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)

90 SCRIPTA MINOA

the form throws no obvious light on the name unless it be the triangular door

opening of a tent or wigwam.

'Gate' There seems some reason for believing, as was long ago pointed out by

Ilfand Lenormant, that he in the Phoenician series is a differentiated form of cMth? the

ch&h. 'fence' or 'enclosure'. It is, therefore, specially interesting to find in all the Minoan

scripts two closely parallel signs of very similar appearance, though used with

different values, which can be traced back step by step to a pictorial origin

evidently delineating a gate or hurdle. The Semitic he has only three bars,

but the Boeotian form of E (p)2 shows that the original Semitic prototype had

four bars, and strengthens the comparison with the Minoan forms. In the Cretan

hieroglyphic script this sign seems to have been used in the sense of 'custody'.

Thus we find it coupled with a pig. This sense of guardianship also comes out

under a more dignified aspect in formulas where it is associated with the sacred

Double Axe of the Minoan religion, in what may be an official title.

'Hand' Among the pairs of the Phoenician alphabet are yod (iota), meaning 'hand',

v<M?and coupled with kaph {kappa) = 'the hollow of the hand' or 'palm'. In the Minoan

kaph. series there are several hand and arm signs. Among the hieroglyphs appear either

two crossed arms or a single arm, and the hand seen either from the front or on

the side. There is also a primitive linear form apparently representing two arms

proceeding from a trunk with the hands in profile. In the linear series we find an

abbreviated form of this latter, giving a profile view of the hand and forearm, resembling

the Semitic yod. We also see, in addition to the ordinary ' hand' sign, another

type with the forearm and open hand completely linearized, the fingers being reduced

to three. This type precisely answers to the Semitic kaph (see Table VI).

The true connexion of the Phoenician names and letter-forms is here again

confirmed; but according to De Rouge" the yod is derived from a hieratic sign

representing ' parallels', and kaph from a handled ' bowl'!

■Fish/or The Hebrew nun means a 'fish', and the word in this sense is common to all

snake*5,1?— tne North Semitic languages. The resemblance to the object described is here

min. not obvious, though it has been suggested3 that this letter originated from the

abbreviated outline of a fish, taking the upper line of the head, the cross-line of the

gill, and the line of the belly. On the other hand, the Aethiopic name for this

letter, nahas = ' a serpent ',* suggests that its real origin may be sought in that

direction, and that the name 'fish' was rather applied to it from the association with

mem = 'water'. May it originally have depicted a water-snake or eel ? This suggestion

certainly receives a striking corroboration from the ascertained history of a similar

character in the Minoan script. A zigzag sign of the hieroglyphic class, No. 84 below,

1 Lenormant expressed the opinion that hi was a double Introduction to Greek Epigraphy, i. p. 312; and see W.Lar-

of chith {cf. De Roug£, Mtmoire sur torigine e'gyptienne ft\A,HandbuchdergriechischenEpigrapliih,i.gori,p^i,^o,^i).

de {alphabet phemcien, p. 7). s This suggestion was made by my father, Sir John

1 This form also reappears as a letter of the Phrygian Evans, Ioc. cit.

alphabet, perhaps in the wake of ' Aeolian' influences * Cf. J. P. Peters,' Recent Theories of the Origin of the

(Kirchhoff, Studien, &c., ed. iv. pp. 54 seqq. ; Roberts, Alphabet * (Journ. Am. Oriental Soc, vol. xxii. p. 195).