DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.805#0088
[348] PRIMITIVE PICTOGRAPHS AND SCRIPT. 79
22.—(a) Block of Mycenaean building, Knosos. (b) Ditto, and also vase,
Goulas.
23.—Perforated steatite, Messara. Amphora-handle, Thalamos tomb,
Mycenae.
24.—Mycenaean amethyst (cf. No. 20), Knosos. Amphora-handle.
Thalamos tomb, Mycenae.
25.—Mycenaean amethyst (cf. No. 20), Knosos.
26.—(a) Amphora-handle, Thalamos tomb, Mycenae (cf. No. 23, 24).
(b) Block of Mycenaean building, Knosos.
27.—Handle of stone-vase, from ruined house, Akropolis, Mycenae.
28.—Cretan seal-stone.
29.—Handle of stone-vase, Mycenae (cf. Nos. 13, 27): partly overlapping
a P-like sign.
30.—Perforated steatite, Siphnos (cf. Nos. 3, 13).
31.—Block of Mycenaean building, Knosos.
32.—Perforated steatite, Siphnos (cf. Nos. 3, 13, 30).
To these may be added the K-like sign on the button-seal (Fig. 13)
discovered by Professor Halbherr.
The comparisons instituted in the above table abundantly show that
between the Cretan and Mycenaean script, to which the general name
' Aegean' may be conveniently given, and the signs noted by Professor Petrie
on the potsherds of Kahun and Gurob there are striking points of agreement.
Out of thirty-two Aegean characters no less than twenty are practically
identical with those found in Egypt. The parallelism with Cypriote
forms is also remarkable, some fifteen of the present series agreeing with
letters of the Cypriote syllabary.
That in the case of the Kahun and Gurob signs the proportion should be
somewhat larger is only what might have been expected from the relative
antiquity of the Egyptian group. As however the evidence on the strength of
which Professor Petrie maintains the great age of the foreign signs found on
these Egyptian sites has been lately disputed, a few words on the subject
will not be out of place.
That here and there some later elements had found their way into the
rubbish-heaps of Kahun may be freely admitted without prejudice to the
general question of their great antiquity. There seem to me to be good
reasons for believing that a few specimens of painted Aegean pottery found
belong to a later period than the Twelfth Dynasty. Amongst these fragments
are two which are unquestionably of Naukratite fabric. But even of this
comparatively small painted class the greater part are of at least Mycenaean
date. The most characteristic specimens show in fact points of affinity with
a peculiar ceramic class found in Southern Crete and which seems for some
time to have held its own there against the more generally diffused Mycenaean
types of pottery. Specimens of the class referred to, which in their dark
ground colour with applied white and red retain the traditions of some
of the earliest Thera ware, have been found in a votive cave near Kamares
22.—(a) Block of Mycenaean building, Knosos. (b) Ditto, and also vase,
Goulas.
23.—Perforated steatite, Messara. Amphora-handle, Thalamos tomb,
Mycenae.
24.—Mycenaean amethyst (cf. No. 20), Knosos. Amphora-handle.
Thalamos tomb, Mycenae.
25.—Mycenaean amethyst (cf. No. 20), Knosos.
26.—(a) Amphora-handle, Thalamos tomb, Mycenae (cf. No. 23, 24).
(b) Block of Mycenaean building, Knosos.
27.—Handle of stone-vase, from ruined house, Akropolis, Mycenae.
28.—Cretan seal-stone.
29.—Handle of stone-vase, Mycenae (cf. Nos. 13, 27): partly overlapping
a P-like sign.
30.—Perforated steatite, Siphnos (cf. Nos. 3, 13).
31.—Block of Mycenaean building, Knosos.
32.—Perforated steatite, Siphnos (cf. Nos. 3, 13, 30).
To these may be added the K-like sign on the button-seal (Fig. 13)
discovered by Professor Halbherr.
The comparisons instituted in the above table abundantly show that
between the Cretan and Mycenaean script, to which the general name
' Aegean' may be conveniently given, and the signs noted by Professor Petrie
on the potsherds of Kahun and Gurob there are striking points of agreement.
Out of thirty-two Aegean characters no less than twenty are practically
identical with those found in Egypt. The parallelism with Cypriote
forms is also remarkable, some fifteen of the present series agreeing with
letters of the Cypriote syllabary.
That in the case of the Kahun and Gurob signs the proportion should be
somewhat larger is only what might have been expected from the relative
antiquity of the Egyptian group. As however the evidence on the strength of
which Professor Petrie maintains the great age of the foreign signs found on
these Egyptian sites has been lately disputed, a few words on the subject
will not be out of place.
That here and there some later elements had found their way into the
rubbish-heaps of Kahun may be freely admitted without prejudice to the
general question of their great antiquity. There seem to me to be good
reasons for believing that a few specimens of painted Aegean pottery found
belong to a later period than the Twelfth Dynasty. Amongst these fragments
are two which are unquestionably of Naukratite fabric. But even of this
comparatively small painted class the greater part are of at least Mycenaean
date. The most characteristic specimens show in fact points of affinity with
a peculiar ceramic class found in Southern Crete and which seems for some
time to have held its own there against the more generally diffused Mycenaean
types of pottery. Specimens of the class referred to, which in their dark
ground colour with applied white and red retain the traditions of some
of the earliest Thera ware, have been found in a votive cave near Kamares