520

TRADITIONAL CRETAN TYPES: ROWERS

Primitive back of the primitive prototypes themselves, foreign influences from beyoi 1
^j,0"0 the Libyan Sea or still farther afield were already at work. It has, indeed

proto
types
at times
traceable

—ed

Egyptian been already shown that the'double sickle' motive and certain revere J

proto- .,.. . . . , . ii , . ' v^l^etl

types of lion and even some antithetic human subjects stand in relation t

a special class of Nilotic ' button-seals '—having affinities farther East__that

belong to the disturbed Egyptian phase that follows on the Sixth Dynasty1
The 'key' pattern, and even the Labyrinth itself as a decorative type
seem to have reached Crete by the same route,2 and primitive forerunners
of the Minotaur may be linked with the Man-bull of Eabani by rude
intermediate forms from the same Nilotic source.

The couchant lion of a notable Early Minoan ivory seal from Mesara
has been shown above3 to reproduce the typical features of First Dynasty
gaming pieces. The dog-faced ape was also taken over and the sacred
hawk converted into a dove. So, too, in the succession of animals met
with on some of the ivory seals we may certainly recognize a reflection of
processional lions on protodynastic Egyptian cylinders.

Survival
of type
showing
seated
rowers.

Survival of Early Minoan Motives.

Some Early Minoan motives can be shown to have had a very long
history. An instance of this is sup-
plied by a curious type of which
more than one specimen is known.
This displays a series of figures
in a crouched attitude which, on
the evidence of more advanced
examples, must be taken to be
rowers. A primitive prism seal
of steatite of the closing Early
Minoan phase from East Central
Crete shows three such figures , „9

rudely executed on one face while on another are seen two ships (rig- '
b, c)} Although the intermediate stages are wanting, it is clear tha ^
tradition of a similar motive is preserved in a seal type of which nun
fragmentary impressions were found in a palatial deposit at

Fig. 462 a, b

c. Three-sided Bead-seal or
Steatite.

1 See JJ. of M., i, p. 122 seqq., and Figs.
92, 93 A, is.

- lb., pp. i2r, 122, Figs. 90, 91, and
PP- 358, 359; 1?'gs- 258> 23i)-

> See above, p. 4S6 and Figs- <1°6> ' ,
« Ii., p. i*o, Fig. 89. The'.equmeami
on the first face is probably an ass.