CHAPTER IX

Fig. 50.—Facsimile of Hieratic Papyrus Prisse

The sarcophagus, which is preserved in the Louvre, was found in a rock-tomb near the site of ancient Sidon. The interpretation of the inscription upon it has exercised the skill of a host of scholars, and given rise to an enormous body of literature. Eshmunazar, whose mask and mummy are sculptured on the sarcophagus, speaks in the firstperson. He calls himself "king of the Sidonians, son of Tabnit," and tells how he and his mother, the priestess of Ashtaroth, had built temples to Baal Sidon, Ashtaroth, and Emun. He beseeches the favour of the gods, and prays that Dora, Joppa, and the fertile corn-lands of Sharon may ever remain part of his kingdom. Well-nigh in the words of Shakespeare's epitaph, he lays a curse upon him who would molest his grave; such an one "shall have no funeral couch with the Rephaim," that haunt the vasty halls of death. "I am cut off before my time; few have been my days, and I am lying in this coffin and in this tomb in the place which I have built. Oh, then, remember this! may no royal race, may no man open my funeral couch, and may they not seek after treasure, for no one has hidden treasures here, nor move the coffin out of my funeral couch, nor molest me in this funeral bed by putting in it another tomb." (Records of the Past, vol. ix.)

Fig. 51.—Inscription on the Eshmunazar Sarcophagus

Such, broadly speaking, were M. de Rougé's materials for observation and comparison, and there have been few more striking examples of ingenuity of classification and inference than those which, hiswork supplies. In his excellent summary of that work which Canon Taylor gives in the first volume of his indispensableHistory of the Alphabet(pp. 98-116), he refers the student who desires full details to M. de Rougé's posthumousMémoire sur l'origine Égyptienne de l'alphabet Phénicien, and suggests that those readers who care only for results may even skip his summary. That summary necessarily includes much technical matter which will interest only the trained philologist; and in the superficial survey of the subject which is only possible, and perhaps desirable, in these pages, any details would be out of place. Nevertheless, the accompanying tabulated form of M. de Rougé's results may be followed by an example or two of the method which secured them, and also by reference to some earlier Semitic inscriptions which have come to light since 1859.

M. DE ROUGÉ'S THEORY OF THE ORIGIN OF THE ALPHABET.

Our examples of M. de Rougé's method may be taken from the lettersbandh.

b.The Egyptians had two signs for this, the "leg,"which is the normal sign, and the "crane" (see Fig. 2 in foregoing table), which letter should be taken as the prototype of the Phœnician (see Fig. 2, col. iii.). The reason may be that the sound of the first symbol seems to have been nearer tovthan tob, the "crane" being used as the equivalent ofbethin the translation of several Semitic names, such as Berytus (Beyrout) and Khirba. The hieratic trace of the "leg" would, moreover, be easily confused with that of some other letters, such as the "chick" and the "arm," and would therefore be inconvenient for adoption. The Semitic characterdiffers from its hieratic prototypein having acquired a closed loop. The closed form is so much easier to write that the change presents no difficulty. But there is a curious bit of indirect evidence which seems to show that the Semitic in its earlier form was open, something in the shape of an. The Greek alphabet used at Corinth, one of the earliest Phœnician colonies in Hellas, must have been derived from a type of the Semitic alphabet more archaic than that which appears on the Moabite Stone (see p. 147). Now, in the old Corinthian alphabet the letterbetais not closed, but open,, its form being almost identical with the hieratic prototype.

h.The letterhecorresponds to the "mæander" and the "knotted cord." The hieratic forms show that the former must be taken as the prototype. In thePapyrus Prissethere are two of this character; one, which is comparatively rare, is open at the bottom,, and corresponds to the Moabite. It is much more usual, however, to find the character completely closed. The name of the Semitic letter, which is generally supposed to mean a "window," would indicate that the previous form of the letter agreed with the more usual hieratic trace. This conjecture is curiously confirmed by the evidence afforded by the early inscriptions of Corinth, which, as we have seen in the case ofbeta, occasionally preserve alphabetic forms of a more archaic type than those found on the Moabite Stone itself. Now, in the primitive alphabet of Corinth we find, instead of the usual form ofepsilon, a closed characterwhich is nearly identical with the form of the "mæander," most usual in thePapyrus Prisse. (Taylor, i. pp. 102, 114.)

Among the more important Semitic inscriptions, other than that on the Eshmunazar sarcophagus, are: (1) the inscription on fragments of sacred vessels of bronze from the temple of Baal Lebanon, which is assigned to the eleventh centuryb.c.; (2) the inscription of Mesha, king of Moab, on a slab of black basalt, known as the Moabite Stone, which is assigned to the ninth centuryb.c.; (3) the lionweights from Nineveh, bearing the names of Assyrian kings who reigned during the second half of the eighth centuryb.c.; and (4) the inscription on a tablet in a tunnel which conveys water from the Virgin's Pool in the Kedron Valley to the Pool of Siloam in the Tyropæon. The date of this inscription lies between the eighth and the sixth centuriesb.c.

Fig. 52.—Inscription on Sacred Bowls (Baal Lebanon)

1.The Baal Lebanon Vessels.In 1876 M. Clermont-Ganneau bought from a Cypriote dealer some fragments of bronze plates bearing Phœnician characters (Fig. 52). They were traced to a peasant who had found them when digging, and who had broken up the metal in the hope that it was of gold. The industry and skill of MM. Renan and Clermont-Ganneaupieced the fragments together in such wise as to warrant the inference that they were portions of sacred bowls, an inference confirmed by the longest of the inscriptions, which declared that "this vessel of good bronze was offered by a citizen of Carthage, servant of Hiram, king of the Sidonians, to Baal Lebanon, his Lord," whose temple was one of the "high places" dedicated to the god.

Fig. 53.—The Moabite Stone

2.The Moabite Stone(Fig. 53). This, perhaps the most famous, and, certainly, one of the most important, of Semitic relics, was discovered in 1868 by Dr. Klein, a German missionary, during his travels in Moab. The Arabs who escorted him took him to see an inscribed stone, the Phœniciancharacters on which were beautifully cut in thirty-four lines. The doctor copied a few words, and resumed his journey. On reaching Jerusalem he made known his discovery, whereupon competition was started between the French and German Consulates for purchase of the coveted treasure. This aroused the suspicion of the Arabs, to whom the stone had become a sort of talisman on which the fertility of their crops depended—that is, when they had industry enough to plant them. Messengers sent by M. Clermont-Ganneau succeeded in taking a squeeze of the inscription, which made the Arabs still more hostile, and in the end, after the Turkish governor of Nablus had vainly tried to secure the stone for himself—of course to sell at a profit to the "infidel"—the Arabs put a fire under it, then poured cold water over it, and smashed it into fragments, which were distributed as charms among the tribe. But the tact of M. Clermont-Ganneau recovered nearly all the pieces, so that, a few lines excepted, the inscription is complete. The original is preserved in the Louvre, and a very good cast of it may be seen in the Phœnician department of the British Museum.

The inscription, which is written in a language resembling closely the Hebrew of the Old Testament, gives Mesha's account of his rebellion against the King of Israel, to whom he had hitherto paid yearly tribute of the wool of a hundred thousand lambs and a hundred thousand rams. Historically the monument is of high value. Mesha speaks of himselfas the son of Chemoshmelek, whose position as the national god of the petty kingdom of Moab corresponds to that of Yahweh or Jehovah among the Israelites. The reference to Chemosh throws light on the correspondences in belief between the several Semitic peoples. The "high place" or altar of the god, his anthropomorphic character as angry, as urging his votaries to battle and to slaughter of their foes, giving them no quarter—all this is identical with the Hebrew conception of deity, so that the inscription,mutatis mutandis, reads like a transcript from the warlike annals of the Old Testament. From the epigraphic standpoint, which alone concerns us here, the inscription is regarded by Canon Taylor and other scholars as supporting the theory of M. de Rougé.

3.The Lion Weights(Fig. 54). Several examples of these were found by the late Sir Austin Layard in his first excavations at Nineveh. They are bilingual, the names of the Assyrian kings being usually in cuneiform writing, while the weights are indicated in Phœnician characters. Of course this evidences intimate trading relations between Assyria and Phœnicia, and the commercial dominance of the latter in the adoption of its weights and measures as the metrical standard of the former, and in the general use of the Phœnician alphabet for business purposes. The action of time has largely obliterated the inscriptions, but among the names of Assyrian kings which have been identified are Tiglath-Peser, Shalmaneser IV., Sargon II., and Sennacherib. The similarity between the Phœnicianand Assyrian characters is shown in the inscription here reproduced, which is to scale of the original. It is on the eleventh lion, which weighs a little over twenty ounces, and therefore represents a maneh, a Hebrew weight used in estimating gold and silver, andbelieved to contain one hundred shekels of the former and sixty of the latter. The reading ismanehmelek, "a maneh of the king." The name is not very legible, but is read by Professor Sayce as Shalmaneser, who reigned in the seventh centuryb.c.

Fig. 54.—Maneh Weight

4.The Siloam Inscription.—The tunnel in which this was found was doubtless constructed to secure the water supply of Jerusalem in the event of a siege, the Virgin's Pool being outside the city walls, while the Pool of Siloam is inside the boundaries of the old rampart. Encrustations of carbonate of lime made the decipherment of the letters very difficult on their first discovery in 1880, but enough was seen to prove their high importance for the study of the development of the Hebrew alphabet in its passage from the Phœnician to the Aramean type, whence the modern characters are derived. "It was recognised at once that a Hebrew inscription of a date prior to the Captivity had at last been discovered, and that the uncertainties as to the nature of the alphabet of Israel would now be set at rest." The letters were carefully cleared of their accretion; squeezes, tracings, and casts were obtained, and the Hebrew record, engraved in Phœnician characters nearly resembling those on the Moabite Stone, thus Englished, of course more or less conjecturally in detail, by Professor Sayce:—

(1) (Behold the) excavation! Now this is the history of the tunnel. While the excavators (were lifting up)(2) the pick each to his neighbour, and while there were yet three cubits (to be broken through) ... the voice of one call-(3) -ed to his neighbour, for there was (an excess?) in the rock on the right. They rose up ... they struck on the west of the(4) excavation, the excavators struck each to meet his neighbour pick to pick, and there flowed(5) the waters from their outlet to the Pool for the distance of 1000 cubits and (three-fourths?)(6) of a cubit was the height of the rock at the head of the excavation here.

(1) (Behold the) excavation! Now this is the history of the tunnel. While the excavators (were lifting up)

(2) the pick each to his neighbour, and while there were yet three cubits (to be broken through) ... the voice of one call-

(3) -ed to his neighbour, for there was (an excess?) in the rock on the right. They rose up ... they struck on the west of the

(4) excavation, the excavators struck each to meet his neighbour pick to pick, and there flowed

(5) the waters from their outlet to the Pool for the distance of 1000 cubits and (three-fourths?)

(6) of a cubit was the height of the rock at the head of the excavation here.

The inscription is interesting if only as showing how modern methods of tunnelling were anticipated by these ancient engineers. One gang of men began boring at one end and another gang at the other end, thus advancing till both met, and the failure to make the connection which is spoken of in "the (excess) in the rock on the right" has confirmation in the existence of two "blind alleys" in the tunnel, showing how the borings overlapped. The accuracy with which, aided by the most recent appliances worked by compressed air, the passages through miles of rock have been bored until the men at either end meet face to face in the middle, is among the romantic achievements of modern science. The Samaritan alphabet is the sole surviving lineal descendant of the Phœnician, which in whatever degree the parent of all extant alphabets, became extinct with the decline of Phœnicia herself, and the characters are now recoverable only through the inscriptions of which examples have been given.

M. de Rougé's theory of the source of that alphabet, and of the variants to which it has given rise, has not passed unchallenged.It belongs to the class of hypotheses which lend themselves to the straining of facts in their support, and therefore demand evidence amounting to demonstration. The superficial resemblances between the written characters are cited as proof of relation, no play being given to that independence of origin of which numerous examples occur in other branches of human development. In his article on Hieroglyphics in theEncyclopædia Britannica, Mr. Reginald Poole remarks that "the hieratic forms vary, like all cursive forms of writing, with the hand of each scribe. Consequently, the writers who desire to establish their identity with Phœnician can scarcely avoid straining the evidence." Moreover, the long lapse of time between the materials for comparison invites caution. ThePapyrus Prisseis, at least, two thousand years older than the Eshmunazar inscription, and on these two hang the validity of M. de Rougé's theory. Another contention is that certain Semitic letters represent sounds which are peculiar to that language, and for which no equivalent signs could be adopted from the Egyptian, to which, however, the reply is that in the borrowing of characters it suffices to select those representing similar, although not the same, sounds. The objection that the names of the Semitic letters are not those of the hieroglyphs is met by the principle of acrology (see pp.86,104). The question is also asked, Why did not the Phœnicians borrow the hieroglyphic instead of the hieratic characters? Mr. Arthur Evansthinks that in some cases this was done, a few of the letters of the Phœnician alphabet coming direct from the pictorial symbols, asAlpha(Alef= an ox), from the hieroglyph of an ox's head;Zeta(zayin= weapons), from the two-edged axe;Sigma(samech= a post), from the sign of a tree;Omikron(Ain= an eye), from the circle used to represent the eye;EtaandE-psilon(cheth= a fence andHe= a window), from signs for a wall or door or window. Canon Taylor, however, argues that the derivation must have been on the lines laid down by M. de Rougé, the Semitic alphabet originating among a colony of aliens of that race settled in Lower Egypt, either as slaves, traders, frontier guards, or conquerors. In any case these intruders would be strangers to the religion and the language of the Egyptians. It would, therefore, be more likely that they should make use of the cursive and easy hieratic, which was ordinarily employed in Egypt for secular and commercial purposes, than that they should adopt the difficult sacred script which was reserved by the Egyptian priesthood for monumental and religious uses. This supposition is confirmed by the singular absence of any hieroglyphic monument which can be assigned to the three dynasties of Semitic rulers known as the Hyksos or Shepherd Kings, who were expelled from Lower Egypt by the Theban Ramesides.

Canon Taylor admits that if, among the objections raised by Professor Lagarde, that based on the want of adequate resemblancebetween the Semitic letters and the hieratic forms can be sustained, M. de Rougé's theory falls to the ground. The Canon, a staunch, although perfectly candid, supporter of that theory, very properly lays stress on the tendency of things borrowed to partake of the character of the borrower. That they are borrowed at all implies a certain adaptableness in them which permits modification of type, especially when the writing has to be inscribed on another kind of material. The early hieratic writing was traced on papyrus with a soft reed-stump, while the Semitic was cut upon a stone with a chisel, to the loss of flowing lines and curves. "Looking broadly at the two scripts, Hieratic and Moabite, we see in the first place that the Semitic writing is distinguished by greater symmetry and greater simplicity. The letters have become more regular and uniform: more angular, more firm, and more erect; the differences in relative size have diminished; the complicated and difficult characters especially being straightened or curtailed." (History of the Alphabet, i. 125.) Summing up the several objections, of which only the more important have been noted here, Canon Taylor, amending nothing in the recent reprint of his book, remains satisfied as to the soundness of M. de Rougé's theory. "Not only is it ona priorigrounds the probable solution, not only does it agree with the ancient tradition, not only does it supply a possible and reasonable explanation of the facts, not only is it confirmed by all sorts of curious coincidences, but no objection has been urged against it towhich a sufficient answer cannot be found. If we reject M. de Rougé's explanation of the origin of the alphabet, there is practically no rival theory on which to fall back. There are only three other possible sources, none of which can, at present, be regarded in any higher light than as a mere guess. If the Semitic letters were not derived from Egypt they must have been invented by the Phœnicians, or they must have been developed either out of the Hittite hieroglyphics, or out of one of the cuneiform syllabaries." (Ib., p. 130.) The possible relation of the still undeciphered Hittite hieroglyphs to other scripts will have reference presently, and perhaps Deecke's theory of the derivation of the Phœnician from the Assyrian cuneiform has some measure of truth in it. For cuneiform appears to be essentially a Semitic script, and the Phœnicians in their contact with other Semitic peoples would, it may be assumed, have retained and adapted some, if not all, of the cuneiform characters long before they became familiar with Egyptian hieroglyphic or hieratic. Granting, however, all that the upholders of M. de Rougé's theory may demand, their inference as to the direct connection between the Greek and other alphabets and the Phœnician alphabet is not necessarily to be accepted. On this question of relation new and important light is thrown by recent discoveries, whose significance will be dealt with in the following section.

THE CRETAN AND ALLIED SCRIPTS

When treating of the sources whence civilisation flowed westward centuries before Greece and Rome appear, the historian turns to the valleys of the Nile and the Euphrates. For Egypt and Chaldea have meant so much to us all in our search after the chief influences on man's intellectual and spiritual history, and this with increasing warrant, because the more widely investigation is pushed, the more venerable is the past of both countries found to have been. In the case of Babylon we have seen that the art of writing—that index of culture—had passed the pictographic stage long before eight thousand years ago, while the Egyptian hieroglyphs, which probably came in with the dynasties, and therefore date from the reign of Menes, the first historical king, are some thirteen hundred years later, so far as their use in the Nile Valley is concerned. Hence the Babylonian script carries the palm in point of age. Fortunately the records of both these ancient civilisations are fairly continuous, of Babylonia to the downfall of the empire, and of Egypt to the present time. Assessing thecontributions of each to human progress, the verdict appears to be in favour of Babylonia, and "we now know that, high as was the development of Egyptian civilisation in certain directions, it was by no means the fertile mother of other civilisations. All modern writers are agreed that religious cults and national customs are exactly what the Greeks did not borrow from Egypt, any more than the Hebrews borrowed thence their religion, or the Phœnicians their commerce." (Mr. Percy Gardner'sNew Chapters in Greek History, p. 193.) But if Egypt was no "house of bondage" to Israel, it has been the enslaver of Christendom. It fettered a faith, which had flourished in the freedom of the spirit, with Trinitarianism, Mariolatry, and Monasticism. Out of one or another of its triads emerged the dogma of the Christian Trinity, and in the child Horus, seated in the lap of Isis, we see the profound significance of the words, "Out of Egypt have I called my Son." The obelisk that fronts St. Peter's at Rome symbolises the historical fact that approach to the Christian Church is through the pronaos of the Egyptian temple.

Explorations in Greece and the surrounding archipelago within the last few years have brought to light a third venerable centre of culture. About thirty years ago Dr. Schliemann, digging in prehistoric soil, believed that he had found the palace of Odysseus and the towers of Ilios. "The bones of Agamemnon are a show." The world laughed at him, but, if it takes a more sober view of his discoveries than Schliemanndid, it has come to recognise their value and to prosecute his work. The remarkable result of these discoveries is, in the words of Mr. D. G. Hogarth, to show that "man in Hellas was more highly civilised before history than when history begins to record his state; and there existed human society in the Hellenic area, organised and productive, to a period so remote that its origins were more distant from the age of Pericles than that age is from our own. We have probably to deal with a total period of civilisation in the Ægean not much shorter than in the Nile Valley." (Authority and Archæology, p. 230.) The general subject cannot be pursued here, and we have to keep to the narrower track opened up within the past five years in the island of Crete by Mr. Arthur J. Evans. His discoveries there establish (1) the fact of an indigenous culture, and (2) of an active intercourse between Crete and Greece, Egypt, Syria, and other countries centuries before the Phœnicians launched their craft upon the midland sea and trafficked with Cypriote and Cretan, or sailed beyond the Pillars of Hercules. Full accounts of Mr. Evans's important work have for the most part been contributed by him from time to time to the memoirs of learned societies, but no statement in popular form has yet appeared. What now follows will therefore be in large degree an abstract of his paper on "Primitive Pictographs and a Præ-Phœnician Script from Crete and the Peloponnese," published in theJournal of Hellenic Studies, vol. xiv., Part II., 1894, pp.270-372, and reprinted under the titleCretan Pictographs, 1895.

Fig. 55.—Vase with incised Characters (Crete)

Fig. 56.—Incised Characters on Cup (Crete)

Fig. 57.—Characters on Vase (Crete)

Fig. 58.—Signs onBronze Axe (Delphi)

During a visit to Greece in 1893, Mr. Evans came across some small stones bearing engraved symbols which appeared to be hieroglyphic in character, approximating in form to Hittite, but having features of their own. They were traced to a Cretan source, and inquiry in Berlin elicited the fact that the Imperial Museum there possessed stones of corresponding character, which also came from Crete. With this and other corroborative evidence in hand, Mr. Evans decided to follow up his inquiries on Cretan soil, and began his investigations there in the spring of 1894. He chose the eastern part of the island as the more likely district for discovery of prehistoric remains, because, up to the dawn of history, it had been occupied by the "Eteocretes," or primitive non-Hellenic folk. At Praesos he obtained some stones inscribed with hieroglyphic or pictorial, and also with linear, or quasi-alphabetic, characters, the preservation of those objects through the vast lapse of time since they were engraved being largely due to their use as charms by the Cretan women, who wear these "milk-stones," as they call them, during the period of child-bearing. Where, owing to this superstition, Mr. Evans was unable to secure the stones themselves, he obtained impressions of the characters on them. In exploring Goulás, the ruins of which are larger than those of any other prehistoric site, whether in Greece or Italy, Mr. Evans acquired important additions to his collection in the shape (1) of a corneliangem bearing the image of a rayed sun and a sprig of foliage; (2) of an ox in terra-cotta; and (3) a clay cup on which were three graffito (i.e.rudely scribbled) characters, two of them being identical with the Cypriotepaandlo. A neighbouring hamlet, Prodromos Botzano, yielded a plain terra-cotta vase of primitive aspect with incisedhatching round its neck, and three more graffito symbols of the same kind, one of which seemed to represent the double axe-head occurring among the hieroglyphic forms reduced to a linear outline; while the last, as in the clay cup from Goulás, was identical withlo. At another village near Goulás, Mr. Evans procured a double-headed bronze axe with an engraved symbol, with which he compares signs on a bronze axe from Delphi, the first of these looking like a rude outline of a duck or some other aquatic bird. Some of the walls at Knôsos bear certain marks which were at first passed by as mere scratchings by masons, but which Mr. Evans is satisfied are taken from a regular script, and fit on, in fact, to the same system as the characters on the pottery and seals, the various positions in which the signs, ase.g.the double axe, appear, warranting the inference that they were engraved on the blocks before these were placedin situ. Neither these nor the signs graven on the steatite and other small stonesare the outcome of mere fancy, or of thatcacoêthes scribendi, or "scribbling itch," which wantonly defaces the monuments of past and present times. "Limited as is the number of stones that we have to draw from, it will be found that certain symbols are continually recurring, as certain letters or syllables or words would recur in any form of writing. Thus the human eye appears four times and on as many different stones, the 'broad arrow' seven times, and another uncertain instrument eleven times. The choice of symbols is evidently restricted by some practical consideration, and while some objects are of frequent occurrence, others equally obvious are conspicuous by their absence. But an engraver filling the space on the seals for merely decorative purposes would not thus have been trammelled in his selection." (Jo. Hellenic Studies, p. 300.) Some of the symbols are abbreviated,e.g.the head indicating the whole animal, or a flower the whole plant, thus showing an approach to the ideographic stage of writing. In further example of this there is the expression of ideas and emotions in graphic form, as in the various positions of the arms and hands, and so forth. The symbols also frequently occur in groups of from two to seven, indicating that a syllabic value was given to them, and certain fixed principles of arrangement appear to govern the place of certain signs. Altogether, the conclusion seems warranted that the symbols are not haphazard, but purposive, although, until the materials forjudgment have largely increased, the purposes are not easy to particularise. Generally, like all other writing, their object was to tell something, perchance, as already shown (p. 51), information about the avocations of their owners, thus ranking as primitive "merchants' marks."

Fig. 59.—Signs on Blocks of Mycenæan Buildings (Knôsos)Fig. 60.—Symbols on Three-sided Cornelian (Crete)Fig. 61.—Symbols on Four-sided Stone (Crete)Fig. 62.—Symbols on Four-sided Stones, with larger faces (Central Crete)Fig. 63.—Symbol on Single-faced Cornelian (Eastern Crete)Fig. 64.—Symbol on Stone of ordinary Mycenæan type (Athens)

Fig. 59.—Signs on Blocks of Mycenæan Buildings (Knôsos)

Fig. 60.—Symbols on Three-sided Cornelian (Crete)

Fig. 61.—Symbols on Four-sided Stone (Crete)

Fig. 62.—Symbols on Four-sided Stones, with larger faces (Central Crete)

Fig. 63.—Symbol on Single-faced Cornelian (Eastern Crete)

Fig. 64.—Symbol on Stone of ordinary Mycenæan type (Athens)

The stones thus bearing symbols of a system of writing in use within the limits of the Mycenæan world in pre-Phœnician times are arranged in five groups by Mr. Evans: (1) three-sided or prism-shaped (Fig. 60); (2) four-sided equilateral (Fig. 61); (3) four-sided with larger faces (Fig. 62); (4) with one engraved side, the upper part being ornamented with a convoluted relief (Fig. 63); (5) stones of ordinary Mycenæan type (Fig. 64).

TheHieroglyphicsymbols engraved on the twenty-one stones described and depicted by Mr. Evans number eighty-two, and comprise pictorial and ideographic forms, summarised by him as follows:—

From the foregoing, all of which are represented in Mr. Evans's monograph, these may be selected as examples:—

1.a.Ideògraph of a man with arms held downwards, perhaps to denote ownership. Human figures in like position, are frequent on Cypriote cylinders.b.Ideograph of gesture which may indicate ten or any multiple of ten.2.a.This type of double axe is non-Egyptian. As a Hittite hieroglyph it has been found on an inscription; it is seen repeated in pairs on a Cypriote cylinder, and it also forms the principal type of some Mycenæan gems found at Crete, in the caves of which island bronze axes of this shape are common in the votive deposits.b.The "arrow" with a short shaft is frequent, one variety showing the feather shaft. Similar figures are occasionally seen in the field of Mycenæan gems found in the island, where they represent arrows of the chase about to strike wild goats or other animals. The Hittite hieroglyphic series presents some close parallels.

1.a.Ideògraph of a man with arms held downwards, perhaps to denote ownership. Human figures in like position, are frequent on Cypriote cylinders.

b.Ideograph of gesture which may indicate ten or any multiple of ten.

2.a.This type of double axe is non-Egyptian. As a Hittite hieroglyph it has been found on an inscription; it is seen repeated in pairs on a Cypriote cylinder, and it also forms the principal type of some Mycenæan gems found at Crete, in the caves of which island bronze axes of this shape are common in the votive deposits.

b.The "arrow" with a short shaft is frequent, one variety showing the feather shaft. Similar figures are occasionally seen in the field of Mycenæan gems found in the island, where they represent arrows of the chase about to strike wild goats or other animals. The Hittite hieroglyphic series presents some close parallels.

3. Gate, door, or part of a fence.4.a.The first of these vessels is accompanied with two crescents, one on either side of the mask, perhaps a sign of time as applied to the duration of the voyage (see p. 51). One ship has seven oars visible, the other six. In form these vessels show a great resemblance to those which appear as the principal type on a class of Mycenæan lentoid gems.b.Apparently a tunny-fish. Fish as hieroglyphic symbols are common to Egypt and Chaldæa.

3. Gate, door, or part of a fence.

4.a.The first of these vessels is accompanied with two crescents, one on either side of the mask, perhaps a sign of time as applied to the duration of the voyage (see p. 51). One ship has seven oars visible, the other six. In form these vessels show a great resemblance to those which appear as the principal type on a class of Mycenæan lentoid gems.

b.Apparently a tunny-fish. Fish as hieroglyphic symbols are common to Egypt and Chaldæa.

5.a.Head of he-goat. This symbol presents a remarkable similarity to the Hittite hieroglyph of the same objectThe Egyptian goat's-head sign is of a different character, the neck being given as well as the head, which is beardless.b.Bull or ox. The seal on which it occurs is of primitive type.c.Bird standing. Birds in a somewhat similar position occur among the Hittite symbols at Jerabis and Bulgar Maden, and are frequent in Egyptian hieroglyphics.

b.Bull or ox. The seal on which it occurs is of primitive type.

c.Bird standing. Birds in a somewhat similar position occur among the Hittite symbols at Jerabis and Bulgar Maden, and are frequent in Egyptian hieroglyphics.

6.a.Vegetable forms, similar to those found on Hittite monuments.b.Floral symbol. The dot above both examples probably represents the head of a stamen or pistil, as of the lily.

6.a.Vegetable forms, similar to those found on Hittite monuments.

b.Floral symbol. The dot above both examples probably represents the head of a stamen or pistil, as of the lily.

7.a.Day-star, or sun, with eight revolving rays.b.Rays. Star-like symbols occur on Syrian and Asianic seal-stones.c.This symbol, with its swastika-like offshoots, may be of solar import. The concentric circles may be compared with the Egyptian, Sun with twelve rays,Sep=times, and with the Chinese hieroglyph for sun with its central dot.

7.a.Day-star, or sun, with eight revolving rays.

b.Rays. Star-like symbols occur on Syrian and Asianic seal-stones.

c.This symbol, with its swastika-like offshoots, may be of solar import. The concentric circles may be compared with the Egyptian, Sun with twelve rays,Sep=times, and with the Chinese hieroglyph for sun with its central dot.

8. Apparently hieroglyphics of mountains and valleys, hence "country" or "land." The Egyptianmen=mountain, is applied in the same way as a determinative for "districts" and "countries." Assnut=granary, it reappears, with one or two heaps of corn in the middle, in the simple sense of a "plot of ground." The Akkadian symbol, which also means a plot of ground, exhibits a formsimilar to the above.

"In this connection," says Mr. Evans, "a truly remarkable coincidence is observable between the pictographic symbolism of old Chaldæa andthat of the Cretans of the Mycenæan period. The linear form of the AkkadianUt-tushows a sun above the symbol of the ground with a plant growing out of it. But on specimens of Mycenæan gems observed by me in Eastern Crete are seen symbolic or conventional representations of the plant growing out of the ground." (Jo. Hell. Stud., p. 313.)

TheLinearsigns, although treated separately for purposes of convenience, are regarded by Mr. Evans (see Table I) as fundamentally connected with the hieroglyphic, the one, as in other scripts, overlapping the other. As to this connection, however, some doubt exists. The thirty-two characters which Mr. Evans has detected are increased to thirty-eight by Dr. Tsountas (Mycenæan Age, p. 279), while the materials yielding these results received an important addition through Mr. Evans's discovery, in the spring of 1896, of an inscribed steatite slab, associated with numerous votive objects, in the great cave of Mount Dikta, the fabled birthplace of Zeus. "It consists of a fragment of what may be described as a 'Table of Offerings,' bearing part of what appears to be a dedication of nine letters of probably syllabic values, answering to the same early Cretan script that is seen on the seals, and with two punctuations." (Address of Arthur J. Evans to Section H, Anthropology, of the British Association, 1896;Nature, 1st Oct. 1896, p. 531.)

TABLE ITable1

TABLE I

These linear forms are inscribed on three-sided seal stones, in every respect resembling those bearing the pictographic signs; on steatitependants and whorls; and, as already shown, in graffiti on pottery, or inscribed blocks, and so forth, from all which sources Mr. Evans has put together the thirty-two characters shown in Table II, adding corresponding characters from Cypriote and Egyptian scripts. Table III gives examples of the characters—doubtless syllabic—occurring in groups of two or more.

TABLE IITable2

TABLE II

The hieroglyphic-bearing signet stones have been found solely in the region east of Knôsos, and the use of these characters appears not to have passed beyond the island; in fact it may have been limited to the less advanced portions. This tells against the direct descent of the Cretan linear from the Cretan pictographic, and, moreover, it is contended by Dr. Tsountas that the pictographic system exercised slight, if any, influence on the Hellenic portion of Greece. But, in the absence of materials which excavations now being prosecuted may bring to light, any definite conclusions are premature, and only the broadest general views permissible. (The archæological exploration of Crete promises to yield materials of the first importance for knowledge of the history of civilisation in the Eastern Mediterranean area, and the appeal for funds which Mr. Evans and Mr. Hogarth are making should have generous response. Some details of this appeal are printed at the end of this book.) Of the eighty-two pictographic symbols sixteen approach to Egyptian and sixteen to Hittite forms, but all have, none the less, an independent character stamping them as indigenous.Although the coincidences are at times of such a character as to suggest a real affinity, it must be remembered that the similarity in many of the objects to be depicted explains the correspondences between the picture-writing of different peoples. "Some Cretan types present a surprising analogy with the Asianic; on the other hand, many of the most recent of the Hittite symbols are conspicuous by their absence. The parallelism can best be explained by supposing that both systems had grown up in a more or less conterminous area out of still more primitive pictographic elements. In the early picture-writing of a region geographically continuous there may well have been originally many common elements, such as we find among the American Indians at the present day; and when, later, on the banks of the Orontes and the highlands of Cappadocia on the one side, or on the Ægean shores on the other, a more formalised "hieroglyphic" script began independently to develop itself out of these simpler elements, what more natural than that certain features common to both should survive in each? Later inter-communication may have also contributed to preserve this common element. But the symbolic script with which we have here to deal is essentiallyin situ. The Cretan system of picture-writing is inseparable from the area dominated by the Mycenæan form of culture. Geographically speaking it belongs to Greece." (Jo. Hellen. Stud., p.317.)

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