DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.805#0042
[302] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT 33
are naturally preponderant and the personal relation in which the seals
stand to their owners is clearly revealed. They seem indeed to be descriptive
of his individual character as an owner of flocks and herds, a merchant, a
huntsman or a warrior.
These more naive delineations, of a ruder stage of culture, supply
a welcome clue to the interpretation of such ideographic elements as
survive in the more conventional forms with which we are at present
dealing. Here too we may often see a reference to the avocation or
profession of the owner of the seal and may venture to conclude that the
more purely symbolic characters have a personal application. Thus for
example Fig. 34, exhibiting at the beginning of one column a ship with
two crescent moons above it, may be reasonably supposed to have been the
signet of one who undertook long voyages. Fig. 24, with the pig and
door, would have belonged to some one who owned herds of swine: in which
case the two figures of the axe and kid on the other face may contain the
elements of the owner's own name. The fish at the head of Fig. 33
may indicate a fisherman. The seal-stone represented in Fig. 23, with the
adze and other implements—including one in which I have ventured to
recognize the template of a decorative artist,—probably belonged to a
member of a masons' guild. The harp on Fig. 31 suggests a musician. It
is possible that the individual element of ownership, which on the earlier
class is brought out by the complete human figure, may be elsewhere
indicated by the human eye alone, which is of frequent occurrence in
these stones.
§ IV.—Classification and Comparison of the Symbols.
In the following list I have included all the above signs that have any
claim to be regarded as of hieroglyphic value, excluding the small obviously
ornamental devices that are occasionally found filling in the space between
the symbols, but including one or two like the S-shaped figures that may
after all belong to the same decorative or supplemental category. It will be
seen from the arrangement adopted that the symbols, where it is possible to
recognize their meaning, fall into regular classes like the Hittite or the
Egyptian.
The Human Body and its Parts.
1 • Fig. 365. Ideograph of a man standing alone, with his arms
fm\ held downwards, perhaps denoting ownership. It is followed
#1 by linear characters on another facet of the stone. Human
■# *■ figures in this position are frequent on Cypriote cylinders.
A similar figure also occurs on a cone from Ramleh, near Jaffa, in the
Ashmolean Collection,
are naturally preponderant and the personal relation in which the seals
stand to their owners is clearly revealed. They seem indeed to be descriptive
of his individual character as an owner of flocks and herds, a merchant, a
huntsman or a warrior.
These more naive delineations, of a ruder stage of culture, supply
a welcome clue to the interpretation of such ideographic elements as
survive in the more conventional forms with which we are at present
dealing. Here too we may often see a reference to the avocation or
profession of the owner of the seal and may venture to conclude that the
more purely symbolic characters have a personal application. Thus for
example Fig. 34, exhibiting at the beginning of one column a ship with
two crescent moons above it, may be reasonably supposed to have been the
signet of one who undertook long voyages. Fig. 24, with the pig and
door, would have belonged to some one who owned herds of swine: in which
case the two figures of the axe and kid on the other face may contain the
elements of the owner's own name. The fish at the head of Fig. 33
may indicate a fisherman. The seal-stone represented in Fig. 23, with the
adze and other implements—including one in which I have ventured to
recognize the template of a decorative artist,—probably belonged to a
member of a masons' guild. The harp on Fig. 31 suggests a musician. It
is possible that the individual element of ownership, which on the earlier
class is brought out by the complete human figure, may be elsewhere
indicated by the human eye alone, which is of frequent occurrence in
these stones.
§ IV.—Classification and Comparison of the Symbols.
In the following list I have included all the above signs that have any
claim to be regarded as of hieroglyphic value, excluding the small obviously
ornamental devices that are occasionally found filling in the space between
the symbols, but including one or two like the S-shaped figures that may
after all belong to the same decorative or supplemental category. It will be
seen from the arrangement adopted that the symbols, where it is possible to
recognize their meaning, fall into regular classes like the Hittite or the
Egyptian.
The Human Body and its Parts.
1 • Fig. 365. Ideograph of a man standing alone, with his arms
fm\ held downwards, perhaps denoting ownership. It is followed
#1 by linear characters on another facet of the stone. Human
■# *■ figures in this position are frequent on Cypriote cylinders.
A similar figure also occurs on a cone from Ramleh, near Jaffa, in the
Ashmolean Collection,