SEA-TRANSPORT OF THOROUGHBRED HORSE

82-,

East Mediterranean rulers. But this further entailed the introduction of brcd
a breed of thoroughbred horses, such as the Island had hardly yet known.

Sea-transport of the Thoroughbred Horse. Large

. sealing

An interesting" record of their transport, here reproduced in Fig. SOS, showing
is the sealing showing a shapely figure of a horse superposed by the sMp0""

Fig. SOS. Minoan Transport Vessel with
Figure of Horse superimposed : Clay Seal-
ing from Little Palace, Knossos (f). (See,
too, P. ofM., ii, Pt. I, p. 244.) (f)

Fig. 806. Sailing Vessel with Deck

Shelter : on Clay Sealing found

with Tablets of Class B in N.

Entrance Deposit (f).

engraver as indicative of its cargo on a vessel provided both with sails and
rowers. The artificial tufts into which the mane is here divided corre-
spond with those of our ' Chariot tablets ', and, as in other cases, the details
of the harness show a distinct relationship with Syro-Egyptian fashions.
The close connexions at this time existing- with Cyprus and, indeed, the
absolute uniformity of some of the Cypro-Minoan chariot types depicted on
vases with Egyptianizing versions of Type B, sufficiently indicate the
general direction from which this fine breed of horses was imported.

Another large clay sealing, presenting the middle section of a similar Minoan
class of ship, occurred, together with many of the 'Chariot tablets', in the J^Eon
considerable.deposit of these and other clay documents found in the Northern seal-
Entrance Passage of the Palace. As in the former case, its archaeological
context dates the seal impression to L. M. II. Both are sailing vessels,
provided with deck shelters, the rowers beneath appearing in Fig. 805.