Before literacy became widespread, seals served for identification or to mark ownership. While very early seals may have been made of organic materials that have perished the first extant examples are of clay. During the Early Minoan period (ca. 2600–2000 B.C.), various easily worked materials, such as ivory, bone, shell, and soft stones, including serpentine and steatite, were adopted. During the Middle Minoan and Late Minoan periods, harder stones, such as rock crystal, haematite, jasper, agate, and chalcedony, gained favor. The general dating of seals is correlated with that of the palaces that were the centers of culture on the island of Crete. The apogee of Minoan gem engraving occurs during the time of the second palaces, between about 1600 and 1450 B.C., when semiprecious stones, such as agate, were engraved with consummately rendered figural subjects, particularly animals. This gem, of a slightly later date, depicts in the Aegean style a griffin–a powerful mythical creature with the head and wings of a bird and the body of a lion.
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