DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.805#0057
48 FROM CRETE AND THE PELOPONNESE. [317]
monuments. When the impressions of the three or four sides of one of the
Cretan stones are placed in a row one above the other, as on the analogy of
the Babylonian cylinders they would have been in clay impressions, we
obtain a columnar arrangement of symbols in relief which curiously recalls
the sculptured stones of Hamath or the site of Carchemish. So far more-
over as can be gathered from an examination of the Cretan stones, the same
boustrophMon arrangement seems to have been here adopted as on most of
the Hittite monuments.190
Yet we have not here, any more than in the Egyptian case, to do with
the mere servile imitation of foreign symbols. The common elements that are
shared with the Hittite characters are in some respects more striking, and
there is greater general sympathy in form and arrangement. The coinci-
dences, indeed, are at times of such a kind as to suggest a real affinity. But
this relationship is at most of a collateral kind. Some Cretan types present
a surprising analogy with the Asianic; on the other hand, many of the most
usual of the Hittite symbols are conspicuous by their absence. The parallel-
ism, as it seems to me, can best be explained by supposing that both systems
had grown up in a more or less conterminous area out of still more primitive
pictographic elements. The Cypriote parallels may be accounted for on the
same hypothesis.
In the early picture-writing of a region geographically continuous there
may well have been originally many common elements, such as we find
among the American Indians at the present day; and when, later, on the
banks of the Orontes and the highlands of Cappadocia on the one side, or on
the Aegean shores on the other, a more formalized ' hieroglyphic' script began
independently to develop itself out of these simpler elements, what more
natural than that certain features common to both should survive in each ?
Later intercommunication may have also contributed to preserve this common
element. But the symbolic script with which we have here to deal is essen-
tially in situ. As will be demonstrated in the succeeding section the Cretan
system of picture-writing is inseparable from the area dominated by the
Mycenaean form of culture. Geographically speaking it belongs to Greece.
§ V.—The Mycenaeak Affinities of the Cretan Photographs.
Some definite evidence as to the chronology of these Cretan seal-stones
is afforded by the points of comparison that they offer with Mycenaean
forms. Amongst the ' Mycenaean' gems of Crete are found three-sided
stones like those represented in Fig. 205.19d One of these, a cornelian
from the site or neighbourhood of Goulas, exhibits on one of its sides
heart-shaped leaves similar to those seen upon some Mycenaean vases.
Vessels with this kind of leaf occurred in the fifth and sixth of the
10c See p. 301. and is inserted on p. 288 merely as an example
isa Thjg ;s jn facj an ordinary Mycenaean of form,
gem representing apparently a kind of base,
E
monuments. When the impressions of the three or four sides of one of the
Cretan stones are placed in a row one above the other, as on the analogy of
the Babylonian cylinders they would have been in clay impressions, we
obtain a columnar arrangement of symbols in relief which curiously recalls
the sculptured stones of Hamath or the site of Carchemish. So far more-
over as can be gathered from an examination of the Cretan stones, the same
boustrophMon arrangement seems to have been here adopted as on most of
the Hittite monuments.190
Yet we have not here, any more than in the Egyptian case, to do with
the mere servile imitation of foreign symbols. The common elements that are
shared with the Hittite characters are in some respects more striking, and
there is greater general sympathy in form and arrangement. The coinci-
dences, indeed, are at times of such a kind as to suggest a real affinity. But
this relationship is at most of a collateral kind. Some Cretan types present
a surprising analogy with the Asianic; on the other hand, many of the most
usual of the Hittite symbols are conspicuous by their absence. The parallel-
ism, as it seems to me, can best be explained by supposing that both systems
had grown up in a more or less conterminous area out of still more primitive
pictographic elements. The Cypriote parallels may be accounted for on the
same hypothesis.
In the early picture-writing of a region geographically continuous there
may well have been originally many common elements, such as we find
among the American Indians at the present day; and when, later, on the
banks of the Orontes and the highlands of Cappadocia on the one side, or on
the Aegean shores on the other, a more formalized ' hieroglyphic' script began
independently to develop itself out of these simpler elements, what more
natural than that certain features common to both should survive in each ?
Later intercommunication may have also contributed to preserve this common
element. But the symbolic script with which we have here to deal is essen-
tially in situ. As will be demonstrated in the succeeding section the Cretan
system of picture-writing is inseparable from the area dominated by the
Mycenaean form of culture. Geographically speaking it belongs to Greece.
§ V.—The Mycenaeak Affinities of the Cretan Photographs.
Some definite evidence as to the chronology of these Cretan seal-stones
is afforded by the points of comparison that they offer with Mycenaean
forms. Amongst the ' Mycenaean' gems of Crete are found three-sided
stones like those represented in Fig. 205.19d One of these, a cornelian
from the site or neighbourhood of Goulas, exhibits on one of its sides
heart-shaped leaves similar to those seen upon some Mycenaean vases.
Vessels with this kind of leaf occurred in the fifth and sixth of the
10c See p. 301. and is inserted on p. 288 merely as an example
isa Thjg ;s jn facj an ordinary Mycenaean of form,
gem representing apparently a kind of base,
E