Sen-mut's
tomb gives us a date about 1480 B.C., and Rekh-ma-ra's may bring
us down to 1450 B.C., or thereby. It is somewhat striking that
the periods of greatest splendour alike for the Egyptian Empire
and for the Minoan should virtually coincide. In either case, the
duration of the culmination of splendour was short. The magnificence
of the Egypt of Hatshepsut, Tahutmes III., and Amenhotep III., was
speedily to be clouded and dimmed by the disasters of the reign
of Akhenaten; but even before the glory of the Eighteenth Dynasty
had passed away, the sun of the Minoan Empire had set. Late Minoan
II., with all its triumphs of architecture and art, was brought to
an abrupt close by the sack of the palaces, probably about 1400
B.C., and the great frescoes of the palace at Knossos were the last
evidences of a magnificence which was never to be revived again
on Cretan soil.
During this period intercourse between Crete and Egypt must have
been frequent and close. It is not only indicated by the evidence
of the Sen-mut and Rekh-ma-ra tombs, but by the parallelism in
the styles of art in the two countries. The art of each remains
truly national, but the frescoes of Knossos and Hagia Triada and
those of the Eighteenth Dynasty in Egypt are inspired by the same
spirit, though in either case the result is modified by national
characteristics.
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