombs of Mesara
(Transl. Droop), PL IV, no. 646 and p. 80,
where the insects are called 'grasshoppers'.
The reversed position of the ants recalls
a familiar feature of Vllth Dynasty 'button
seals'.

"■ See P: of M., iii, p. 139 seqq. and Fig.
90, «-,/, and cf. A. E., Ring of Nestor, 6».
(Macmillans, ^25), p. 47-8.

Sphoun-
garas

ring set
with crys-
tal in-
taglio.

Signet-
ring im-
pressions
of Transi-
tional
M.M. Ill
Age.

'■ From Tholos E at Koumasa. Xanthu-
dides, Vaulted Tombs of Mesara (Transl.
Droop), PI. IV, 646. On p. 30 it is men-
tioned that ' the hole is too small for it to go
on even a child's finger'. See, too, my re-
marks in the Preface to that work, p. vii, on
the importance of this object in relation to
the later ' ring ' types.

* E. H. Hall, Sfkoungaras, &c, p. 69,
Fig. 43 1;.