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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 Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.806#0262

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248

SCRIPTA MINOA

ideogra-
phic usage.

Numbers

of signs in

groups

compared

with

Egyptian.

Composite
figures.

No perceptible connexion in ideas seems to be evoked, for instance, by such collo-
cations as the following :—

A fish, the "' human eye', and the ' trowel'.

The ' double axe', a store vessel, and a snake.

The ' double axe', ' sepia', and bifoliate figure.

The ' mountains' sign, the ' arrow', the ' mallet' and ' libation vase'.

The ' sieve' and ' bee'.

The mallet, ' Y-plant*, and 'lyre '.

The 'saw', 'sepia', and 'snake'.
It may, therefore, be assumed as a working hypothesis that a phonetic as well as
an ideographic element entered into the Minoan hieroglyphic system. The phono-
grams probably consisted, as in Egyptian, of single syllables, open and closed, and
double syllables. As a matter of fact an analysis of the average number of signs
in the respective groups does not work out very differently from the Egyptian when
deductions are made in the latter case for the frequent repetitions of equivalent
phonetic signs with which the hieroglyphic writing was encumbered.

The following tables give the rough percentage of the number of characters in the
Minoan groups and of their use in a separate position as single signs :—

On Seals.

Numbers No. of
in groups, examples.

Total percentage on Seals and Graffiti.
Numbers No. of
in groups, examples.

T

i6'

2

28"

3_
i_

47
8



1^

1

14

2

84

3
4

42
8

5

2



100

Graffiti.

Numbers No. of
in groups, examples.

Taking now for comparison the first 200 groups of hieroglyphs in Erman's
Egyptian Glossary and deducting the determinatives and, as far as possible, the
phonetic repetitions, we arrive at the following rough percentage :—

Number of signs in a group.

Figures that may be properly called composite are, as already remarked, rare.
In Nos. 47-50, however, we see the vase sign differentiated by a separate indication of
the contents. On No. 31 we see a tablet linked to a curved support. The lion's mask
with the fleur-de-lis rising from it (No. 74) may certainly be described as a compound
sign, and the orb or sun disk placed before the ship in No. 57 a and the two crescent
moons attached to the rigging of No. 57 b may also be cited as instances of a similar

1 Omitting some special signs of a pictorial character.
 
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