DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9804#0184
158 THE COMING OF THE GREEKS
a direct connection with the Illyrian words in -nt, and
only an indirect one, or none at all, with the -nth forms
that surround it. On this hypothesis it may still be
possible to maintain the view suggested above, that
Eteo-Cretan was an isolated intrusive language. If,
however, we must connect with it the -nth words as a
whole, we must ignore the archaeological evidence from
Pnesos, and regard Eteo-Cretan as co-extensive, at one
time or another, with the whole of the East Mediterranean
area. If we further maintain that it is Indo-European,
we commit ourselves to a view, which we shall discuss
in the following chapters, that Minoan civilisation is
largely, if not entirely, of Indo-European origin.
Meanwhile, it must be remembered that whether this
Eteo-Cretan language be Indo-European is one question,
from what date and how widely it was spoken in Crete
quite another.1 The discoveries, however, of Clay
tablets in the Linear Script in the Little Palace ! make
it certain that, whether or no the Prasos language was
the same as theirs, the Minoan language had not entirely
disappeared even in Late Minoan III.
In religion, too, as in language and art, there was
continuity even to Late Minoan III. The earlier Aniconic
elements had throughout the great periods maintained
themselves side by side with a growing anthropomor-
phism. Mr. Evans believes that the Snake Goddess was
not the central object of worship in the Middle Minoan III.
shrine, but the marble cross;5 and in the Late Minoan II.
Royal Villa there was built a pillar room similar to that
which marked the early stages of the Palace.4 This
parallelism survived the sack of the Palace. The Dove
Goddess shrine, in which the double axes rising out of
1 H. R. Hall, J.H.S. xxv. p. 324, when criticising Conway,
has perhaps not sufficiently distinguished the two.
- B.S.A. xi. p. 16. Mackenzie's remarks in Pliylakopi, p. 271,
must thus be modified.
3 B.S.A. ix. figs. 62-3, pp. 91-2. 1 Ibid. fig. qo, p. 150.
a direct connection with the Illyrian words in -nt, and
only an indirect one, or none at all, with the -nth forms
that surround it. On this hypothesis it may still be
possible to maintain the view suggested above, that
Eteo-Cretan was an isolated intrusive language. If,
however, we must connect with it the -nth words as a
whole, we must ignore the archaeological evidence from
Pnesos, and regard Eteo-Cretan as co-extensive, at one
time or another, with the whole of the East Mediterranean
area. If we further maintain that it is Indo-European,
we commit ourselves to a view, which we shall discuss
in the following chapters, that Minoan civilisation is
largely, if not entirely, of Indo-European origin.
Meanwhile, it must be remembered that whether this
Eteo-Cretan language be Indo-European is one question,
from what date and how widely it was spoken in Crete
quite another.1 The discoveries, however, of Clay
tablets in the Linear Script in the Little Palace ! make
it certain that, whether or no the Prasos language was
the same as theirs, the Minoan language had not entirely
disappeared even in Late Minoan III.
In religion, too, as in language and art, there was
continuity even to Late Minoan III. The earlier Aniconic
elements had throughout the great periods maintained
themselves side by side with a growing anthropomor-
phism. Mr. Evans believes that the Snake Goddess was
not the central object of worship in the Middle Minoan III.
shrine, but the marble cross;5 and in the Late Minoan II.
Royal Villa there was built a pillar room similar to that
which marked the early stages of the Palace.4 This
parallelism survived the sack of the Palace. The Dove
Goddess shrine, in which the double axes rising out of
1 H. R. Hall, J.H.S. xxv. p. 324, when criticising Conway,
has perhaps not sufficiently distinguished the two.
- B.S.A. xi. p. 16. Mackenzie's remarks in Pliylakopi, p. 271,
must thus be modified.
3 B.S.A. ix. figs. 62-3, pp. 91-2. 1 Ibid. fig. qo, p. 150.