DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9804#0183
ETEO-CRETAN AND MINOAN
157
over from the language they found existing there, just
as the Greeks did themselves.
If, however, we turn to the supposed Italic character
of the termination -nth, we find a difficult problem to
deal with. There is no doubt that on both sides of the
Adriatic there is a considerable group of words in -nt.
Dalluntum, Salluntum, Agyruntum in Illyria, are paral-
leled by Tarentum, Hydruntum, Uzentum in Calabria.1
How far have we a right to bring these words in -nt into
line with those in -nth and -nd ? ! If they are, in fact,
the same termination, can they point to a common origin,
to an original East Mediterranean tongue, or must there
have been migration ? If the latter, must it have been
from north to south,' or may there be something in the
tradition that comes to us in Herodotus, of a colonisation
of Calabria from Crete itself in Late Minoan days ? 4
Archaeological evidence is rapidly accumulating as to the
spread of Minoan civilisation on the East Coast of Italy
and in the Adriatic at the end of the Bronze Age.5
These questions do not yet admit of solution. It is
possible that the -entas of the Neikar inscription has
1 Krctschmer, E.G.S. p. 260.
2 As is done by Conway, op. cit. p. 155. Krctschmer, op. cit.
pp. 402-4, apparently finds it possible to believe, in spite of his
other views, that these words in -nt are Indo-European ; as also
Kt'xvvdos in Bruttium and SnXiWW the King of the Agra^ans
in /Etolia (Time. iii. m). These two last point rather to a
common East Mediterranean origin.
n As Conway, B.S.A. viii. pp. 155-6.
VJl. 170, Ae'yfTm . . . ri7rc» fiev Kpi]Tti>u yevttrBai '\i]Trvyas Mf(TO"U7r/oi'f.
Cp. Pais's theory that the Messapians were allied to the Greeks
(Sloria d'lialia, i. 335 ff., criticised by Kretschmer, op. cit. pp.
272-4).
5 See above, pp. 34, 125. For L.M. III. vases at Tarentum, aswell
as in the island of Torcello, close to Venice, see Dawkins, J.H.S.
xxiv. p. 126. Curiously enough, he does not mention the passage
in Herodotus. See, too, Gutscher, I.D.I.G. 1904, pp. 13, 20, for
I..M. III. influence at Nesactium, in Istria, and Myres {Y.W.C.S.
'907, pp. 26-7) for the same at Molfetta, north of Bari.
157
over from the language they found existing there, just
as the Greeks did themselves.
If, however, we turn to the supposed Italic character
of the termination -nth, we find a difficult problem to
deal with. There is no doubt that on both sides of the
Adriatic there is a considerable group of words in -nt.
Dalluntum, Salluntum, Agyruntum in Illyria, are paral-
leled by Tarentum, Hydruntum, Uzentum in Calabria.1
How far have we a right to bring these words in -nt into
line with those in -nth and -nd ? ! If they are, in fact,
the same termination, can they point to a common origin,
to an original East Mediterranean tongue, or must there
have been migration ? If the latter, must it have been
from north to south,' or may there be something in the
tradition that comes to us in Herodotus, of a colonisation
of Calabria from Crete itself in Late Minoan days ? 4
Archaeological evidence is rapidly accumulating as to the
spread of Minoan civilisation on the East Coast of Italy
and in the Adriatic at the end of the Bronze Age.5
These questions do not yet admit of solution. It is
possible that the -entas of the Neikar inscription has
1 Krctschmer, E.G.S. p. 260.
2 As is done by Conway, op. cit. p. 155. Krctschmer, op. cit.
pp. 402-4, apparently finds it possible to believe, in spite of his
other views, that these words in -nt are Indo-European ; as also
Kt'xvvdos in Bruttium and SnXiWW the King of the Agra^ans
in /Etolia (Time. iii. m). These two last point rather to a
common East Mediterranean origin.
n As Conway, B.S.A. viii. pp. 155-6.
VJl. 170, Ae'yfTm . . . ri7rc» fiev Kpi]Tti>u yevttrBai '\i]Trvyas Mf(TO"U7r/oi'f.
Cp. Pais's theory that the Messapians were allied to the Greeks
(Sloria d'lialia, i. 335 ff., criticised by Kretschmer, op. cit. pp.
272-4).
5 See above, pp. 34, 125. For L.M. III. vases at Tarentum, aswell
as in the island of Torcello, close to Venice, see Dawkins, J.H.S.
xxiv. p. 126. Curiously enough, he does not mention the passage
in Herodotus. See, too, Gutscher, I.D.I.G. 1904, pp. 13, 20, for
I..M. III. influence at Nesactium, in Istria, and Myres {Y.W.C.S.
'907, pp. 26-7) for the same at Molfetta, north of Bari.