DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.806#0126
signs of
arbitrary
origin.
Examples
from
Phylakopi.
Linearized
picto-
graphs.
112 SCRIPTA MINOA
much as many gesture signs are intelligible amongst American Indian tribes belonging
to the most heterogeneous groups.
In examining this primitive material, however, such as is presented by the linear
signs on the pottery of Hissarlik, the Aegean area, or of prehistoric Egypt, we are
confronted by an initial difficulty. In addition to these truly ideographic linear signs,
we have to deal with purely arbitrary forms which have their origin in individual
caprice. Such are many owners' marks and other simple geometrical com-
binations.
Good examples of these from the Aegean area are supplied by a series of marks
on the pottery from the Early Settlement of Phylakopi. These, as will be seen from
Table IX, Fig. 46,1 are formed by simple conjunctions of lines, varied at will, and not
to be confounded with the characters drawn from a
recognized script that occur on some of the Melian
\/ Vv* IIAI A/ A/
T J. "<
K -I I"
+ x x
11
T Tf -/
11 ill
Alphabet i-
form signs
of great
antiquity.
These
primitive
linear
sufficient
to generate
a system
of script.
But, as already observed, side by side with these
simple marks, due to individual initiative and caprice,
are others, often hardly distinguishable from them in
point of form, which, like the archaic linear figures of
the Reindeer Period already referred to, either represent
simple pictographs in the rude ' slate pencil' style be-
longing to the infancy of Art, or result from the de-
gradation of fuller pictorial forms. Under new conditions
of life, moreover, their numbers would be perpetually
recruited through the simplification of pictographic figures
Of later VOgue. Fig. 46 (Table IX). Personal
That such linearized signs, rooted in a very ancient ar s on ots' y opi*
pictography, should often have retained a phonetic value as word-signs through
all the modifications in* their form seems to stand to reason. The detrition due
to age-long use, moreover, would in the case of such figures have smoothed away
any original asperities of outline and fitted them for general currency.
Here, then, we have ready to hand a body of signs in form almost purely
alphabetic, and possessing an ideographic tradition. What more, it may be asked,
where such conditions held, was needed to call into existence a fully developed
system of writing?
" 'In some important respects, however, this primordial body of linear signs and
marks was not susceptible of such easy adaptation to the purposes of script. The
currency of many of these signs was probably far from general. Their simplicity
was such that they often could not be distinguished from owners' marks of purely
arbitrary origin and possessing nothing beyond an individual significance.
Moreover, the particular value of such primitive linear signs must have constantly
1 Excavations at Phylakopi, p. 182, Fig. 152. (Reproduced Schooi of Athens.) For the
by the kind permission of the Committee of the British remarks, op. cit., pp. 181-5-
Melian signs see my
2 See above, p. 35.
arbitrary
origin.
Examples
from
Phylakopi.
Linearized
picto-
graphs.
112 SCRIPTA MINOA
much as many gesture signs are intelligible amongst American Indian tribes belonging
to the most heterogeneous groups.
In examining this primitive material, however, such as is presented by the linear
signs on the pottery of Hissarlik, the Aegean area, or of prehistoric Egypt, we are
confronted by an initial difficulty. In addition to these truly ideographic linear signs,
we have to deal with purely arbitrary forms which have their origin in individual
caprice. Such are many owners' marks and other simple geometrical com-
binations.
Good examples of these from the Aegean area are supplied by a series of marks
on the pottery from the Early Settlement of Phylakopi. These, as will be seen from
Table IX, Fig. 46,1 are formed by simple conjunctions of lines, varied at will, and not
to be confounded with the characters drawn from a
recognized script that occur on some of the Melian
\/ Vv* IIAI A/ A/
T J. "<
K -I I"
+ x x
11
T Tf -/
11 ill
Alphabet i-
form signs
of great
antiquity.
These
primitive
linear
sufficient
to generate
a system
of script.
But, as already observed, side by side with these
simple marks, due to individual initiative and caprice,
are others, often hardly distinguishable from them in
point of form, which, like the archaic linear figures of
the Reindeer Period already referred to, either represent
simple pictographs in the rude ' slate pencil' style be-
longing to the infancy of Art, or result from the de-
gradation of fuller pictorial forms. Under new conditions
of life, moreover, their numbers would be perpetually
recruited through the simplification of pictographic figures
Of later VOgue. Fig. 46 (Table IX). Personal
That such linearized signs, rooted in a very ancient ar s on ots' y opi*
pictography, should often have retained a phonetic value as word-signs through
all the modifications in* their form seems to stand to reason. The detrition due
to age-long use, moreover, would in the case of such figures have smoothed away
any original asperities of outline and fitted them for general currency.
Here, then, we have ready to hand a body of signs in form almost purely
alphabetic, and possessing an ideographic tradition. What more, it may be asked,
where such conditions held, was needed to call into existence a fully developed
system of writing?
" 'In some important respects, however, this primordial body of linear signs and
marks was not susceptible of such easy adaptation to the purposes of script. The
currency of many of these signs was probably far from general. Their simplicity
was such that they often could not be distinguished from owners' marks of purely
arbitrary origin and possessing nothing beyond an individual significance.
Moreover, the particular value of such primitive linear signs must have constantly
1 Excavations at Phylakopi, p. 182, Fig. 152. (Reproduced Schooi of Athens.) For the
by the kind permission of the Committee of the British remarks, op. cit., pp. 181-5-
Melian signs see my
2 See above, p. 35.