DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.805#0012
[272] PBIMITIVE PICTOGEAPHS AND SCEIPT 3
again we find the Greeks of Cyprus and the inhabitants of a large tract of
Asia Minor in the possession of syllabic scripts altogether distinct from the
Phoenician alphabet.
When it is once realized how largely the early civilization of the Aegean
Islands and even the mainland of Greece was evolved out of similar
elements to those of Asia Minor, it must certainly seem surprising that on
this side no system of writing belonging to prae-Phoenician times should as
yet have been clearly ascertained. The geographical contiguity to Anatolia,
and the early trade relations which can be shown to have existed between the
Aegean Islands and the valley of the Nile would assuredly, it might be
thought, have given an impulse to the higher development of whatever
primitive form of picture-writing was already to be found amongst the
inhabitants of this Mediterranean region. It is impossible indeed to suppose
that this European population was so far below even the Red Indian stage
of culture as not to have largely resorted to pictography as an aid to memory
and communication. And—even if an existing system was not perfected under
the influence of foreign example—the race which laid the arts of Egypt and
Western Asia under such heavy contribution was at least capable of borrowing
and adapting a system of writing.
It is true that Schliemann's great discoveries at Mycenae produced
nothing that could be safely interpreted as a form of script. The objects
seen in the field of many of the ordinary Mycenaean gems—-the
so-called 'island-stones'—are simply inserted as the space left by the
principal design suggests, and are primarily of a decorative character—and
due to the horror vacui of primitive art. Nevertheless, especially when we
see a part standing for a whole—as a branch for a tree or the head of an
animal for the animal itself—it may be fairly said that many of these gems do
bear the impress of people familiar with the expedients of primitive picture-
writing, such as we find it still in so many parts of the world. The lentoid
and amygdaloid gems in question did not, as we now know, serve the purpose
of seals, but were simply ornamental beads worn round the wrist or neck.1
Like the oriental periapts, however, worn in the same manner at the present
day, they may often have been intended to serve as amulets or talismans; and
both the principal type of the intaglio and the smaller or abbreviated forms
introduced into the field may have possessed something beyond a mere
artistic significance. Still more is this likely to have been implied in the
case of the engraved designs on the besils of the gold rings from the
Mycenaean graves which seem actually to have served the purpose of signets.
It certainly is not unreasonable to suppose that in this case some of
the smaller objects in the field may have had a conventional religious mean-
ing, and that they were in fact ideographs taken from a recognized hiero-
glyphic code. The bulls' heads and lions' scalps, the ears of corn and double
1 See Tsountas, 'Avaa-ica<jia\ T&(pav iv Mumj- to this rule in case of some Cretan lentoid gems
vats. 'E0. 'Apx- 1888, p. 175. There are presenting groups of symbolic figures,
probably, as will be seen below, some exceptions
again we find the Greeks of Cyprus and the inhabitants of a large tract of
Asia Minor in the possession of syllabic scripts altogether distinct from the
Phoenician alphabet.
When it is once realized how largely the early civilization of the Aegean
Islands and even the mainland of Greece was evolved out of similar
elements to those of Asia Minor, it must certainly seem surprising that on
this side no system of writing belonging to prae-Phoenician times should as
yet have been clearly ascertained. The geographical contiguity to Anatolia,
and the early trade relations which can be shown to have existed between the
Aegean Islands and the valley of the Nile would assuredly, it might be
thought, have given an impulse to the higher development of whatever
primitive form of picture-writing was already to be found amongst the
inhabitants of this Mediterranean region. It is impossible indeed to suppose
that this European population was so far below even the Red Indian stage
of culture as not to have largely resorted to pictography as an aid to memory
and communication. And—even if an existing system was not perfected under
the influence of foreign example—the race which laid the arts of Egypt and
Western Asia under such heavy contribution was at least capable of borrowing
and adapting a system of writing.
It is true that Schliemann's great discoveries at Mycenae produced
nothing that could be safely interpreted as a form of script. The objects
seen in the field of many of the ordinary Mycenaean gems—-the
so-called 'island-stones'—are simply inserted as the space left by the
principal design suggests, and are primarily of a decorative character—and
due to the horror vacui of primitive art. Nevertheless, especially when we
see a part standing for a whole—as a branch for a tree or the head of an
animal for the animal itself—it may be fairly said that many of these gems do
bear the impress of people familiar with the expedients of primitive picture-
writing, such as we find it still in so many parts of the world. The lentoid
and amygdaloid gems in question did not, as we now know, serve the purpose
of seals, but were simply ornamental beads worn round the wrist or neck.1
Like the oriental periapts, however, worn in the same manner at the present
day, they may often have been intended to serve as amulets or talismans; and
both the principal type of the intaglio and the smaller or abbreviated forms
introduced into the field may have possessed something beyond a mere
artistic significance. Still more is this likely to have been implied in the
case of the engraved designs on the besils of the gold rings from the
Mycenaean graves which seem actually to have served the purpose of signets.
It certainly is not unreasonable to suppose that in this case some of
the smaller objects in the field may have had a conventional religious mean-
ing, and that they were in fact ideographs taken from a recognized hiero-
glyphic code. The bulls' heads and lions' scalps, the ears of corn and double
1 See Tsountas, 'Avaa-ica<jia\ T&(pav iv Mumj- to this rule in case of some Cretan lentoid gems
vats. 'E0. 'Apx- 1888, p. 175. There are presenting groups of symbolic figures,
probably, as will be seen below, some exceptions