On various sites in the palace
at Knossos there have been found stone vessels of diorite, syenite,
and liparite, exquisitely wrought. Now, such work is eminently
characteristic of the Early Egyptian Dynastic period, the artists
of that time taking a pride in turning out bowls of these intensely
hard stones, wrought sometimes to such a degree of fineness as to
be translucent. The chances are against these bowls having been
imported in later days, as the taste for them gradually died out
in Egypt, and 'no ancient nation had antiquarian tastes till the
time of the Saites in Egypt and of the Romans still later.' The
stone vessels discovered by Mr. Seager at Mokhlos, though wrought
out of beautiful native materials, betray, according to Dr. Evans,
the strong influence of protodynastic Egyptian models. Coming down a
little farther, to Early Minoan III., there is evidence of Egyptian
influence in the fact that the ivory seals of this period seem
to derive their motives from the so-called 'button-seals' of the
Sixth Egyptian Dynasty. Mr. H. R. Hall believes that the derivation
was the other way about. 'It would seem very probable that this
decidedly foreign decoration motive was adopted by the Egyptians
from the AEgeans about the end of the Old Kingdom (=Early Minoan
III.), so that the Egyptian seal designs are copied from those of
the Cretan seal-stones, rather than the reverse.
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