Fresco-painting also begins to leave survivals, and we have particularly
the fresco of the Blue Boy gathering white crocuses. At the beginning
of the period the old form of pictographic writing is still in
general use, but by the close of Middle Minoan III. the earlier
type of the linear script, Class A, has made its appearance and
is extensively used. The Middle Minoans of the Third period were
the fabricators of the huge knobbed and corded _pithoi_, or jars,
some of them with the curious 'trickle,' ornament, which is surely
decoration reduced to its last straits. The artist merely dabbed
quantities of brown glaze paint around the rims of his jars, and
allowed it to trickle down the sides at its own will. The result
is curious, but can scarcely be called beautiful (Plate IX. 2).
'Ab-nub's child, Sebek-user, deceased,' whose statuette was found
at Knossos, gives us a point of connection between the earlier
part of Middle Minoan III. and the Thirteenth Egyptian Dynasty,
while the alabastron of Khyan links the later portion of the period
with the Hyksos domination in Egypt. The King who built the great
tomb at Isopata, already described, must have reigned at Knossos
during this period.
_Late Minoan I_.--In this period we come into touch with a great
deal of the fine work of the Royal Villa at Hagia Triada, which
has been already described.
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