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)

CRETAN PHILISTINES AND THE PHOENICIAN ALPHABET 85

very problematic.1 It is true that later on he entirely threw over his own hypothesis
and became a convert to De Rough's views.2

More recently, indeed, it has been suggested that the Semitic alphabet was
the creation of ' a man of Canaan' who knew of the existence of the Egyptian writing
and something of its system, but. not enough to borrow individual signs.3 But this
' man of Canaan' introduces far too personal a factor into a much wider sphere of
evolution. We recall Lucretius's judgement4 on the personal theory of the origin
of language:—

Proinde putare aliquem turn nomina distribuisse

Desiperest.

The attempts hitherto made to derive the Phoenician letters from a Babylonian
or an Egyptian source, ingenious and persistent as they have been, have only ended
in failure. On what side then are we to look for the solution of the problem ? It
might perhaps be suggested that the Phoenician alphabet had been evolved from some
primitive system existing on the soil of Canaan itself, though the proved diffusion
there of the cuneiform type of script down to the close of the twelfth century
b. c.s presents an initial obstacle to such a hypothesis, hard to overcome.

It is indeed evident that in Canaan, as elsewhere, primitive linear signs of one Primitive
class or another existed at a very early period. Evidence of such is, for instance, !,n^arsisns
supplied by a series of potsherds with engraved signs or marks found in the
'Amorite stratum' belonging to the earliest settlement at Lachish.0 These signs,
which are of isolated appearance and simple geometrical formation, are probably
for the most part owners' marks/ but it is possible that some among them were
figures that possessed a received ideographic meaning, the origins of which may go
back to the rudest line drawings of primitive pictography.

The pre-existence of such early linear signs supplies indeed a formative influence Source of
which must always be taken into account in the evolution of the characters of more letters'"2"
advanced scripts.8 But from these isolated scratchings to the full development of more ad-
vanced.

1 Although Lenormant's theory was put forth by him S. Reinach, Rev, Arch.), I compared some of these signs

in lectures (' Cours d'histoire') given in 1838, it did not with Aegean types, but owing to their simple forms the

see the light in print till it appeared, from a summary parallelism has little significance. Nor have the more

supplied by him, in De Rough's Meinoire sur forigine recently discovered materials in any way added to the

/gyptienne de I'Alphabet phenicien (published by E. de comparisons. It is to be observed, indeed, that the most

Rouge in 1874, pp. 5 seqq.). specialized of these signs, No. 21, which approaches the

! Introduction a tin me'moire sitr la propagation del'Alpha- Minoan linear form H, occurs on a sherd belonging to

betpMnicien, 1866, p. 106: 'Nous regardons ... la question a later stratum. '

de l'origine des lettres pheniciennes comme definitive- * Professor Petrie's theory as to the origin of the

mentresolueparM.de RougeV See, too, his larger Essai- alphabet as advanced by him in his Royal Tombs of the

sur la propagation de t Alphabet phe'nicien, 1872, p. 94. First Dynasty, Pt. I, pp. 31, 32, requires mention in this

1 Lidzbarski, Eph.f. sent. Epigraphik, i. H. 2, p. 134. connexion. Briefly stated, it is as follows:—He is led by

* De rebus Naturae, v. 1041,1043. the correspondence of certain primitive Egyptian signs

6 See above, p. 83. with those ofCaria,&c.,and the Iberian alphabet, toassume

* F. S. Bliss, A Mound of Many Cities, or Tell-et-Hesy the existence of a widely diffused signary common to a
Excavated, pp. 21,23, 25, 28, 29, 30, 33, and 42. Cf., too, large part of the Mediterranean basin in very early time.
S. Reinach, Chroniques d'Orient, T. ii. p. 465, ' The identity of most of the signs in Asia Minor and

7 In my first work on Pictographs, i. p. 82 [351] (cf., too, Spain shows them to belong to a system with commonly