copper daggers with very short
triangular blades, a number of rude stone seals, and very primitive
idols, rudely imitating the human form. There are still no traces
of any surviving building on the hill of Knossos, nor is there any
definite link with Egypt to afford an opportunity for determining
the date of the period.

[Illustration XXIV: THE BASILICA. STONE LAMP. THE ROYAL VILLA, KNOSSOS
(_p_. 108)]

_Early Minoan III_.--In this period the proportion of painted vases
steadily increases, though for a time there is also a revival of
the incised ornament, attributed by Dr. Evans to influence from
the Cyclades, which at this time also gave to Crete the idea of
the flat, banjo-shaped human figurines which are characteristic
of the early deposits of Melos and Amorgos.

The use of the potter's wheel probably now begins, and the clay is
carefully sifted and fired, the favourite colour scheme being white
on lustrous brown or black slip, though sometimes the alternative
scheme of dark upon light is adopted; and vases are sometimes fashioned
out of very thin clay, in anticipation of the fine egg-shell Kamares
ware of Middle Minoan II. The chief decorative motive is a horizontal
band, or more than one, around the upper part of the vase. On these
bands the chief ornament is the zig-zag, and curves directly derived
therefrom, and the spiral begins to appear as a form of decoration.
It is uncertain whether the credit for the origination of this
favourite form of decorative motive is to be attributed to Egypt
or to Crete. Miss Hall[*] regards the Early Minoan III. spirals
as late-comers in the field, attributing the first development of
the spiral to the painters of Egyptian pre-Dynastic vases; but Mr.
H. R. Hall[**] denies the right of the volutes on the pre-Dynastic
vases to be regarded as spirals at all, considers that the true
spiral appears suddenly in Egypt as 'a new and unprecedented thing'
about the beginning of the Middle Kingdom, and infers that in its
use the Cretans were original, and the Egyptians merely borrowers;
while Dr. Evans[***] denies originality to both, and holds that
the use of the spiral was first developed on the European side
of the AEgean.

[Footnote *: 'The Decorative Art of Crete in the Bronze Age,' p.
9.]

[Footnote **: Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology,
vol. xxxi., part 5, pp. 221, 222.]

[Footnote ***: 'Scripta Minoa,' p. 126.]

The fact that the seals of this period show