DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1118#0413
MINOAN CONTACT WITH CILICIAN COAST 763
It will still be found, however, that there remains a by no means negli- Residuum
oible residuum of signs that have no obvious connexion with Minoan forms. ^""J,
It must always, indeed, be borne in mind that Cyprus itself had its indepen- dements
*s+ dent tradition of early script, going back centuries before ote yP"~
Hit* f ft t'ie c'ate °'" t'le Minoan plantations on that side. scripts.
'(Hj r Jj Although little, as yet, is known of this, a single Traces of
t- -,- i«„.....„„, cylinder of green steatite from a Copper Age tomb of ~° e?rlier
1*IG. Ho. INSCRIPTION J . ' , . - L & Cypriote
on Early Steatite the Hagia Paraskevi Cemetery,1 the inscription on which linear
CYUND?R„;„„i'AEA" is 8ive" in Fi§'- 745> would be sufficient to demonstrate CoLT
SKEVI, CYPRUS. , rr
the existence ol early linear signs parallel with that A°? ,
r cylinders
which already existed in Crete long before the clays of the more advanced
scripts A and B.'2 Some curious parallels presented by this early cylinder
oroup—small as it is—tend to show that this primitive class of linear signs
had a certain family relationship to that of Early Minoan Crete.
Minoan Contact with opposite Cilician Coast: How far did the 'Men of
Keftiu' introduce their Script?
A good deal of evidence tends to show that the early population of Minoan
Cyprus was closely akin to that of the neighbouring coastland of Asia ™"1'act
Minor, while the affinities of the latter, and notably of the early inhabitants opposite
of Cilicia with a dominant section of the Minoan Cretans, is illustrated at Coast',
every turn by the practical identity of local and personal names,3 as well as
by the proto-Armenoid character of the portrait of the early Priest-king of
Knossos, as seen on seal impressions.
When, apparently towards the beginning" of the Fifteenth Century B.C.,
the Minoan Cretans were planting commercial settlements both in Cyprus
and the opposite Mainland strip (which best answers to the original 'land
of Keftiu'), the process of penetration was-doubtless in both cases aided by
the old underlying community of race.
To what extent the 'Men of Keftiu' on the Cilician side introduced indepen-
there, as in Cyprus, their improved methods of writing, can only be ascer- £"' hi
tained by future discoveries. Of the existence of an independent L. M. Ill branch in
culture in that region we have already some certain indications in the sherds region,
described above. But the evidence is accumulating on the Mainland side
of Hither Asia—Anatolian, as well as Syrian—not only of the diffusion of
In the Ashmolean Museum: Sayce Coll. with a pictograph identified on the tablets of
The ' N ' sign above occurs among the the Linear Class B at Knossos with a kind
'primitive linear' signs of Crete, parallel with of granary, see above, pp. 622 and 623.
the Hieroglyphic. The ' F' repeated is com- 3 See, for instance, above, p. 751, and P. of
mon to class A. The terminal sign corresponds .<!/., i, pp. 6, 7.
It will still be found, however, that there remains a by no means negli- Residuum
oible residuum of signs that have no obvious connexion with Minoan forms. ^""J,
It must always, indeed, be borne in mind that Cyprus itself had its indepen- dements
*s+ dent tradition of early script, going back centuries before ote yP"~
Hit* f ft t'ie c'ate °'" t'le Minoan plantations on that side. scripts.
'(Hj r Jj Although little, as yet, is known of this, a single Traces of
t- -,- i«„.....„„, cylinder of green steatite from a Copper Age tomb of ~° e?rlier
1*IG. Ho. INSCRIPTION J . ' , . - L & Cypriote
on Early Steatite the Hagia Paraskevi Cemetery,1 the inscription on which linear
CYUND?R„;„„i'AEA" is 8ive" in Fi§'- 745> would be sufficient to demonstrate CoLT
SKEVI, CYPRUS. , rr
the existence ol early linear signs parallel with that A°? ,
r cylinders
which already existed in Crete long before the clays of the more advanced
scripts A and B.'2 Some curious parallels presented by this early cylinder
oroup—small as it is—tend to show that this primitive class of linear signs
had a certain family relationship to that of Early Minoan Crete.
Minoan Contact with opposite Cilician Coast: How far did the 'Men of
Keftiu' introduce their Script?
A good deal of evidence tends to show that the early population of Minoan
Cyprus was closely akin to that of the neighbouring coastland of Asia ™"1'act
Minor, while the affinities of the latter, and notably of the early inhabitants opposite
of Cilicia with a dominant section of the Minoan Cretans, is illustrated at Coast',
every turn by the practical identity of local and personal names,3 as well as
by the proto-Armenoid character of the portrait of the early Priest-king of
Knossos, as seen on seal impressions.
When, apparently towards the beginning" of the Fifteenth Century B.C.,
the Minoan Cretans were planting commercial settlements both in Cyprus
and the opposite Mainland strip (which best answers to the original 'land
of Keftiu'), the process of penetration was-doubtless in both cases aided by
the old underlying community of race.
To what extent the 'Men of Keftiu' on the Cilician side introduced indepen-
there, as in Cyprus, their improved methods of writing, can only be ascer- £"' hi
tained by future discoveries. Of the existence of an independent L. M. Ill branch in
culture in that region we have already some certain indications in the sherds region,
described above. But the evidence is accumulating on the Mainland side
of Hither Asia—Anatolian, as well as Syrian—not only of the diffusion of
In the Ashmolean Museum: Sayce Coll. with a pictograph identified on the tablets of
The ' N ' sign above occurs among the the Linear Class B at Knossos with a kind
'primitive linear' signs of Crete, parallel with of granary, see above, pp. 622 and 623.
the Hieroglyphic. The ' F' repeated is com- 3 See, for instance, above, p. 751, and P. of
mon to class A. The terminal sign corresponds .<!/., i, pp. 6, 7.