“The Seals of Curium,” c. 1950

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The style of the impression presents a problem since it [handwritten: is] has no precise /parallels. The fluid outlines of the bird[handwritten: s], however, especially of their wings and tails, [handwritten: as] as well as the fairly naturalistic rendering of the leafy trees suggests the freedom of Mycenean style. Minoan-Mycenean objects which could be cited as references would be a gold necklace from Tomb V at M. with birds

(Karo, Schachtgräber L XVI, 689 and p. 129, fig. 48; Bossert, Ancient Crete, p. 92 Fig. 180 ) … and the rendering of trees in a manner somewhat resembling that of the impression from Curium in the fragment of a vessel (S.Karo, [handwritten: ibid] op. cit. p. 107, Fig. 35 and CXXII 481; Bosser from another shaft grave at Mycenae. Ancient Crete, p. 47 Fig. 77.

The same stylistic affinities can be stablished for the impression 580 which has a succession of dog-headed fishtailed(?) monsters, suggesting the creatures appearing together with Scylla in later renderings on coins of Agrigentum. The forceful heads of the dogs and [handwritten: ?] the kind of rhythm in which they are arranged recalls the renderings of the animals on the blades of the daggers from the shaft graves of Mycenae.

The representation of 720 which shows two confronted bulls, the hornes of their lowered heads interlocked in deadly combat with a small man with bent knees appearing behind one of them. Though the motif which is often found in the Late Bronze Age art of the Eastern Mediterrane was still rendered on such 7th century objects as one of the silver bowls

from Cyprus in the Met Museum (Myres, MMA Cesnola Collection, p. 460, No. 4554), it had lost its vigor by the tame manner in which the bulls merely seem to knock their heads together/instead of bending [handwritten: down] to touch the ground with her muzzles, in the sherd from Curium. The hum Minoan or an figure of the impression is not paralleled by any/Mycenean represen-ations yet the forward thrust of the head seems reminiscent of the attitude of the small head of the Toreador from Knossos (Bossert, p. 173 Figs. 303, 304; Evans, PM III, p. 425, Figs. 291, p. 431, Fig. 297.Ø)