Steatite is extracted from the Arakan hill quarries.
An inscription ran round one of the steatite vases just below the lid.
Late Minoan art in its finest aspect is best illustrated by the animated ivory figures, wall paintings, and gesso duro reliefs at Cnossus, by the painted stucco designs at Hagia Triada, and the steatite vases found on the same site with zones in reliefs exhibiting life-like scenes of warriors, toreadors, gladiators, wrestlers and pugilists, and of a festal throng perhaps representing a kind of " harvest home."
The steatite vases with reliefs are of great importance.
It should be compared with stone work in Crete, especially the steatite vases with reliefs found at Hagia Triada.