Evans, Arthur J.: Cretan pictographs and prae-Phoenician script with an account of a sepulchral deposit at Hagios Onuphrios near Phaestos in its relation to primitive Cretan (London, 1895)

PRIMITIVE CRETAN AND AEGEAN CULTURE,

136

prototype of a class of weapon which had a long-continued existence on the
Asianic side. The Lycaonian form indeed suggests a further connexion with
the curious two-pronged implements of bronze of which so many examples
have been found at Tel Nebesheh. These were derived from tombs
apparently belonging to mercenaries brought over by Psamtik L when he
settled Garians and Jonians at Defenneh.89 Professor Petrie describes the
tombs in question as ' Cypriote' but no bronze objects of the kind seem to be
known in Cyprus. From the fact that they often occur in association with
spear-heads, and from the cross piece that in some cases appears between the
prongs, Mr. Petrie inclined to believe that they were the butt-ends of spears,

Fig. 139.—Double-Pointed Bronze Speab, Phaestos. (if Li-oar).

forked like the lower ends of Egyptian sceptres. The existence of a double-
pointed spear or javelin in Crete and Lycaonia, coupled with the Carian
connexion in which the Tel Nebesheh objects stand, makes it just possible
however that the presence of these two-forked implements in the graves of
these mercenaries may be due to some religious survival keeping up the form
of an old national weapon for funereal usage.

39 W. M. Flinders Petrie, Tanis, Pt. II. PI. iii. and pp. 20, 21.
Eighth to the Fifth Century, B.C.

The tombs date from the