DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1021#0331
WRITING IN MYCENAEAN GREECE 279
To this table some additions can be made. On the stone
pestle from Mycenae, already referred to, occurs the mark
"jy. Here the first sign is like the Cypriote for the syllable
na, while the second (oblique line) may be merely a chance
scratch. Although Mr. Evans mentions this pestle (page
274), he does not give this "J" a place in his table of sym-
bols. He has likewise omitted the symbol p found on an
amphora from Menidi (see page 268), and the sign *j-f in-
cised twice, or perhaps thrice, on the vase from Pronoia.
This sign, however, may be only a variation of the |-|
which is given in the table. To these we may now add
three newly discovered symbols, £A, @ Q? on a small
white marble vase of a familiar island pattern, which was
dug up in Cythera, and is now in the possession of Mr.
Sp. Staes, deputy from that island.
Thus, from these various objects of various provenance, —
from vases of stone and terra cotta, from pendants, whorls,
seals, building-stones and other objects, found at „ ,
Mycenae and Pronoia in Argolis, at
Attica, in Siphnos, Cythera and Crete,
make up a list of thirty-eight different characters, to which
the Psychro inscription may possibly add five more. Now,
as regards chronology, it is clear beyond a doubt that some
of these objects date from the Mycenaean epoch, while
others are even older. Mr. Evans declares that linear
forms occur " on button-shaped stones belonging to that
period of Cretan history which is marked by the decorative
influence of twelfth dynasty Egyptian models."
Thus, various indications — chronology, provenance, en-
vironment — all point to a close connection be ,The tem
tween these linear signs and Mycenaean culture. a^buTof
Mr. Evans accepts this relationship, and terms w,deranee
the linear writing "Aegean or Mycenaean." But these
To this table some additions can be made. On the stone
pestle from Mycenae, already referred to, occurs the mark
"jy. Here the first sign is like the Cypriote for the syllable
na, while the second (oblique line) may be merely a chance
scratch. Although Mr. Evans mentions this pestle (page
274), he does not give this "J" a place in his table of sym-
bols. He has likewise omitted the symbol p found on an
amphora from Menidi (see page 268), and the sign *j-f in-
cised twice, or perhaps thrice, on the vase from Pronoia.
This sign, however, may be only a variation of the |-|
which is given in the table. To these we may now add
three newly discovered symbols, £A, @ Q? on a small
white marble vase of a familiar island pattern, which was
dug up in Cythera, and is now in the possession of Mr.
Sp. Staes, deputy from that island.
Thus, from these various objects of various provenance, —
from vases of stone and terra cotta, from pendants, whorls,
seals, building-stones and other objects, found at „ ,
Mycenae and Pronoia in Argolis, at
Attica, in Siphnos, Cythera and Crete,
make up a list of thirty-eight different characters, to which
the Psychro inscription may possibly add five more. Now,
as regards chronology, it is clear beyond a doubt that some
of these objects date from the Mycenaean epoch, while
others are even older. Mr. Evans declares that linear
forms occur " on button-shaped stones belonging to that
period of Cretan history which is marked by the decorative
influence of twelfth dynasty Egyptian models."
Thus, various indications — chronology, provenance, en-
vironment — all point to a close connection be ,The tem
tween these linear signs and Mycenaean culture. a^buTof
Mr. Evans accepts this relationship, and terms w,deranee
the linear writing "Aegean or Mycenaean." But these