DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1118#0332
684
ANALYSIS OF SIGNS OF CLASS B
Same
language
personal
names in
common,
211J
Before
SCR.
numbers preceded by quantitative characters often
two groups. The numeration, as
shown below, is practically identi-
cal, and the sign-groups are divided
from one another in the same
manner by linear marks, sometimes
mere dots, sometimes short up-
right strokes. In both cases the
writing runs consistently from left
to right.
More than this, the language
itself is identical. As will be seen
from a small comparative selection
in Fig. 665, the same personal
names—authenticated as such on
the B tablets by the association of
the' man ' or I woman ' sign—recur
in both series.
We have not here the indica-
tions of a violent intrusion at the hands of some foreign Power. Equally
with the other, the new system is rooted in the soil of Crete itself and is
part and parcel of its history. Rather, the evidence may bejdiought to
point to a change of dynasty.
similar in form in tin
CLASS A (HT) CLASS B KNOSSOS
BYT
IZ2.I
Fig. 665. Comparative Examples of Name-
groups BELONGING TO CLASSES A AND B.
Early
alphabet!-
form
element.
Analysis of Signs of Class B,
When we come to analyse the signs, 73 in number, given in the Table,
Fig. 666, a good third may be thought to have been capable of a purely
ideographic usage, in most cases directly connected with numbers. But it is
difficult to lay down any hard and fast line of division. Certain signs, for
instance, like the animal figures Nos. 68 to 73, though primarily pictorial
and ideographic, are also included in sign-groups, where they may often
belong to a personal name in which that of an animal forms part.
In the same way the ' ship ' and other signs that recall a definite object
are found in similar positions in name-groups. More will be said on this in
a sub-section dealing with lists of persons.1
It will be seen that, apart from certain more or less plain geometrical
forms,3 which go back to what may be called the primitive linear class
1 See below, pp. 709-11. - As, for instance, 1-4, 15, 51, 54, 5"-
ANALYSIS OF SIGNS OF CLASS B
Same
language
personal
names in
common,
211J
Before
SCR.
numbers preceded by quantitative characters often
two groups. The numeration, as
shown below, is practically identi-
cal, and the sign-groups are divided
from one another in the same
manner by linear marks, sometimes
mere dots, sometimes short up-
right strokes. In both cases the
writing runs consistently from left
to right.
More than this, the language
itself is identical. As will be seen
from a small comparative selection
in Fig. 665, the same personal
names—authenticated as such on
the B tablets by the association of
the' man ' or I woman ' sign—recur
in both series.
We have not here the indica-
tions of a violent intrusion at the hands of some foreign Power. Equally
with the other, the new system is rooted in the soil of Crete itself and is
part and parcel of its history. Rather, the evidence may bejdiought to
point to a change of dynasty.
similar in form in tin
CLASS A (HT) CLASS B KNOSSOS
BYT
IZ2.I
Fig. 665. Comparative Examples of Name-
groups BELONGING TO CLASSES A AND B.
Early
alphabet!-
form
element.
Analysis of Signs of Class B,
When we come to analyse the signs, 73 in number, given in the Table,
Fig. 666, a good third may be thought to have been capable of a purely
ideographic usage, in most cases directly connected with numbers. But it is
difficult to lay down any hard and fast line of division. Certain signs, for
instance, like the animal figures Nos. 68 to 73, though primarily pictorial
and ideographic, are also included in sign-groups, where they may often
belong to a personal name in which that of an animal forms part.
In the same way the ' ship ' and other signs that recall a definite object
are found in similar positions in name-groups. More will be said on this in
a sub-section dealing with lists of persons.1
It will be seen that, apart from certain more or less plain geometrical
forms,3 which go back to what may be called the primitive linear class
1 See below, pp. 709-11. - As, for instance, 1-4, 15, 51, 54, 5"-