572

WILD AND DOMESTICATED SWINE

a somewhat later prism of the hieroglyphic class, we see the animal c
with a gate or door its domestic character seems to be well assured l n
sealing from Hagia Triada (Fig. 54S),2 beneath figures of two lar<re swj a

maybe discerned
a whole litter of
little pios. a
couchant boar
with the upper
outline of an-
other is of com-
mon occurrence,
and on a haema-
tite lentoid from
near the Argive
Heraeon3 this
device is coupled
on the other side
with the seated oxen motive shown in Fig. 539 above, suggesting that the
swine, too, are of the domestic kind. On a fine cornelian lentoid, 'from
an island of the Archipelago',' appear two seated boars, with the head of
a third looking in the opposite direction (Fig. 549). That pigs formed an
important item in Minoan stock is shown by the Palace inventories.
Sacrifice That this animal also served a sacrificial purpose is clear from the agate

of boar. ientoid from a c]lamber tomb at Mycenae (Fig. 550).5 Here a long-robed
personage belonging, it would appear, to the priestly caste described in

in the

Fig. 548. Two Swine with

Fig. 549.

Group of three

Litter below. Sealing :

Swine :

Lentoid Corne-

H. Triada.



lian.

Section ioi above, stands, knife in hand, about to make an incision i
the lower abdomen of a huge boar—evidently already slaughtered place
on a table like that upon which in other cases sacrificed oxen are set.
an agate lentoid (see above, Fig. 542 ^)°, an ox, with a knife sticking
his neck (a proof that he had been already sacrificed), is laid on a

a transverse

1 A.E., Scripta Minoa, PI. II, p. 22, a.

- D. Levi, Crelule, on p. 43, Fig. 98: The
lower part of the sealing is there, however, inter-
preted as inequalities of the soil (' II suolo e
accennato da am pie e sconvolte zolle di terra').

1 Furtwangler, A. G., PL III, iS. The
design on both sides of this lentoid rests on
a ' triple gradation'.

' E. Babelon, Collection Pauvcrt tic la
Cluxpclk, PI. I, 6, and p. 2. The base

which supports this design shows i

wavy decoration recalling the convw ^

representation of stone work on La

below the u> |
Room

frescoes—as for instance.

on the walls of the 'Throne

Knossos. , .,■

' Tsountas, M^. '&PX-> lS8 ' ,,
(upside down); Furtw. A. G-, P •

• P. 56S.