DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.619#0065
56
NAUKRA.TIS.
Abu Simbel inscriptions is no longer tenable, and
that those inscriptions show a variation from
the ordinary Ionic alphabet, as seen at Miletos
and elsewhere, which is due to a difference of local
source, and not to an earlier date. This con-
clusion is confirmed by the fact that we find at
Naukratis among the early, but not the earliest, spe-
cimens of the Milesian alphabet, another where the
letters are identical with those of the Abu Simbel
inscriptions, and seem to be in all probability
Rhodian. Therefore the specimen referred to will
be treated separately in its own place, and the
same course will be followed with regard to all other
inscriptions that differ in any essential point from
the Milesian series, whether they can or cannot
be definitely assigned to some other local source.
67. Having thus explained the principles on
which the selection and interpretations here
adopted are based, we may next proceed, with the
help of the accompanying table (pi. xxxv. a), to
sketch the history of the alphabet at Naukratis from
the earliest times. A word or two in explanation of
the table may not be superfluous. Classes I.—XI.,
arranged, as far as possible, in chronological order,
contain the connected series of Milesian inscrip-
tions. Classes XII.—XVII. contain such speci-
mens as differ in essential points from that series.
XVIII. and XIX. represent two well-known and
easily recognizable local alphabets; XX., such
detached letters, &c, as could not, from their
isolated position, serve as satisfactory evidence;
only a few of thesehave been selected, which served
to fill gaps in the columns of some letters.
Classes a, b, &c, at the bottom, are not, of course,
new discoveries, but are merely inserted for the
sake of comparison. I may add that the forms of
the letters in all the classes from I.—XX. have
been copied from the originals with the help of Mr.
Petrie's facsimiles; but these last have in no
case been used without independent verification.
Class a is constructed from the copies by M.
Dubois in the " Bulletin de Correspondence helle-
nique," vol. vi. pp. 187 sqq. ; b, from Lepsius,
"Denkmaler," XII vi. 98, 99; c, from the ori-
ginals in the British Museum, with the help of
earlier copies made under more favourable circum-
stances. In each case only inscriptions of unques-
tionably early date have been used.
68. Herodotos, in the passage already referred
to, after mentioning other islanders and Asiatic
Greeks who consecrated sacred precincts at Nau-
kratis, tells us that the Milesians thus dedicated
one to Apollo: it is in this temenos that the in-
scriptions we are now considering have been
found. But did the earliest settlers and visitors
bring with them an alphabet already established
at home, or was it the colonists who communi-
cated the new invention to their mother city ?
In the scarcity of early Milesian inscriptions it is
hard to give a definite and final answer to this
question, for it is not till we are well advanced in
our Naukratis series that we find ourselves on a
level with the earliest inscriptions of Asia Minor.
But, on the other hand, we find at Naukratis so
little trace of Phoenician influence in other re-
spects, that we must believe the Milesian mer-
chants and sailors to have become acquainted
with the Greek adaptation of the great Phoenician
invention either at home or on their sea traffic.
In any case, however, the forms represented in
classes I., II., III., and perhaps IV., of our table
bear so close a resemblance to the originals from
which they were primarily derived, that we are
compelled to regard them as among the earliest
in character, if not in date, of all Greek writing
hitherto discovered. Thera alone can here com-
pete ; but Thera is totally different. We must
therefore acknowledge the existence side by side
of two distinct branches of the most primitive
Greek alphabet, classes sometimes conveniently
but loosely distinguished by the names Cadmean
and Ionic: but of the latter the Abu Simbel in-
scriptions will no longer be either the earliest or
the most characteristic example. What then is
the relation between the two classes ? This is a
most obscure and difficult problem, which it is, of
course, impossible here to solve. But it is one
that has hardly yet received sufficient attention
NAUKRA.TIS.
Abu Simbel inscriptions is no longer tenable, and
that those inscriptions show a variation from
the ordinary Ionic alphabet, as seen at Miletos
and elsewhere, which is due to a difference of local
source, and not to an earlier date. This con-
clusion is confirmed by the fact that we find at
Naukratis among the early, but not the earliest, spe-
cimens of the Milesian alphabet, another where the
letters are identical with those of the Abu Simbel
inscriptions, and seem to be in all probability
Rhodian. Therefore the specimen referred to will
be treated separately in its own place, and the
same course will be followed with regard to all other
inscriptions that differ in any essential point from
the Milesian series, whether they can or cannot
be definitely assigned to some other local source.
67. Having thus explained the principles on
which the selection and interpretations here
adopted are based, we may next proceed, with the
help of the accompanying table (pi. xxxv. a), to
sketch the history of the alphabet at Naukratis from
the earliest times. A word or two in explanation of
the table may not be superfluous. Classes I.—XI.,
arranged, as far as possible, in chronological order,
contain the connected series of Milesian inscrip-
tions. Classes XII.—XVII. contain such speci-
mens as differ in essential points from that series.
XVIII. and XIX. represent two well-known and
easily recognizable local alphabets; XX., such
detached letters, &c, as could not, from their
isolated position, serve as satisfactory evidence;
only a few of thesehave been selected, which served
to fill gaps in the columns of some letters.
Classes a, b, &c, at the bottom, are not, of course,
new discoveries, but are merely inserted for the
sake of comparison. I may add that the forms of
the letters in all the classes from I.—XX. have
been copied from the originals with the help of Mr.
Petrie's facsimiles; but these last have in no
case been used without independent verification.
Class a is constructed from the copies by M.
Dubois in the " Bulletin de Correspondence helle-
nique," vol. vi. pp. 187 sqq. ; b, from Lepsius,
"Denkmaler," XII vi. 98, 99; c, from the ori-
ginals in the British Museum, with the help of
earlier copies made under more favourable circum-
stances. In each case only inscriptions of unques-
tionably early date have been used.
68. Herodotos, in the passage already referred
to, after mentioning other islanders and Asiatic
Greeks who consecrated sacred precincts at Nau-
kratis, tells us that the Milesians thus dedicated
one to Apollo: it is in this temenos that the in-
scriptions we are now considering have been
found. But did the earliest settlers and visitors
bring with them an alphabet already established
at home, or was it the colonists who communi-
cated the new invention to their mother city ?
In the scarcity of early Milesian inscriptions it is
hard to give a definite and final answer to this
question, for it is not till we are well advanced in
our Naukratis series that we find ourselves on a
level with the earliest inscriptions of Asia Minor.
But, on the other hand, we find at Naukratis so
little trace of Phoenician influence in other re-
spects, that we must believe the Milesian mer-
chants and sailors to have become acquainted
with the Greek adaptation of the great Phoenician
invention either at home or on their sea traffic.
In any case, however, the forms represented in
classes I., II., III., and perhaps IV., of our table
bear so close a resemblance to the originals from
which they were primarily derived, that we are
compelled to regard them as among the earliest
in character, if not in date, of all Greek writing
hitherto discovered. Thera alone can here com-
pete ; but Thera is totally different. We must
therefore acknowledge the existence side by side
of two distinct branches of the most primitive
Greek alphabet, classes sometimes conveniently
but loosely distinguished by the names Cadmean
and Ionic: but of the latter the Abu Simbel in-
scriptions will no longer be either the earliest or
the most characteristic example. What then is
the relation between the two classes ? This is a
most obscure and difficult problem, which it is, of
course, impossible here to solve. But it is one
that has hardly yet received sufficient attention