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)

OFFICIAL TITLES, ETC., ON THE HIEROGLYPHIC SIGNETS 267

partition shows that among the signs used in this group of formulas, the 'gate', 'leg',
' eye', ' template',' trowel', and ' arrow' could on occasion be used separately with an
ideographic value.

It further appears that the signs made use of in the above groups are in almost
every case capable of a more or less obvious interpretation, expressive of official
functions.

Thus the 'gate', as already observed, is evidently appropriate to a 'Keeper' Recurring
or' Guardian'. The bent human leg, indicative of advance, might well betoken a leader, f^uLs
and express an official title analogous to ' Dux', 'Hyeft&v, or the Saxon Heretoga (the and their
German Hersqg). The human eye is the natural emblem of an ' Overseer'. phfc*sfeni-

Moreover, several signs of the same class and of kindred signification are found fixation.
placed together so as to produce the cumulative result referred to above.

The coupling of an adze of Egyptian form with the ' trowel' in E—thus combining
as it does the carpenter's and mason's crafts—supplies the collective signification
of a ' builder'. We have here a perfect analogy to the Egyptian combination of the
' adze ' and ' saw' to convey the same idea, and the parallel is the more interesting from
the fact that this combination entered into one of the most exalted titles of the Early
Pharaonic Period. A saw of the Egyptian form, perhaps referring to a similar title,
occurs in the formula given under G. In F, again, we find the ' trowel' coupled with
the ' template' sign, as if to mark the title of ' founder and embellisher'.

The prism-seal P. 29, which supplies the formula in which the spider is coupled with
the 'adze' and 'trowel', exhibits what appears to be another title of considerable
interest in which a double axe and gate are followed by the floral symbol, No. 91. On
the sealing P. 59 we see the double axe and gate separated by a cruciform sign.
Considering the special sanctity of the double axe as the fetish of the great Minoan
divinities, we may with great probability detect in these combinations a reference
to some such priestly title as Keeper of the Place of the Axe (AafSvpiv8o$).

Table XXIII (Fig. 120) gives a series of these official signs with their ideographic
interpretation and their probable signification when combined.

The ' arrow', emblem of the chase or of war, which is coupled with the human eye
and the 'trowel' seems less congruous in the latter case. It may, however, be taken
to indicate that the personage referred to was a hunter or warrior as well as a patron
of more peaceful arts.

It is possible that though the ideographic element is so well represented in the
present series, certain sign-groups should rather be taken as possessing a phonetic
value. It looks, moreover, as if in some cases the two elements were combined.
Thus on G (from P. 27 c) the initial sign, a saw of Egyptian form, may, as suggested
above, stand as the ideographic symbol of a royal builder. But the two succeeding
characters, the 'sepia' and $ (a derivative, as shown above, p. 211, No. 84, of the
' serpent' sign), are of an incongruous nature, and may have performed purely phonetic
functions, as the syllables of a name. As H (from P. 34), these same characters prefaced
to the lion's mask conveyed, perhaps, the proper name of a prince of whom the lion's