DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.807#0706
66o
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
Mnemo-
nic ele-
ments-
Division
of Disk
into
Sections.
Terminal
Dashes.
suppose, moreover, that some of the other characters, the forms of which it
is at present impossible to interpret, belong to the same category.
The preponderant ideography of the Disk and the probability that some,
at least, of the signs employed stood for entire concepts rather than single
words may be taken as indications that the script here illustrated is on the
whole more primitive in its method than the Cretan hieroglyphic system. It
looks as if many of the characters may have had a simple mnemonic function,
calling up to the contemporary reader's mind a fuller descriptive record.
Advanced elements, such as we find in a syllabary, recede into the back-
ground, and the attempts to translate the inscriptions into a known language,
such as Greek, which have already produced such strange results, seem to
be based on a fundamentally wrong conception of the material.1
Face A of this Disk (Fig. 482) is distributed into thirty-one sections,
divided by upright lines, each containing groups of signs varying in number
from two to seven. The total number of characters on this face is 122.
Face B shows thirty similar sections with from two to five signs and 119
characters in all.
A remarkable feature of the inscriptions on both sides are the strokes,
generally sloping to the right, but sometimes vertical, which recur at intervals
under certain terminal sions of sections.2 These marks are done with some
pointed tool after the stamping of the letters, when the clay was still soft.
They appear at the end of certain sections, but the sections themselves, which
probably represent individual words or concepts, are in each case separated
by horizontal lines, and these strokes must therefore have some other
1 It is hardly necessary to remind the curious
that Prof. G. Hempl, of Stanford University,
California, {Harper'sMagazine, Jan. 19 t o, p. 187
seqq., &c.) has read off the inscriptions into
a species of Greek. Of this it need only be re-
marked that, while it does not correspond with
classical forms, it has still less claim to represent
a prehistoric stage of the language (Harper's
Magazine, January, 1911.) Miss F. Melian
Stawell, of Newnham College, Cambridge
(Burlington Magazine, vol. xix, p. 23 seqq.),
who has endeavoured to follow HempPs lead,
is by no means more convincing. Both
attempts are based on a manipulation of
syllables or letters representing the initial
letters of the supposed equivalents of the
signs in Greek. Invocations to divinities of
an ecstatic nature are thus elicited. As a
sample of the language and method the fol-
lowing extract from Miss Stawell's translation
may suffice : ' Ta, Mare, da—Behold Warrior
Goddess ! 1(a), a, Kla-ta-(n)-k—All hail! ho !
clang. Ti-o, Kro-ra-to—I honour (thee) Mighty
one. An-gu-nao-ta—Queen of the Ways.' The
unsatisfying character (to say the least of it) of
these interpretations, must not, however, be
taken to exclude the possibility that the lan-
guage is Greek.
2 Their distribution is as follows: Under
the Marching Figure (No. i); twice ; under the
Male Child (No. 5), once ; under the Female
Breast (No. 7), three times ; the Fist and Cestus
(No. 8), three or four times; the Carpenter's
Angle (No. 18), once; the Ox-horn (No. 26),
THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.
Mnemo-
nic ele-
ments-
Division
of Disk
into
Sections.
Terminal
Dashes.
suppose, moreover, that some of the other characters, the forms of which it
is at present impossible to interpret, belong to the same category.
The preponderant ideography of the Disk and the probability that some,
at least, of the signs employed stood for entire concepts rather than single
words may be taken as indications that the script here illustrated is on the
whole more primitive in its method than the Cretan hieroglyphic system. It
looks as if many of the characters may have had a simple mnemonic function,
calling up to the contemporary reader's mind a fuller descriptive record.
Advanced elements, such as we find in a syllabary, recede into the back-
ground, and the attempts to translate the inscriptions into a known language,
such as Greek, which have already produced such strange results, seem to
be based on a fundamentally wrong conception of the material.1
Face A of this Disk (Fig. 482) is distributed into thirty-one sections,
divided by upright lines, each containing groups of signs varying in number
from two to seven. The total number of characters on this face is 122.
Face B shows thirty similar sections with from two to five signs and 119
characters in all.
A remarkable feature of the inscriptions on both sides are the strokes,
generally sloping to the right, but sometimes vertical, which recur at intervals
under certain terminal sions of sections.2 These marks are done with some
pointed tool after the stamping of the letters, when the clay was still soft.
They appear at the end of certain sections, but the sections themselves, which
probably represent individual words or concepts, are in each case separated
by horizontal lines, and these strokes must therefore have some other
1 It is hardly necessary to remind the curious
that Prof. G. Hempl, of Stanford University,
California, {Harper'sMagazine, Jan. 19 t o, p. 187
seqq., &c.) has read off the inscriptions into
a species of Greek. Of this it need only be re-
marked that, while it does not correspond with
classical forms, it has still less claim to represent
a prehistoric stage of the language (Harper's
Magazine, January, 1911.) Miss F. Melian
Stawell, of Newnham College, Cambridge
(Burlington Magazine, vol. xix, p. 23 seqq.),
who has endeavoured to follow HempPs lead,
is by no means more convincing. Both
attempts are based on a manipulation of
syllables or letters representing the initial
letters of the supposed equivalents of the
signs in Greek. Invocations to divinities of
an ecstatic nature are thus elicited. As a
sample of the language and method the fol-
lowing extract from Miss Stawell's translation
may suffice : ' Ta, Mare, da—Behold Warrior
Goddess ! 1(a), a, Kla-ta-(n)-k—All hail! ho !
clang. Ti-o, Kro-ra-to—I honour (thee) Mighty
one. An-gu-nao-ta—Queen of the Ways.' The
unsatisfying character (to say the least of it) of
these interpretations, must not, however, be
taken to exclude the possibility that the lan-
guage is Greek.
2 Their distribution is as follows: Under
the Marching Figure (No. i); twice ; under the
Male Child (No. 5), once ; under the Female
Breast (No. 7), three times ; the Fist and Cestus
(No. 8), three or four times; the Carpenter's
Angle (No. 18), once; the Ox-horn (No. 26),