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)

MINOAN CYPRUS AND THE INSULAR SCRIPTS 77

Six correspondences, four of Lycian and two of Carian characters with Cypriote
forms, are shown in the above Table. In the case of Nos. i and 2 the phonetic value
seems to be irreconcilably divergent in the two cases. Of. No. 4 it may be said that
the respective Lycian and Cypriote signs have a vowel sound. The X form of m
and m, on the other hand, given under Nos. 3 and 5, can hardly have a separate
origin from the similar Cypriote sign signifying mu, and No. 6, the Carian m, closely
resembles the Cypriote mi.1

I. Jia CRETAN PHILISTINES AND THE PHOENICIAN ALPHABET

We have seen that the diffusion of Late Minoan settlements along the South-
Eastern shores of the Mediterranean best explains the appearance of the pre-
Hellenic forms in the Anatolian alphabets, while in Cyprus it unquestionably brought
about the early introduction of a highly developed linear syllabary.

But Cyprus was not the furthest goal of this colonizing enterprise from the Minoan
Aegean side. It was rather, perhaps, the a^opurj for that further advance to the p^i^ng
extreme South-East Mediterranean angle which was to attach the name of Palestine settlement,
to a large tract of the Canaanite littoral. It must at any rate be regarded as a
remarkable coincidence that the close of the same period is marked in Canaan itself Coincident
by the appearance of a system of linear script, wholly unconnected with the Semitic |?^|aJf
cuneiform, but presenting many points of correspondence with the Minoan signaries— Phoenician
in other words, the Phoenician alphabet. alphabet.

The participation of a large Cretan contingent in the Philistine conquests of Cherethim:
Southern Canaan is well ascertained. Among the leading members of the confederacy retans-
were the Cherethim, who appear as Kpijrts in the Septuagint,2 and even, by a not
unnatural ethnographical anachronism, as "EXX^ves.* We read of these as holding
the Southern district towards the Egyptian border, while the kindred Purasati or
Pulasati, who seem to have supplied the actual name of Philistines, were their
Northern neighbours.4 The commercial instinct of the Cherethim is well brought
out by the occupation of Gaza, lying on the trunk line of commerce between Syria
and the Nile Valley, and forming at the same time the Mediterranean goal of the

1 This very important comparison was already noted influence. Among these are parbar=ircpiliokos,M£ierw/i^
by Sayce, Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arch., ix. 128. iinxa'("l^'^^=^aX1- To these Professor Sayce adds Lap*-

2 Zeph. ii. 5; Ezra xxv. 16. Elsewhere, however, the doth or Lappidotk=torches, the name of Deborah's hus-
Hebrew form is transliterated as XsptUffti. band—from Aa/miSn—an instance of special value, as the

3 Isa. ix. 12. It is by no means impossible that an name should go back to a very early period.

actual Hellenic or Hellenized Minoan element was in- 4 See especially W. Max Moller, Asim und Europa,

eluded under the Philistine name. This would confirm pp. 387 seqq. These two tribes are the Kreti and Plethi

Renan's suggestion that the early in corporation of certain of David's body-guard,
words of Greek origin in Hebrew was due to Philistine