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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

DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.806#0205

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CATALOGUE OF HIEROGLYPHIC SIGNS 191

resembles that in use in early Greece and Italy, and of which a design dating from the
Early Empire is given in Fig. 27.' s*ggZs0!0m&*^ Ploughs of much the same simple

form are still to be seen in Crete itself. In the conventional sign as seen above there
is a tendency to make the length of the share equal to that of the pole.

The Egyptian hieroglyph for plough (kb) is somewhat more complicated, having
two handles.

This sign is twice repeated after the ' mountains' or territorial sign on P. 26 b, and
again on P. 29 c.

,fi

28. a, P. 31a; 6, P. 31b; c, P. 97a; d, P. 117 a.

In my Cretan Pictographs (p. 37 [306], No. 19) I described this as a kind
of musical instrument with a plectrum attached. Though at first sight it recalls a lyre
from its horn-shaped sides, it is essentially a harp, its opposite sides being connected
with three strings and not by a cross-piece. Regarded as a harp, however, it presents
an entirely new type, apparently standing in the same relation to the Asiatic horn-bow
as the simple forms of African and other harps do to the wooden bow.

On the other hand, the Hagia Triada Cup, showing the 'Harvest Home* rout,
has now revealed the existence of the primitive type of Egyptian sistrum in Crete.
But the sistrum is essentially a metal instrument and the wires run across an oval
frame, not an open one like the present with horn-shaped sides.

In my Report on the Excavations at Knossos (1902, pp. 67, 68) I compared
a further sign, with one or two cross-bars, that appears on the blocks of part of the
Domestic Quarter of the Palace —m~—n~ with this character, and was induced to
regard it as a forked distaff, resembling a type found in Southern Europe, with a
pendant spindle.

Further light may eventually be thrown on this enigmatic figure.

On P. 31 c this sign accompanies the ' saffron flower' (No. 88 a), on P. 31 b the y
and the crossed hand sign (No. 7), and the same collocation occurs on P. 117 a.
On P. 97 a it is associated with the same flower and No. 60/

1 See Sophus Mttller, Charrues, &-c, Mtm. de la Societies Antiquaires du Nord, 1902, pp. 35 seqq. and Fig. 5.

b b
 
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