the
beauty and wonder of the sea, which suggest the important part
which it played in the lives of the Cretan populace. 'At ports
where sailors and fishermen and divers for sponge and purple went
and came, it was natural for an imaginative race to acquire that
sense of the magic and mystery of the sea, that curiosity about
the life in its depths, which found expression in these ceramic
pictures.'[*]

[Footnote *: R. C. Bosanquet, _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, vol.
xxiv., part 2, p. 322.]

[Illustration XXVI: GREAT STAIRCASE, PHAESTOS (_p_. 120)

_G. Maraghiannis_]

Along with the marine designs went naturalistic representations
of flowers and grasses--the lily and the crocus, already familiar
from earlier work, the Egyptian lotus in a form adapted to the taste
of the Minoan artist, and ivy leaves and tendrils. A peculiarly
graceful design on a vase from Zakro shows an adaptation of the
Egyptian lotus, presenting that favourite Nilotic motive in a style
more flexible and easy than that of the native representations of
it. The design in this case is painted in white on a reddish-brown
ground, and its peculiarity is that the white was laid on after the
vase had been fired, and can be removed with the finger (Plate XXIX.
2). The three vases from Hagia Triada, the Boxer, the Harvester, and
the Chieftain, belong to this period, as do also the frescoes of
the Hunting Cat and the Climbing Plants, and probably the Royal
Gaming Board from the palace at Knossos. At this time, too, we
come upon the long bronze swords which had succeeded the daggers
of the preceding ages. Hieroglyphic writing is now superseded by
the linear script of Class A, which now comes into regular use,
although at Knossos the documents in this script, according to
Dr. Evans, are only to be found in the stratum belonging to the
last period of Middle Minoan, their place being supplied by Class
B, which occurs only at Knossos.

At Hagia Triada and Gournia the older forms of vase are mingled
with early specimens of the type variously known as 'Buegelkanne,'
'Vases a Etrier,' or 'Stirrup-vases.' These vases, named from the
stirrup-like appearance of their curving handles, may more correctly
be called 'false-necked vases,' from the fact that the neck to
which the handles unite is closed, and another neck is formed,
farther away from the handles, for convenience in pouring. The
false-necked vase is the characteristic pottery type of Late Minoan
III., and