Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/341

 288 Primitive Greece: Mycenian Art. Hence archaeologists have applied the name of island-stones {Inselsteine) to these gems ; the appellation, however, is incorrect and out of date, for intaglios of the same nature are plentiful on continental Greece, especially in Laconia and Argolis. Thence have come the finest of all, those that will enable us to determine the character of the art on which they are dependent, an art that reckons the buildings of Tiryns and Mycenae, together with the sculptures and artistic objects that have been discovered among their ruins, among its masterpieces. Accordingly, the only fitting denomination applicable to this class of antiquities, the one we shall employ throughout this study will be, *' Mycenian intaglios." Both around the iEgean and in Anterior Asia and Egypt, the same want suggested the idea of engraving forms in hard substances ; every man of standing in giving his orders or in transacting business, wished to affix a mark that should be an emblem of his own individuality, the representation of his will, on some soft material which air or firing would harden. Even when the use of writing shall become general, many centuries will go by ere men will take to signing their name on public or private documents, instead of affixing their seal to them. The habit of writing the name did not obtain until the commencement of what we call the modern era. There was then a far more cogent reason why seals should have been indispensable in societies that knew not how to write. Hence it appears that when chiefs and heads of families wished to have a personal signet, whose well- known impression should be a standing witness to subjects and neighbours, they demanded this service of metal. ^ Although the number of engraved stones from the Mycenae shaft-graves is exceedingly small, Schliemann brought out several rings of gold and silver, whose large signets are adorned with engrav- ings of surpassing merit. This is to be accounted for from the fact that the goldsmith was far in advance, his hand much better exercised and more dexterous, than could be the case with other artisans, who, like him, worked for these wealthy native princes. On the one hand, the cost of the material of which these signet-rings were made was far beyond the means of the ^ M. Tsoundas ('E<^ij;i£p/c» 1889) thinks that the largest proportion of these gems served as ornaments rather than seals, in that no trace whatever of a mount is to be found on those that are not set in rings (^E^i^^cptc, 1888).