Ægean archæeology; an introduction to the archæeology of prehistoric Greece . fthis kind was not uncommon, and remains of otherobjects adorned with it were found. Plaques of crystalfor inlaying caskets were found, with coloured designspainted on their lower surface, so as to be seen throughthe crystal. The best preserved example of this hackwork on crystal, as this art was described byseventeenth-century writers, shewed an exquisitejpiniature painting of a galloping bull on an azureground, the forepart of which was fairly similar process is illustrated by a rock-crystal swordpommel
Ægean archæeology; an introduction to the archæeology of prehistoric Greece . fthis kind was not uncommon, and remains of otherobjects adorned with it were found. Plaques of crystalfor inlaying caskets were found, with coloured designspainted on their lower surface, so as to be seen throughthe crystal. The best preserved example of this hackwork on crystal, as this art was described byseventeenth-century writers, shewed an exquisitejpiniature painting of a galloping bull on an azureground, the forepart of which was fairly similar process is illustrated by a rock-crystal swordpommel found at Mycenae. In the throne-room atKnossos, where the painting on crystal described abovewas found, was also discovered a small agate plaquepresenting a relief of a dagger laid upon an artisticallyfolded belt, which supplies an illustration of theglyptic art akin to that of the later cameo engraving,though the veins of the stone in this case run verticallyandWot in the same plane with the relief.^ » Evans, uic. cit., VII, p. 8i. lb., VI, p. 41. 2o6 AEGEAN ARCHAEOLOGY. Fig. 84. — Lentoid seal-intaglio {yaKdirerpa) : goddess ? Crete. Enlarged three times. The beauty of the Cretan intaglio seal-stones oryaXoTrerpa^? (milk-stones) (Fig. 84) is well known. Theywere often apparently worn on a bracelet, as we seefrom the Cupbearer-fresco.^ The beginnings of the Min-oan glyptic art are to be foundin ivory and bone was commonly used inNeolithic times for the makingI of tools, but one does not ex- pact ivory to have been knownin Neolithic Crete. However,in the Neolithic settlement atPhaistos was found a piece ofunworked ivory, proof posi-tive of connexion with Asia orAfrica even at that remoteperiod. The oldest Minoanseals, the conoid and button-shaped signets of the EarlyMinoan period, found in numbers at Koumasa and else-where in Crete, were of bone and ivory, and probably,like the oldest Egyptian seals, also of wood. And, as inEgypt, the soft stone steatite was
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