CYPRIOT & SYRIAN EXAMPLES OF MINOAN ORIGIN

533

Fig. 483. Cornelian Bead-seal,
Crete: Lion bearing down Bull.

Much the same scheme recurs on a strongly incised amygdaloid
bead-seal of mottled red and white cornelian from Crete,1 also belonging
to a oood Late Minoan epoch, here reproduced in Fig. 483, where the

quarry is a bull. In this case one of
the lion's hind-feet grips the bull's
back, while the other rests on the bend
of its hind-leg.2 In another version, the
lion, who attacks the back of the bull's
head, is himself transfixed with three
arrows.

Of the taking over of the seal-types
before us on to ivory reliefs, a good ex-
ample is supplied by the L. M. Ill plaque
from the Spata tholos (Fig. 4S4),3 where
the lion makes a flying leap on to the
bull's neck from behind. On the ivory
mirror handles from Enkomi, the Cy-
prian Salamis,* on the other hand,
though the Minoan source is obvious,
the lions' bodies are contorted by the
nature of the space, so that their hind
paws, as in the parallel type, Fig. 479,
above, rest on the ground. These appar-
ently date from Rameses Ill's time6
(c. 1212-1171 B.C.), and represent a
branch of Art of which one centre at least may be found in the Minoan
colonial plantation at Ras Shamra on the Syrian Coast, so successfully
explored by Professor Schaefer and the French Mission.

Lion and

bull group

on

Minoan

ivories.

Enkomi

mirror

handles

Fig. 484. Lion springing on Bull ;
Ivory Plaque, Spata.

Minoan

colonial

fabrics

on Syrian

and

Cilician

Coasts.

1 In my Collection, from Central Crete.

= Cf., too, the lion on a Phaestos gem,
Mm. Ant., xiv, p. 62 r, Fig. 93.
_ ' B. Haussoullier, Cat. des objcls dfrouverts
» Spata {Bull, de Can: Bell., ii, 1S78), PL XVI,
4, PP- 212, 213.

B.M. Excavs. iu Cyprus, PI. II, nos.
402 and 872 u, and see pp. 31, 32. From
Iomb 17.

' The relief of a warrior (p. 804. Fig. 782)

attacking a Griffin on the other side of mirror

andlc is duplicated by a fragment showing

N

a similar relief belonging to an ivory casket.
This is not mentioned in the text, but, as has
been pointed out by Poulsen {Jahrbuch d. Arch.
Ges., 1911; Zur Zeitbestimnmng der Enkomi-
funds, pp. 223-5), it was found in Tomb 2,
where it was associated with a scarab of
Rameses III (attributed by Murray to the
XXII Dynasty). In my paper on the same
subject (Jouru. Anlhr. Inst., xxx (1900),
p 213), I had already compared the breast-
plate of the warrior attacking the Griffin with
those of the invaders from Western Asia on

n 2