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)

Conclu-

main Greek

settlement
in Cyprus
at begin-
ning of
Iron Age.
But partial
settlement
of Greeks
in late
Minoan
times not
excluded.

Cypriote
signs com-
pared with
Anatolian.

SCRIPTA MINOA

In any case, however, it is clear, from the evidence supplied by the Cypriote
remains themselves, that we have to do with more than one wave of immigration from
the Aegean side. Certain types of objects found in tombs at Kouklia near Paphos
and elsewhere betray a direct affiliation to forms representative of that later stage of
culture which immediately succeeded the pure 'Minoan' and 'Mycenaean' in the
Greek lands. The characteristic safety-pin with its high-stilted catch-plate is the
immediate predecessor and prototype of the race of Greek Geometrical fibulas.1
The peculiar shape and decoration of some of the vases correspond clearly with
'sub-Minoan' or 'sub-Mycenaean' examples
from mainland Greece and the islands, in-
cluding Crete. The form of iron sword
that now appears in Cyprus is that of
Greece and its Hinterlands, and has, be-
sides, a Western extension on the Italian
side. It is evident that on the very threshold
of the Iron Age in Greece, about the begin-
ning, that is the eleventh century before
our era, a fresh current of immigration had
set in on Cyprus from the Aegean side.

It is possible, therefore, that the first
arrival of the true ' Arcadians' and their
kin in Cyprus may have been due to a later
tide of immigration following on the wake
of an earlier colonization by Aegean repre-
sentatives of the older stock. But, as
already suggested, in so far as these earlier
swarms consisted of ' Mycenaean' main-
landers, they may themselves have already
to a great extent been Greek in speech.
In that case the followers of Agapenor
would not have arrived as total strangers in the island, and an element of transition
would have been at hand which may easier explain their adoption of a Minoan signary.

The further inquiry suggests itself: How far can the characters of the later
Cypriote syllabary be brought into connexion with the non-Greek forms of the
Anatolian alphabets?

That there are some close correspondences between the two will be seen from
the above comparative Table IV (Fig. 40).

1 Cf. Myc. Cyprus, &c., p. 294, and J. L. My res, Cat. of
Cyprus Museum, p. 34 (Paphos). The type is given by
Perrot (iii, Fig. 595). A similar fibula was found with
' sub-Mycenaean' pottery in a tomb at Assarhk, Caria
{/. H. S., viii. 74, Fig. 17). Very similar types occur in
Crete {H.Boyd, Am.Journ. of Archaeology, v. 136, Fig. 2).



CYPRIOTE

LYCIAN

SYULABARY

/X.«

X)!C,

z 4Y/M

/j\ = 77

3 X --M

X,Xv%/

4 «£

¥W*o

CARIAN



S- X -M

X,X~/w

<?MM

A/S-M/

= A1



Fig. 40 (Table IV). Comparisons between Lycian ar
Carian signs and those of the Cypriote syllabary.

This form was common to the Aegean basin and Cyprus,
but the subsequent evolution was very different in the
two areas. A kindred type is found in Sicilian tombs of
the same period (Colini, Bull, di Pakln., 1905, pp. 45, 46,
and p. 58, Fig. 155).