Evans, Arthur J.: Scripta minoa: the written documents of minoan Crete with special reference to the archives of Knossos (Band 1): The hieroglyphic and primitive linear classes (Oxford, 1909)

PART I

THE PRE-PHOENICIAN SCRIPTS OF CRETE. THEIR

MEDITERRANEAN RELATIONS AND PLACE

IN MINOAN STORY

I. § i. ANTIQUITY AND EUROPEAN DIFFUSION OF PICTOGRAPH5
AND LINEAR SIGNS1

Schliemann's epoch-making discoveries at Mycenae in 1876 first brought out Evidence
the fact that the classical civilization of Greece had been centuries before preceded absent"2
on Hellenic soil itself by another in many respects highly developed form of culture. from
The skill already attained by the ' Mycenaean' craftsmen in architecture and sculp- mann^ hjs-
ture, as well as in such minor arts as gem-engraving, metal-work, and vase-painting, '
excited general admiration. But in the midst of this brilliant picture of early Aegean
civilization there was one notable lacuna. No evidence of the existence of an
indigenous system of writing was as yet forthcoming. Amongst all the varied
objects obtained by Schliemann in the course of his excavations no single written
document was brought to light.

Subsequent researches in the same field had produced, indeed, certain indications Signs on
calculated to give pause to those who attached too absolute a value to these negative J^dies
phenomena. Apart from the occurrence of some single signs, one engraved on found by
a stone pestle,2 others on the handles of two amphoras3 and of a painted vase of Tsuntas-
very late ' Mycenaean * fabric,* two incised groups of signs had already occurred on
vases. One of these groups was engraved on the handle of an amphora, found in
1890 by Dr. Tsuntas, the worthy continuator of Schliemann's researches, in a
chamber-tomb at Mycenae.5 The amphora in this case was of Egyptian type, and
each of the three incised signs could be paralleled on Egyptian sherds. A fragment,

' In this Section and the following free use has till Dr. Tsuntas called attention to them in 1893. One

been made of the materials in my preliminary works shows a character like a Greek n, the other a sign ^,

entitled Primitive Pidographs and Prac-Phoenician Script identical with the Cypriote pa, ba, or pha.

in Crete and the Peloponnese (London, Quaritch, 1895, and * ' Ap^aioKoymir arti-io?, 1892, p. 73, and Tsuntas and

/. H. S., xiv, Pt. II) and Further Discoveries of Cretan Manatt, op. cit., p. 268, Fig. 137. It was found byDr.Staes

and Aegean Script (London, Quaritch, 1898, and /. H. S., in a tomb at Pronoia, near Nauplia. The vase has three

xvii). handles, on each of which is incised the sign H, but with

! Tsuntas, UpaKriKh j^t'Ap^oiiAojwijr 'E™ipiW, 1889^.19; offshoots from the top of the upright strokes.

Tsuntas and Manatt, Mycenaean Age, i.268. s Tsuntas, Muj^rai, pp. 213, 214, Fig. 2. Tsuntas

3 Tsuntas, MumjiMi, p. 113; Tsuntas and Manatt, op. cit., observes (p. 215) that the amphora was of Egyptian form,

p. 368. These amphoras had been found in the tomb of resembling one from Gurob. (Petrie, Kahun, Curob, and

Menidi, but the incised marks on them were not noticed Hawara, PI. XX. 13.)