The eye within the socket was cut out of a piece of
rock-crystal, the pupil and iris being indicated by means of colours
applied to the lower face of the crystal which had been hollowed
out, and had a certain magnifying power.'[*] Students of Early
Egyptian art will be reminded of the details of the eyes in the
statues of Rahotep and Nefert, and in the bronze statue of Pepy.
'Even after the Cnossian ivories, faience figurines, and faience
and plaster reliefs,' writes Mr. Hogarth, 'after the Cnossian and
Haghia Triadha frescoes, after the finest "Kamares" pottery, and
the finest intaglios, the Vaphio goblets and the Mycencae dagger
blades, one was still not prepared for the bull's head _rhyton_
... with its painted transparencies for eyes, and its admirable
modelling, and the striking contrast between the black polished
steatite of the mass and the creamy cameo shell of the inlay work.[**]
[Footnote *: The _Times_, August 27, 1908.]
[Footnote **: _Fortnightly Review_, October, 1908, pp. 600, 601.]
Within the palace proper, the work of 1907 witnessed the discovery
of a huge beehive chamber excavated in the rock underlying the
Southern Portico. It had been filled in with later debris and sherds
of the Middle Minoan period, and evidently belonged to a period
antedating that of the construction of even the earliest palace.
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