THE LAPIDARY'S WORKSHOP

worked oblong piece of jasper and other materials for us
lio-ht evidences of the actual manu-
facture of lentoid bead-seals. Two of
these are here illustrated in Fig. 589 a
and b, and show steatite beads as first
rouohed out, a with an incipient boring
at one end, b wholly unbored. The
actual engraving of the design was in
these cases clearly left to the finishing
staoe. In Fig. 590 a-d, however, we en-
counter a different method, the in-
taglio—a cow suckling a calf—having
been cut on a roughly rounded grey
steatite core (b)—sawn off below (c)—
the cutting out and drilling of the bead
itself being left to the final stage (a,d).
With the remains of the unfinished
bead-seals there also lay clay nodules
which had been used for trial pieces by
the engraver during the course of his
work and showed parts of very late animal designs.1

595
there came to

Fig. 589. Lentoid Bead-seals in
Process of Manufacture.

a i c d

]' ig. o!)0. Sealstone in Process of Manufacture : ' Lapidary's Workshop ', L. M. III.
a, Top of Piece of Grey-green Steatite showing Intaglio; 6, Side View of Piece;
-i Ease; d, Sketch of Seal-type.

Among these was a fragment of a scene
showing a dog seizing his quarry, others
of couchanl oxen, gqats, and horned sheep,
ar>d a section of a conventional palm-tree. In
an adjoining corner stood a pot full of small

carbonized beans of a kind still imported from
Alexandria in the Candia market. Evidently
the L. M. Ill lapidary had made his home in
this outer basement.