DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0326
274
THE MYCENAEAN AGE
Of the eighty symbols, some sixteen (or twenty per cent.)
approach the Egyptian, an equal number the Hittite forms.
Resem- ^"r- Evans rightly remarks that " considering that
biances ^e choice of comparisons is in the case of the
Egyptian hieroglyphs very much larger than in that of the
Hittite, it will be seen that the
proportion of affinities distinct-
ly inclines to the Asiatic side."
But with all these similarities,
the Cretan symbols are neither
Egyptian nor Hittite; they are
clearly an independent system.
The symbols occur, as a
rule, in groups of from three
to seven ; often, however, two
or three stand alone. From
these various groupings, Mr.
Evans suspects that
the separate charac-
ters have a syllabic value.
However, he admits that many
of them were simply ideograph-
ic or symbolic, and were de-
signed to convey information
regarding their owners. For
example, a boat with a crescent
moon on either side of the
mast (Fig. 142 a), he thinks may have been the signet of
an ancient mariner who ventured on long voyages.1 An-
other signet, with a gate and a pig on one of its faces
(Fig. 141 c), would be proper to a well-to-do swineherd. So
1 Even a one-moon voyage seems to have been too much for the average
Homeric mariner (Iliad, ii. 292-4).
Grouping
Fig. 142 a-d. Four-sided Seal-stone
(Evans, 34)
THE MYCENAEAN AGE
Of the eighty symbols, some sixteen (or twenty per cent.)
approach the Egyptian, an equal number the Hittite forms.
Resem- ^"r- Evans rightly remarks that " considering that
biances ^e choice of comparisons is in the case of the
Egyptian hieroglyphs very much larger than in that of the
Hittite, it will be seen that the
proportion of affinities distinct-
ly inclines to the Asiatic side."
But with all these similarities,
the Cretan symbols are neither
Egyptian nor Hittite; they are
clearly an independent system.
The symbols occur, as a
rule, in groups of from three
to seven ; often, however, two
or three stand alone. From
these various groupings, Mr.
Evans suspects that
the separate charac-
ters have a syllabic value.
However, he admits that many
of them were simply ideograph-
ic or symbolic, and were de-
signed to convey information
regarding their owners. For
example, a boat with a crescent
moon on either side of the
mast (Fig. 142 a), he thinks may have been the signet of
an ancient mariner who ventured on long voyages.1 An-
other signet, with a gate and a pig on one of its faces
(Fig. 141 c), would be proper to a well-to-do swineherd. So
1 Even a one-moon voyage seems to have been too much for the average
Homeric mariner (Iliad, ii. 292-4).
Grouping
Fig. 142 a-d. Four-sided Seal-stone
(Evans, 34)