occurs very frequently on the Mycenaean sites of that
period. The seals with fantastic forms of monsters, such as those
found in such numbers at Zakro, date from the beginning of Late
Minoan I., and to this period also belong the earlier of the Shaft-
or Circle-Graves at Mycenae, so that now for the first time Minoan
can be equated with Mycenaean. We are still without any system of
dating that is absolutely certain, but this is the last period
of which such a remark is true. The next period brings us into
touch with Egyptian synchronisms whose date is certain to within
a few years.

_Late Minoan II_.--To Late Minoan II. belong the great glories
of the second palace at Knossos, which arrived at its greatest
splendour just before the time at which it was to be destroyed.
Now were built the Throne Room and its antechamber, and the Royal
Villa with its dais and throne and columned hall, while the walls
of the completed palace were covered with the splendid frescoes
of whose beauties the Cup-Bearer and the spectators watching the
games give us evidence. The reliefs in hard plaster, such as the
bull's head and the King with the peacock plumes, show the style
of decoration which gave variety on the walls to the paintings on
the flat. In pottery the change of style and decoration is gradual,
but quite pronounced. The chief characteristic of the time is the
fabrication of large decorated vases and _pithoi_, such as the
beautiful papyrus relief vase of the Royal Villa, nearly 4 feet
in height (Plate XXIII.; see also Plate XXX.). Naturalism still
survives in occasional designs, but the bulk of the design is
conventional, and the composition of the various elements is often
extremely skilful. A typical form of vessel of this period is the
long narrow strainer, which is borne by the Cup-Bearer in the palace
fresco, and of which various specimens have been found. In many
cases these strainers were made of variegated marble, though pottery
was also used for them.

The bronze vessels from the north-west house at Knossos, and the
swords from the earlier Zafer Papoura graves, testify to the skill
with which metal was wrought. One of these swords from the chieftain's
grave, the short weapon which the noble of Late Minoan II. carried
along with his long rapier, perhaps for parrying thrusts, as the
gallants of Queen Elizabeth's time used their daggers, has a pommel
of translucent agate, and a gold-plated hilt engraved with a design
of a