¹ In the excavation notebooks and on the labels this area was known as ‘Prinaria’ from the oak scrub. The excavation was conducted by Mr. F. H. Stubbings.

² BSA xlix. 248 ff.

³ Wace, , Mycenae 83 ff., pls. 101–3.Google Scholar Professor Mylonas, Ancient Mycenae, thinks the ivory group ‘was prepared to be deposited in a grave’, a theory for which there is no evidence.

⁴ Wace, op. cit. pl. 104 b.

⁵ Numbered 16 in Dr. Holland's plan, Wace, op. cit. pl. 4. Professor Mylonas, op. cit. 62 ff., is unwilling to accept this as a shrine. He minimizes the fact that the Archaic and Hellenistic temples later built on the ruins had a north-south orientation, most unusual for Greek temples, but which is nevertheless the orientation of the ‘Shrine’. He offers no explanation for the unusual orientation of the Archaic temple, but believes that the builders of the Hellenistic temple preferred to orient it from north to south on ‘easily handled debris’ rather than on hard rock. The Hellenistic foundations follow the lines of the Archaic temple and lie only a few centimetres above the cement floor of the ‘Shrine’.

⁶ Prehistoric Tombs of Knossos 44, fig. 40.

⁷ Wace, op. cit. pl. 100.

⁸ Wace, op. cit. 82. As remarked above, Professor Mylonas (op. cit. 61 f.) does not think this was a shrine, but a store-room.

⁹ I owe this note on the figurines to Miss Elizabeth Wace.

¹⁰ Phylakopi 202, pl. xxxix. 16.

¹¹ Evans, , Prehistoric Tombs 58Google Scholar, figs. 60, 110, and Tomb of Double Axes 45, fig. 59; BSA xxv. 365, fig. 79 a. It is frequent in glass, e.g. BSA xxv. 383, fig. 89 a; Blegen, Prosymna figs. 305, 379.

¹² Evans, , Prehistoric Tombs 76, figs. 85, 110Google Scholar; Vollgraff, , BCH 1904, 383, fig. 15.Google Scholar It is frequent in glass, e.g. BSA xxv. 383, fig. 89 j. The mould from Mycenae (Schliemann, , Mycenae 107, fig. 162Google Scholar) was probably for casting examples in glass or paste.

¹³ Wace, , Chamber Tombs 87 (75), 195, pl. xxxviiiGoogle Scholar; an example in gold from Tomb 518.

¹⁴ There is an example in gold from Mycenae from Tomb 2, Tsountas, , EA 1888, 137Google Scholar, which is No. 2307 in the National Museum, Athens. There is a faience example from Mycenae from Tomb 526, see Wace, op. cit. 94, 7 g, where other examples are quoted; see also ibid. 205. The gold specimens from the Argive Heraeum (Blegen, op. cit. 271, fig. 541), which are not later than L.H. I, are of a different type.

¹⁵ Cf. ‘Seal Impressions of Nuzi’, AASOR xxiv (1947) 11 (henceforth abbreviated as Nuzi).

¹⁶ For the bulk of seal impressions from Nuzi cf. Nuzi and also Lacheman, E. R., Miscellaneous Texts from Nuzi ii, Harvard Semitic Series xiv (1950) pls. 3–7 and 110–18.Google Scholar For cylinder seals excavated at that site cf. Starr, R. F. S., Nuzi (1939) pls. 118 D, E, G, H, 119 A–H.Google Scholar For seal impressions on tablets said to have come from Kirkuk itself cf. Contenau, G., Babyloniaca ix (1926) 69–151, figs. 88–113 and 115–31.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Woolley, , Alalakh (1955) pls. ix–lxvii passim.Google Scholar

¹⁸ The inception of the four to five generations observable in the tablets of Nuzi may be set about 1500 B.C. on the basis of the occurrence of the name of King Barratarna (or Shurratarna) of Mitanni on one of the tablets (cf. Oppenheim, A. L., Basor xciii (1944) 16)Google Scholar dated by W. F. Albright and Sidney Smith in the early fifteenth century (cf. Basor, ibid. n. 1). B. Landsberger places Saushatar, Barratarna's successor, about 1480–1455 (JCS viii (1954) 54).

¹⁹ Cf. Woolley, op. cit. 399.

²⁰ e.g. Woolley, op. cit., nos. 21, 52, 54, 55, 102, and 104 belong to the closely related Nuzi Groups xi (nos. 467–91) and xii (especially nos. 497–508). Alalakh nos. 25–27 correspond to Nuzi nos. 35–37, of which only one example of an original cylinder was published from Nuzi itself (cf. Starr, Nuzi pl. 119 c).

²¹ Cf. Stratigraphie comparée (1948) 409.

²² The cylinders from Beisan were published with good photographs and reliable data by Miss Barbara Parker in her article ‘Cylinder Seals from Palestine’, Iraq xi (1949) 1–43, pls. i–xxvii (hereafter Iraq xi), to which references to cylinders from Beisan will be directed rather than to the often misleading drawings in Rowe, A., Four Canaanite Temples of Beth Shan (1940)Google Scholar, pls. xxxvii–xl.

Of fifty-six cylinders of Mitannian style found at Beisan the following can be assigned to Group ii of the Nuzi imprints, Iraq xi. 35, 37, 39, 41–44, 46, 50, 53, 56, 60–65, 69–70, 71–73, 76, 82, 87, 88, 115. To these could be added a number for which there were no parallels among the impressions of Group ii of Nuzi. With the exception of Iraq xi, no. 35 and perhaps nos. 37 and 88 (the latter badly preserved) which have the precise and clean carving noted in the cylinders Alalakh nos. 25–27 (see n. 20), the cylinders from Beisan here listed all have simple, large, and rather sloppily cut (or moulded) designs, in which there may be noted a preference for rows of animals or fish and for vertical and sometimes horizontal panels filled with various patterns, usually a star impaled on a vertical axis (e.g. Iraq xi, nos. 43, 44). This entire group of seals from Beisan is stylistically consistent and could have been made in one workshop, which may have lasted for more than one generation since the cylinders cover Levels IX–VII.

²³ The writer has termed ‘bouquet-tree’ a design in which the crown is indicated by four or six (rarely two or eight) globular shapes arranged on either side of a stem which is topped by another globe of similar size, the whole design being reminiscent of an old-fashioned bouquet of flowers.

²⁴ Wace, , Chamber Tombs 73, fig. 28.Google Scholar

²⁵ Cf. Corpus of Ancient Near Eastern Seals i (1948), nos. 1024–8 (henceforth referred to as Corpus i). Only on a Mitannian cylinder found in Cyprus, (JHS lxxi (1951)Google Scholar, pl. xlvii b top) the enthroned figure has a headgear with one frontal horn, probably a side view of the horned headgear as seen occasionally in the rendering of gods, genii, and sphinxes with multiple-horned mitres (e.g. Lacheman, , Misc. Texts from Nuzi ii, pl. 113, 278, 279; pl. 114, 83, 284).Google Scholar

²⁶ Nuzi, Group i, especially nos. 1, 2, 7–13, and 20, 21, though the last-quoted designs are more cursorily executed than the cylinder from Tomb 517 at Mycenae.

²⁷ Stratigraphie 411, end of n. 5. The appearance of a cylinder of Group i at Mochlos (see n. 30) tends to confirm this supposition.

²⁸ ‘Excavations at Tell Beit Mirsim’ ii, AASOR xvii (1938) 77.

²⁹ Only three cylinders of Mitannian style were found in Level V at Beisan: our Plate 38 d and Iraq xi, nos. 120 and 121. The last-mentioned is an exceptional piece because of its fine cutting and its material, hematite (cf. also Parker, B., Iraq xi. 27)Google Scholar, and was doubtless kept over a long period for these reasons. Though of humble faience and showing poorer cutting, the other two cylinders must also be considered as survivals in this level, to which only no. 161 seems to belong by right, with a tree of late Kassite or post-Kassite type (e.g. King, L. W., Babylonian Boundary Stones (1912)Google Scholar pl. liv, trees embroidered on the robe of King Marduk nadin-Ahhe of the eleventh century B.C.) and a large figure of late Middle Assyrian style (e.g. Moortgat, A., Vorderasiatische Rollsiegel (1940) nos. 590, 593, 594).Google Scholar Even Iraq xi, no. 30, the well-known cylinder of Level V (Rameses II shooting at a target), was probably kept as a venerated object in the temple of Rameses III in which it was found.

³⁰ Evans, , Prehistoric Tombs 71, 117, figs. 81 b, 117.Google Scholar On a cylinder seal in the Metropolitan Museum, Acc. no. 26. 31. 297, which is contained in a bequest of seals from Mochlos by R. B. Seager, a bird is placed similarly over the back of a horned animal.

³¹ Cf. Iraq xi, no. 66.

³² Cf. Iraq xi, no. 69.

³³ Cf. ‘Tell Beit Mirsim’ ii, AASOR xvii. 77.

³⁴ Cf. Schaeffer, , Enkomi-Alasia (1952) 88–96, pl. ii. 1, 3–5.Google Scholar Schaeffer suggested that these processions are derived from Syro-Palestinian prototypes. None of the published examples, however, shows a similar tree or plant design repeated in one and the same scene.

³⁵ A good example for such a transformation is a cylinder seal from Palaikastro in Crete (BSA xl (1939–40) 45, fig. 16) which shows a long-robed winged figure between two fish, and a bouquet-tree between two water-birds. The manner in which the drill was used to produce cup-shaped hollows for the heads of the birds and the winged figure as well as for the bouquet-tree is Mitannian, as is the symmetrical arrangement of the scene. Yet water-birds with gracefully curving necks are not found in Mitannian seal designs, nor can one point to a parallel for the prominent position of the fish. Fish and water-birds, however, occur frequently in Late Helladic pottery designs and are also found on several Minoan and Mycenaean seals and impressions (e.g. Bossert, , Art of Ancient Crete (1937) 226, fig. 389 dGoogle Scholar; 238, fig. 401 g; Evans, , Palace of Minos iv. 2 (1935) 492, figs. 426, 427 for the water-birdsGoogle Scholar; Evans, op. cit. 496, fig. 435 for a cylinder entirely decorated with a row of the type of fish found on the cylinder from Palaikastro). Obviously a gem-cutter familiar with Aegean preferences has adapted a design of Mitannian derivation.

³⁶ e.g. Corpus i, nos. 1006 (middle figure), 1020, 1021 (the figures wearing mantles).

³⁷ e.g. Corpus i, nos. 1012, 1014–19.

³⁸ e.g. Corpus i, nos. 1013, 1032.

³⁹ Iraq xi, no. 84.

⁴⁰ Nuzi, no. 1 (early or middle Tehiptilla, second generation), no. 7 (eT), no. 21 (eT); only two impressions of the entire group were on tablets of the third generation; all others not listed here were from the middle or late period of the second.

⁴¹ Stratigraphie 411, n. 5.

⁴² Cf. Wace, , Mycenae pl. 82Google Scholara, b; Bossert, , Ancient Crete 72–73, fig. 133–4.Google Scholar

⁴³ It will be interesting to see whether the two cylinders from Ras Shamra, nos. 11201 and 7190, mentioned by Schaeffer as parallels for the cylinder from Tomb 517 at Mycenae, show this headgear.

⁴⁴ One of the two cylinders from the Mycenaean layers of the Argive Heraeum published by Blegen, , Prosymna (1937) 146Google Scholar, from Tomb xxxviii seems to belong to the same type of crude but distinctive design as Iraq xi, no. 146 from Beisan Level VII (note especially the occurrence of what seems to be a tree, a standard, and between them an offering table? in both cylinders). Miss Parker draws attention to a closely related cylinder from a Mycenaean tomb at Enkomi in Cyprus now in the British Museum (Iraq xi. 32, s.v. no. 146). Again this group of three cylinders may provide a link between the Aegean and Palestine. Schaeffer, however, cites four cylinders from Ras Shamra as parallels for the example from the Heraeum (R.S. nos. 249, 13172, 7107, 6130). If these cylinders from Ras Shamra are indeed as close in style as the one from Beisan, we would have to look to Ras Shamra as the fountain-head for the relations with the Aegean and with Palestine.

⁴⁵ Rowe, A., Topography and History of Beth Shan (1930) 21Google Scholar, merely refers to a ‘quantity of (Cretan) pottery’, but Albright, W. F. (AASOR xvii. 77)Google Scholar mentions Mycenaean sherds in Level VII, a statement confirmed and elaborated by I. Ben Dor, who suggested that the pottery from Beisan in the University Museum at Philadelphia be examined for the possible presence of Mycenaean sherds. I therefore wrote to Professor Machteld Mellink of Bryn Mawr College who kindly requested one of her students to examine the Beisan pottery for Mycenaean sherds. Mr. Ross Holloway has therefore kindly examined the pottery and reports as follows: ‘There are three pieces of pottery which seem to me to be genuine Mycenaean imports:

‘1. No. 29–103–412, Level IX, Room 1337. Wall sherd. On a cream ground sections of three undulating lines of dark brown paint. Two of them have a solid white centre line; one has a row of white dots. No doubt they represent the arms of an octopus. This piece must have come from a large and handsome vase.

‘2. No. 29–102–919, Level VIII, Room 1303. Three sherds; two join to form the shoulder of a stirrup jar. The third is probably from the same vase. The clay is cream colour with encircling lines in dark brown. The shape is possibly related to the following piece.

‘3. No. 29–102–914, Level VII, Room 1263. Stirrup jar; about one-half of the vase is preserved, giving a complete profile. The clay is light cream, the decorations encircling rings of light red paint. The shape seems to me to belong to Furumark's class III A: 2 (–B); Mycenaean Pottery 614, no. 178 and British Museum Catalogue (1925) A 924.

‘In addition to these imported pieces there are thirty-five examples of local imitations of stirrup jars. They are of a coarse buff to reddish fabric (often friable) and are sometimes decorated with broad encircling lines in a matt red. The shapes are ill-proportioned but tend to be globular rather than wide-shouldered and flattened as the two imported vases. Many come from unstratified material, mostly found in the neighbourhood of tombs. In particular, round Tomb 219 twenty examples, round Tomb 210 four, round Tomb 229 one. The stratified material I was able to locate is as follows :

Level VII, Room 1263, one example.

Amenhotep III Temple, one; Area CN II, 29 (18th Dynasty), one.

Level VI, Room 1588, two.

Area CN II, 7 (Early Iron Age), two.

The interpretations ‘Amenhotep Temple’, ‘18th Dynasty’, and ‘Early Iron Age’ are those of the file cards.

As far as I can tell, this is the extent of the Mycenaean material. There are also a number of lentoid flasks from the site. They seem to be of local manufacture. The fabric is similar to that of the imitation stirrup jugs. Perhaps there may be some Mycenaean influence on them.’

⁴⁶ Cf. Moortgat, A., ZA (N.F.) xiii (1941) 50–88.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Stratigraphie 409, in the layers of Ras Shamra I (3) (1365–1200 B.c.).

⁴⁸ Woolley, Alalakh no. 120, shows some resemblance to the impression of an earlier cylinder on a tablet dated from the second half of the reign of King Adad-nirari I (1304–1273 B.C.) to the reign of Shalmaneser I (1272–1243 B.C.). Moortgat, op. cit. 85, 87, Abb. 80, and Woolley, op. cit. no. 121, may also belong to a late and transitional group of Mitannian cylinders.

⁴⁹ Woolley, op. cit. nos. 122 and 144; no earlier examples of this degenerate group are known.