DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1118#0452
802 'FODDER' SIGN AND 'CORN ON THRESHING FLOOR'
connects it with the ordinary 'flock' sign °f, specifically, representing
goats. It is a reasonable conjecture that this sign relates to the fodder of
animals, and may be compared with the Egyptian hieroglyph sp-t desio-.
nating the corn on the threshing floor, and so ' corn' generally.1 In jts
j
Fig. 776. Forms or ' Fodder' Sign.
early pictorial form the shape of the grains is preserved (Fig. 777) ; these
are finally reduced to four spots within a circle, Fig. 778, b, like Fig. 776, d.
From the association of the Minoan sign with cattle, and on the present
series with horses, it may be taken to refer to the feeding of animals. It is
used both as an ordinary phonetic character,
and in an ideographic sense. In many cases
it is inserted at the end of word groups as a
determinative relating to their functions. That
among the duties imposed on the ' knights',
whose corslet badge appears on the ' chariot
tablets ', was included the care and feeding of
the horses in the royal stables, is clear from
the appearance in certain cases of the Q sign
on their cuirass badge. Examples of this are
given above in Fig. 763, //, k : on A the 'corslet
is followed by a separate rendering of the
same character. On some of the tablets from the 'Armoury' Deposit
(as a supplement to the somewhat larger sign-group that seems to repre-
sent the personal names) there is repeated what appears to be an
official title beginning with the ' throne and sceptre', and ending with the
'fodder' sign (fjfQ). On a specimen where the inscription seems to
be practically complete, tills group—presumably representing an official
title—is repeated four times.
Fig. 777. Early
Pictorial Form
of Egyptian
Sign (Corn on
Threshing
Floor).
Fig. 778. Con-
ventionalized
Egyptian form
of Sign.
1 F. LI. Griffith, Hieroglyphs, pp. 27, 28,
PL III, Fig. 32 and PL VII, Fig. 87 (repro-
duced here B'ig. 777 a). A threshing floor
(dAwtov) of the same type as that so wide-
spread still throughout Crete was observed
by me in a Middle Minoan settlement at
Hellenika, near Krasi. It was surrounded
in the same way by a ring of stones set on
end-
connects it with the ordinary 'flock' sign °f, specifically, representing
goats. It is a reasonable conjecture that this sign relates to the fodder of
animals, and may be compared with the Egyptian hieroglyph sp-t desio-.
nating the corn on the threshing floor, and so ' corn' generally.1 In jts
j
Fig. 776. Forms or ' Fodder' Sign.
early pictorial form the shape of the grains is preserved (Fig. 777) ; these
are finally reduced to four spots within a circle, Fig. 778, b, like Fig. 776, d.
From the association of the Minoan sign with cattle, and on the present
series with horses, it may be taken to refer to the feeding of animals. It is
used both as an ordinary phonetic character,
and in an ideographic sense. In many cases
it is inserted at the end of word groups as a
determinative relating to their functions. That
among the duties imposed on the ' knights',
whose corslet badge appears on the ' chariot
tablets ', was included the care and feeding of
the horses in the royal stables, is clear from
the appearance in certain cases of the Q sign
on their cuirass badge. Examples of this are
given above in Fig. 763, //, k : on A the 'corslet
is followed by a separate rendering of the
same character. On some of the tablets from the 'Armoury' Deposit
(as a supplement to the somewhat larger sign-group that seems to repre-
sent the personal names) there is repeated what appears to be an
official title beginning with the ' throne and sceptre', and ending with the
'fodder' sign (fjfQ). On a specimen where the inscription seems to
be practically complete, tills group—presumably representing an official
title—is repeated four times.
Fig. 777. Early
Pictorial Form
of Egyptian
Sign (Corn on
Threshing
Floor).
Fig. 778. Con-
ventionalized
Egyptian form
of Sign.
1 F. LI. Griffith, Hieroglyphs, pp. 27, 28,
PL III, Fig. 32 and PL VII, Fig. 87 (repro-
duced here B'ig. 777 a). A threshing floor
(dAwtov) of the same type as that so wide-
spread still throughout Crete was observed
by me in a Middle Minoan settlement at
Hellenika, near Krasi. It was surrounded
in the same way by a ring of stones set on
end-