DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0396
358
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
Ideo-
graphic
elements
in Mean-
der pat-
terns.
The
Egyptian
' Palace'
Sign.
of early Xllth Dynasty date two ceilings occur with such patterns,1 affording
thus a still nearer comparison with the Knossian wall-painting.
Meander patterns, sometimes very elaborate, are a natural outgrowth of
textile decoration, and are widely diffused through both hemispheres. But
they often incorporate ideographic elements. Thus the simple ' key'
pattern, as the angularization of a wave, was a water sign in Ancient Peru
and Mexico,'l giving a special significance to the frequent appearance of
the meander on vases. The Greek fret at times repeats the same story.
The Chinese meander 3 goes back to a coiled type, recalling the ' whirlwind'
sign of some North-American Indian tribes, and bears the name of Yiin-lei-
wen or ' thunder-cloud pattern '.4 A recurring component element, moreover,
in such meander patterns is the fylfot or Svastika which itself represents
a kind of resting-point in ornamental development, reached by more than
one turn. It occurs as a Minoan sacred symbol,5 probably astral or solar.
It is not surprising then, in view of these analogies, to find that certain
ideographic Egyptian signs which illustrate the key pattern in its simplest
form have a precise signification as the plan of a Palace. One of these,
Fig. 257, a, is of special interest in the present connexion since it represents
a plan of a Palace courtyard with a two-storied tower-like building standing
in its inmost angle. This building with battlements above, and the diagonal
line probably representing a ladder,0 also stands by itself as the ' Palace ' sign
{aha), and is one of the Egyptian hieroglyphs that can be t| U certainly
said to have been taken over into the Minoan signary.7 C^TB So far as
the upper part is concerned it is reproduced almost totidem \ f\ lin ei s,
with ladder and battlements, in the Minoan sign here pfc^J given.
The Egyptian hieroglyph appears in a more compendious form as
a simple key pattern (Fig. 257,^). This pattern itself may in turn be
regarded as the nucleus of the somewhat more developed meander type, 257, c,
which also appears on Cretan seals.8 It does not seem an extravagant
supposition that, just as the tower of the old Egyptian Palace sign was
adopted as a Minoan hieroglyph, so the simplified figure of the whole building
1 Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, PI. VIII, with the Knossian wall-painting.
4, 20. (From Tomb of Hepsefa: temp. i Fr. Hirth, Mdander und Triquetrum in
Senusert I.) der chinesischen und japanischen Ornamentik
2 R. P. Grey, The Fret or Key Omamenta- {Z.f. Ethnologie, Berlin, 1889, p. 489 seqq.).
Hon in Mexico and Peru (Archaeologia, xlvii, 5 See below, p. 515, and Fig. 372.
1882, p. 157 seqq.). 6 F. LI. Griffith, Hieroglyphics, p. 36. In its
3 A specimen of a meander pattern in Old fuller form it signifies the ' King's Palace' {aha).
Chinese cloisonne enamel, there arranged 7 Scripta Minoa, I, p. 197, no. 41.
diagonally (A. R. Hein, Miiander, &c, Vienna, 8 e.g. the Zakro seal-impression No. 133
1891, p. 10, Fig. 3), shows a close parallelism (Hogarth, J. H. S., xxii, PI. X).
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
Ideo-
graphic
elements
in Mean-
der pat-
terns.
The
Egyptian
' Palace'
Sign.
of early Xllth Dynasty date two ceilings occur with such patterns,1 affording
thus a still nearer comparison with the Knossian wall-painting.
Meander patterns, sometimes very elaborate, are a natural outgrowth of
textile decoration, and are widely diffused through both hemispheres. But
they often incorporate ideographic elements. Thus the simple ' key'
pattern, as the angularization of a wave, was a water sign in Ancient Peru
and Mexico,'l giving a special significance to the frequent appearance of
the meander on vases. The Greek fret at times repeats the same story.
The Chinese meander 3 goes back to a coiled type, recalling the ' whirlwind'
sign of some North-American Indian tribes, and bears the name of Yiin-lei-
wen or ' thunder-cloud pattern '.4 A recurring component element, moreover,
in such meander patterns is the fylfot or Svastika which itself represents
a kind of resting-point in ornamental development, reached by more than
one turn. It occurs as a Minoan sacred symbol,5 probably astral or solar.
It is not surprising then, in view of these analogies, to find that certain
ideographic Egyptian signs which illustrate the key pattern in its simplest
form have a precise signification as the plan of a Palace. One of these,
Fig. 257, a, is of special interest in the present connexion since it represents
a plan of a Palace courtyard with a two-storied tower-like building standing
in its inmost angle. This building with battlements above, and the diagonal
line probably representing a ladder,0 also stands by itself as the ' Palace ' sign
{aha), and is one of the Egyptian hieroglyphs that can be t| U certainly
said to have been taken over into the Minoan signary.7 C^TB So far as
the upper part is concerned it is reproduced almost totidem \ f\ lin ei s,
with ladder and battlements, in the Minoan sign here pfc^J given.
The Egyptian hieroglyph appears in a more compendious form as
a simple key pattern (Fig. 257,^). This pattern itself may in turn be
regarded as the nucleus of the somewhat more developed meander type, 257, c,
which also appears on Cretan seals.8 It does not seem an extravagant
supposition that, just as the tower of the old Egyptian Palace sign was
adopted as a Minoan hieroglyph, so the simplified figure of the whole building
1 Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, PI. VIII, with the Knossian wall-painting.
4, 20. (From Tomb of Hepsefa: temp. i Fr. Hirth, Mdander und Triquetrum in
Senusert I.) der chinesischen und japanischen Ornamentik
2 R. P. Grey, The Fret or Key Omamenta- {Z.f. Ethnologie, Berlin, 1889, p. 489 seqq.).
Hon in Mexico and Peru (Archaeologia, xlvii, 5 See below, p. 515, and Fig. 372.
1882, p. 157 seqq.). 6 F. LI. Griffith, Hieroglyphics, p. 36. In its
3 A specimen of a meander pattern in Old fuller form it signifies the ' King's Palace' {aha).
Chinese cloisonne enamel, there arranged 7 Scripta Minoa, I, p. 197, no. 41.
diagonally (A. R. Hein, Miiander, &c, Vienna, 8 e.g. the Zakro seal-impression No. 133
1891, p. 10, Fig. 3), shows a close parallelism (Hogarth, J. H. S., xxii, PI. X).