566 THE 'COUCHANT OXEN' TYPE

is done in variant versions of this motive. But the more usual type is tl

Asso-
ciated
with

double
gradation
of monu-
mental
import.

Fig. 638. Part of Cattle Group on

Architectonic Base : Gold-plated Ring,

Mycenae, (§).

Fig. 539. Two Oxen on 'Gradu-
ated Base '. Banded Agate ; said
to be from Crete, (f j.

illustrated in Fig. 539, and it is further to be noted that in these and other

cases the group rests on the ' stepped gradation', itself suggested by an

architectonic base,1 such as that more fully

shown in Fig. 538. In some cases the stepped

base beneath this group is exceptionally

clear.2 In Fig. 540—a haematite lentoid from

the Candia district—one of the recumbent

oxen has been stricken by a huntsman's

shaft.

It may be regarded as a conclusive fact
that though the insertion of this ' double
gradation' beneath the design on lentoid
bead-seals is quite exceptional, it appears on
seven out of eight specimens of this type that
have come under my personal observation, the remaining exampe
haematite intaglio from the Knossos district—preserving it in the secon
shape of a single groove. There is then a high probability that the i

Fig. 540. One Ox stuck m
Shaft; Candia District, (fh

; motive

oi.a^ ui <t oiugic ^iuuvc. i nere is men a nign ]jiuu(iuuhj ■.—-- ,

owed its wide diffusion to the existence of a well-known work of the
belonging to a more monumental class. . re.

A version of it is already found on a clay sealing from Hagia Triac a,

Mycenae). Cf.,too, asomewhaiba.S*ded aga»

1 P. o/M., i, p. 686 seqq.

- E.g. Vapheio Tomb, 'E<£. 'Apx-, 1889,
PI. X, 9, 10 (replicas of same design). P. and
C, p. S45, Fig. 428, 16 (agate lentoid,

example of this design on a threw
bead-seal of traditional M. M. Ill « '
the Morea (Berlin Cat., No. 49 ")■

from