DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.806#0306
292
SCRIPTA MINOA
Was there
a sacred
language ?
Martial
element on
Disk; per-
haps be-
tokens
hymn of
victory.
Disk not
to be re-
garded as
matrix.
Use of
stamps ex-
plained by
need of
greater
facility in
reproduc-
ing hiero-
glyphic
signs.
elements that seem to be discernible on the Phaestos Disk to some Anatolian sanctuary
of the Great Mother.
It is, moreover, at least conceivable that in Minoan Crete, as in both the Orthodox
Greek and the Roman Catholic Church at the present day, a sacred language representing
an earlier stage of the vernacular was employed. Such a language, indeed, may well
have corresponded with one that still survived in the old religious centres of the
mainland side, where, as is generally agreed by philologists, the language, as well as
the religion, was allied to that of prehistoric Crete.
It has been already ramarked that several features among the characters of the
Disk—the helmeted head, for instance, and the round shield, the horn bow, the vessel
with an arrow at its prow—tend to show that the subject of the composition may have
combined a martial element with the religious. Have we here, perhaps, an ancient
chaunt of victory of the kind preserved in the Song of Deborah?
The suggestion has been made by Dr. Pernier1 that the Disk was itself a matrix
or mould for the reproduction of similar disks in clay or other materials with the
inscription in relief. Against the probability of this, however, may be set the minuteness
of the details of many of the figures and the incised marks of division and distinction
that certainly were not fitted for reproduction in an impression.2 A more simple
explanation of the method here adopted of forming the sign-groups by means of a
series of punches is to be found in the great practical difficulty of applying the elaborate
hieroglyphic characters to documents of any length. The graffito attempts to
render these often really artistic forms result in a very degenerate form of script,
such as we see on the clay tablets and labels of this class. These summary
renderings were sufficient for the business ends served by the latter class of documents.
But for a more solemn purpose they were altogether unworthy. It is probable, as
already pointed out, that at the time when the Phaestos Disk was made the linear form
of script, at- any rate of Class A, was already in vogue in Crete. When the evolution
of the Art of Writing had reached this definite linear stage, documents of any length
could be written in a good ' Court hand'—such as we see in the case of some of the
Knossian tablets—without prejudice to the dignity of the subject.
But how could the continued use of the monumental hieroglyphic type of script
be reconciled with the desire to preserve longer records such as, in a linear form, no
doubt by this time existed in Minoan Crete? It is obvious that the preparation of
a series of fine punches of ivory or metal, representing the different characters of the
hieroglyphic signary used, afforded a ready mechanical means of grappling with the
difficulty. That the characters thus formed appear impressed on the Disk is itself in
' Op. at., p. 277. Dr. Pernier compares (loc. cit., Fig. 12
and note) a flat disk eovered on one side with punched
figures in the shape of small radiated circles, pellels, and
a few barley grains, which bears the name of the well-
known Aretine potter, Marcus Perennius, and which was
certainly a mould.
1 There exist certain late Greek moulds in the form of
terracotta disks covered with various religious or talis-
manic symbols found in Southern Italy and especially at
Taranto (cf. J.H.S, vii, pp. 44 seqq.), which were probably
used for impressing sacred cakes. In this case, however,
the sunken designs are of a bolder character, and there
is no difficulty in recognizing the object of the disks as
moulds or stamps.
SCRIPTA MINOA
Was there
a sacred
language ?
Martial
element on
Disk; per-
haps be-
tokens
hymn of
victory.
Disk not
to be re-
garded as
matrix.
Use of
stamps ex-
plained by
need of
greater
facility in
reproduc-
ing hiero-
glyphic
signs.
elements that seem to be discernible on the Phaestos Disk to some Anatolian sanctuary
of the Great Mother.
It is, moreover, at least conceivable that in Minoan Crete, as in both the Orthodox
Greek and the Roman Catholic Church at the present day, a sacred language representing
an earlier stage of the vernacular was employed. Such a language, indeed, may well
have corresponded with one that still survived in the old religious centres of the
mainland side, where, as is generally agreed by philologists, the language, as well as
the religion, was allied to that of prehistoric Crete.
It has been already ramarked that several features among the characters of the
Disk—the helmeted head, for instance, and the round shield, the horn bow, the vessel
with an arrow at its prow—tend to show that the subject of the composition may have
combined a martial element with the religious. Have we here, perhaps, an ancient
chaunt of victory of the kind preserved in the Song of Deborah?
The suggestion has been made by Dr. Pernier1 that the Disk was itself a matrix
or mould for the reproduction of similar disks in clay or other materials with the
inscription in relief. Against the probability of this, however, may be set the minuteness
of the details of many of the figures and the incised marks of division and distinction
that certainly were not fitted for reproduction in an impression.2 A more simple
explanation of the method here adopted of forming the sign-groups by means of a
series of punches is to be found in the great practical difficulty of applying the elaborate
hieroglyphic characters to documents of any length. The graffito attempts to
render these often really artistic forms result in a very degenerate form of script,
such as we see on the clay tablets and labels of this class. These summary
renderings were sufficient for the business ends served by the latter class of documents.
But for a more solemn purpose they were altogether unworthy. It is probable, as
already pointed out, that at the time when the Phaestos Disk was made the linear form
of script, at- any rate of Class A, was already in vogue in Crete. When the evolution
of the Art of Writing had reached this definite linear stage, documents of any length
could be written in a good ' Court hand'—such as we see in the case of some of the
Knossian tablets—without prejudice to the dignity of the subject.
But how could the continued use of the monumental hieroglyphic type of script
be reconciled with the desire to preserve longer records such as, in a linear form, no
doubt by this time existed in Minoan Crete? It is obvious that the preparation of
a series of fine punches of ivory or metal, representing the different characters of the
hieroglyphic signary used, afforded a ready mechanical means of grappling with the
difficulty. That the characters thus formed appear impressed on the Disk is itself in
' Op. at., p. 277. Dr. Pernier compares (loc. cit., Fig. 12
and note) a flat disk eovered on one side with punched
figures in the shape of small radiated circles, pellels, and
a few barley grains, which bears the name of the well-
known Aretine potter, Marcus Perennius, and which was
certainly a mould.
1 There exist certain late Greek moulds in the form of
terracotta disks covered with various religious or talis-
manic symbols found in Southern Italy and especially at
Taranto (cf. J.H.S, vii, pp. 44 seqq.), which were probably
used for impressing sacred cakes. In this case, however,
the sunken designs are of a bolder character, and there
is no difficulty in recognizing the object of the disks as
moulds or stamps.