DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.805#0074
[334]
PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT
65
doubt to Babylonian influence, these sub-conical seals are frequently formed
of ivory. Seals of this type do not seem to be at home in the intervening-
Anatolian region, though they are occasionally found there, and their
appearance per sallum on Cretan soil must be reasonably construed as
evidence of an early maritime connexion between the Aegean island and
the North Syrian coast. The Hagips Onuphrios find indeed affords a
still more irrefragable proof of this contact in a green steatite seal, the
upper part of which represents a seated eagle. An exactly similar type
from the Hauran is to be seen in the Ashmolean Collection.
Are we therefore to believe that Crete in the third millennium before
our era was occupied by a sea-faring race—perhaps Semitic—from the Syrian
coast ? Such a supposition might explain some of the phenomena with
which we have to deal, but in any case it must be allowed that there is a
distinctly local character about many of these early Cretan stones. The primi-
tive,,seal-stones of the triangular form described are, as we have seen, at home
in Crete. That their range may have extended to other parts of the Aegean
is possible, and an example of a somewhatdater type procured at Smyrna by
Mr. Greville Chester (Fig. 53) and now in the Ashmolean Collection rather
points to some such diffusion, Smyrna being a well-known gathering point of
Aegean finds. On the other hand these stones do not seem to be found
on the mainland of Asia Minor. Certain three-sided stones of a peculiar
' gabled-shaped ' class are indeed widely diffused in Cilicia and Cappadocia, but
they are as a rule much larger and seem to have no immediate connexion with
the Cretan form.30 The occurrence of a single example of a seal-stone identical
both in shape and technique with the most typical Cretan forms on the
North Syrian coast is as yet an isolated phenomenon in that region, whereas
in Crete itself this form is clearly indigenous and of wide distribution. We
have here therefore in all probability to deal with an object brought to the
30 In the case of these stones only one side,
which is larger than the others, is engraved, the
other two heing set at an obtuse angle and
forming a sloping hack like a gable. ' Gable-
shaped ' may therefore be a convenient term to
apply to this well-marked East-Anatolian class,
which bears no obvious resemblance to the
equilateral stones with which we are concerned.
It may yet have a common origin.
PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT
65
doubt to Babylonian influence, these sub-conical seals are frequently formed
of ivory. Seals of this type do not seem to be at home in the intervening-
Anatolian region, though they are occasionally found there, and their
appearance per sallum on Cretan soil must be reasonably construed as
evidence of an early maritime connexion between the Aegean island and
the North Syrian coast. The Hagips Onuphrios find indeed affords a
still more irrefragable proof of this contact in a green steatite seal, the
upper part of which represents a seated eagle. An exactly similar type
from the Hauran is to be seen in the Ashmolean Collection.
Are we therefore to believe that Crete in the third millennium before
our era was occupied by a sea-faring race—perhaps Semitic—from the Syrian
coast ? Such a supposition might explain some of the phenomena with
which we have to deal, but in any case it must be allowed that there is a
distinctly local character about many of these early Cretan stones. The primi-
tive,,seal-stones of the triangular form described are, as we have seen, at home
in Crete. That their range may have extended to other parts of the Aegean
is possible, and an example of a somewhatdater type procured at Smyrna by
Mr. Greville Chester (Fig. 53) and now in the Ashmolean Collection rather
points to some such diffusion, Smyrna being a well-known gathering point of
Aegean finds. On the other hand these stones do not seem to be found
on the mainland of Asia Minor. Certain three-sided stones of a peculiar
' gabled-shaped ' class are indeed widely diffused in Cilicia and Cappadocia, but
they are as a rule much larger and seem to have no immediate connexion with
the Cretan form.30 The occurrence of a single example of a seal-stone identical
both in shape and technique with the most typical Cretan forms on the
North Syrian coast is as yet an isolated phenomenon in that region, whereas
in Crete itself this form is clearly indigenous and of wide distribution. We
have here therefore in all probability to deal with an object brought to the
30 In the case of these stones only one side,
which is larger than the others, is engraved, the
other two heing set at an obtuse angle and
forming a sloping hack like a gable. ' Gable-
shaped ' may therefore be a convenient term to
apply to this well-marked East-Anatolian class,
which bears no obvious resemblance to the
equilateral stones with which we are concerned.
It may yet have a common origin.