DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1118#0315
FIRST DISCOVERY OF HOARDS OF TABLETS 667
The emergence of such a mass of clay records in a highly advanced At the
. 1 ... 1 • r i^ ■ t'nle an
form of linear script was the more striking at the time of the excavations unparal-
since other parallel finds illustrating- the preceding phase, A, of this script, S^
such as later occurred at Phaestos, had not as yet come to light. Nor was menon.
a single specimen known of a clay document of the more archaic ' Hiero-
glyphic ' class such as both Knossos and Mallia were later to produce.
With the exception of the inscribed Djktaean Libation Table the materials
hitherto accumulated had been derived from early seal-stones.1 This crown-
i'acr discovery thus stood out as the culmination of a long series of more
isolated finds, and as a striking confirmation of the views long upheld by
me, that, from the point of view of Writing, the great early civilization of
Greece was not dumb—whether or not a key to the decipherment of its
language may yet be recoverable.
On the site of Knossos itself my hopes had been encouraged at an
early date, both by the discovery of seal-stones with hieroglyphic signs -
and by the sight of a fragment of a burnt-clay slip presenting some incised
linear signs, which had been a surface find on the site, derived no doubt
from the previous diggings in the Third Magazine.3 But the few signs
1 So far as the hieroglyphic system was
concerned, my first hint of its existence was
supplied by a four-sided cornelian head-seal with
groups of signs presented to the Ashmolean
Museum in 1886 by Mr. Greville Chester, and
said to have come from Sparta. Subsequently,
however, I found an impression of the bead-seal
in the possession of its original owner in Candia
who had obtained it in Central Crete. This
piece of evidence was followed by the recog-
nition during a visit to Athens in 1S93 of
several bead-seals of the same class, all of
them derived from Crete, and—as a result
oi my early exploratory journeys through the
Central and Eastern parts of the Island from
1894 onwards—of the acquisition of a whole
series from the various sites on which they
were found. The first announcement of the
existence ol a hieroglyphic script in prehistoric
Crete was made by me to the Hellenic Society
in 1S93 fr> giving an account of the Aegina
Treasure. (For the results of my early quest in
Crete see Athenaeum, June 23, 1S94; Times,
Aug. 29; and a paper read in the Anthropo-
logical Section of the "British Association at
their Liverpool Meeting, September 1S94. See,
too, Cretan Pictografihs, &.c.,J.H. S., vol. xiv,
Pt. II, 1S95. For the account of the inscribed
Libation Table and the evidence of the Linear
Script A, see Further Discoveries of Cretan
and Aegean Script, 1S9S (in J, II. S., xvii
and B. Quaritch); and cf. P. o/M.t i, p. 627
seqq.)
2 In 1S95. Two seal stones had also come to
my notice, bearing groups of hieroglyphic
characters, picked up by peasants on the site
[Scri.J>ta Minoa, i, p. 151, P. 8*, with early
linear signs, and Ibid,, p. 12).
8 It was in the possession of Kyrios Zachy-
rakis, a Candia chemist, and subsequently
perished at the time of the massacre and the
destruction of the Christian quarter of the
town in 1899. As noted above, this 'tumul-
tuary' excavation—to use the appropriate
Italian expression—had thrown out several
tablets, in a broken condition, only recovered,
years afterwards, by our sifting the dump heap.
The emergence of such a mass of clay records in a highly advanced At the
. 1 ... 1 • r i^ ■ t'nle an
form of linear script was the more striking at the time of the excavations unparal-
since other parallel finds illustrating- the preceding phase, A, of this script, S^
such as later occurred at Phaestos, had not as yet come to light. Nor was menon.
a single specimen known of a clay document of the more archaic ' Hiero-
glyphic ' class such as both Knossos and Mallia were later to produce.
With the exception of the inscribed Djktaean Libation Table the materials
hitherto accumulated had been derived from early seal-stones.1 This crown-
i'acr discovery thus stood out as the culmination of a long series of more
isolated finds, and as a striking confirmation of the views long upheld by
me, that, from the point of view of Writing, the great early civilization of
Greece was not dumb—whether or not a key to the decipherment of its
language may yet be recoverable.
On the site of Knossos itself my hopes had been encouraged at an
early date, both by the discovery of seal-stones with hieroglyphic signs -
and by the sight of a fragment of a burnt-clay slip presenting some incised
linear signs, which had been a surface find on the site, derived no doubt
from the previous diggings in the Third Magazine.3 But the few signs
1 So far as the hieroglyphic system was
concerned, my first hint of its existence was
supplied by a four-sided cornelian head-seal with
groups of signs presented to the Ashmolean
Museum in 1886 by Mr. Greville Chester, and
said to have come from Sparta. Subsequently,
however, I found an impression of the bead-seal
in the possession of its original owner in Candia
who had obtained it in Central Crete. This
piece of evidence was followed by the recog-
nition during a visit to Athens in 1S93 of
several bead-seals of the same class, all of
them derived from Crete, and—as a result
oi my early exploratory journeys through the
Central and Eastern parts of the Island from
1894 onwards—of the acquisition of a whole
series from the various sites on which they
were found. The first announcement of the
existence ol a hieroglyphic script in prehistoric
Crete was made by me to the Hellenic Society
in 1S93 fr> giving an account of the Aegina
Treasure. (For the results of my early quest in
Crete see Athenaeum, June 23, 1S94; Times,
Aug. 29; and a paper read in the Anthropo-
logical Section of the "British Association at
their Liverpool Meeting, September 1S94. See,
too, Cretan Pictografihs, &.c.,J.H. S., vol. xiv,
Pt. II, 1S95. For the account of the inscribed
Libation Table and the evidence of the Linear
Script A, see Further Discoveries of Cretan
and Aegean Script, 1S9S (in J, II. S., xvii
and B. Quaritch); and cf. P. o/M.t i, p. 627
seqq.)
2 In 1S95. Two seal stones had also come to
my notice, bearing groups of hieroglyphic
characters, picked up by peasants on the site
[Scri.J>ta Minoa, i, p. 151, P. 8*, with early
linear signs, and Ibid,, p. 12).
8 It was in the possession of Kyrios Zachy-
rakis, a Candia chemist, and subsequently
perished at the time of the massacre and the
destruction of the Christian quarter of the
town in 1899. As noted above, this 'tumul-
tuary' excavation—to use the appropriate
Italian expression—had thrown out several
tablets, in a broken condition, only recovered,
years afterwards, by our sifting the dump heap.