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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

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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.806#0218

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2o4 SCRIPTA MINOA

show a great resemblance to those which appear on a Late Minoan class of lentoid
gems found in Crete. One, of black steatite, in my possession, shows a ship with
fifteen oars. Another type of vessel, repeated on amygdaloid gems of summary
execution, is provided with two masts. The open ' beak' in some of these figures may
recall the swan-headed ships of the confederate invaders of Egypt from the ' Great
Green Sea' in Rameses Ill's time as seen on the frescoes of Medinet Habu.

The ' ship' appears as an ideograph standing alone on the seals of Class A. On
■P. 26 a it is preceded by the ' tree' sign, No. 97, and followed by four repetitions of the
same. On P. 63 a. 1 and 100 d we see it brought into connexion with the double
branch {No. 101). On P. 100 a it is placed between the zigzag or ' serpent' (No. 84) and
the ' sepia' (No. 60), and on P. 27 a it is grouped with the cross and mallet.

The type with the rigging only on the forepart of the ship is of interest in relation
to the later simplification of this sign. A character of the linear script, Class B,
represents only the forepart of a vessel.

The fact that late intaglios exist showing two-masted vessels makes it possible that
another version of the ship sign is to be detected in No. 116 below, with the prow-like
projection at one end and double or treble prominences, suggestive of masts and sails.
This figure, however, has been here included among the more enigmatic characters.

58. Hippocamp. This sign is twice repeated on face a of P. 3, the 'trowel' sign
(No. 18) occurring on the succeeding side. The sea-horse is also seen on pictographic
seals of the more primitive class (F. D. p. 322, PL II, 9 c, and cf. 13 a, where two
are conjoined). This appears to be the Hippocampus guttulatus brevirostris of the
Mediterranean, which in a modified form seems to have supplied many sea-monsters
to later Greek art. The head and neck of a similar sea-monster—the prototype of
Skylla—are seen attacking a boat, on a seal-impression from the Temple Repository at
Knossos.1 Two hippocampi are also seen on the transitional Cretan stone now in
Copenhagen Museum. In Crete this marine animal was specially chosen as a symbol
by the inhabitants of Itanos at the easternmost corner of the island, where two con-
fronted hippocampi form the principal types on the reverse of its fifth-century coins.

(-</

59. a, P. 16; b, P. 28a; c, P. 45.

Tunny fish. The general outline of a and the tail of b are characteristic. On

1 ' Knossos', Report, 1903, p. 58, Fig. 36.
 
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