DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1118#0411
PARALLELS WITH CYPRIOTE GREEK SYLLABARY 761
Class A, one of the best defined characters that is here found, No. 1, is
peculiar to B. Nos. 3 and 9 also best answer to that, and the ' impaled
trianole' as a symbol is also connected with the inscriptions and seal-types
of the late palatial epoch at Knossos.
No. 15 of the Table (cf. Fig. 743, a) is unmistakably a degenerate version
of a facin°' ox-head, which in Crete is common on the hieroglyphic seal-
stones and sealings.1 In the corresponding sign of Class B (where the
fore-leers are added), it appears in the middle of groups, as a phonogram.
The clay-balls themselves may most naturally be compared with the
small round clay nodules found in the votive sanctuaries of Crete—as at
Petsofa and the Peak Sanctuary of Juktas,2 where was the traditional
Tomb of the Cretan Zeus. In connexion with the first discovery they
were aptly compared by Professor Myres3 with the 'pebbles, pellets, and
missiles of various kinds' thrown 'either into bonfires or into sacred places
or at a cult object', and in particular the Buddhist prayer pellets containing
a written prayer or petition thrown or spat at a cult image. In Minoan
Crete the name of the votary was inscribed on certain offertory relics such
as the small clay image from Tylissos or the bronze votive tablet from the
Psychro Cave.4 It seems likely, therefore, that the .inscriptions on the
Cypriote clay-balls served the same votive purpose, or at least supplied
a medium for placing the votary in the hands of the divinity. The 'cross'
sign at the end of Fig. 743, a, is a constantly recurring terminal of male
names on the Knossos B tablets, often succeeded by the 'man' sign.
The comparisons with characters of the advanced linear script of Crete
carry with them in several cases resemblances to signs of the Greek Main-
land Script.5 On the other hand, not a single sign peculiar to the Mainland
group can be said to find any similar form in the Cypriote series. In face
of this the idea of the introduction of the Cypro-Minoan script from the
' Mycenaean ' side seems to be less probable.
Parallels, some of which are too detailed to be accidental, are also
here given with signs of the Cypriote Greek Syllabary that first emerges
into view some four or five centuries later than the objects with which we
are dealing. The old syllabic script had been by that time very imperfectly
adapted as a vehicle for Greek writing, in an Age when, outside this con-
servative Island, the Semitic Alphabet had been generally adopted. This
Clay-balls
of Minoan
Sllrine.
Compari-
sons with
Linear
Script B.
Parallels
with signs
of Cypri-
ote Greek
syllabary.
See Scrip/a Minoa, i, p. 206, No. 62.
" P. ofM.,j, p. t5o.
3 The Sanctuary Site of Petsofa (B.S.A., ix)
P- 3S2 and PI. XIII, 66.
1 See P. of M., i, pp. 632, 633, Figs. 470,
471, and p. 634, Kg. 472.
s E.g., Nos. 2, 3. 5, 6, 7, S, 12.
Class A, one of the best defined characters that is here found, No. 1, is
peculiar to B. Nos. 3 and 9 also best answer to that, and the ' impaled
trianole' as a symbol is also connected with the inscriptions and seal-types
of the late palatial epoch at Knossos.
No. 15 of the Table (cf. Fig. 743, a) is unmistakably a degenerate version
of a facin°' ox-head, which in Crete is common on the hieroglyphic seal-
stones and sealings.1 In the corresponding sign of Class B (where the
fore-leers are added), it appears in the middle of groups, as a phonogram.
The clay-balls themselves may most naturally be compared with the
small round clay nodules found in the votive sanctuaries of Crete—as at
Petsofa and the Peak Sanctuary of Juktas,2 where was the traditional
Tomb of the Cretan Zeus. In connexion with the first discovery they
were aptly compared by Professor Myres3 with the 'pebbles, pellets, and
missiles of various kinds' thrown 'either into bonfires or into sacred places
or at a cult object', and in particular the Buddhist prayer pellets containing
a written prayer or petition thrown or spat at a cult image. In Minoan
Crete the name of the votary was inscribed on certain offertory relics such
as the small clay image from Tylissos or the bronze votive tablet from the
Psychro Cave.4 It seems likely, therefore, that the .inscriptions on the
Cypriote clay-balls served the same votive purpose, or at least supplied
a medium for placing the votary in the hands of the divinity. The 'cross'
sign at the end of Fig. 743, a, is a constantly recurring terminal of male
names on the Knossos B tablets, often succeeded by the 'man' sign.
The comparisons with characters of the advanced linear script of Crete
carry with them in several cases resemblances to signs of the Greek Main-
land Script.5 On the other hand, not a single sign peculiar to the Mainland
group can be said to find any similar form in the Cypriote series. In face
of this the idea of the introduction of the Cypro-Minoan script from the
' Mycenaean ' side seems to be less probable.
Parallels, some of which are too detailed to be accidental, are also
here given with signs of the Cypriote Greek Syllabary that first emerges
into view some four or five centuries later than the objects with which we
are dealing. The old syllabic script had been by that time very imperfectly
adapted as a vehicle for Greek writing, in an Age when, outside this con-
servative Island, the Semitic Alphabet had been generally adopted. This
Clay-balls
of Minoan
Sllrine.
Compari-
sons with
Linear
Script B.
Parallels
with signs
of Cypri-
ote Greek
syllabary.
See Scrip/a Minoa, i, p. 206, No. 62.
" P. ofM.,j, p. t5o.
3 The Sanctuary Site of Petsofa (B.S.A., ix)
P- 3S2 and PI. XIII, 66.
1 See P. of M., i, pp. 632, 633, Figs. 470,
471, and p. 634, Kg. 472.
s E.g., Nos. 2, 3. 5, 6, 7, S, 12.