C.
[Footnote *: _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, 1905, part ii.]
With the succeeding Cretan epoch, Middle Minoan III., we come into
touch with the dark age of Egyptian history, the great gap covering
Dynasties XIII.-XVII., towards the close of which is to be placed
the Hyksos domination. As the age was so troubled in Egypt, it
is scarcely probable that we shall find much evidence there of
any connection between the two lands; but the evidence found on
Cretan soil, though slight, is conclusive as to the fact that
communication was maintained. For the earlier part of the period
we have the statuette, already mentioned as having been found at
Knossos, bearing the name of 'Ab-nub's child, Sebek-user, deceased,
born of the lady Sat-Hathor.' 'Who Sebek-user was,' as Mr. Hall
remarks, 'and how his statuette got to Crete, we have no means
of knowing.' But the 'deceased' in the inscription shows that the
statuette was a funerary or memorial one, and it is hardly likely
that such an object was imported merely for its own sake or for
its artistic value, which is slight enough. May it not be that
either Ab-nub, the father, or Sebek-user, the son, or both, may
have been Egyptians resident at the Court of Knossos, either as
representatives of Egyptian interests or as skilled artificers,
and that the statuette is the memorial of one who died far from
his native land, but not without friends to see that he did not
lack the funerary attentions which would have been his at home? No
doubt there was interchange of persons as well as of commodities
between the two lands; some of the artists and craftsmen of both
countries would naturally go to where there was a demand arising
for their work, or where instructors were being sought to teach
the new arts; and Ab-nub and his son Sebek-user may have drifted
to Knossos in this manner, and found at last their graves there.
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