Stones that Speak [1 ed.] 9781443821766, 9781443821629

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Stones that Speak

Stones that Speak

By

Robert D. Morritt

Stones that Speak, by Robert D. Morritt This book first published 2010 Cambridge Scholars Publishing 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2010 by Robert D. Morritt All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-2162-4, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-2162-9

Dedicated to the memory of my former ‘Teacher’- John Hallam – M.A., Ancient History and Philosophy – University of Manchester – Pre-History and Early Agriculture, also Leverhulme Research Fellowship, University of Liverpool. Died in Lancashire, England, October 2009

“We are all Greeks. Our laws, our literature, our religion, our arts, have their root in Greece.” —Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792-1822, Hellas

“Thus speak the stones, when all other things are silent” —Linnaeus

Cultures and theories examined from the dawn of lithic history. Early trade routes and Archaeological discoveries Cryptological decipherment of archaic languages Linear A and Linear B Script. Kober, Ventris and Chadwick the ‘codebreakers’ A rich Society that disappeared abruptly Emphasis on early Crete and Greek presence in the Black Sea The Phaistos Disc revisited in the light of new information Giving the paradox of Colchian, Elamite and ‘other’ origins

A Historical and Linguistic Tour of language and cultural Influences

Robert D. Morritt

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements .................................................................................... ix Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Crete – The Minoan Period – Overview...................................................... 2 Crete – Chronological Summary ................................................................. 4 Minoan Religion - Mother Goddess ............................................................ 6 The First Cretan Kings – Mythic Source ................................................... 10 Egyptian Cultural Trade with Crete........................................................... 12 The Sea Peoples......................................................................................... 22 The Periods of Minoan Culture ................................................................. 34 Life Under the Sea Kings .......................................................................... 47 Minoan Culture.......................................................................................... 54 Crete – Classical Sources .......................................................................... 56 Crete – Early Archaeological Excavations ................................................ 58 Introduction to the Scripts and Languages of Minoan and Mycenaean Crete (c. 2000-1200 BCE) ................................................................... 72 Minoan Inscriptions in Mycenaen Greece ................................................. 81 An Overview of the Attempts to decipher the Phaistos Disc..................... 90 Colchis....................................................................................................... 99 Ancient Economies.................................................................................. 118 Colchis - The Classical Age .................................................................... 140 Greek Penetration of the Black Sea ......................................................... 150 Corybantes, Cyrbeis and a little Etymology ............................................ 172 Phaistos.................................................................................................... 187 Geographic placement of Troy toward Persia ......................................... 250 Archaic Greek (Achaeans – Pelasgians – The Early Settlers) ................. 257 The Lemnos Stele .................................................................................... 262 Dreros ...................................................................................................... 276 Praisos ..................................................................................................... 286 Minoan Language and Sources................................................................ 303 Michael Ventris and John Chadwick ....................................................... 304 Linear A and B ........................................................................................ 305 Structure of the Minoan Language .......................................................... 310 Syllabic Script in Cyprus ......................................................................... 317 In Search of the Past – The Hittites of Anatolia ...................................... 348 Haghia Triada .......................................................................................... 365

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Appendix: 100th Anniversary Conference of the Discovery of the Phaistos Disc ................................................................................. 379 Sources .................................................................................................... 391

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Sincere appreciation is conveyed here to the Editorial Staff of Cambridge Scholars. I cannot express more highly my gratitude to the following for their patience in working through odd linguistic texts and for the care they took to bring this book to fruition in order to make ‘The Stones Speak’. My special thanks are extended to; Dr. Andy Nercessian, Carol Koulikourdi, Amanda Millar and Soucin Yip-Sou – thank you for making this a comfortable transition through all stages of production. A depth of gratitude is owed to the following specialists who contributed so willingly with much modesty to help this study of historical linguistics come to fruition. Special mention is accorded to Andis Kaulins, Dr. Gareth Owens , Dr. Gia Kvashilava, Professor Thomas G. Palaima, R. A. Brown (MLit), Brian E. Collis, PhD and Lawrence Lo for their kindness in allowing the use of related diagrams. To Jerome M. Eisenberg, Ph.D., Founder and Editor-in-Chief of MINERVA, The International Review of Art and Archaeology, and convenor of the 100th Anniversary of the Finding of the Phaistos Disk, Conference, London. 2008 My sincere thanks to the following professionals who kindly gave of their time and assisted with helpful advice: Dr. Gareth Alun Owens Andis Kaulins Dr. Gia Kvashilava R. A. Brown Thomas G. Palaima Brian E. Colless Ewa Wasilewska Jerome M.Eisenberg Lawrence Lo Professor Ilse Schoep Morris Silver B.A

INTRODUCTION

As a child, whenever I saw ancient words on a clay or stone tablet, in The local Museum. I would wonder, what did the inscription mean? How did these people sound when they talked? What would that piece of clay say? if it could speak! The ‘enigma’of the Phaistos Disc is revisited here in the light of new findings. Each person makes a strong case based on their own interpretation of the origin of the symbols on the disc. I revisit Kober,Ventris, Chadwick and Bennett. The cryptologists who pioneered the decipherment early scripts, paving the way for us to understand the language and culture of these early societies. Archaeological excavations, archaic languages and Myths are explored, together with what appear to be archaic Cretan relations as far away as the Black Sea region. If this book enthuses just one person to forge ahead to uncover new information to allow “The Stones to Speak” I will be satisfied. I thank those for their kindness in allowing me to share their knowledge. —Robert D. Morritt “SPEAK, ye stones, I entreat! Oh speak, ye palaces lofty!” —Goethe OLD WELSH PROVERB Nid rhy hen neb I ddysgu (There’s none too old to learn.)

CRETE – THE MINOAN PERIOD – OVERVIEW

After 1450 BCE, the Achaeans had established themselves in Crete, a very archaic form of Greek was used as the official language. This is the language evidenced in Linear B texts (Deciphered by Michael Ventris) Earlier Minoan language was still spoken together with the language of the Eteocretans. Eteocretan language occurred earlier. Eteocretan inscriptions discovered in East Crete, dated from the 6th and 5th centuries BC.Homer was aware that the inhabitants of Crete were divided into a number of tribes, and mentioned the names of five the Pelasgians, the Eteocretans, the Kydonians, the Achaeans and the Dorians he mentioned that each spoke its own language. He emphasized how densely populated Crete was, having ninety cities, mentioning some of them, such as Knossos, Phaestos, Gortys, Lyttos, Kydonia, and Rhytion. Excavation has revealed many Minoan sites, four of which were "Palace" centres, those known apart from Knossos and Phaestos, are situated at Malia and Zakros. Evans divided the Minoan age chronologically, on the basis of pottery, into "Early Minoan". "Middle Minoan"and "Late Minoan" These eras are further subdivided, e.g. Early Minoan I, II, III (EMI, EMII, EMIII). another dating system, proposed by the Greek archaeologist Nicolas Platon, a Greek archaeologist proposed a dating system based on on the development of architectural complexes known as "palaces" at Knossos, Phaistos, Malia, and Kato Zakros, and divided the Minoan period into Prepalatial, Protopalatial, Neopalatial, and Post-palatial periods. The oldest evidence of inhabitants on Crete are preceramic Neolithic farming community remains. Dating to approximately 7000 BCE. A comparative study of haplogroups of modern Cretan men showed that a male founder group from Anatolia or the Levant, is shared with the Greeks. The beginning of the Bronze Age in Crete, around 2600 BC marked the beginning of Crete as an important center of civilization.

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At the end of the MMII period (1700 BCE) there was a large disturbance in Crete, probably an earthquake, or possibly an invasion from Anatolia. The palaces at Knossos, Phaistos, Malia, and Kato Zakros were destroyed. But with the start of the Neopalatial period, population increased again, the palaces were rebuilt on a larger scale and new settlements were built all over the island. This period (the 17th and 16th centuries BC, MM III / Neopalatial) represents the apex of the Minoan civilization. The Thera eruption occurred during LMIA (and LHI). On the Greek mainland, the Helladic period of culture was contemporary; Late Helladic IIB (LHIIB) began during LMIB, showing independence from Minoan influence. LMIB ware has been found in Egypt under the reigns of Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis III. At the end of the LMIB period, the Minoan palace culture failed catastrophically. All palaces were destroyed, and only Knossos was immediately restored— although other palaces, such as Chania, sprang up later in LMIIIA. Either the LMIB/LMII catastrophe occurred after this time, or else it was so bad that the Egyptians then had to import LHIIB instead, but this hypothesis has not been tested. A short time after A short time after the LMIB/LMII catastrophe, around 1420 BC, the palace sites were occupied by the Mycenaeans, who adapted the Linear A Minoan script to the needs of their own Mycenaean language, a form of Greek, which was written in Linear B. The first such archive anywhere is in the LMII-era "Room of the Chariot Tablets". the latest Cretan archives date to LMIIIA (contemporary with LHIIIA). During LMIIIA:1, Amenhotep III at Kom el-Hatan took note of k-f-t-w (Kaftor) as one of the "Secret Lands of the North of Asia". Also mentioned are Cretan cities such as $ȝȞȚıȩȢ (Amnisos), ĭĮȚıIJȩȢ (Phaistos), ȀȣįȦȞȓĮ (Kydonia) and KȞȦııȩȢ (Knossos) and some toponyms reconstructed as belonging to the Cyclades or the Greek mainland. If the values of these Egyptian names are accurate, then this pharaoh did not privilege LMIII Knossos above the other states in the region. After about a century of partial recovery, most Cretan cities and palaces went into decline in the 13th century BC (LHIIIB/LMIIIB). Knossos remained an administrative center until 1200 BC; the last of the Minoan sites was the defensive mountain site of Karfi a refuge site which displays vestiges of Minoan civilization almost into the Iron Age.

CRETE – CHRONOLOGICAL SUMMARY

Prior to 1580 B.C .E.. the dates in the summary must be regarded as merely provisional, and the margin of possible error is wide. The tendency on the part of the Cretan explorers has been to accept in the main the Berlin system of Egyptian dating in preference to that advocated by Professor Flinders Petrie ('Researches in Sinai, pp. 163-185), on the ground that the development of the Minoan culture can scarcely have required so long a period as that given by the Sinai dating. It must be remembered, however, that the question is still unsettled, and that the longer system of Professor Petrie must be regarded as at least possible. CRETE. B.C. 100003000, c. 30002600, c. 26002400 c. 24002200 c. 22002000,

c. 20001850,

c. 18501600,

EGYPT (BERLIN).

EGYPT (PETRIE).

Neolithic Age. Early Minoan I. Dynasties I.-V., 3400Dynasties I.-V., 55102625 B.C. 4206 B.C. " " II. Dynasty VI., 2625-2475 Dynasty VI., 4206-4003 " " " " III. Dynasties VII.-X., 2475- Dynasties VII.-X., 40032160 " 3502 " Middle Minoan Dynasty XI., 2160-2000 Dynasty XI., 3502-3459 I. (earlier " " palaces at Knossos and Phæstos). Middle Minoan Dynasty XII., 2000-1788 Dynasty XII., 3459-3246 II. (pottery of " " Kamares Cave; at end of period destruction of Knossos). Middle Minoan Dynasties XIII.-XVII., Dynasties XIII.-XVII., III. (Later 1788-1580 B.C. 3246-1580 B.C. Palace Knossos; (Period of confusion and of Hyksos domination.) first Villa Hagia Page 261

Stones that Speak Triada; early in period, statuette of Sebek-user; late, Alabastron of Khyan). 1600Late Minoan I. 1500, (Later Palace Phæstos begun). 1500Late Minoan II. 1400, (Later Palace Knossos completed; c. 1400, fall of Knossos). 1400—— Late Minoan III. (period of partial reoccupation and decline). c. 1200 (?) Homeric Age.

Dynasty XVIII., 15801350 B.C.

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Dynasty XVIII., 15801322 B.C.

(Keftiu on walls of tombs of Sen-mut and Rekh-mara.) Dynasty XIX., 1350-1205 Dynasty XIX., 1322-1202 B.C. B.C.

Dynasty XX., 1200-1090 Dynasty XX., 1202-1102 " " (Cretan tribes mentioned and portrayed by Ramses III., Medinet Habu.) Dynasty XXI., 1090-945 Dynasty XXI., 1102-952 B.C. B.C. (Zakru pirates mentioned by Wen-Amon, Golenischeff Papyrus.)

MINOAN RELIGION - MOTHER GODDESS

In Minoan times the chief object of worship was a goddess,a Nature Goddess, a Great Mother ʌȠIJȞȚĮ șȘȡȦȞ, the Lady of the Wild Creatures, was the source of all life, higher and lower, its guardian during the period of its earthly existence, and its ruler in the underworld. She was a goddess alike of the air, the earth, and the underworld, representations of her have survived in which her various attributes are expressed. As goddess of the air, she is represented as a female figure crowned with doves; as goddess of the underworld, her emblems are the snakes, which we see twined round the faïence figure at Knossos, or the terra-cotta in the Gournia shrine. Her figure is often seen upon seals and gems, standing on the top of the rock or mountain, with guardian lions in attendance, one on either side, and sometimes with a male votary in the background. When the later Greeks came into the island and found this deity in possession, she became identified, in the various aspects of her manysided nature, with various goddesses of the Hellenic Pantheon. Foremost and specially she became Rhea, the mother of the gods, who had fled to Crete to bear her son Zeus. Otherwise she was Hera, the sister and the spouse of Zeus, and in this case the story of the marriage of the great goddess and the supreme god probably represents the fusion of religious ideas on the part of the two races, the conquerors taking over the deity of the conquered race, and uniting her with the Sky God whom they had brought with them from their Northern home. She also survived as Aphrodite, as Demeter, and, in her capacity as Lady of the Wild Beasts, as Artemis. The suggestion of the association of Zeus with the Minoan goddess may have been given to the Northern conquerors by a feature of the Cretan religion which they found already in existence. On certain seal impressions and engraved gems there are indications that the great Nature Goddess was sometimes associated with a male divinity. This being, however, seems to have occupied an obscure and inferior position. In most of the scenes in which he is represented he, is either in the background, or reverentially stands before the seated female divinity.

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It would appear that the Achæans appropriated this insignificant god as the representative of their own Zeus, attributed to him birth from the Great Goddess in her own cave-sanctuary of Dicte, and endowed him with many of the attributes which she had formerly possessed, including the Double Axe emblem of sovereignty, so that in Hellenic times the supreme deity of the island was always the Cretan Zeus, Zeus of the Double Axe, though in reality he was no Cretan god at all, or at best a secondary divinity, dressed in borrowed plumes and with greatness thrust upon him.

Shrines - Offerings A fragmentary fresco found at Knossos, representing one of the pillarshrines where the Great Goddess was worshipped in her emblems of the sacred pillars. The structure consists of a taller central chamber, with a lower wing on either side of it. The material of built of wood wood, decorated in certain parts with chequer-work in black-and-white plaster. The building rests on large blocks of stone, immediately above which in the central chamber comes a solid piece of building, adorned first with the chequer-work, and then, above this, with two half-rosettes bordered with kuanos. Over this rises the open chamber of the shrine, which contains nothing but two pillars of the familiar Minoan-Mycenæan type, tapering downwards from the capitals. These rise from between the sacred horns, which occur in practically every religious scene as emblems of consecrationThe lower chambers on either side contain each a single pillar, again rising from between the horns of consecration. A Minoan lady, dressed in a gown of bluish-green, sits with her back to the wall of the right-hand lower chamber, and the scale of the shrine is given by the fact that, her seat being on the same level as the floor of the chamber, her head is in a line with the roof beam which rests on the capital of the sacred pillar. An act of worship in was sacrifice. The bull was offered to the goddess. In a scene from the Hagia Triada sarcophagus, a bull is being sacrificed, and his blood is dripping into a vessel placed beneath his head. Behind is a figure of a woman, with hands are stretched out, presumably to hold the cords with which the victim is bound. There are two scenes in which the vessel into which the offering is being poured stands between two sacred Double Axes with birds perched upon them; in the other the libationvessel stands upon an altar with a Double Axe behind it, offerings were of milk and honey, sweet wine, and water.

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Minoan Monarchy and Deities The relation of the Minoan King to the religion of his country is a point of some interest, though the facts are scarcely known to afford ground for more than one to surmise. The structure of the palace at Knossos gives evidence of the importance of the part which he played in spiritual matters, and of the intimate connection which existed in the Minoan, as in so many other ancient faiths, between Royalty and Religion. Religious shrines and altars in the palace were evident within the Royal dwelling. The Kings and Queens of Knossos were Priest-Kings and Priest-Queens, the heads of the spiritual as well as of the material life of their people; and it is not at all unlikely, from what is known of the religious views of other ancient peoples, that the Priest-King was looked upon as an incarnation of divinity.

The Minotaur legend 'The mythical monster of Crete,' 'The bull-headed Minotaur. Behind the legend of Pasiphae, made monstrous by the misunderstanding of immigrant conquerors, it can scarcely be doubted that there lurks some sacred mystical ceremony of ritual wedlock (ȚİȡȠȢ ȖĮȝȠȢ) with a primitive bullheaded divinity. The ritual of the bull-god in Crete, it consisted in part of the tearing and eating of a bull, and behind is the dreadful suspicion of human sacrifice' The actual evidence found on Minoan sites for the existence of a bullheaded divinity is slight, a seal-impression from Knossos, representing a monster who bears an animal head, possibly a bull's, upon a human body, and who is evidently regarded as divine, since he is seated and reverently approached by a human worshipper; the relationship of this monstrous divinity in relation to other objects of Minoan worship is not apparent. the Bull-grappling, which was a constant a feature of the palace sports, had a deeper significance, and was in reality part of the ceremonial associated with the worship of the Cretan bull-god.

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Minoans beyond Crete Minoans were traders, and their cultural contacts reached far beyond the island of Crete, to Old Kingdom Egypt, to copper-bearing Cyprus and the Syrian coasts beyond, and to Anatolia-Minoan techniques and styles in ceramics.. Thera, Minoan "colonies" appeared at first at Kastri on Cythera, the birthplace for Greeks of Aphrodite, an island close to the Greek mainland that came under Minoan influence in the mid-third millennium (EMII) and remained Minoan in culture for a thousand years, until Mycenaean occupation in the thirteenth century.. The Minoan strata there replace a mainland-derived culture in the Early Bronze Age, the earliest Minoan settlement outside Crete. The Cyclades were in the Minoan cultural orbit, and, closer to Crete, the islands of Karpathos, Saros and Kasos, also contained Minoan colonies, or settlements of Minoan traders, from the Middle Bronze Age (MMI-II); most of them were abandoned in LMI, but Minoan Karpathos recovered and continued with a Minoan culture until the end of the Bronze Age. There was a Minoan colony at Triandra on Rhodes. Some localities were close to trading routes in the case of the Neopalatial site of Kato Zakro, it is located within 100 metres of the modern shore-line, situated within a bay. It had a large number of workshops and the richness the Site materials indicate a potential trading area (import and export).Minoan cultural influence indicates an orbit that extended not only throughout the Cyclades (so-called Minoanisation), but in locations such as Egypt and Cyprus. Late Minoan I (LMI) stonework exists at Amman. In fifteenth-century tomb paintings at Thebes a number of individuals depicted appear to be Minoan in appearance, bearing gifts. Inscriptions record these people as coming from Keftiu, or the "islands in the midst of the sea", and may refer to gift-bringing merchants or officials from Crete. In late 2009, a Minoan style fresco was discovered during excavations of the Canaanite palace at Tel Kabri, In Israel.

THE FIRST CRETAN KINGS – MYTHIC SOURCE

Throne Succession in Crete The first Cretan kings were Archedius, Gortys and Cydon They were all sons of Tegeates, who founded Tegea in Arcadia. Tegeates was a son of the impious Lycaon , who lived at the time of The Flood (see Mythical Chronology). The three brothers emigrated from Arcadia to Crete, and it is said that the city Gortyna was named after Gortys , and Cydonia after Cydon. After them, Dorus 's son Tectamus sailed to Crete with Aeolians and Pelasgians, becoming king of the island. During the time when he was king of Crete, Zeus carried off Europa from Phoenicia. Tectamus son Asterius married Europa and became king, being succeeded in the throne by Minos , son of Zeus and Europa. After Minos, his son Lycastus became King being succeeded by his own son, the more famous Minos . But some affirm that Minos was son of Zeus and Europa. During his reign, Crete had conflicts with Athens and Megara, which are reflected in the stories of the Minotaur, the abduction of Ariadne by Theseus, and the story of Nisus. The architectural creations of Daedalus (the Labyrinth, the Wooden Cow, the Dancing-Floor for Ariadne) are from this time. Minos died in Sicily killed by King Cocalus, or by the daughters of this Sicilian king. Minos was succeeded by Idomeneus , who became leader of the Cretans during the Trojan War. At his return from Troy, he was driven out of Crete by the usurper Leucus . Because of the intrigues of Nauplius (see Agamemnon), Idomeneus 's wife Meda became the lover of Leucus while her husband was fighting at Troy. But, as it is told, Leucus killed her along with her daughter by Idomeneus, Clisithyra, and detaching ten cities from Crete, made himself ruler of them. So when Idomeneus, returning from the Trojan War, landed in Crete, Leucus drove him out.

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The Myths The myths are generally believed, at least since the studies of the Swedish scholar Martin Nilsson (1874-1967), to have been acquired during the Mycenaean age being transmitted by poets and minstrels in a monarchic and probably militaristic society in which local kings were vassals of an overlord. Nilsson's assumption in the early 1930s that the Mycenaeans were Greeks was later confirmed when the architect Michael Ventris deciphered the Linear B tablets in 1952 a few years before his death. Linear B is a script developed from the Minoan Linear A (still undeciphered), used by the Mycenaeans between ca. 1500 BC and 1100 BC, a period which is also known as Late Helladic. Gilgamesh began to inquire with the gods, as to how he could get immortality. He was told to go to a character that is called "The Old Man of the Sea. When he arrived at the Old Man of the Sea's abode, he was told that to obtain immortality he must dive down to the bottom of the sea is such a place and gather the "Branch." When he possesses the "Branch" he will obtain eternal life. So Gilgamesh dived down into the depths, recovered the Branch, and rested upon the shore. He was so tired he fell asleep at the base of a large tree. While he was sleeping a snake came up and stole the "Branch." This is how Gilgamesh lost his immortality. There are other versions to the story. In the Mycenaean, Cypriote and Minoan rings and seals we see Gilgamesh, or the hero, running away with the "Branch." Guarding the "Branch" would be either a handmaiden, Mater, the mother goddess, or a beast, like a dog. Cereberus, the three-headed dog, guarded Hades, also called the Underworld. Source; Mel Copeland – Maravot, An Ancient Postulation From East to the West - Cretan Race – An ancient pattern of movement of the Cretan race eastwards. “They whose habitation was in Crete, revisiting the memories and traditions of others of the same race and civilization which long before had been impelled westward beyond the great continents of America to the shores of Asia and thence onwards through the desolate tracks of Asia to the great Mediterranean basin, still continued the interminable work ever westward beyond the gates of Hercules to the islands where the fire-drawn metals were. So as mundane influences impelled them, great immigration was induced by want of metals for the many need of man’s development in civilization and knowledge.

EGYPTIAN CULTURAL TRADE WITH CRETE

Professor Petrie postulated that there was a cultural connection between Crete and Egypt. He believed that it was by the natural and direct searoute across the Mediterranean. Vessels painted on pre-dynastic Egyptian ware show that the Neolithic Egyptians were familiar, to some extent, with the building and the use of ships, and Professor Petrie supposes that galleys such as those represented were the ships by means of which the Egyptians and Cretans maintained their contact. Another academic (Mr. Hall), disputed that idea saying it would have been impossible as the boats of the pre-dynastic weremerely small river-craft, totally unfitted for seafaring work. In his 'Oldest Civilization of Greece' (Prof. Petrie) asserted 'that these boats were the ships which plied between Crete and Egypt some 4,000 years B.C. He therefore believed that the communication was kept up by way of Cyprus and the Palestinian coast. It was noted by others since that “if communication were maintained by way of Cyprus, it seems strange that that island should show practically no trace of having been influenced by Minoan civilization until a comparatively late date.” It was not till the Cretan culture had passed its zenith and was already decadent that it reached Cyprus. It is possible that even in immediately post-Neolithic times the Cretans could have evolved a type of boat as adequate to the run between Crete and the Nile mouths as the 'long serpents' were to face the Atlantic rollers. The case may stand with regard to the pre-dynastic period, there can be no question that by the end of the Third Dynasty even Egypt had developed a marine not inadequate to the requirements of the Cretan passage. We know that Sneferu, the last King of the Third Dynasty, sent a fleet of forty ships to the Syrian coast for cedar-wood, and that in his reign a vessel was built of the very respectable length of 170 feet. Coming farther down, we know also that Sahura of the Fifth Dynasty sent a fleet down the Red Sea as far as Punt or Somaliland. And if the Egyptians, by no means a great seafaring race, were able to do such things at this period of their history, surely an island race, whose sole pathway to the outer world lay across the sea, would not be behind them. There can scarcely be any question that, by the time of the Pyramid builders at latest, Cretan galleys were making the voyage to the Nile mouths, and unloading

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at the quays of Memphis, under the shadow of the new Pyramids, their primitive wares, among them the rude, hand-burnished black pottery, in return for which they carried back some of the wonderful fabric of the Egyptian stone-workers. Supposing a connection between the primitive Minoan civilization and the earliest Dynasties of Egypt was established, does this enable us to assert as to the date to which we are to ascribe the dawn of the earliest culture that can be called European?, Egyptian chronology may be regarded as practically settled from the beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty downwards. There is a general consent of authority that Aahmes, the founder of that Dynasty, began to reign about 1580 B.C., and the dates assigned by the various schools of chronology to the subsequent Dynasties differ only by quantities so small as to be practically negligible. But when we attempt to trace the chronology upwards from 1580 B.C., the consent of authorities immediately vanishes, and is replaced by a gulf of divergence which there is no possibility of bridging.

The Dark Period of Egyptian History A great divergence occurs in the dark period of Egyptian history between the Twelfth and the Eighteenth Dynasties. Monumental evidence is extremely scanty, almost non-existent . Historians have to grope for facts.. Traditional dating used to place the end of the Twelfth Dynasty somewhere around 2500 B.C., allowing some 900 odd years for the intervening dynasties before the rise of the Eighteenth. The modern German school, represented by Erman, Mahler, Meyer, and the American, Professor Breasted, arguing from the astronomical evidence of the Kahun Papyrus, cut this short by over 700 years, allowing only 208 years for the great gap, and proposing to pack the five Dynasties and the Hyksos domination into that time. Professor Petrie, finally, accepting, like the German school, the astronomical evidence of the Kahun Papyrus, interprets it differently, and pushed back the dates by 1,460 years, allowing 1,666 years for the gap between the Twelfth Dynasty and the Eighteenth. Thus, even between the traditional and the German dating there is a gulf of 700 years for all dates of the Twelfth Dynasty, whilst the German dating and that of Professor Petrie the gulf widened to over 1,400 years. There is a discrepancy in which dating system to consider as it may be said that if 1,666 years seems a huge allowance for the five Dynasties, 208 years seems almost incredibly small. The result is what concerns us here, and we are faced with the fact that, while the traditional dating places

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the First Egyptian Dynasty at about 4000 B.C., the German school would bring it down to 3400 B.C., and Professor Petrie thrusts it back to 5510 B.C. Dr Evans reappraised the dating sequence and modified this position, dating it to the Middle Minoan II., which synchronizes with the Twelfth Egyptian Dynasty, at 2000 B.C., thus practically accepting the chronology of the German school. This would place Early Minoan I., which must be equated with the First Dynasty, about 3400 B.C. Practically, all that can be said with a moderate amount of certainty is that the earliest civilization of Crete, like that of Egypt, was in existence at a period not much later than 3500 B.C., while it is not impossible that it may be 1,500 years older. Even accepting the lower figure, the antiquity of man's first settlements on the hill of Kephala becomes absolutely staggering to the mind. If the growth of deposit on the hill was at the rate of something like 3 feet in a millennium,a reasonable supposition it follows that we must place the earliest habitations of Neolithic man at Knossos not later than 10000, perhaps as early as 12000 B.C.

Egyptian Cultural Relations with Crete c. 2000 BC Many centuries after the Sixth Egyptian Dynasty had passed away. Fresh evidence was discovered of the connection between the two countries. The earlier palaces at Knossos and Phæstos had been built, and the first period of Middle Minoan, with its beginnings of polychrome decoration and its Queen Elizabeth figurines from Petsofa, had come and gone in Crete, while in Egypt the corresponding period had been marked by the troublous times between the Seventh and the Eleventh Dynasties. But the rise of the Twelfth Dynasty in Egypt marked the beginning of a more stable state of affairs in the Nile Valley, and in this period, which corresponds with Dr. Evans's Middle Minoan II., there is again evidence of contact between the two kingdoms. Absolute dating is not confirmed, there is a choice between either 2000, 2500, and 3459 B.C.A probability is that it falls around 2000 B.C., the Egypt of the Senuserts and Amenemhats and the Crete of Middle Minoan II. are contemporaneous.. In Crete this was the period when the beautiful polychrome Kamares ware was at the height of its popularity, and at Kahun, close to the pyramid of Senusert II., Professor Petrie some years ago discovered some unquestionable specimens of this fine ware, which had certainly been imported from Crete, as the fabric was quite unknown to native Egyptian ceramic art.

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Even more conclusive was Professor Garstang's discovery, in an untouched tomb at Abydos, of a polychrome vessel in the latest style of the period, in company with glazed steatite cylinders, which bore the names of Senusert III. and Amenemhat III., the last great Kings of the Twelfth Dynasty.

Egyptian Building Similar to the Cretan Labyrinth The most interesting link between the two countries is found in the fact that in this period there was erected in Egypt the building which came to be looked on as the parallel to the Cretan Labyrinth, and which, with a curious inversion of the actual facts, was long supposed to be the original from which the Cretan Labyrinth was derived. The pyramid of Amenemhat III., the greatest King of the great Twelfth Dynasty, stood at Hawara, near the mouth of the Fayum. Nearby Amenemhat erected a huge temple, such as had never been built before, and never was built again. The great building was erected, in a style characteristic of the Middle Kingdom, of great blocks of fine limestone and crystalline quartzite. It has long disappeared, having been used as a quarry for thousands of years; but the size of the site, which can still be traced, shows that in actual area the temple covered a space of ground within which Karnak, Luqsor, and the Ramesseum, huge as they all are, could quite well have stood together. Even in the time of Herodotus enough was still remaining of this vast building to excite his profound wonder and admiration, and it seemed to him a more remarkable structure than even the Pyramids. 'It had,' he described, “Twelve courts enclosed with walls, with doors opposite each other, six facing the north, and six the south, contiguous to one another, and the same exterior wall encloses them. It contains two kinds of rooms, some underground, and some above ground over them, to the number of 3,000, 1,500 of each. He was not allowed to inspect the underground chambers.”'But the upper ones, which surpass all human works, I myself saw; for the passages through the corridors, and the windings through the courts, from their great variety, presented a thousand occasions of wonder as I passed from a court to the rooms, and from the rooms to halls, and to other corridors from the halls, and to other courts from the rooms. The roofs of all these are of stone, as also are the walls; but the walls are full of sculptured figures. Each court is surrounded with a colonnade of white stone, closely fitted.”

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Herodotus believed that the building belonged to the time of Psamtek I., in which, of course, he was ludicrously far astray, but otherwise there seems no reason to question that his description actually represents what he saw, though no doubt his lively mind somewhat multiplied the number of the rooms. {Herodotus II. 148.] Pliny the elder, judging from his description, evidently saw much the same thing at Hawara as Herodotus had seen, though time must have somewhat diminished the splendour of the building. Now, to this temple there was already applied in the time of Herodotus the name Labyrinth The first palace at Knossos dates from a period certainly as early probably somewhat earlier than, the Hawara temple; and since the derivation of the word 'labyrinth' from the Labrys or Double Axe, making the palace the House or Place of the Double Axe, seems quite satisfactory, the Egyptian Labyrinth in all likelihood derived its name from the House of Minos at Knossos. There is an appears an interesting parallel that the two most famous Labyrinths, the first palace at Knossos, and the great Hawara temple, actually belong to the same period—a period when, as we know from the other evidence, there was certainly active communication between the two nations. The resemblance has been noted between the building at Knossos and descriptions left of its Egyptian contemporary. Literary tradition stated that the Labyrinth of Minos was a place of mazy and winding Passageways difficult to traverse without a guide. The remains at Knossos show that the palace must have answered very well to such a description., The resemblance extended to the material of which the buildings were erected. The fine white limestone of Hawara must have closely resembled the shining white gypsum of Knossos, and though the Egyptian Labyrinth has passed away too completely for us to be able to judge of its masonry, yet the splendid building work of the Eleventh Dynasty temple of Mentuhotep Neb-hapet-Ra at Deir-el-Bahri, with its great blocks of limestone beautifully fitted and laid, affords a good Middle Kingdom parallel to the great gypsum blocks of the Knossian palace. Of course we cannot attribute to Cretan influence the style of the Egyptian building in this respect.. The envoys of Amenemhat III. may have brought back to Egypt reports and descriptions of the great Cretan palace which may have inspired the King with a desire to leave behind him a memorial, unique among Egyptian buildings. The relation between the two buildings indicate possible proof of close contact between Minoan and the Egyptian cultures in the third millennium B.C.

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Communication with Egypt - Middle Minoan III Period The succeeding Cretan epoch, Middle Minoan III., Is a dark age of Egyptian history, the great gap covering Dynasties XIII.-XVII., towards the close of which is to be placed the Hyksos domination. As the age was so troubled in Egypt, it is scarcely probable that we shall find much evidence there of any connection between the two lands; but evidence found on Cretan soil, though slight, is conclusive as to the fact that communication was maintained. In the earlier part of the period a statuette found at Knossos, bore the name of 'Ab-nub's child, Sebek-user, deceased, born of the lady SatHathor.' 'Who Sebek-user was,' as Mr. Hall remarks, 'and how his statuette got to Crete, we have no means of knowing.' But the 'deceased' in the inscription shows that the statuette was a funerary or memorial one, and it is hardly likely that such an object was imported merely for its own sake or for its artistic value. it could be either Ab-nub, the father, or Sebekuser, the son, or both, may have been Egyptians resident at the Court of Knossos, either as representatives of Egyptian interests or as skilled artificers the statuette is the memorial of one who died far from his native land, and Ab-nub and his son Sebek-user may have drifted to Knossos in this manner, and found at last their graves there. Were they conceivably responsible for the 'imported alabaster vases dating from the Middle Kingdom of Egypt,' which were found in the royal tomb at Isopata? Towards the close of Middle Minoan 111, ceramic art of Knossos depicts features directly attributable to Egyptian influence. The art of glazing pottery was not a native Cretan, but an Egyptian art; it was in full use in Egypt from the very beginning of the First Dynasty. It now appeared in a high state of development in Crete depicted in the beautiful faïence reliefs of the wild-goat and kids. Vases with a wild-rose in relief on the lip and the figurines of the Snake Goddess and her votaresses. The Cretan artists, however, though they borrowed the process, adapted it to their own tastes. In Egypt the native faïence of the time is of strictly conventional type, with black design on blue; but the Cretan emancipated himself from these limits, and made his faïence reliefs in polychrome style. The eighteenth Dynasty was the Dynasty of Queen Hatshepsut, Tahutmes III., and Amenhotep III and Egypt was in the full tide of a great revival, in world-influence, in Trade, and in Art. Queen Hatshepsut, who states in one of her inscriptions that 'her spirits inclined towards foreign peoples,' had sent out her squadron to Somaliland, and Tahutmes III. had organized a war-fleet on the Mediterranean coast-line. The ancient Empire

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of the Nile was opening its arms in every direction to outside influences, and was drawing into the ports of the great river the commercial and artistic products of every known people.

The Keftians (Keftiu) Among the races who are most prominent in the Egyptian records of the period are the Keftiu, who are frequently represented in the paintings of the time, and always have similar characteristic features, Evident in the same style of dress and bearing and similar products of commerce and art. Who, were the Keftiu? The word means the people or the country at the back of, in other words, at the back of 'the very green,' as the Egyptians called the Mediterranean. So that the Keftians with whom the merchants and courtiers of Egypt grew familiar in the times of Hatshepsut and Tahutmes III. Were to them the men 'from the back of beyond'—the farthest distant people with whom they had any dealings. But what race could correspond to these 'back of beyond' men? In Ptolemaic times the word 'Keftiu was unquestionably applied to the Phœnicians, who had for long been the great seafarers and carriers of the Mediterranean; and till recent years it was generally believed that the Keftiu of the Eighteenth Dynasty were Phœnicians also, though their faces, as depicted on the Egyptian wall-paintings, did not bear the slightest trace of Semitic cast. Discoveries of the last few years have demolished that idea for ever. Pictures of the Minoans of Knossos have made it certain that the Keftiu of the Eighteenth Dynasty were none other than the ambassadors, sailors, and merchants of the Sea-Kings of Crete. Fortunately tomb-painting which has preserved so many interesting details of Egyptian life, was never more assiduously practised or more happily inspired than at this period. In all the chief tombs there are pictured processions of Northerners, Westerners, Easterners, and Southerners, the North being represented by Semites, the East by the men of Punt, the South by negroes, and the West by the Keftiu; and we can compare the men of the Knossos frescoes with their fellow-countrymen as depicted on the tomb-walls of the Theban grandees, and be certain that, allowing for the differences in the style of art, they are essentially the same people. The tombs which preserved best the figures of the Keftiu are those of Sen-mut and Rekh-ma-ra. That of Sen-mut is the earlier, though only by a generation, or rather less. He was the architect of Queen Hatshepsut, the man who planned and executed the great colonnaded temple at Deir-el-

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Bahri, and who set up Hatshepsut's gigantic obelisks. His tomb at Thebes overlooks the temple which he built at his Queen's command to be 'a paradise for Amen,' and on its walls we can see 'the men from the back of beyond' walking in procession, each with his offering to present to the Pharaoh. There can be no question as to who they are. The half-boots and puttees, the decorated girdle compressing the waist, not quite so tightly as in the Minoan representations, the gaily adorned loin-cloth, which is the only article of attire, all are practically identical with the type of such a fresco as that of the Cupbearer at Knossos. The conscientious Egyptian artists have carefully represented also the elaborate coiffure which was characteristic of the Minoans, who allowed their hair to fall in long tails down their shoulders, doing part of it up in a knot or curl on the top of the head. The tribute-bearers carry in their hands or upon their shoulders great vessels of gold and silver, some of them exactly resembling in shape the Vaphio cups, though much larger than these, some of them of the type of the bronze ewer found in the north-west house at Knossos. The tomb of Rekh-ma-ra, depicts other notable pictures of the Keftiu, also a great figure in Egyptian history in the next reign. He was Vizier to Tahutmes III., the conquering Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The pictures on the walls of his tomb are, at least in some cases, evidently more than mere racial studies; they are careful portraits. 'The first man, "The Great Chief of the Kefti, and the Isles of the Green Sea," is young, and has a remarkably small mouth with an amiable expression. His complexion is fair rather than dark, but his hair is dark brown. His lieutenant, the next in order, is of a different type,elderly, with a most forbidding visage, Roman nose, and nut-cracker jaws. Most of the others are very much alike—young, dark in complexion, and with long black hair hanging below their waists and twisted up into fantastic knots and curls on the tops of their heads. These Keftiu, appear to be the Minoans of the Great Palace period of Crete, the pre-Hellenic Greeks, the Pelasgi of old Greek tradition. When the great civilization of the Minoan Empire reached its zenith.. It was fortunate that Sen-mut and Rekh-ma-ra should have caused them to be portrayed when they did, for in two or three generations later the glory of Knossos had passed away, never to be revived. Greece gave to Egyptian scholars the key to the translation of the hieroglyphics in the Greek version of the Egyptian text on the Rosetta Stone; the paintings of the Theban tombs have paid back an instalment of that debt in showing us the likenesses of those 'Greeks before the Greeks' who dwelt in Crete. Possibly one day someone will discover a bilingual

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text in Egyptian and Minoan, giving us in hieroglyphics a version of some passage of that Minoan script.. Not so long since Boghaz-Keui supplied us with a cuneiform version of the famous treaty between the Egyptians and the Hittites in the time of Ramses II.; perhaps some site in Crete or Egypt may yet provide us with a bilingual treaty between Tahutmes III. and the Minoan Sovereign of that period. (Keftian cultural communication with Egypt ended c. 1350 BCE). After the time of Tahutmes, evidence of contact between the two lands was sparse.. The faïence of the time of Amenhotep III. had discarded the old Egyptian tradition of black upon blue, and now depicted splendid chocolates, purples, violets, reds, and apple-greens, indicating that Cretan influence was still strong. Fragments of Late Minoan pottery found in abundance on the site of Akhenaten's new capital at Tell-el-Amarna show that even in the reign of the heretic son and successor of Amenhotep III., Crete was still trading with Egypt. Beore Akhenaten came to the throne, about 1380 B.C.— possibly twenty years before that event—the great catastrophe which brought the Minoan Empire of Knossos toan end had already occurred. Cretan wares that filtered into Egypt after 1400 B.C. were the products of the Minoan decadence, when the survivors of the Empire of the SeaKings—a broken and dwindling race—were still trying to maintain a slowly failing tradition of art under new masters, perhaps the Mycenæans of the mainland, who, appeared, possibly driven south by the pressure of Northern invaders, enabling the Mycenaeans in their turn to invade the ‘genter sister civilization’of Crete. Mycenæan 'stirrup-vases' pictured in the tomb of Ramses III. (12021170 B.C.), and the representations in the tomb of Imadua gold cups of the Vaphio type, carry the connection down to the last dregs of the dying' race; but by the time of Ramses III. the Minoan kingdom had probably been dead and buried for about two centuries. In fact, with the rise of the Nineteenth Dynasty in Egypt (1350 B.C.) The name of the Keftiu disappeared from Egyptian records, and in the place of the men from the back of beyond there appeared a confused jumble of warring sea-tribes, some of them possibly the men who had overthrown the Minoan Empire, some of them probably representing the broken fragments of that Empire itself, who unite in attacks upon Egypt, but are foiled and overthrown. In the record of the earlier of these invasions, that which took place in the reign of Merenptah (1234-1214 B.C.), the successor of Ramses II., it is difficult to trace any names that have Cretan connections. The Aqayuasha may conceivably have been Achæans; but that is another story.

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After the great invasion in the reign of Ramses III., about 1200 B.C., there appear traces of tribes that appeared to bear a strong resemblance of a Cretan origin. One instance of particular interest occurred in the eighth year of Ramses III. The eastern coasts of the Mediterranean were swept by a great invasion of the 'Peoples of the Sea. “The isles were restless, disturbed among themselves” said Ramses on an inscription at Medinet Habu. Probably the incursion was the result of the southerly movement of the invading northern tribes, whose pressure was forcing the ancient Ægean peoples to migrate and seek new homelands.

THE SEA PEOPLES

About 1200 BCE names of peoples with the addition "of the Sea" began to appear. At Medinet Habu Ramses III displayed the names of seven of his defeated enemies and their (stylized) images:

Medinet Habu relief of enemies defeated by Ramses III After R.Lepsius, Denkmäler aus Ägypten und Äthiopien, Abth.III, Bl.209 Source – andre dollinger [email protected]

Landing in Northern Syria, the sea-peoples quickly made themselves masters of the fragments of the once formidable Hittite confederacy, absorbing in their alliance the Hittites, who may indeed have been of their own kin, they moved southwards along the sea-coast, their fleet of wargalleys keeping pace with the advance of the land army. Among the Sea Peoples were listed the Shardana, Sikils, Danua (Achaeans), and Tjwrsa, possibly the Tyrhennians / Etruscans, and Lukka and Pulusti (later called Philistines, now called Palestinians). They established a central camp and place of arms in the land of Amor, or of the Amorites, and the Speed of their advance south became an acute threat to the Egyptian Empire. Ramses III., the last great soldier of the true Egyptian stock, made effective preparations to meet them. Gathering at the Nile mouth a numerous fleet which carried large numbers of Egyptian archers he advanced with the land army to meet the invaders, his fleet also accompanying the march of the army. The locality of the encounter between the two forces is doubtful, some placing it in Phœnicia, and others much nearer to the Egyptian frontier. In any case, a great battle was fought both by land and sea, and the Egyptian army and fleet were entirely successful in the double encounter. The reliefs of Ramses at Medinet Habu show the details of the battle, the Egyptian fleet penetrated overthrowing the sea-peoples. The Pharaohon the shore used archers on his enemies. The result of the double victory put

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an effective check on any aspirations the invaders may have cherished of a permanent occupation of Egypt. The tribes mentioned in the inscriptions of Ramses as having been in league with each other in the invasion are named as, the Danauna, the Uashasha, the Zakkaru, the Shakalsha, and the Pulosathu, in alliance with the North Syrian tribes. The Danauna are evidently the Danaoi, or Argives, the same race which, under Achæan overlords, composed the mass of the Greek army at the siege of Troy. As Danaos, the name-hero of the race, was King of Rhodes and Argos, these sea-Danaoi may have been Rhodian Argives. The Shakalsha are a more doubtful quantity, having been variously identified with the Sikels of ancient Sicily and with the Sagalassians of Pisidia. The remaining tribes are in all probability Cretans, fragments of the old Minoan Empire which had collapsed two centuries before, and was now gradually becoming disintegrated under the continued pressure from the north. The Zakkaru have been connected by Professor Petrie with the coasttown of Zakro, in Eastern Crete, and the identification, though not absolutely certain, is at all events very probable. The Uashasha have been associated by Mr. H. R. Hall with the town of Axos, in Crete. There remain the Pulosathu, who are, almost beyond question, the Philistines, so well known to us from their connection with the rise of the Hebrew monarchy. The Hebrew tradition brought the Philistines from Kaphtor, and Kaphtor is plainly nothing else than the Egyptian Kefti, or Keftiu. In the Philistines, then, we have the last organized remnant of the old Minoan sea-power. Thrown back from the frontier of Egypt by the victory of Ramses III., they established themselves on the maritime plain of Palestine, where perhaps the Minoans had already occupied tradingsettlements, and there formed a community consisting of five cities, governed by five confederate tyrants. No doubt they brought under and held in subjection the ancient Canaanite population of the district, whom they would rule as the Normans ruled the inhabitants of Sicily.

The Late Minoan Period Their wars with the Hebrews the subject of so many of the heroic stories of Israel's Iron Age, were the last survival of the great race of Minos. Samson made sport for his Cretan captors in a Minoan Theatral Area by the portico of some degenerate House of Minos, half palace, half shrine, with Cretan ladies in their strangely modern garb of frills and flounces looking down from the balconies to see his feats of strength, as their

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ancestresses had looked down at Knossos on the boxing and bullgrappling of the palmy days when Knossos ruled the Ægean. The great champion whom David met and slew in the vale of Elah was a Cretan, a Pelasgian, one of the Greeks before the Greeks, wearing the bronze panoply with the feather-crested helmet which his people had adopted in their later days in place of the old leathern cap and huge figure-eight shield. Ittai of Gath, David's faithful captain of the bodyguard, and David's body-guards themselves, the Cherethites and Pelethites (Cretans and Philistines), were all of the same race. Evidently the last Minoans succeeded in creating an atmosphere for themselves in Palestine, impressing the surrounding peoples with a wholesale terror of them. We may imagine the men from Crete, lithe and agile, as we see them on the Boxer Vase of Hagia Triada, swaggering in their bronze armour , much as the later Greek hoplite of the times of Psamtek I. or Haa-ab-ra domineered over the native Egyptians. But all the same the Philistine was an anachronism, a survival from an older world. The day of the Minoan, like that of his early friend the Egyptian, had passed away. Stars of new races were rising above the horizon, new claimants were dividing the heritage of the ancient world.

Catastrophe Evident in the Second Middle Minoan Period The Empire of the Sea-Kings had not been immune from disaster and defeat any more than any other great Empire of the ancient world. The times of conquest and triumph, when Knossos exacted its human tribute from the vanquished states, Megara or Athens, or from its own far-spread dependencies, had occasionally been broken by periods when victory left its banners, and when the indignities it had inflicted on other states were retaliated on itself. Once at least in the long history of the palace at Knossos, if not twice, there had come a disastrous day when the Minoan fleet had either been defeated or eluded, when some invading force had landed and swept up the valley, had overcome what resistance could be made by the guard of the unfortified palace, and had ebbed back again to its ships, leaving death and fire-blackened walls behind it. The Second Middle Minoan period closed with evidence of a general catastrophe, with evidence that the palace was sacked and fired, there were also traces which suggesting that the end of the preceding period was marked by a similar disaster. Was this the work of sea-rovers, making a daring raid?, or warriors of rival mainland states. Dr. Evans and others inclined to believe, Cretans from Phæstos, whose purpose was merely to

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overthrow the ruling dynasty. If the enemy came from without, he came only to destroy and plunder, not to occupy, and, having done his work, departed; if from within the Empire, his triumph made no breach in the continuity of the Minoan tradition. The palace rose again from its ashes, greater and more glorious than before, and men of the same stock carried on the work that had been checked for a while by the rough hand of war. . Men of the Third Middle Minoan period reared the beginnings of the second palace on the site where the first had stood, and in the relics of their arts and crafts the same spirit which informed the earlier period still prevailed. From the beginning of Middle Minoan III. to the end of Late Minoan II.—a period, that is to say, of either some 500 or almost 2,000 years, according to the scheme of Egyptian chronology, the civilization of Crete then appeared to follows acourse of even and peaceful development. At Knossos, Phæstos, and Hagia Triada the great palaces slowly grew to their final glory. The art that had produced polychrome Kamares ware passed away, it was was succeeded by naturalism .Evidenced by the Blue Boy who gathered white crocuses, and the faïence reliefs of the Temple Repositories depict a naturalism which, with various modifications in style and material, persisted until to the end of Late Minoan I. In the midst of this period (Late Minoan I.) appeared ,perhaps the highest developments of Minoan art in the shape of the steatite vases of Hagia Triada, Boxer, Harvester, and Chieftain. On the mainland the kindred culture of Mycenæ was rising to its culmination, and art represented in the Circle-Graves was almost in the full bloom. Naturalism declined in and was was succeeded by the Later Palace style, more grandiose, more mannered art. In the Later Palace period (Late Minoan II.) miniature frescoes were painted, they preserved the strangely modern style of the Minoan Court, with its flounced and furbelowed dames. Naturalism, though failing, was still capable of great things, and its last efforts in the palace at Knossos gave us magnificent reliefs of painted stucco, such as the bull's head and the King with the peacock plumes. Over the seas, the Egyptians of the Eighteenth Dynasty were setting down on their tomb walls those likenesses of the Keftiu which have helped us to the date of this last development of Minoan greatness.

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Late Minoan II The Later Palace Period Within its spacious porticoes and corridors the walls glowed with the brilliant colours of innumerable frescoes and reliefs in coloured plaster. The Cup-Bearer, the Queen's Procession, the Miniature Frescoes of the Palace Sports, stood out in all their freshness. Magnificent urns in painted pottery, with reliefs like those of the great papyrus vase , decorated the halls and courts, and were rivalled by huge stone amphoræ, exquisitely carved. The King and his courtiers were served in costly vessels of gold, silver, and bronze repoussé work. The Empire of the Sea-Kings was at its apogee, and on every hand there were the evidences of security and luxury. In contemporary Egypt (of Amenhotep III.) a similar development in all the comforts and luxuries of civilized life was swiftly followed by the downfall under Akhenaten, so in Crete the luxury of Late Minoan II. was only the prelude to its great and final disaster. Exactly when the catastrophe came we cannot tell. The Cretan Empire was certainly still existent in all its glory in 1449 B.C., when Amenhotep II., the son of the great Tahutmes III., came to the throne, for Rekh-ma-ra, the Vizier of Tahutmes, in whose tomb the visit of the Keftian ambassadors is pictured, survived, as we know, into the reign of Amenhotep. The twenty-six years of Amenhotep II.'s reign, and the almost nine of Tahutmes IV., bring us to the accession of Amenhotep III. in 1414, and the thirty-six years of the latter take us to 1379 B.C. or thereby, when the heretic Akhenaten, whose reign was to witness the downfall of the Egyptian Empire in Syria, ascended the throne. Somewhere within these seventy years the Empire of the Minoans passed away in fire and bloodshed, it is ‘supposed’ that a great catastrophe occurred around the year 1400B.C. Dr. Evans surmised that “It seems reasonable to suppose that the overthrow at Knossos had taken place not later than the first half of the fourteenth century” Mrs. H. B. Hawes placed the fall of Knossos at 1450; but Rekh-ma-ra must have still been living at that date, and, Professor Burrows remarksed”It would at least be a strange coincidence if Egyptian artists were painting the glories of the Palace at the very moment when they were passing away.”

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Disaster at Knossos That there was a huge disaster, which broke for ever the power of the SeaKings, is unmistakable. The Minoan kingdom did not fall from overripeness and decay, as was the case with so many other empires. The latest relics of its art before the catastrophe show no signs of decadence; the latest specimens of its linear writing show a marked advance on those of preceding periods. A civilization in full strength and growth was suddenly and fatally arrested. Everywhere throughout the palace at Knossos there are traces of a vast conflagration. The charred ends of beams and pillars, the very preservation of the clay tablets with their enigmatic records, a preservation due, probably, to the tremendous heat to which they were exposed by the furious blazing of the oil in the store jars of the magazines, the traces of the blackening of fire upon the walls—everything tells of an overwhelming tragedy. Nor was the catastrophe the result of an accident. There is no mistaking the significance of the fact that in the palace scarcely a trace of precious metal, and next to no trace of bronze has been discovered. Fire at Knossos was accompanied by plunder, and the plundering was thorough. A few scraps of gold-leaf, and the little deposit of bronze vessels that had been preserved from the plunderers by the fact that the floor of the room in which they were found had sunk in the ruin of the conflagration, are evidences, better than absolute barrenness would have been, to the fact that the place was pillaged with minute thoroughness, and the unfinished stone jar in the sculptor's workshop tells its own tale of a sudden summons from peaceful and happy toil to the stern realities of warfare.

Disaster at Phaistos and Hagia Triada The evidence from Phæstos and Hagia Triada tallies with that from Knossos. Everywhere there are the traces of fire on the walls, and a sudden interruption of quiet and luxurious life. The very stone lamps still stand in the rooms at Hagia Triada, and on the stairs of the Basilica at Knossos, as they stood to lighten the last night of the doomed Minoans. Of course there are no records, and if there were we could not read them; but it is easy to imagine the disastrous sea-fight off the mouth of the Kairatos River, or elsewhere along the coast, the wrecks of the once invincible Minoan fleet driven ashore in hopeless ruin in the shallow bay, like the Athenian fleet at Syracuse, the swift march of the mainland conquerors up the valley, the brief, desperate resistance of the palace guards, and then the horrors of the sack, and the long column of flushed victors winding down to their ships,

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laden with booty, and driving with them crowds of captive women. Similar scenes must have been enacted at Phæstos and Hagia Triada, either by other forces of invaders, or by the same host sweeping round the island. From this overwhelming disaster the Minoan Empire never recovered. The palace at Knossos was never reoccupied as a palace, at least on anything like the scale of its former magnificence. The invaders possibly departed as swiftly as they had come, or if, as seems more probable, they eventually established themselves as a ruling caste among the subject Minoans, they chose for their dwellings other sites than those of the old palaces. The broken fragments of the Minoan race crept back after the sack to the blackened ruins of their holy and beautiful house, not to rebuild it, but to divide its stately rooms and those of its dependencies by rude walls into poor dwelling-houses, where they lived on—a very different life from that of the golden days before the sack. The long decay was to some extent arrested by the coming of other waves of invaders, probably Achæans, to whose influence may be attributed the change in customs which begins to show itself in the postMinoan period. Burning begins to take the place of inhumation as a means of disposing of the dead; Continental types of weapons make their appearance in the tombs; iron swords and daggers are even found. In life the men who use these weapons are clad, not with the Minoan loin-cloth, but with the garments which we associate with the Greeks of the Classical period, garments which require the use of the fibula or safety-pin to fasten them. The potter's art begins to find new motives, and to develop the use of the human form as a type of adornment in a manner almost entirely foreign to the Minoan tradition.

After the Fall of Knossos About four centuries after the fall of Knossos, came the great tidal wave of Dorian invasion, engulfing the work alike of conquerors and conquered, and blowing out all the landmarks of the ancient cultures. and through all these changes, and ever since, the ruined House of Minos remained absolutely deserted, until, more than 3,000 years after the sack, its echoes were wakened by the spades and picks of Dr. Evans's workmen. Around the ruins grim and cruel legends swiftly grew up. The old traditions, dimly surviving in the minds of the native Cretans, of the bullfight and the prize-ring, and the tribute of toreadors from the conquered nations, seemed to be corroborated by the very decorations of the palace walls, still visible amidst the ruins, and around them were woven the stories which have come down to us as legends of early Greece.

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'Let us place ourselves for a moment,' says Dr. Evans, 'in the position of the first Dorian colonists of Knossos after the great overthrow, when features now laboriously uncovered by the spade were still perceptible amid the mass of ruins. The name Labyrinth was still preserved, though the exact meaning, as supplied by the native Cretan dialect, had been probably lost. Hard by the western gate, in her royal robes, to-day but partially visible, stood Queen Ariadne herself—and might not the comely youth in front of her be the hero Theseus, about to receive the coil of thread for his errand of liberation down the mazy galleries beyond? Within, fresh and beautiful on the walls of the inmost chambers, were the captive boys and maidens locked up here by the tyrant of old. At more than one turn rose a mighty bull, in some cases, no doubt, according to the favourite Mycenæan motive, grappled with by a half-naked man. The type of the Minotaur itself as a man-bull was not wanting on the soil of prehistoric Knossos, and more than one gem found on this site represents a monster with the lower body of a man and the forepart of a bull. 'One may feel assured that the effect of these artistic creations on the rude Greek settler of those days was not less than that of the disinterred fresco on the Cretan workman of to-day. Everything around—the dark passages, the lifelike figures surviving from an older world, would conspire to produce a sense of the supernatural. It was haunted ground, and then, as now, "phantasms" were about. The later stories of the grisly King and his man-eating bull sprang, as it were, from the soil, and the whole site called forth a superstitious awe. It was left severely alone by the new-comers. Another Knossos grew up on the lower slopes of the hill to the north, and the old Palace site became "a desolation and hissing." Gradually earth's mantle covered the ruined heaps, and by the time of the Romans the Labyrinth had become nothing more than a tradition and a name ' Who, then, were the invaders who, whether they remained as a ruling caste in the land which they had conquered, or merely destroyed and departed, inflicted upon the Minoan civilization a blow from which it never recovered? The Cretans of Præsos, whose story of the Sicilian expedition of Minos has already been mentioned, stated to Herodotus that, after that great disaster, 'to Crete, thus destitute of inhabitants ... other men, and especially the Grecians, went, and settled there.' As Mr. Hogarth has pointed out, 'the men of Præsos were no doubt, in the true saga spirit, foreshortening history by crystallizing a process into a single event.' It is very improbable, in view of the evidence afforded by the long survival and gradual decay of the Minoan tradition, that there was any immediate general occupation of the island on the part of the conquering race.

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The process which finally resulted in the island of Crete becoming 'the mixed land,' with a heterogeneous population of Pelasgians, Dorians, Achæans, and other tribes, must have been a gradual one, extending, in all probability, over several centuries. Any large influx of foreign elements was impossible so long as Crete was dominated by a great and warlike central power; but once that power was broken by the catastrophe in which the Palaces of Knossos and Phæstos were overthrown, there was nothing to hinder the gradual drifting in of the wandering tribes of the Ægean and of the North.

The Demise of Minoan Culture How that catastrophe came about we can see, not with any certainty of detail, but with some amount of probability as to its general outlines, from that echo of a period of wandering and strife in the Mediterranean area which comes to us from the records of Ramses III. at Medinet Habu. 'The isles were restless, disturbed among themselves,' and it was one of the later waves of that storm which broke itself against the armed strength of Egypt about 1200 B.C. Probably the process of migration had been going on for several generations. The rude but vigorous tribes of the North had been pressing down upon the races which had created that remarkable Bronze Age civilization of the Danubian area, whose relics have been coming to light of late years; and these in their turn, under the pressure from the North, had been moving down towards the Mediterranean, driving before them the peoples, probably of kindred stock to themselves, who had occupied the lands of the Mycenæan civilization. Long before the Homeric poems took shape the Achæans had established themselves as the ruling caste in the Argolid, in Laconia, and elsewhere; that the pressure had begun even while Mycenæ was at the height of its power is suggested by the figures on one of the steles of the Circle-Graves, where a Mycenæan chieftain in his chariot is pursuing an enemy whose leaf-shaped sword shows that he was one of the Danubian race. The Mycenæan was the victor in the first shock; but the steady pressure of the tribes from the North was not to be permanently resisted, and the end was the establishment of an alien race in power at Mycenæ. The Mycenæan stele, where the chief of the ancient stock pursues his Northern assailant, has its motif reversed in the archaic Greek stele discovered by Dr. Pernier at Gortyna, where a big Northerner with round shield and greaves threatens a tiny Minoan or Mycenæan, crouching behind his figure-of-eight shield. The two rude pictures may be taken as

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typical of the beginning and the end of the process which resulted in the establishment of the race of Agamemnon at 'Golden Mycenæ.' Pressed upon thus by the warlike Achæans, perhaps already forced from their homes on the mainland, the Mycenæans of Tiryns and Mycenæ were obliged to fare forth in search of new dwelling-places. Not unnaturally the emigrants may have turned to the land from which their civilization had originally sprung, in the expectation that the Cretans would not refuse a welcome and a home to men of their own stock. Seemingly they were disappointed in their expectation. The Minoans, or, at least, the Minoan rulers, were not prepared to admit peacefully the incursion of this new element into their kingdom; and the wanderers, under the spur of desperate need, took by force what was denied to them as suppliants. So, in all probability, the glory of the Minoan Empire was destroyed by the hands of its own children, the descendants of men whom Knossos herself had sent forth to hold her mainland colonies. In such circumstances there would be no sudden eclipse of the ancient culture. Modified slightly, if at all, by the influx of what, after all, was a kindred element, it would persist, as the evidence shows it persisted, until it perished of natural decay. Even when the Achæans, and, later still, the Dorians, followed in the wake of the Mycenæan immigrants, though their advent brought, as we have seen, important changes in customs and in art motives, the ancient native culture remained the fundamental element of the newer civilization. It has been pointed out by Mr. Hogarth that the Geometric vases of the early Iron Age in Crete exhibit in their decoration merely stylized Minoan motives, while 'the shields and other bronzes of the Idæan Cave, the latest of which come down probably to the ninth or even the eighth century, are artistic descendants of Minoan masterpieces modified by some element of uncouthness which was probably of Northern origin.

Destruction of the Central Power at Knossos and Collapse of Commerce Thus in slow decay, after the great catastrophe, the great civilization of the Minoan Empire passed away. Not all of the tribes which had owned the dominion of the House of Minos were content, however, to remain as subjects to the mainland conquerors. The destruction of the central power at Knossos must have involved, as Dr. Evans has suggested, the collapse of much of the commerce on which the island of the Hundred Cities depended for the support of its great population.

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Already in the reign of Amenhotep III. of Egypt, that powerful monarch had been obliged to establish a special coastguard service at the mouths of the Nile to protect his trade-routes against the Lycian pirates. When the Minoan fleet was no longer in being to police the Ægean, these and other piratical races must have quickly driven the Cretan merchant marine from the seas. The purple fisheries and the oil trade would dwindle and die, and the population which had been supported by them would be driven from a land which could no longer maintain it. The colonizing movement which has left traces of Minoan culture in Anatolia, in Palestine, in Sicily, and even in Spain, began, no doubt, at an earlier period, when the Empire of the Sea-Kings was in its full strength; but it probably received a considerable impulse at this time of forced emigration. The sudden introduction of the same culture into Cyprus at some period after 1400 B.C. has been referred to conquest by men of the Ægean race, who may very well have been the men of Knossos driven forth by the pressure of altered conditions to find a new home for themselves. Mycenæan pottery found at Tell-el-Amarna shows that there was still an opening in Egypt for the products of Ægean art at least as late as the reign of Akhenaten; it is more than probable that in Egypt many of the émigrés of the Minoan débâcle found a home. The art of the reign of Akhenaten is characterized by the somewhat sudden outburst of a naturalistic style almost entirely foreign to the Egyptian tradition; It was been suggested that the naturalism of Tell-elAmarna owes some of its inspiration to the influence of the fugitives who brought with them from Crete the traditions of the great art of Knossos. We have already seen the evidence for the migration of Minoan tribes of a later age in the assault of the Zakkaru and Pulosathu upon Egypt 200 years after the fall of Knossos, and the establishment of the latter tribe as an independent power upon the coast of Palestine—events which may have been due to the advance of another wave of Northern colonists upon the shores of Crete. One more glimpse of the dying sea-power of the Cretan race, now itself disorganized and predatory, is given us by the Golenischeff papyrus, which tells, among other adventures of the unfortunate Wen-Amon, envoy of Her-hor, the priest-King of Upper Egypt (circa 1100 B.C.), how the Egyptian ambassador was threatened with capture by eleven ships of Zakru pirates, who put into Byblos when he was about to sail thence. Whether these were genuine Minoans or not, it is impossible to tell; their immediate connection was apparently with Dor, on the coast of Palestine; but their name suggests the town of Zakro, in

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Eastern Crete, and it is not unlikely that they belonged to the same race as the Zakkaru of the time of Ramses III. Thereafter the Egyptian records are silent as to the scattered tribes of Crete, just as they had been silent since the rise of the Nineteenth Dynasty as to the organized Empire of the Keftians. The eleven shiploads of Zakru sea-robbers are the last degenerate representatives of the great marine which, under the Kings of the House of Minos, had once held the undisputed Empire of the Ægean. The ring of Minos was destined to lie for long ages beneath the waves before the descendants of Theseus brought it up again.

THE PERIODS OF MINOAN CULTURE

The Neolithic Age Pottery is an important key to dating the development of the Monoan Culture. It shows characteristic features of each period. The classification of the pottery at Knossos and other sites was adopted by Dr. Evans. The deposit left by Neolithic man on the hill of Kephala averages about 6 metres in thickness below the later deposit which marks the occupation of the site by the post-Neolithic culture. We are thus led to an almost fabulous antiquity for the first occupation of the site. In the earliest beginnings of human development, progress, with its consequent accumulation, is slow, and if we allow a rate of 3 feet of deposit for each thousand years, we shall probably not be very far wrong. Such an allowance brings us to about 10,000 B.C. as the time when Neolithic man began his first settlement on the hill of Knossos. Remains found in the deposit of this period are naturally of a very simple and primitive character. They consist of pottery, handmade without any use of the wheel, and hand-burnished, black in colour, and, in the latest specimens, adorned with incised ornament, which is sometimes filled in with a white chalky substance. While this description is characteristic of the deposit generally, a gradual progress in the potter's art is traceable from the virgin soil upwards. In the earliest stratum, immediately above the depositless virgin soil, the pottery, for the depth of the first metre, was entirely plain, unfired, polished within and without, with no appearance of narrowed necks or moulded bases. The next metre shows the beginning of incised ornament, but in almost inappreciable quantity, and the third and fourth metres show the gradual, but extremely slow, growth of this species of decoration, the proportion of incised vases in the fourth metre only reaching 3 per cent. The fifth metre deposit, however, discloses one important innovation. The proportion of incised vases is scarcely greater than in the preceding stratum, but almost all of them have the incisions filled in with the white chalky substance already alluded to, forming a geometric design of white upon black. Along with this new development of the incised ware goes a development of the unincised, whose surface is now not only polished to

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the highest degree of lustre, but is thereafter rippled in vertical lines by the pressure of some blunt instrument, so as to produce an undulating effect, like that of the ripple marks on sand. The rippling of the unincised pottery continues along with the chalk filling of the incised through the remainder of the Neolithic series, and, in fact, appears to have enjoyed an even superior popularity. In the sixth metre from the virgin soil indications begin to present themselves of the fact that the Neolithic period is about to draw to a close, for some of the pottery is beginning to assume the shapes which are characteristic of the painted ware of the earliest Minoan period, and in the following metre paint begins to make its appearance as a means of decoration in rivalry with the incision and rippling of the earlier strata. From this point, then, we begin to get into touch with the genuine Minoan periods, of which, according to Dr. Evans's classification, there are three,Early, Middle, and Late Minoan—each in its turn subdivided into three sub-periods.

Early, Middle Minoan Period Early Minoan I The pottery of this period retained much of the style of the primitive hand-burnished black ware inherited from the preceding age. Though this supplied the greater proportion of the material, it is not the characteristic feature. The potter now began to use paint as a means for producing the lustrous black surface which his Neolithic predecessor produced by handburnishing. A lustrous black glaze medium is spread as a slip over the surface of the clay, producing an effect similar to that of hand-polished ware, and on this lustrous slip the decoration is painted, generally in white, more rarely in vermilion. Thus were produced painted vases, with light design upon a dark ground. The artist then varied his procedure by applying the black slip itself as the decoration in bands upon the natural buff colour of the clay, thus giving a decorative scheme of dark design upon a light ground. The ware now for the first time gives evidence of having been fired. The primitive 'bucchero,' still surviving alongside of the painted pottery, is very closely related to the imported vases found by Petrie in First Dynasty tombs at Abydos; and a further link with Egypt is afforded by the fact that vases of Proto-Dynastic Egyptian form in diorite and syenite were discovered in the south and east quarters of the palace at Knossos. Early Minoan I. is thus to

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be equated with the earliest beginnings of Dynastic rule in Egypt—that is to say, it dates from about 5500 B.C. if Petrie's date for the First Dynasty be adopted, or from about 3400 B.C. if the Berlin dating be preferred. From this period there survive no remains of building at Knossos. Early Minoan II The distinguishing characteristic of the second period of Early Minoan is greater freedom and originality shown in the designs of the vases. The style of painted decoration remains much the same as in the preceding period; but the vases now developed long spouts or beaks, and are the 'beak-jugs' (Schnabelkanne) of the German archæologists. While a tendency may be observed to vary the straight line decoration of Early Minoan I. by the introduction of simple curves, there is also a revival of the fashion for old incised geometric-patterned ware. A curious development of this period is found in mottled ware from Vasiliki, where the decoration was accomplished neither by incising nor by painting a design, but by a method of firing in which the vases, first painted red, were so placed that the hot coals actually came into contact with the vases at certain points, and produced black patches upon the red paint. The resultant mottled surface was then hand-polished, and sometimes, but more rarely, used as the medium for a design in white. To this period belong the oldest parts of the deposit at Hagios Onouphrios, and the greater part of the contents of the bee-hive chamber tomb at Hagia Triada, where, along with incised and early painted vases, were found copper daggers with very short triangular blades, a number of rude stone seals, and very primitive idols, rudely imitating the human form. There are still no traces of any surviving building on the hill of Knossos, nor is there any definite link with Egypt to afford an opportunity for determining the date of the period. Early Minoan III In this period the proportion of painted vases steadily increased, though for a time there iwas a revival of incised ornament, attributed by Dr. Evans to influence from the Cyclades, which at this time also gave to Crete the idea of the flat, banjo-shaped human figurines which are characteristic of the early deposits of Melos and Amorgos. Use of the potter's wheel probably now begins , the clay was carefully sifted and fired, the favourite colour scheme was white on lustrous brown or black slip, though sometimes the alternative scheme of dark upon light

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is adopted; and vases weree sometimes fashioned out of very thin clay, in anticipation of the fine egg-shell Kamares ware of Middle Minoan II. The chief decorative motive is a horizontal band, or more than one, around the upper part of the vase. On these bands the chief ornament is the zig-zag, and curves directly derived therefrom, and the spiral begins to appear as a form of decoration. It is uncertain whether the credit for the origination of this favourite form of decorative motive is to be attributed to Egypt or to Crete. Miss Hall regards the Early Minoan III. spirals as late-comers in the field, attributing the first development of the spiral to the painters of Egyptian pre-Dynastic vases; but Mr. H. R. Hall denies the right of the volutes on the pre-Dynastic vases to be regarded as spirals at all, considers that the true spiral appears suddenly in Egypt as 'a new and unprecedented thing about the beginning of the Middle Kingdom, and infers that in its use the Cretans were original, and the Egyptians merely borrowers; while Dr. Evans denies originality to both, and holds that the use of the spiral was first developed on the European side of the Ægean. The fact that the seals of this period show motives derived from the Egyptian Sixth Dynasty 'button-seals' suggests that Early Minoan III. is to be equated with the end of the Old Kingdom in Egypt. This, however, is but a slight help as to the positive date of the Minoan period, owing to the huge gap between the different systems of Egyptian chronology. All that can be said is that on Petrie's system of dating the Minoan period which is contemporary with the end of the Sixth Dynasty would date about 4000 B.C., and on the Berlin system about 2475 B.C. Though the two cultures are contemporaneous, it is, of course, by no means to be inferred that the art of Early Minoan III. has left us any relics which are worthy of being placed on a level with the wonderful work of the Egyptian Old Kingdom artists. The primitive pictographs on the beadseals of this period mark the beginnings of this form of Minoan script, which persisted until Late Minoan I., when it was at last superseded by the linear form of writing which had made its appearance in Middle Minoan III. Middle Minoan I With this period we have distinct advance in more directions than one. The Minoan artist is beginning to feel his way towards the polychrome style of decoration which reached such a remarkable development in the Kamares vases of the succeeding stage. In the decoration of his ware, which does not exhibit any marked advance in form upon that of Early Minoan III., he

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has begun to supplement the familiar white on the dark slip by adding yellow, orange, red, and crimson. The Petsofa figurines, which belong to this period, have a colour scheme of black and white, red and orange. Along with this development of the use of colour goes a corresponding advance in design. The motives of the former period are continued, but are much more developed, and more freely handled. Instead of being stiffly disposed in bands round the vessel, they are now frequently grouped with the idea of covering the ground of the vases in a graceful manner without any attempt at formal definition of the limits of each article of the design, the artist's idea being simply to fill, in a manner satisfying to the eye, the space upon which he had to work. The zonal system still persists side by side with the freer style, and is often very skilfully handled as a means of decoration. One of the characteristic features of Middle Minoan ceramic art—the use of relief to enhance the effect of the polychrome decoration through the addition of contrasts of light and shade is seen coming into use in the earliest part of the period. Decoration is still geometric, and was to continue so for long. Not until Middle Minoan III do we get a really naturalistic style of decorative art. But in Middle Minoan I. there are indications which, though slight, seem to point to a striving after realism on the part of some of the artists of the period. This tendency is apparent even in some of the geometric designs, which are so disposed as to form an approach to naturalistic patterns. The most remarkable example of this tendency is seen in a fragment of a vase from Knossos, figured by Dr. Mackenzie, on which the figures of three of the Cretan wild goats are followed by that of a gigantic beetle with a tail. 'The subject of the design,' says Dr. Mackenzie, 'in its naturalistic character is so advanced that, were it not for the company in which the fragments occur, we should be tempted to assign it to a much later age.' It is unfortunate that only a part of the design has survived, and that no parallel to it has ever been found. Was it merely a sport, the freak of some ancient potter who was weary of the conventional designs of his time, and tried his hand at something new, combining the wild life that he could see from the window of his workshop. The style of the goat and beetle fragment is dark upon light. The goats are surrounded by an incised outline, and filled in with lustrous black glaze; the beetle is drawn freely in the black glaze, without incision, almost as though it had been a humorous afterthought of the potter. Middle Minoan I. has no surviving link with Egyptian art, a fact which may be explained by the consideration that from the end of the Sixth Dynasty to the establishment of the Eleventh, Egypt appears to have been

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passing through a time of great confusion. The period is practically a Dark Age so far as Egyptian history is concerned. Middle Minoan II This was the period when the first undoubted traces of the Cretan palaces begin to reveal themselves. The chief architectural remains of the period are, not at Knossos, but at Phæstos. There the Theatral Area, at least, was in existence early in this period, possibly in the later part of the preceding one. But at Knossos the chief evidence for the high state of civilization attained in this period is the pottery, which reached a very advanced development. This was the age of the splendid polychrome vessels of the type called 'Kamares,' from the cave on Mount Ida where they were first discovered by Mr. J. L. Myres. The vases and cups of this fabric, from the delicacy of their forms, the grace of their designs, and the richness of their colour, are among the most notable survivals of Minoan ceramic art. The clay is fine and carefully sifted, and the walls of the vessels are of extreme thinness and delicacy, approaching to that of the finest egg-shell china. The designs upon the vases are often moulded in low relief as well as painted, and the thinness of their walls, the form of their handles, and the knobs upon them, which are evidently meant to suggest rivets, show that the potters of the time were endeavouring to emulate the achievements of their brother artists, the metal workers. The designs upon the vases themselves are conventional, the idea being to produce a rich and harmonious effect of form and colour rather than to secure any imitation of Nature.The patterns are very largely geometric; the zig-zag, the cross, and concentric circles occur frequently; and when plant life is imitated it is skilfully conventionalized, as in the case of the water-lily cup, perhaps the most beautiful specimen of the ware of the period, on which the white petals start from a centre at the foot of the cup and enfold its body. The ground of this cup is lustrous black, and the white of the petals is accentuated by thin lines of red, while a geometric pattern moulded in low relief runs round the rim of the cup above the waterlilies . The colours of the vases are varied, consisting chiefly of white, orange, crimson, red, and yellow, and each colour is used in several shades. 'Black shades into purple, white into cream; brown has sometimes a red, and sometimes an olive tint; yellows are either pale or orange; and red is not only a crude vermilion, but is weakened to pink, or strengthened with

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shades of orange and cherry and terra-cotta.' In the decoration of the vases both styles flourish side by side, dark design upon light ground, and light upon dark. In some vessels of the period there is a combination of conventionalized naturalistic ornament and geometric design. A distinct link between Egypt and Middle Minoan II. is afforded by the fact that at Kahun, close to the pyramid of Senusert II., near the Fayum, Professor Petrie discovered vases which are unquestionably of Kamares type, while the synchronism with the Twelfth Dynasty was fully established by Professor Garstang's discovery at Abydos of fragments of a polychrome vessel of late Middle Minoan II. type in an untouched tomb, which also contained glazed steatite cylinders with the names of Senusert III. and Amenemhat III. Middle Minoan II., then, equates with the times of the Twelfth Egyptian Dynasty, a period which was in many respects the most brilliant of Egyptian history. When we come to inquire, however, as to positive date, we are still met, by the great discrepancy between the systems of Egyptian dating. The Twelfth Dynasty is placed by Professor Petrie at about 3400 B.C., by the traditional dating about 2500 B.C., while the modern German school brings down the date as low as 2000 B.C. No more can be said than that Middle Minoan II. certainly does not begin earlier than 3400 B.C., and can scarcely begin later than 2000 B.C. The period closes with the evidence of a great catastrophe at Knossos, in which the palace was burned; and, as already mentioned, the fact that Phæstos shows no evidence of such a disaster at this point has roused the suspicion that the Lords of Phæstos may have been responsible for the destruction of the greater palace. Middle Minoan III To this period belong the beginnings of the second palace at Knossos. The western portion of the palace probably dates largely from this time and we must place here the Temple Repositories, and certain other chambers on the northeast side of the Central Court, though they were covered up and built over in Late Minoan I. At all events, a very great and splendid building must have existed upon the site at this time. . To this age belong many of the most interesting and precious relics of the Minoan culture. The art of the period gradually undergoes a great change from that of Middle Minoan II. Polychrome decoration steadily declines, and is superseded by monochrome. The beautiful lustrous black glaze ground of the vases is replaced by a dull purple slip on which the decoration is often laid in a powdery white paint. The best designs are found in this white

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upon a lilac or mauve ground. In the designs themselves conventionalism and geometric ornament pass away, and are followed by a development of naturalism. Dr. Mackenzie has pointed out that it is to this growth of naturalism that we must trace the gradual disappearance of polychrome decoration. 'Once we have the portrayal of natural objects, such as flowers, which becomes so rife before the close of the Middle Minoan Age, it soon becomes apparent that a scale of colours, which in their relation to each other were capable of producing polychrome effects of great beauty, was quite inadequate towards the reproduction of the natural colours of objects. Thus green, for example, which is the first necessity towards the rendering of leaves and stems, did not exist in the colour repertory of the vase painter. The ceramic artist must thus have felt that with his limited scale of colours he could not produce the same natural effects as the wall-painter with his. On the other hand, he must have been equally conscious that natural objects such as flowers did not look natural in a polychrome guise which was not that of Nature. The only solution of the colour difficulty in the circumstances was a compromise in the shape of a convention. Thus the tendency came into being to make all natural objects either simply light on a dark ground, or dark on a light ground.The two flowers most generally used for the purpose of ornamentation are the lily and the crocus. For the first time the importance of pottery as an evidence of the condition of the art of the period is second to that of other artistic products. It is to Middle Minoan III. that there belongs the wonderful fabric of faïence, of which so many specimens were discovered in the Temple Repositories. In them the same tendency towards naturalism reveals itself. The wild-goat suckling its kid, the flying-fish, the porcelain vases, one of them with cockle-shell relief, and another with ferns and rose-leaves on a ground of pale green, are all instances of the naturalistic growth. Evidence is also afforded of a great delight in scenes connected with the sea, and we have the flying-fish and the seal with the seaman in his skiff defending himself against the attacks of the sea-monster, to witness to the Minoan appreciation alike of the curiosities and the dangers of the deep. Fresco-painting also begins to leave survivals, and we have particularly the fresco of the Blue Boy gathering white crocuses. At the beginning of the period the old form of pictographic writing is still in general use, but by the close of Middle Minoan III. the earlier type of the linear script, Class A, has made its appearance and is extensively used. The Middle Minoans of the Third period were the fabricators of the huge knobbed and

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corded pithoi, or jars, some of them with the curious 'trickle,' ornament, which is surely decoration reduced to its last straits. The artist merely dabbed quantities of brown glaze paint around the rims of his jars, and allowed it to trickle down the sides at its own will. The result is curious, but can scarcely be called beautiful . 'Ab-nub's child, Sebek-user, deceased,' whose statuette was found at Knossos, gives us a point of connection between the earlier part of Middle Minoan III. and the Thirteenth Egyptian Dynasty, while the alabastron of Khyan links the later portion of the period with the Hyksos domination in Egypt. The King who built the great tomb at Isopata, already described, must have reigned at Knossos during this period. Late Minoan I In this period we notice a great deal of fine work of the Royal Villa at Hagia Triada.. A considerable portion of the area of the palace at Knossos, dating from the preceding age, was now covered up by new construction, and the second palace begain to assume the form which was completed in the subsequent period. In pottery the naturalistic style still persists, but the technique begins to modify, and the white design on a dark ground occurs less frequently than design in dark glaze paint on the natural light ground of the clay. Ornament begins to partake increasingly of a marine character; the octopus, the Triton shell, the nautilus, and seaweed, appear as designs, and are executed in lifelike fashion, which contrasts strongly with the later conventionalized method of representing them. Indeed, Middle Minoan III. and Late Minoan I. and II, show a distinct appreciation of and delight in the beauty and wonder of the sea, which suggest the important part which it played in the lives of the Cretan populace. Along with the marine designs appeared naturalistic representations of flowers and grasses—the lily and the crocus. The Egyptian lotus in a form adapted to the taste of the Minoan artist, and ivy leaves and tendrils. A peculiarly graceful design on a vase from Zakro shows an adaptation of the Egyptian lotus, presenting that favourite Nilotic motive in a style more flexible and easy than that of the native representations of it. The design in this case is painted in white on a reddish-brown ground, and its peculiarity is that the white was laid on after the vase had been fired, and can be removed with the finger. The three vases from Hagia Triada, the Boxer, the Harvester, and the Chieftain, belong to this period, as do also the frescoes of the Hunting Cat and the Climbing Plants, and probably the Royal Gaming Board from the

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palace at Knossos. Long bronze swords had succeeded the daggers of the preceding ages. Hieroglyphic writing was now superseded by the linear script of Class A, which now cames into regular use, although at Knossos the documents in this script, according to Dr. Evans, are only to be found in the stratum belonging to the last period of Middle Minoan, their place being supplied by Class B, which occurs only at Knossos. At Hagia Triada and Gournia the older forms of vase are mingled with early specimens of the type variously known as 'Bügelkanne,' 'Vases à Étrier,' or 'Stirrup-vases.' These vases, named from the stirrup-like appearance of their curving handles, may more correctly be called 'falsenecked vases,' from the fact that the neck to which the handles unite is closed, and another neck is formed, farther away from the handles, for convenience in pouring. The false-necked vase was the characteristic pottery type of Late Minoan III., and occured quite frequently on Mycenæan sites of that period. Seals with amazing forms of monsters, such as those found in such numbers at Zakro, date from the beginning of Late Minoan I., and to this period also belong the earlier of the Shaft- or Circle-Graves at Mycenæ, so that now for the first time Minoan can be equated with Mycenæan.1 We are still without any system of dating that is absolutely certain, but this is the last period of which such a remark is true. Late Minoan II To Late Minoan II. belongs the second palace at Knossos, in its great splendour. It featured the Throne Room with its antechamber. The Royal Villa with its daïs and throne and columned hall. The walls of the completed palace were covered with the splendid frescoes. For example ‘the Cup-Bearer’, also of spectators watching games are evident, reliefs in hard plaster, such as the bull's head and the King with the peacock plumes, show the good variety and style of decoration on the wall paintings.. The change of style of pottery is gradual, but quite pronounced. The chief characteristic of the time is the fabrication of large decorated vases and pithoi, such as the beautiful papyrus relief vase of the Royal Villa, nearly 4 feet in height. Naturalism still survives in occasional designs. The bulk of design is conventional, the composition of the various elements is extremely skilful. A typical form of vessel of this period is the long narrow strainer, which is borne by the Cup-Bearer in the palace fresco, and of which various specimens have been found. In many cases 1

This was prior to modern ‘dating techniqes’.

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these strainers were made of variegated marble, though pottery was also used for them. Bronze vessels from the north-west house at Knossos, and swords from the earlier Zafer Papoura graves, testify to the skill with which metal was wrought. One of these swords from the chieftain's grave, the short weapon which the noble of Late Minoan II. carried along with his long rapier, has a pommel of translucent agate, and a gold-plated hilt engraved with a design of a lion chasing and capturing a wild-goat. Great bronze vessels were wrought with splendid conventional designs, and some of the stone vases of the period are amazing in the skill with which they were worked and decorated. 'How the hard material was worked with precision in the inside of vessels which have only the narrowest of neck orifices, and that in an age of soft bronze tools, is as great a mystery as the mode of working diorite and granite in prehistoric Egypt.' A most splendid specimen is the great amphora, 2 feet high by 6 feet in circumference, with its two magnificent spiral bands, which was found in the so-called Sculptor's Workshop at Knossos, beside the smaller vessel which had only been roughed out when the catastrophe of the palace came. Linear script, Class B, now supersedes the earlier type, Class A. In this period there is practically a certainty in dating; now the Keftiu appear in the tomb frescoes of the Eighteenth Dynasty at Thebes, with their vessels of characteristic Minoan type, and their purely Minoan style of dress and general appearance. Sen-mut's tomb gives us a date about 1480 B.C., and Rekh-ma-ra's may bring us down to 1450 B.C., or thereby. It is somewhat striking that the periods of greatest splendour alike for the Egyptian Empire and for the Minoan should virtually coincide. In either case, the duration of the culmination of splendour was short. The magnificence of the Egypt of Hatshepsut, Tahutmes III., and Amenhotep III., was speedily to be clouded and dimmed by the disasters of the reign of Akhenaten; but even before the glory of the Eighteenth Dynasty had passed away, the sun of the Minoan Empire had set. Late Minoan II., with all its triumphs of architecture and art, was brought to an abrupt close by the sack of the palaces, probably about 1400 B.C., and the great frescoes of the palace at Knossos were the last evidences of a agnificence which was never to be revived again on Cretan soil. During this period contact between Crete and Egypt must have been frequent and close. It is not only indicated by the evidence of the Sen-mut and Rekh-ma-ra tombs, but by the parallelism in the styles of art in the two countries. The art of each remains truly national, but the frescoes of

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Knossos and Hagia Triada and those of the Eighteenth Dynasty in Egypt are inspired by the same spirit, though in either case the result is modified by national characteristics. Late Minoan III This, the last period of the Minoan civilization, commences with the destruction of the palace of Knossost somewhere before 1400 B.C., and presents no definite line of termination. The great style of art represented by the preceding period does not at once degenerate into barbarism. If, as seems probable, the men who destroyed the Cretan palaces were Mycenæans of the mainland, more or less of the same stock as the Cretan representatives of the Minoan tradition, we can see how the catastrophe of the palaces need not have been followed by any immediate catastrophe of the art of Crete. At the same time the true spirit of the Minoan race had been destroyed, and degeneration of the standard of art naturally followed. The level of artistic work in the earlier part of the period is still high—in fact, it is that of what is considered the best Mycenæan art—the technical skill which produced the masterpieces of the Palace period still survives, but the inspiration which gave it life is gone. Originality in design vanishes first, and is gradually followed by skill in execution; the old types are reproduced in more and more slovenly fashion, and at last even the material employed follows the example of degeneration. This period of gradual decadence is, however, the period of greatest diffusion of the products of Minoan, or, rather, as we may now call it, of Mycenæan art. At Ialysos in Rhodes, and in the lower town of Mycenæ, types parallel with the work of Crete are found, and Tell-el-Amarna furnishes specimens of pottery whose degeneracy from the type of the Palace period declares them to belong to these days of decadence. Specimens of Late Minoan III work are found at Tarentum, and the island of Torcello, near Venice, and even as far west as Spain. One of the characteristic features of the period is the fact that the stirrup-vase, found at Hagia Triada and Gournia in Late Minoan I., but almost totally wanting in Late Minoan II., now becomes common. Towards the close of the period the site of the palace at Knossos was partially reoccupied by a humbler race of men, who used the rooms that had once witnessed the pride of the Minoan Sovereigns, dividing them up by flimsy partition-walls to suit their smaller needs. An age of transition succeeded, during which the character of the Cretan population was gradually modified by successive waves of invasion from the mainland,

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until Crete assumed the guise of 'the mixed land,' under which Homer knew it; and finally came the great invasion of the Dorians, which brought in for Crete, as for the rest of Greece, the dark age which preceded the dawn of the true Hellenic culture.

The Dark Age Then came the widespread disasters of the early 12th century B.C.E Portions of Mycenae were burned (possibly twice) in the early 12th century B.C.E., but this great citadel survived the fires. Then, around 1150 B.C.E., Mycenae, Tiryns and the nearby sites of Asine and Iria were razed. The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) confirmed among earlier Ice Ages,that another little ice age occurred during the period from 2,060 to 1,400 years BP [60 before Christ (B.C.) The "Centuries of Darkness," (about 1500-1200 B.C.) mark another cold period – reduced solar activity and declining sea levels – after which the sea level began to rise again. A Drought occurred in 1180 BCE.During this period we have testimony from two sources on a drought of that era: Herodotus (1.94), The Tyrrhenians were "Lydians driven from their homeland by prolonged famine.”They took their name from a son of the Lydian king Atys, Tyrsensus, who led them to a new land.” Source- Mel Copeland - maravot.com.. Due to these natural disasters many sites in were simply abandoned, with refugees settling as far off as Cyprus. The population of Greece seems to have declined by about 75 percent. The literate, highly centralized Mycenaean kingdoms with their elaborate bureaucracies disappeared—and small, poor agricultural villages took their place. Similarly, Crete seems to have suffered a major decline in population. People abandoned the coastal areas and built new villages in the hills or in other easily defensible positions.. Without the palace bureaucracies to maintain it, knowledge of writing was lost both here as well as in Greece., A "Dark Age" descended over the entire Aegean region.

LIFE UNDER THE SEA KINGS

Description of the Bronze Age Inhabitants What manner of men were the people who developed the Bronze Age civilization of Crete? First, as to the physical characteristics of the race, two lines of evidence are here available. On the one hand, there is that afforded by the actual remains of the bodies of men and women of the Minoan race which have been exhumed from ossuaries of the Bronze Age, and studied by anthropologists. Generally speaking, the result of their investigations has been to show that the Minoans belonged to the southernmost of the three great racial belts into which the ancient peoples of Europe may be divided the so-called Mediterranean race. That is to say, they were a people of the long-headed type, dark in colouring and small in stature. The average height, estimated from the bones which have been measured, is somewhat under 5 feet 4 inches, which is about 2 inches less than the average of the modern Cretans, and corresponds more to the stature of the Sardinians and Sicilians of the present time. A few skulls of the broad-headed type appear among the general long-headedness, and probably point to some intermixture of race; but, as a whole, the people were long-headed. The shortness of stature indicated by the bones is a feature which one would scarcely have inferred from the other line of evidence available— the actual representations of men and women of their own race which the Minoans have left in their fresco-paintings; but allowance must, of course, be made for the artistic convention which tended to accentuate slenderness of figure, and therefore to increase apparent height. Judging from the surviving pictures, the Minoan men were bronzed, with dark hair and beardless faces; their figures were slender, and their slenderness was made all the more conspicuous by the fashion which prevailed of drawing in the waist by a tightly fastened belt, which seems, in some cases at least, to have had metal edges; but muscularly they were well developed, and the pictures suggest litheness and agility in a high degree. 'One would say a small-boned race, relying more on quickness of limb and brain than on weight and size.'

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The hair of the men was worn in a somewhat elaborate fashion, being done up in three coils on the top of the head, while the ends of it fell in three long curls upon the shoulders. On the other hand, their dress was extremely simple, consisting normally of nothing but a loin-cloth, girt by the broad belt already mentioned, the material of which the loincloth was made being frequently gaily colored or patterned, as in the case of the Cup-Bearer, whose garment is adorned with a dainty quatre-foil design. That more elaborate robes were worn on certain occasions of importance is shown by the sarcophagus at Hagia Triada , where the lyre player wears a long robe coming down to the ankles and bordered with lines of colour, while the other men in the scene wear tucked robes reaching a little below the knees; and also by the Harvester Vase, where the chief figure in the procession is clad in a stiff garment, which has been variously interpreted as a wadded cuirass, or as a cope of some stiff fabric. On their feet they wore sometimes shoes, with puttees twisted round the lower part of the leg, and sometimes half-boots, as shown on the Chieftain Vase and one of the Petsofa figurines. Indeed, the footgear of the Minoans seems to have been somewhat elaborate. In the representations of the Keftiu, on the walls of Rekh-ma-ra's tomb, the shoes are white, and have bindings of red and blue, and in some cases are delicately embroidered. Such examples as the shoe on an ivory figure found at Knossos, and the terra-cotta model of a shoe found at Sitia, show the daintiness with which the Minoans indulged themselves in the matter of footwear. In personal adornment the men to some extent made up for their simplicity in the matter of dress. The Cup-Bearer wears a couple of thick bracelets on his upper arm, and another, which bears an agate signet, on his wrist; and such decorations seem to have been in common use. The King whose figure in low relief has been reconstructed from fragments found at Knossos, wears peacock plumes upon his head, while round his neck he has a collar of fleur-de-lys, wrought, no doubt, in precious metal.

Dress – Frescoes – Houses The Minoan women are depicted with a perfectly white skin, which contrasts strongly with the bronzed hue of the men. The deep coppery tint of the men, and the dead white skin of the women is, of course, to be accepted only as a convention, similar to that adopted by Egyptian artists, meant to express a difference of complexion caused by greater or less exposure to the weather; and we need not imagine that there was so great a

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contrast between the colouring of men and women in actual life as would appear from the paintings. If the dress of the male portion of the populace was simple, that of the female was the reverse. An elaborate and tight-fitting bodice, cut excessively low at the neck, covered, or affected to cover, the upper part of the body, which is so wasp-waisted as to suggest universal tight-lacing. From the broad belt hung down bell-shaped skirts, sometimes flounced throughout their whole length, sometimes richly embroidered, as in the case of a votive skirt represented in faïence among the belongings of the Snake Goddess found in the Temple Repositories. In some cases—e.g., that of the votaress of the Snake Goddess—the skirt, below a small panier or apron, is composed of different coloured materials combined in a chequer pattern distantly resembling tartan. A fresco from Hagia Triada represents a curious and elaborate form of dress, consisting apparently of wide trousers of blue material dotted with red crosses on a light ground, and most wonderfully frilled and vandyked. Diaphanous material was sometimes used for part of the covering of the upper part of the body, as in the case of some of the figures from the Knossos frescoes. Hairdressing, as already noticed, was very elaborate, and above the wonderful erections of curls and ringlets which crowned their heads, the Minoan ladies, if one may judge from the Petsofa figurines, wore hats of quite modern type, and fairly comparable in size even with those of the present day. A seal from Mycenæ, representing three ladies adorned with accordion-pleated skirts, shows that heels of a fair height were sometimes worn on the shoes. Necklaces, bracelets, and other articles of adornment were in general use, and the workmanship of some of the surviving specimens is astonishingly fine . Altogether, so far as can be estimated from the representations which have come down to us, the appearance of a Minoan assembly would, to a modern eye, seem curiously mixed. The men would fit in with our ideas of their period, but the women would remind us more of a European gathering of the mid-nineteenth century. The houses which were occupied by these modern-looking ladies and their mates were unexpectedly unlike anything in the house-building of the Classical period. There is little of the uniformity of style and arrangement which characterizes the ordinary Greek house. The Minoan burgher built his home as the requirements of his site and of his household suggested, and was not the slave of any fixed convention in the matter of plan. The houses at Gournia, Palaikastro, and Zakro, which may be taken as typical specimens of ordinary Minoan domestic architecture, must have

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been much more like modern houses than anything that we know of in Greek towns of the Classical period; and the elevations of Minoan villas preserved in the faïence plaques from the chest at Knossos suggest the frontages of a suburban avenue. Some of the Knossian plaques show houses of three and four storeys, with windows filled in with a red material which, as Dr. Evans suggests, may have been oiled and tinted parchment. In such houses, as distinguished from the palaces, there was no separation between the apartments of men and women. The fabric of the houses was generally of sun-dried brick, reared upon lower walls of stone; some of the Knossian villas, however, were plastered and timbered, the round beam-ends showing in the frontage, oblong windows took the place of the light-wells which give indirect illumination to the palace rooms. The accommodation must have been fairly extensive. The smaller houses have six to eight rooms, the larger ones twice that number; while one of the houses in Palaikastro has no fewer than twenty-three rooms.

Domestic Utensils – Housing Within the dwellings,walls were finished with smooth plaster, and probably decorated with painting, though , on a humbler scale than in the palaces. Floors were of flagstones and cement, even in upper storeys, in some cases of cobbles or of earth rammed hard. The furniture of the rooms has perished, except in the case of such articles of stone or plaster; but the evidence appears of comfort and even the luxury of the life of those times suggests that the townsfolk of Gournia and other Cretan towns were not lacking in any of the essentials of a comfortable home life. The great chest at Knossos which was once decorated with faïence plaques was, of course, part of the furnishing of a royal home, and we are not to suppose that such magnificent pieces of furniture were common; but in their own fashion the ordinary Minoan houses were doubtless quite adequately appointed, and the great variety of domestic utensils which have survived shows that life in a Bronze Age home of Crete was by no means a thing of primitive and rough-and-ready simplicity, but well and carefully organized in its details. It has been remarked that 'cooking in Homer is monotonous, because no one eats anything but roast meat'.. The three-legged copper pot which was the most common vessel for cooking purposes was supplemented by stewpans with condensing-lids, and a variety of other forms of saucepan, while the number of different types of perforated vessels for straining and other purposes shows the care with which the art of cooking was attended

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to. Probably the Minoan kitchen, though we are still much in the dark as to its form, was almost as well equipped for its special functions as the kitchen of the present day. We are, unfortunately, without any evidence as to the appearance of the great palaces in their finished state. The inner plan can be traced, but it is difficult to arrive at any idea of what these huge buildings must have looked like from the outside. It is fairly evident, however, that there cannot have been any symmetrical balancing of the different architectural features. The palaces were more like small towns than simple residences, and the impression made upon the eye must have been due more to the great mass and extent of the building than to any symmetry of plan, probably we must conceive of them as great complex blocks of solid building, rising in terrace above terrace, the flat roofs giving an appearance of squareness and solidity to the whole. On a closer approach the eye would be impressed by the wide and spacious courts, the stately porticoes, the noble stairways, and the wealth of colour everywhere displayed; but, on the whole, so far as can be judged, it was only from within that the splendour of the Minoan palaces could be fairly estimated. A palace such as that of Knossos sheltered an extraordinary variety and complexity of life. An abundance of humbler rooms served for the accommodation of the artists and artisans who were needed for the service and adornment of the palace, and of whom whole companies must have lived within the walls, 'dwelling with the king for his work,'. Several shrines and altars provided for the religious needs of the community. Rooms of state were set apart for public audiences and for council meetings. In fact, the building was not only a King's dwelling-place, but the administrative centre of a whole empire, and within its walls there was room for the offices of the various departments and for the housing of their records.

Palace Décor The domestic quarter of the palace still reveals in some rooms the environment of luxury and beauty in which the Minoan royalties lived. The Queen's Megaron may be taken as typical. A row of pillars rising from a low, continuous base divides the room into two parts. The upper surface of the base on either side of the pillars is of stucco moulded so as to form a long couch, which was doubtless covered with cushions when the room was in use.

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Light was furnished in the day-time, according to Cretan Palace practice, not by windows, but by light-wells of which there are two, one on the south and one on the east side. In one of these light-shafts the brilliant white stucco surface which reflected the light into the room is decorated with a modelled and painted relief, of which a fragment has survived, representing a bird of gorgeous plumage, with long curving wing, and feathers of red, blue, yellow, white, and black. Near the light-well on the other side of the line of pillars, outside nature was brought within doors by a beautiful piece of fresco-painting which shows fishes swimming through the water, and dashing off foam-bells and ripples in their rapid course. Along the north wall of the room ran another fresco, representing a company of dancing-girls on a scale of half life-size. One of the dancers is clad in a jacket with a yellow ground and blue and red embroidered border, beneath which is a diaphanous chemise. Her left arm is bent, and her right stretched forward; her features are piquant, if not beautiful, and a slight dimple shows at the corner of her lips. Her long black hair, elaborately waved and crimped, floats out on either side of her head as she turns in the movement of the dance. Greatstone lamps, standing on tall bases, and each bearing several wicks on the margin of its broad bowl of oil, flared in the rooms and corridors, lighting up the brightly coloured walls, and sending many-tinted reflections dancing from the bronze and copper vases and urns which decorated the passages and the landings of the stairways. The carpenter was evidently a highly skilled craftsman, the tools have survived show the variety of work which he undertook. At Knossos a carefully hewn tomb held, along with the body of the dead artificer, specimens of the tools of his trade—a bronze saw, adze, and chisel. 'A whole carpenter's kit lay concealed in a cranny of a Gournia house, left behind in the owner's hurried flight when the town was attacked and burned. He used saws long and short, heavy chisels for stone and light for wood, awls, nails, files, and axes much battered by use; and, what is very important to note, they resemble in shape the tools of to-day so closely that they furnish one of the strongest links between the first great civilization of Europe and our own. Such tools were, of course, of bronze. Probably the chief industry was the manufacture and export of olive oil. The palace at Knossos has its Room of the Olive Press, and its conduit for conveying the product of the press to the place where it was to be stored for use; and probably many of the great jars now in the magazines were used for the storage of this indispensable article , Dr. Evans conjectured it was the decay of the trade in oil during the troubled days after the sack of the palaces that drove the

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Minoans abroad from their island home to seek their fortunes elsewhere. Besides the trade in oil, it would seem that there must have been a trade in the purple of the murex, and no doubt the Keftiu mariners found a ready market for this much-prized product long before the Phœnicians dreamed of Tyrian purple. Minoan pottery was manifestly also an article of export—a fragile cargo for those days. The fact that two of the Keftiu envoys in the Rekh-ma-ra frescoes carry ingots of copper of the same shape as those found by Dr. Halbherr at Hagia Triada suggests that Crete may have exported copper to Egypt in the time of Tahutmes III. as Cyprus exported it in large quantities in that of Amenhotep III.

MINOAN CULTURE

Post Palace Period (1380 – 1100 BCE) After the destruction of about 1380, none of the Minoan palaces were reinhabited. The Achaeans built their simple Mycenaean megara, on other sites remains of these have survived only over the ruins of earlier royal villas (as Agia Triada), and farms or houses (as Tylissos). The palace of Idomeneus, the king of Knossos, who allegedly took part in the Trojan War with his friend Meriones and 80 ships, has not been discovered. A great number of Mycenaean centers known, throughout the whole of Crete, most existed down into Greek times (Kydonia, Polyrrhenia, Kissamos, Knossos, Cortys, Phaestos, Lyktos, Arcadia, Rhytion etc.) The basis of the new civilization was Minoan, but its spirit was archaic Greek, it showed a tendency towards an architectural structure of uniformity. The labyrinthine buildings were replaced by the austere Mycenaean megaron, the predominant pottery style was "Mycenaean koine", in which the same shapes were continually repeated with simple decoration and the frescoes. Also evident were large clay figurines, (Metropolis, Gortys, Gournia, Gazi). There were no substantial changes in religion or cult. The tombs were mainly chamber tombs as the grave foods were poorer, most of the jewels accompanying the dead were made of coloured glass paste. The last phase of this period was a time of decline and disorder, believed caused by the movement of the "Sea Peoples" in the Eastern Mediterranean. The forerunners of the Dorians appeared to have arrived in Crete. New cultural features appeared such as; cremation also iron weapons and tools, brooches - which depicted a new style of dress and geometric decorative motifs.

Sub-Minoan (1100 – 1000 BCE) Crete entered the Greek period of its history with the arrival of massive waves of Dorians, c. 1100 BCE the Protogeometric period that followed (1100-900 BC) unfolded alongside the Sub-Minoan.

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Earlier Cretan cultural tradition remained in more rural outlying areas, particularly in the Mountain Regions of the Eteocretans in central and eastern Crete ,( Karfi (Lassithi), Vrokastro Merambello, Praisos and other places near Sitia. Archaeological excavation has confirmed Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations evident by their use of iron, and cremation of the dead which became more customary. Urns of the period found at Fortetsa, (near Knossos) show the influence of Athens on the protogeometric art of Crete.

CRETE – CLASSICAL SOURCES

Plutarch (The Life of Theseus) Not long after arrived the third time from Crete the collectors of the tribute which the Athenians paid them upon the following occasion. Androgeos having been treacherously murdered in the confines of Attica, not only Minos. His Father, put the Athenians to extreme distress by a perpetual war, but the gods also laid waste their country; both famine and pestilence lay heavy upon them, and even their rivers were dried up. Being told by the oracle that, if they appeased and reconciled Minos, the anger of the gods would cease and they should enjoy rest from the miseries they labored under, they sent heralds, and with much supplication were at last reconciled, entering into an agreement to send to Crete every nine years a tribute of seven young men and as many virgins, as most writers agree in stating; and the most poetical story adds, that the Minotaur destroyed them, or that, wandering in the labyrinth, and finding no possible means of getting out, they miserably ended their lives there. Theseos, who, thinking it but right to partake of the sufferings of his fellow-citizens, offered himself for one without any lot. When he arrived at Crete, as most of the ancient historians as well as poets tell us, having a clue of thread given him by Ariadne, who had fallen in love with him, and being instructed by her how to use it so as to conduct him through the windings of the labyrinth, he escaped out of it and slew the Minotaur, and sailed back, taking along with him the Athenian captives. Years later, after Minos' decease, Deucalion, his son, desiring a quarrel with the Athenians, demanded that they should deliver up Daidalos to him, threatening upon their refusal to put to death all the young Athenians whom his father had received as hostages from the city. To this angry message Theseos returned a very gentle answer excusing himself that he could not deliver up Daidalos, who was his cousin, his mother being Merope, the daughter of Erechtheos. Meanwhile Theseos secretly prepared a navy. As soon as ever his fleet was in readiness, he set sail, having with him Daidalos and other exiles from Crete for his guides; and none of the Cretans having any knowledge of his coming, but imagining when they saw his fleet that they were friends and vessels of

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their own, he soon made himself master of the port, and immediately making a descent, reached Knossos before any notice of his coming, and, in a battle before the gates, put Deucalion and all his guards to the sword. Source; Plutarch, Plutarch's Lives, John Dryden, trans., (London: J.M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., 1910) Minos, according to tradition, went to Sicania, or Sicily, as it is now called, in search of Daidolos, and there perished by a violent death … Men of various nations now flocked to Crete, whichwas stripped of its inhabitants; but none came in such numbers as the Hellenes. Three generations after the death of Minos the Trojan war took place; and the Cretans were not the least distinguished among the helpers of Menelaos. But on this account, when they came back from Troy, famine and pestilence fell upon them, and destroyed both the men and the cattle. Crete was a second time stripped of its inhabitants, a remnant only being left; who form, together with fresh settlers, the third Cretan people by whom the island has been inhabited. Source: Herodotos: The History, VII.170-171, Dutton & Co. New York 1862) George Rawlinson

CRETE – EARLY ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS

Heinrich Schliemann Following up his excavations at Mycenæ, Schliemann, in 1880-81, excavated at Orchomenos in Bœotia the so-called 'Treasury of Minyas,' discovering in its square side-chamber a beautiful ceiling formed of slabs of slate sculptured with an exquisite pattern of rosettes and spirals, which shows very distinct traces of Egyptian artistic influence.) In 1884, Schliemann began a series of excavations at Tiryns which laid bare the whole ground-plan of the citadel palace of that ancient fortress town with its halls and separate apartments for men and women, and the colossal enclosing wall, in some parts 57 feet thick, with its towers and galleries and chambers constructed in the thickness of the wall The palace revealed evidences of considerable skill in the decorative arts. A beautiful frieze of alabaster carved in rosettes and palmettes, inlaid with blue paste, made plain what Homer meant when he wrote of the Palace of Alcinous: 'Brazen were the walls which ran this way and that from the threshold to the inmost chamber, and round them was a frieze of blue' (kuanos); while fresco paintings in several of the rooms exhibited the spiral and rosette decoration of Orchomenos and Egypt. Perhaps the most interesting find was the remains of a great wallpainting in which a mighty bull is charging at full speed, while an athlete, clinging to the monster's horn with one hand, vaults over his back,a picture which is the first important example of the now well-known and numerous set of similar representations which have given us a clue to something of the meaning of the old legend of the man-destroying Minotaur and his tribute of human victims. Schliemann's discoveries, notwithstanding all the incredulity aroused by his sometimes rather headlong enthusiasm, created an extraordinary amount of interest among scholars and students of early European culture. It was felt at once that he had brought the world face to face with facts which must profoundly modify all opinions hitherto held as to the origins of Greek civilization; for the advanced and fully ripened art which was disclosed, especially in the wonderful finds from the Shaft- or Circle-

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Graves, stood on an entirely different plane from any art which had hitherto been associated with the early age of Greece; and it was evident, not only that the date at which civilization began to reveal itself in Hellas must be pushed back several centuries, but also that the great differences between the mature Mycenæan art and the infant art of Greece required explanation. To the discoverer himself, the supreme interest of his finds always lay in the thought that they were the direct prototypes, if not the actual originals, of the civilization described in the Homeric poems; but to the question whether this was so or not, a question interesting in itself, but largely academic, there succeeded a much more important one. Here was proof of the existence of a civilization, obviously great and long-enduring, whose products could not be identified with those of any other art known to exist. To what race of men were the achievements of this early culture to be ascribed, and what relation did they hold to the Hellenes of history? The work of Schliemann was continued and extended by successors such as Dörpfeld, Tsountas, Mackenzie, and others, and by the end of the nineteenth century it had become apparent that the culture of which the first important traces had been found at Mycenæ had extended to some extent over all Hellas, but chiefly over the south-eastern portion of the mainland and over the Cyclades. The principal find-spots in Greece proper were in the Argolid and in Attica; but, besides these, abundant material was discovered at Enkomi (Cyprus) and at Phylâkopi (Melos), while from Vaphio, near Amyklæ in Laconia, there came, among other treasures, a pair of most wonderful gold cups, whose workmanship surpassed anything that could have been imagined of such an early period, and is only to be matched by the goldsmith work of the Renaissance. Hissarlik, under Dr. Dörpfeld's hands, yielded from the Sixth City the evidence of an Asiatic civilization truly contemporaneous with that of Mycenæ. Even before the end of the century it became apparent that Crete was destined to prove a focus of this early culture, and the promise, as we shall see later, has been more than fulfilled. In Egypt Professor Petrie found deposits of prehistoric Aegean pottery in the Delta, the Fayum, and even in Middle Egypt, proving that this civilization, whatever its origin, had been in contact with the ancient civilization of the Nile Valley, while even in the Western Mediterranean, in Sicily particularly, in Italy, Sardinia, and Spain, finds, less plentiful, but quite unmistakable, bore witness to the wide diffusion of Mycenæan culture.

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Sir Arthur Evans Arthur (later Sir) Evans was born in 1851 in Hertfordshire, England. The son of an English Archaeologist who specialized in Pre-History. In Knossos a son of a local Merchant, Minos (aptly named) Kalokairinos started excavating he discovered pottery also painted walls. Evans visited the island looking for inscriptions similar to those he had already seen on tablets in both Oxford and Athens. Kalokairinos met Evans and they both visited the finds. Evans viewed them noticing they were Greek Linear B script. He decided he would investigate the site and named it after a legendary King ‘Minos’. but there is nothing evident to support that. The finds were subsequently recorded as being Minoan. Evans was the Curator of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford from 1884 -1908. He returned to the Island in 1897 , purchased the site and land where he spent the rest of his life identifying the site and its relics. Excavations began in 1900— two years after Crete gained her independence from the Ottoman Empire. He started work immediately unearthing the remains of what he described as the ‘Throne Room of Minos’. Walls with painted frescoes appeared mere inches below the surface, undisturbed for over 3000 years. On one side was a gypsum throne and on the other a sunken room which Evans called a ‘Lustral Basin’. Over the course of the next four years, most of the ten-acre site had been excavated although work would continue off and on until 1930. The site proved to have been continuously occupied from the Neolithic Period (c. 7000 BCE) until its destruction in the 13th century BC nearly six thousand years later. Evans was struck by the apparent absence of fortifications around the site and took this as confirmation of the ‘Thalassocracy of Minos’ described by Thucydides. A chronological system was created by Evans and modified by later archaeologists. Kephala (1895) The attention of Schliemann and Stillman had been drawn to a hill called 'Kephala,' overlooking the ancient site of Knossos, on which stood ruined walls consisting of great gypsum blocks engraved with curious characters. Attempts at exploration were delayed by objections of indigenous proprietors.

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In 1878 Minos Kalochærinos made slight excavations, and found a few great jars or pithai and fragments of Mycenæan pottery. Evans had been attracted to Crete by the purchase at Athens of some seal-stones found in the island, engraved with hieroglyphic and linear signs differing from Egyptian and Hittite characters. In the hope that he might be led to the discovery of a Cretan system of writing, and relying upon the ancient Cretan tradition that the Phœnicians had not invented letters, but had merely changed the forms of an already existing system.Evans began in 1894 a series of explorations in Central and Eastern Crete.Evidence of the existence of such a script came to light. From the Dictæan Cave, where a stone libation-altar was found, inscribed with a dedication in the unknown writing. However, Evans was persuaded that Knossos was the spot where exploration was most likely to be rewarding, his purchase of part of the site of Kephala in 1895 was the beginning of a series of campaigns which have had results, important in enhancing our knowledge of prehistoric Aegean civilization. In 1895 the timing was not condusive for excavation. .Due to political troubles and fighting in the island, religious prejudices also ‘‘ran high”. At the beginning of 1900 Dr. Evans was at last able to secure the remainder of the site. On March 23, 1900, excavation began, carried on with a staff of from 80 to 150 men until the beginning of June. Almost at once it became apparent that the faith which had fought so persistently for the attainment of its object was going to be rewarded. The remains of walls began to appear, sometimes only a foot or two, sometimes only a few inches below the surface of the soil, and by the end of the nine weeks' campaign of exploration about two acres of a vast prehistoric building had been unearthed—a palace which, even at this early stage in its disclosure, was already far larger than those of Tiryns and Mycenæ. On the eastern slope of the hill, in a deposit of pale clay, were found fragments of the black, hand-made, polished pottery, known as 'Bucchero,' characteristic of Neolithic sites, some of it, as usual, decorated with incised patterns filled in with white. This pottery was coupled with stone celts and maces, obsidian knives, and a primitive female image of incised and inlaid clay. All over the palace area, as the excavations went farther and farther down, the Neolithic deposit was found to overlie the virgin soil, sometimes to a depth of 24 feet, showing that the site had been thickly populated in remote prehistoric times. The Neolithic deposit was not the most striking find. On the south-west side of the site there came to light a spacious paved court, opening before walls faced with huge blocks of gypsum. At the southern corner of this

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court stood a portico, which afforded access to this portion of the interior of the palace. The portico had a double door, whose lintel had once been supported by a massive central column of wood. The wall flanking the entrance had been decorated with a fresco, part of which represented that favourite subject of Mycenæan and Minoan art—a great bull; while on the walls of the corridor which led away from the portal were still preserved the lower portions of a procession of life-size painted figures. Conspicuous among these was one figure, probably of a Queen, dressed in magnificent apparel , also remains of the figures of two youths, wearing gold and silver belts and loin-cloths, one of them bearing a fluted marble vase with a silver base. At the southern angle of the building, this corridor—the 'Corridor of the Procession'—led round to a great southern portico with double columns, and in a passage-way behind this portico there came to light one of the first fairly complete evidences of the outward fashion and appearance of the great prehistoric race which had founded the civilization of Knossos and Mycenæ. A fresco-painting, preserved almost perfectly in its upper part, of a youth bearing a gold-mounted silver cup, his loin-cloth is decorated with a beautiful quatrefoil pattern; he wears a silver earornament, silver rings on the neck and the upper arm, and on the wrist a bracelet with an agate gem. 'The colours,' says Dr. Evans in a brilliant article in the Monthly Review (which first gave to the general public the story of his first season's discoveries) 'were almost as brilliant as when laid down over three thousand years before. For the first time the true portraiture of a man of this mysterious Mycenæan race rises before us. The flesh-tint, following, perhaps, an Egyptian precedent, is of a deep reddish-brown. The limbs are finely moulded, though the waist, as usual in Mycenæan fashions, is tightly drawn in by a silver-mounted girdle, giving great relief to the hips. The profile of the face is pure and almost classically Greek. The lips are somewhat full, but the physiognomy has certainly no Semitic cast.. There was something very impressive in this vision of brilliant youth and of male beauty, recalled after so long an interval to our upper air from what had been, until yesterday, a forgotten world. The removal of the fresco required a delicate and laborious piece of under-plastering, which necessitated its being watched at night. The Southern Portico gave access to a large court which turned out, from later investigation, to have been really the Central Court of the palace, the focus of the life of the whole huge building. The block of building between the West and the Central Courts was divided into two by a long gallery 3.40 metres in breadth, running almost the whole length of

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the structure, and paved with gypsum blocks. Between this gallery and the western wall of the palace lay a long range of what had evidently been magazines for the storage of oil, and perhaps of corn. They were occupied by rows of huge earthenware jars, or pithoi,. In one of the magazines no fewer than twenty of these jars were found. The Palace of Knossos The magazines were well fitted to convey a strong impression, not only of the size, but also of the splendour of the palace which needed such storerooms. There was no meanness or squalor about the domestic offices of the House of Minos. The doorways leading into the magazines from the Long Corridor were of fine stone-work, and the side-walls, both of the gallery and the magazines, had been covered with painted plaster, presenting a white ground on which ran a dado of horizontal bands of red and blue, further bands of the same colours forming a frieze below the ceiling level. This, of course, had been merely the basement of the palace, and had been surmounted by another storey or storeys, of which nothing was left except fragments of the painted plaster which had once decorated the walls. Between the Long Gallery and the Central Court, access had been given from the latter area; and it was in these rooms that, as the excavations progressed, some of the most remarkable features of the palace began to disclose themselves. About halfway along the court were found two small rooms, connected with one another, in the centre of each of which stood a single column composed of four gypsum blocks, each block marked with the sign of the Double Axe; and these pillars suggested a connection with ancient traditions about Minos and his works . They were apparently sacred emblems connected with the worship of a divinity, and the Double Axe markings pointed to the divinity in question. For the special emblem of the Cretan Zeus (and also apparently of the female divinity of whom Zeus was the successor) was the Double Axe, a weapon of which numerous votive specimens in bronze have been found in the cave-sanctuary of Dicte, the fabled birthplace of the god. And the name of the Double Axe is Labrys—a word found also in the title of the Carian Zeus, Zeus of Labraunda. Tradition linked the names of Minos and Knossos with a great and wonderful structure of Dædalus which went by the name of the Labyrinth; and the coincidence between that name and the Labrys marks on the sacred pillars and on many of the blocks in the palace at once suggested that here was the source of the old tradition, and here the actual building,

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the Labyrinth, which Dædalus reared for his great master. 'There can be little remaining doubt,' says Dr. Evans, 'that this vast edifice, which in a broad historic sense we are justified in calling the "Palace of Minos," is one and the same as the traditional "Labyrinth." A great part of the ground-plan itself, with its long corridors and repeated successions of blind galleries, its tortuous passages and spacious underground conduit, its bewildering system of small chambers, does, in fact, present many of the characteristics of a maze.' The connection thus suggested even by the first year's excavations had grown more and more probable with the work of each successive season. The Throne Room Passing farther north along the line of the Central Court, access was given by a row of four steps to an ante-chamber, which opened upon another room, of no great size in itself, but of surpassing interest from the character of its appointments. Already, a few inches below the surface, freshly preserved fresco began to appear. Walls were shortly uncovered, decorated with flowering plants and running water, while on each side of the doorway of a small inner room, stood guardian griffins with peacock's plumes in the same flowery landscape. Round the walls ran low stone benches, and between these, on the north side, separated by a small interval, and raised on a stone base, rose a gypsum throne with a high back, and originally covered with decorative designs. Its lower part was adorned with a curiously carved arch, with crocketed mouldings, showing an extraordinary anticipation of some most characteristic features of Gothic architecture. Opposite the throne was a finely wrought tank of gypsum slabs—a feature borrowed perhaps from an Egyptian palace—approached by a descending flight of steps, and originally surmounted by cypress-wood columns, supporting a kind of impluvium. Here truly was the council chamber of a Mycenæan King or Sovereign Lady. The discovery of the very throne of Minos, for such we may fairly term it, was surely the most dramatic and fitting recompense for the explorer's patience and persistence. No more ancient throne exists in Europe, or probably in the world, and none whose associations are anything like so full of interest). The Throne Room still preserved among its débris many relics of former splendour. Fragments of blue and green porcelain, of gold-foil, and lapis lazuli and crystal, were scattered on the floor, and several crystal plaques with painting on the back, among them an exceedingly fine miniature of a galloping bull on an azure ground; while an agate plaque,

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bearing a relief of a dagger laid upon a folded belt, almost equalled cameowork in the style and delicacy of its execution. In a small room on the north side of the Central Court was found a curiously quaint and delicate specimen of early fresco painting—the figure of a Little Boy Blue—more thoroughly deserving of the title than Gainsborough's famous picture, for, strangely enough, he is blue in his flesh-tints, picking and placing in a vase the white crocuses that still dapple the Cretan meadows. The northern side of the palace was finished with another portico, and in this part of the building there came to light a series of miniature frescoes, valuable, not only as works of art, but as contemporary documents for the appearance, dress, and surroundings of the mysterious people to whom this great building was once home. Here were groups of ladies with the conventional white complexion given by the Minoan artists to their womankind, wonderfully bedizened with costumes resembling far more closely the evening dress of our own day than the stately robes of classic Greece with their severe lines. In their very low-necked dresses, with puffed sleeves, excessively slender waists, and flounced skirts, and their hair elaborately dressed and curled, they were as far as possible removed from our ideas of Ariadne and her maids of honour, and might almost have stepped out of a modern fashion-plate savant, the view depicts the Court ladies seated, or perhaps rather squatted, according to the curious Minoan custom in groups, conversing in courts and gardens, and on the balconies of a splendid building. The scene portrayed groups of men of reddish-brown complexion , one a cup-bearer, wearing loin-cloths and footgear with puttees halfway up the leg, with long black hair done up into a crest on the crown of the head. In one group alone thirty men appear close to a fortified post; in another, youths are hurling javelins against a besieged city, only the wonderful tomb paintings of ancient Egypt can excel these vivid miniatures in bringing before us the life of a bygone civilization; nothing else to approach them has come down from antiquity. The main entrance of the palace seemingly lay on the north side, where the road from the harbour, three and a half miles distant, ran up to the gates. Here was the one and only trace of fortification discovered in all the excavations. The entrance passage was a stone gangway, on the north-west side stood a great bastion, with a guard room. The Nine Week Season at Kephala (Knossos) The mainland palaces of the Mycenæan Age at Tiryns and Mycenæ are, so to speak, buried in fortifications. Their vast walls, 57 feet thick in some

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parts at Tiryns, 46 feet at Mycenæ, towering still after so many centuries of ruin to a height of 24½ feet in the case of the smaller citadel, and of 56 feet at the great stronghold of Agamemnon; their massive gateways, and the ingenious devices by which the assailant was obliged to subject himself in his approach to a destructive fire on his unshielded side— everything about them points to a land and a time in which life and property were continually exposed to the dangers of war, and the only security was to be found within the gates of an impregnable stronghold but Knossos, far richer, far more splendid, than either Tiryns or Mycenæ, lies virtually unguarded, its spacious courts and pillared porticoes open on every side. Plainly, the Minoan Kings lived in a land where peace was the rule, and where no enemy was expected to break rudely in upon their luxurious calm. And the reason for their confidence and security is not far to seek, if we remember the statements of Thucydides and Herodotus. Even as it is, the discovery of these tablets has altered the whole conception of the relative ages of the various early beginnings of writing in the Eastern Mediterranean area. The Hellenic script is seen to have been in all likelihood no late-born child of the Phœnician, but to have had an ancestor of its own race; and the old Cretan tradition on which Dr. Evans relied at the commencement of his work, has proved to be amply justified. 'In any case,' said Dr. Evans, summing up his first year's results, 'the weighty question, which years before I had set myself to solve on Cretan soil, has found, so far at least, an answer. That great early civilization was not dumb, and the written records of the Hellenic world were carried back some seven centuries beyond the date of the first-known historic writings. But what, perhaps, is even more remarkable than this, is that, when we examine in detail the linear script of these Mycenæan documents, it is impossible not to recognize that we have here a system of writing, syllabic and perhaps partly alphabetic, which stands on a distinctly higher level of development than the hieroglyphs of Egypt, or the cuneiform script of contemporary Syria and Babylonia. It is not till some five centuries later that we find the first dated examples of Phœnician writing. Among the other finds of this wonderful season's work were several stone vases, of masterly workmanship, in marble, alabaster, and steatite, a few vases in pottery of the stirrup type (a type common on other Mycenæan sites, but noticeably rare at Knossos, probably because in the great palace the bulk of such vases were of metal, and were carried off by plunderers in the sack), and a noble head of a lioness, with eyes and nostrils inlaid, which had evidently once formed part of a fountain. One other discovery was most precious, not for its own artistic value, which is slight enough, but for the link which it gives with one of the other great

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sister civilizations of the ancient world. This was the lower part of a small diorite statuette of Egyptian workmanship, with an inscription in hieroglyphic which reads: 'Ab-nub-mes-Sebek-user maat-kheru' (Ab-nub's child, Sebek-user, deceased). The name of the individual and the style of the statuette point to Sebek-user, whoever he may have been, having been an Egyptian of the latter days of the Middle Kingdom, probably about the Thirteenth Dynasty. This is the first link in the chain of evidence, which, as we shall see later, shows the continuous connection between the Minoan and Nilotic civilizations. Nine weeks after the excavations on the hill of Kephala had begun, the season's work was closed, and, surely, never had a like period of time been more fruitful of fresh knowledge, more illuminative as to the conditions of ancient life, or more destructive of hoary prejudices. It was a new world, new because of its very ancientry, that had begun to rise out of the buried past at the summons of the patient explorer. Isopata - The Dictaean Cave On the hill of Isopata, between Knossos and the sea, Dr. Evans discovered a stately sepulchre, whose occupant had evidently been some Minoan King of the Third Middle period. The tomb consisted of a rectangular chamber measuring about 8 by 6 metres, and built of courses of limestone blocks, which projected one beyond the other until they met in a high gable, forming a false arch similar to those of the beehive tombs at Mycenæ. The back wall of the chamber had a central cell opposite to its blocked entrance, and the portal, also false-arched, led into a lofty entrance-hall, in the side walls of which, facing one another, were two cells, which had been used for interments. The whole was approached by an imposing avenue cut in the solid rock. The tomb had been rifled in ancient days, but there still remained a golden hair-pin, parts of two silver vessels, and a large bronze mirror; while among the stone vessels found a diorite bowl again recalled the hard stone vessels of the Early Egyptian dynasties. The Dictæan Cave has already been mentioned as being associated with the legends about the birth of Zeus and his relationship with Minos. Hesiod states that Rhea carried the new-born Zeus to Lyttos, and thence to a cavern in Mount Aigaios, the north-west peak of Dicte. Lucretius, Virgil, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus all knew of a story in which the whole childhood of Zeus had been passed in a cave on Dicte, and Dionysius assigns to the Dictæan Cave that finding of the law by Minos which

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presents so curious a parallel to the giving of the tables of the law to Moses on Mount Sinai. Minos, he says, went down into the Sacred Cave, and reappeared with the law, saying that it was from Zeus himself. And the last legend, related by Lucian, places in the same cave that union of Zeus with Europa from which Minos sprang. The Dictæan Cave, then, is of special interest in connection with the origins of the Minoan civilization. It is a large double cavern, south-west of Psychro, and some 500 feet above the latter place. Its exploration by Mr. Hogarth revealed ample evidence of its early connection with the cult of that divinity upon whom the Greeks foisted their own ideas of Zeus. A scarped terrace overlooking the slope of the hill gives access to the shallow upper grotto, in which were found the remains of an altar, and close by a table of offerings, while the ground beneath the floor of the cave yielded, in regular stratification, Kamares ware, immediately above the virgin soil; then glazed ware with cloudy brown stripes on a creamy slip; then regular Mycenæan ware, with the familiar marine and plant designs; and, uppermost, bronze. The lower grotto has at first a sheer fall from the upper one, then slopes away for some 200 feet to an icy pool surrounded with a forest of stalagmites; and in this gloomy cavern the evidence was manifest of an ancient cult of a divinity to whom the Double Axe was sacred. There was a great mass of votive offerings of all sorts, engraved gems, bronze statuettes (including a Twenty-second-Dynasty figure of the Egyptian god Amen-Ra), and an abundance of common rings, pins, brooches, and knives; but the chief feature of the find was the Double Axe, of which numerous specimens were found embedded in the stalagmites around the dark pool at the foot of the cavern, some of them still retaining their original shafts. It is evident that the cave on Dicte was the seat of a very ancient worship, connected with that worship whose emblems were the Double Axe Pillars in the Palace of Knossos, and that this worship, as revealed by the character of the remains in the grotto, goes back to the early days of the Minoan civilization.

Harriet (Boyd) Hawkins Gournia At Gournia an American lady, Miss Harriet Boyd (now Mrs. Hawes) made the remarkable discovery of a whole town, mainly dating from the close of

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the Middle Minoan period, though the site had been occupied from the beginning of the Bronze Age. Gournia had had its modest palace, occupying an area of about half an acre, with its adaptation, on a diminutive scale, of the Knossian Theatral Area, its magazines, and its West Court, where palace and town met, as at Knossos, for business purposes, but the main interest of the little town centred in its shrine and in the houses of the burghers, with their evidences of a wonderfully even standard of comfortable and peaceful life, by no means untinged with artistic elegance. The shrine, discovered in 1901, stood in the very heart of the town, and was reached by a much-worn paved way. The sacred enclosure was only some 12 feet square, and Mrs. Hawes is inclined to believe that its rough walls never stood more than 18 inches high, forming merely a little temenos, in which stood a sacred tree, and the small group of cult objects which were still huddled together in a corner of the shrine .It is true that they are very crude, made in coarse terra-cotta, with no artistic skill; nevertheless, they are eloquent, for they tell us that the Great Goddess was worshipped in the town-shrine of Gournia, as in the Palace of Knossos. Here were her images twined with snakes, her doves, the "horns of consecration," the low, three-legged altar-table, and cultus vases. To complete the list, a potsherd was found with the Double Axe moulded upon it, an indication, perhaps, that some who claimed kin with the masters of Crete paid their devotions at this unpretentious shrine. The smallness of the shrine at Gournia may be compared with the smallness of the sacred rooms at Knossos, and seems to have been characteristic of the Minoan worship. The 5-feet-broad roadways of the town, neatly paved, are conclusive evidence of the infrequent use of wheeled vehicles. Flush with their borders stand the fronts of the houses. Two-storey houses were common, some of them with a basement storey beneath the ground-floor when the slope of the hill admitted of such an arrangement. In all likelihood the general appearance of the homes was much like that of the comfortablelooking houses depicted on the faïence plaques of Knossos, already referred to. Even ordinary craftsmen's houses have six to eight rooms, while those of the wealthier burghers have perhaps twice as many. Here and there evidences of the former occupations of the inhabitants came to light—a complete set of carpenter's tools in one house, a set of loom weights in another, the block-mould in which a smith had cast his tools in a third. That the citizens of the little town were not entirely ignorant of letters was evidenced by the presence of a tablet bearing an inscription in the linear

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script of Knossos, Class A, and the beauty of their painted pottery shows that they were by no means lacking in refinement and artistic feeling. The town was sacked and burned about 1500 B.C, as its discoverer thinks, perhaps a century before the fall of the great palace at Knossos. Partially reoccupied, like other Cretan sites, during the Third Late Minoan period, it has since then lain tenantless, waiting the day when its ruined houses should be revealed again to testify to the quiet and peaceful prosperity that reigned under the ægis of the great sea-power of the House of Minos.

Professor J.L.Myres Palaikastro (Near Petsofa) (1903-04) At Palaikastro another town of closely-packed houses, covering a space of more than 400 by 350 feet, has been revealed. Its existing remains are of somewhat later date than those of Gournia, and the houses are, on the whole, rather larger, but their general style is much the same. Near the town, at Petsofa, Professor J. L. Myres has unearthed among a wealth of other votive offerings, a number of curious clay figurines, interesting as being among the earliest examples of polychrome decoration (they belong to Middle Minoan I., and are painted in a scheme of black and white, red and orange), but still more interesting, with their open corsage, widestanding collars, high shoe-horn hats, elaborate crinolines, and their general impression of an inaccurate attempt at representing Queen Elizabeth as evidence of how utterly unlike was the costume of prehistoric woman in the Ægean area to the stately and simple lines of the classic Greek dress. The Cretan discoveries have tended as much as any work of recent years to reduce the extravagant claims which used to be put forward on behalf of the Phœnicians as originators of many of the elements of ancient civilization, and evidence is now forthcoming to show that originality in even their most famous and characteristic industry, the dyeing of robes with the renowned 'Tyrian purple, must be denied to them and claimed for the Minoans. In 1903, Messrs. Bosanquet and Currelly found on the island of Kouphonisi (Leuke), off the south-east coast of Crete, a bank of the pounded shell of the murex from which the purple dye was obtained, associated with pottery of the Middle Minoan period; and in 1904 they discovered at Palaikastro two similar purple shell deposits, in either case associated with pottery of the same date.

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Mr. Seager (1907 – 1908) The Island of Mokhlos On the tiny island of Mokhlos, only some 200 yards off the northern coast of Crete, to which it was probably united in ancient days, Mr. Seager has excavated, in 1907 and 1908, an Early Minoan necropolis, from which have come some remarkable specimens of the skill with which the ancient Cretan workmen could handle both stone and the precious metals. Scores of beautiful vases of alabaster, breccia, marble, and soapstone, wrought in some cases to the thinness of a modern china cup, suggest at once the protodynastic Egyptian bowls of diorite and syenite, and show that if the Cretan took the idea from Egyptian models, he was not behind his master in the skill with which he carried it out. Not less surprising is the work in gold, which includes 'fine chains as beautifully wrought as the best Alexandrian fabrics of the beginning of our era,artificial leaves and flowers, and the distant anticipation, surely, of the gold masks of the Mycenæ graves) gold bands with engraved and repoussé eyes for the protective blinding of the dead.

INTRODUCTION TO THE SCRIPTS AND LANGUAGES OF MINOAN AND MYCENAEAN CRETE (C. 2000-1200 BCE)

Dr.Gareth Owens investigated the early writing systems in Minoan Crete he postulates that the language of the Minoans is related to, but not identical to Mycenaean Greek. Describing the purpose of the early scripts and the development of the language he outlined the following findings. Minoan Crete constitutes the first civilization of Europe and the beginning of European recorded history. In 1878, Minos Kalokaironos carried out pioneering excavations in the West Wing of Knossos and discovered the first Linear B tablet.

Filum of Cretan Hieroglyphics

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The Language The earliest language at Crete was Linear ‘A’ the hieroglyphic one, which disappeared around 1450 BCE and was replaced by Linear ‘B’ script (an archaic Greek script).

Mycenaean Tables The Mycenaean corpus consists of 6000 tablets.Location; Knossos ca. 4360, Pylos 1087, Mycenae 73, Tityns 27, Charia 4, (over 170 inscriptions were found on vessels) Source Dr.Gareth Owens – TEC – Crete.

Linear B Syllabry Despite such a non-descriptive name, Linear B has proved to be the oldest surviving record of the Greek dialect known as Mycenaean, named after the great site of Mycenae where the legendary Agamemnon ruled. The script's usage spanned the time period between approximately 1500 BCE and 1200 BCE, and geographically covered the island of Crete, as well as the southern part of the Greek Mainland. The script was discovered by archeaologist Sir Arthur Evans in the early part of this century during excavations in Crete and the Greek mainland, however, its full decipherment did not occur until 1953, when Michael Ventris, an architect who actually liked linguistics and epigraphy more than architecture, and John Chadwick, who provided insight into the early history of the Greek language, worked out the phonetic values of Linear B signs and proved that its lexicon is that of an archaic Greek dialect. What Ventris and Chadwick uncovered is a script that consists mostly of syllabic signs, a fair number of logograms, a base-10 number system, and short vertical lines as word separators. It seems that ancient accounting records composed a majority of the clay tablets on which Linear B appears because a lot of them are lists of materials and goods. The following chart features the basic Linear B syllabary.

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In addition to the standard syllabic grid, there are optional signs used to clarify the spelling of a word. Some of these signs can be considered "short-hands" in that they represent dipthongs. Source- Lawrence Lo Ancient Scripts

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Linear B Signs – consonants and dipthongs The following chart shows how consonants are written out. The first line illustrates consonant clusters, the second line shows ending consonants that are omitted, and the third line gives examples of ending consonants that are written.

Dipthongs are similar to ending consonants in that sometimes they are written and sometimes omitted. Dipthongs ending with [-u] are usually written out completely, with a preceding sign denoting the first vowel in the dipthong, followed by the u sign that denotes the dipthong's second vowel. For example, the word leuka is written as re-u-ka. Also, the optional sign a2 also stands for a word-initial [au] dipthong.

A dipthong ending in [-i] usually omits the second vowel of [-i], such as poimen is written as po-me, and pherei as pe-re. However, once in a while all vowels in the dipthong are indicated, either by spelling out each of the vowels in the dipthong (such as the city "Phaistos" is written as pa-i-to),

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or with the optional signs illustrated above (such as a3 and ra3). SourceLawrence Lo - Ancient Scripts

Linear B Signs – dipthongs - logograms

Dipthongs with starting [i-] or [u-] are usually written completely. In some cases, vowel-only signs are used to indicate the second vowel in the dipthong (such as [kia] is written as ki-a). However, most of the time, a sign of either the wV or the jV type is used to indicate the entire dipthong, with the vowel in the preceding CV sign matching the first vowel in the dipthong sign (in this case, [kia] is written as ki-ja). Also, in a few cases, an optional sign with a dipthong, such as dwe and twe, is used.

In addition to phonetic signs, Linear B also has several logograms. These logograms represent people, animals, plants, and physical objects. Some of the logograms are pictorial in appearance, leaving no doubt what they represent, while others are more iconic or symbolic.

Source- Lawrence Lo - Ancient Scripts

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Linear B Signs – syllabograms doubled as logograms Some syllabograms also double as logograms. Curiously, the phonetic values of these syllabograms do not match the word they represent. For example, the logogram for 'sheep' is the qi syllabogram, but 'sheep' in Mycenaean Greek should be owis (compare with Classical Greek ois, Latin ovis, etc). In the following example, you can compare the syllabogram's phonetic value (red text on second line) with the reconstructed Mycenaean Greek word (blue text on the fourth line):

It is theorized that these dual-role signs represent initial syllables of words in the language underlying Linear A, as many ancient writing systems create phonetic signs by using pictographs of objects to represent the initial sound or syllable of the objects' names (a contrived example in English would be using a picture of an apple to represent the [a] sound). In addtion, logograms can be created by putting two or more syllabograms into a ligature.

Finally, for certain animals, the sex of the animal can be marked by extra strokes to the logogram. The basic logogram usually represents the species of the animal, whereas two short horizontal lines denotes the male of the species, and an extra vertical line denotes the female.

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The number system of Linear B is fundamentally base-10. It has five signs, each of which denotes a power of 10, i.e. a vertical line stands for 1, a horizontal line for 10, a circle for 100, and so on.

To write a number, you begin with the highest power of 10, and go toward lower ones. For each power of 10, you repeat the corresponding sign until you reach the desired multiple. Here is an example:

Source- Lawrence Lo - Ancient Scripts

Minoan Earliest language – Linear A During the first month of excavations at the Palace of Minos in Knossos in 1900, Arthur Evans discovered three Bronze Age scripts, Minoan ‘Cretan Hieroglyphic’ Linear A and Mycenaean Linear B, thus bringing Minoan and Mycenaean Crete into the historical period. These three scripts are syllabic in nature, (Used for both administrative and religious purposes.) The Rulers,Scribes and Bureaucrats of Knossos used these writing systems for approximately 800 years to keep tax archives, list personnel and agricultural products and to record religious offerings. Most people have read or heard of the Cretan Bulls, and some students of classical antiquity and of Sir Arthur Evans discoveries but few are aware that the first language of Crete (Linear ‘A’ Script) studied for well over a century has never been fully deciphered., only 50 or more words has been deciphered the study of Linear ‘B’ continues Linear ‘A’was a hierioglyphic language. Crete had close economic ties with Egypt and a rich culture of painted pottery, depicted in elaborate painted frescoes, monuments, statues and buildings in the classical Greek style. Recently a Minoan fresco was discovered on a wall in Israel which shows a cultural relationship with the near East in biblical times. The mystery of early Crete is perhaps explained by it’s close cultural ties to Egypt hence it’s early hieroglyphic language, whilst growing as a nation in the Archaic Greek era. Situated as an island in the Mediterranean

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it had ties to Cyprus and other neighboring countries and had a rich culture. Knossos was founded c.1900 BCE and ended in c.1375BCE. The Minoans belong to the early part of the Greek Bronze Age The language is still being studied and deciphered slowly from cuneiform clay stamp seals, tokens and bullae and from inscriptions on tombs and altars. The Language The earliest language at Crete was Linear ‘A’ the hieroglyphic one, which disappeared around 1450 BCE and was placed by Linear ‘B’ script (an archaic Greek script ) Linear B was deciphered as recently as 1952 by Michael Ventris in England. He translated Linear ‘B’ syllabic letters that had a root in Greek words. The problem in Cypriot syllabic words is that they have roots in oriental languages that the Greek dialect assimilated.

Cretan Linear A – Comparisons – Diagram An inadequacy stems from the fact that Linear B signs usually represent Consonant-Vowel (CV) syllables, but the syllabic structure of Greek allows initial consonant clusters, ending consonants, and dipthongs. In the case of a syllable with a initial consonant cluster, individual consonants in the cluster are written by a CV sign whose vowel matches the vowel of the syllable. Therefore, for example, the word tri is written as ti-ri, and khrusos as ku-ru-so. In the case of ending consonant, the situation becomes more complicated. Ending consonants such as [l], [m], [n], [r], and [s] are not usually written, whereas other consonants such as [k] and [p] are written in a way similar to initial consonants. There are many Greek sounds that are missing in Linear B signs, such as [g], [kh], [gw], [b], [ph], [th], and [l]. To solve this problem, signs for similar sounds are used instead: p-signs are used for [p], [b], and [ph]; ksigns are used for [k], [g], and [kh]; t-signs are used for [t] and [th]; qsigns are used for [kw] and [gw]; and r-signs are used for [r] and [l]. However, while this convention was likely easily understood by ancient Mycenaean scribes, it took modern scholars a lot of theoretical analysis and work, plus comparison with later Greek dialects and reconstructed Mycenaean words to rediscover how this system works. The following chart illustrates cases where the same sign can stand for multiple sounds.

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Permission of Lawrence Lo - Ancient Scripts

MINOAN INSCRIPTIONS IN MYCENAEN GREECE

An examination of Minoan Linear A Inscriptions found in Mycenaean Greece Inscriptions were found in Crete at Thera, Milos and Kea and in the Cycladic islands also at Kythera and at Tirins, Haghios Stephanos and At Olympia in the Peloponnese. The Minoan inscriptions from Mycenaean Greece are focused on Minoan epigraphy. The signs found at the sites are transliterated according to Linear B sound values, not yet definitely proven but as a working hypothesis. The following ideograms were discovered. One for WINE was discovered at Kea also on Milos which was controlled by either Minoans on the island or Islanders using Minoan Linear A script. The trade route through the Cyclades from Crete to Kea would have continued to Attica and on to the sites in the Argolid. From Attica the routes of communication that existed would have gone overland to the Peloponnese. ( Mycenae, Tiryns, Sparta and Pylos and to Thebes.) Note – THERA - Now there were in the island which is now called Thera, but formerly was called Callista, descendants of Membliaros the son of Poikiles, a Phenician: for Cadmos the son of Agenor in his search for Europa put in to land at the island which is now called Thera; the island meanwhile got its name of Thera after Theras who led the settlement. Heredotus , Book 1.(R.D.Morritt)

Examples THERA THE Zb1 GORILA 4. p.101 – 41-30-81 SI-NI-KU THE Zb2 GORILA 4. p.102 – 08-27-31-06 A-RE-SA-NA THE Zb3 GORILA 4, p.103 – 08-24 [ ] A-NE [ ] THE Zb4 GORILA 4, p.104 – 08-27 [ ] A-RE [

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MILOS M1 Zb1 GORILA 4. p.91 – 61-26 KI-RU M2 GORILA 5. p.56 - .1 AB50 [ .] PU [ .2]81.77 .2 KU KA .3 ] [..] A401 + 60 [.3 [..] VASE + RA KEA KE KE Wc2 KE Zb3 KE Zb4 KE Zb5

GORILA 1. p. 254 77-31 – KA-SA GORILA 2. p.80 ‘BB’ ‘D’ – ‘BB’ ‘D’ GORILA 4. p.71 AB67 - KI GORILA 4. p. 72 38-41-57– E-SI-JA GORILA 4. p73 A595=AB131 + 60 WINE + RA

Source: Dr. Gareth Owens with Simon Bennett TIRYNS Tiryns (Ancient Greek ȉȓȡȣȞȢ Modern Greek ȉȓȡȣȞșĮ) Tiryns was anatural port of call for the trade route from Crete via Thera, Milos and Kea.A pythos in linear A had two syllabic signs on the clay (a local firing) The inscription was in Argolid. The script appeared to have been used by a native of the Argolid or by a Minoan at Tiryns Note; Linguist, T.G. Palaima does not accept the sign as linear A and considers it to be either a Potter’s mark or Cypro-Minoan. Tiryns was a hill fort. Its most notable feature was its Palace and cyclopean tunnels built with huge limestone boulders closely joined with no mortar.The term comes from classical Greeks belief that only the Cyclops had the strength to move the enormous boulders that made up the walls of both Tiryns and Mycenae.(R.D.Morritt) Acmon seems to have been worshipped of old at Tiryns, that antient city of Greece, whose towers were said to have been built by the Cyclopians. For Acmon was the Cyclopian Deity; and is represented by Callimachus as the tutelary God of the place, though the passage has been otherwise interpreted.ȉȠȚȠȢ ȖĮȡ ĮİȚ ȉȚȡȣȞșȚȠȢ ǹțȝȦȞ ̴ıIJȘțİ ʌȡȠ ʌȣȜİȦȞ. Source Jacob Bryant, A New System; or, an Analysis of Antient Mythology.

MYCENAE (Greek Ȃȣț‫ݨ‬ȞĮȚ MykƝnai or ȂȣțȒȞȘ MykƝnƝ), A possible Minoan inscription was found from the mainland of two signs on a bronze vessel from a shaft grave.( Shaft-Grave 1V) at Mycenae.

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The sign is found four times in linear A all from the archival records of Haghia Triada, where they precede agricultural ideograms, e.g., figs and olives, followed by numerals or fractions. This sign is believed, represents part of the Minoan administrative vocabulary. It is believed that the Minoan presence and/or influence at Mycenae is of a commercial or administrative nature. The period 1600 -1100 BCE is referred to as Mycenaean. KYTHERA (Greek: ȀȪșȘȡĮ, Cythera) Note - The whole region towards the west extending as far down as Malea was then possessed by the Argives, both the parts situated on the mainland and also the island of Kythera with the other islands. Source – Herodotus – Book 1 (R.D.Morritt) From the west of Crete a natural route of trade and communication passes from Khania to Kythera where a Minoan settlement was excavated at Kastri. The finds here include a weight. These signs represent WHEAT and a unit of measurement (probably a fractional sign.) Kythira (Kythera) is a rugged land, for centuries travel was by sea and it was influenced by many civilizations and cultures. A Cretan hieroglyphic sealstone was also discovered on Kythera in 1900 with seven signs, only one of which has a homomorphic sign in linear A and B with the sound value ZO. The peak sanctuary of Kastri at “Aghios Georghios sto Vouno” has produced a large number of bronze votive figures and an inscribed Stone vessel (lamp?) with the signs DA – MA – TE As the people of Cyprus themselves report, and it was the Phenicians who founded the temple in Kythera, coming from this land of Syria. R.D.Morritt (Herodotus)

DEMETER Dr. Gareth Owens on his own study of the Minoan Libation Formula, encountered this word DA-MA-TE from the cave of Archelochori at Kastri on the island of Kythera. He stated that the TE on the end of a word is for “Mother” usually a term for a local goddess. It is found at I-DA-MA-TE which refers to the holy Mother goddess of Mount Ida. She has been found on Linear A dating to c. 1600 BCE. She was also known as DEMETER and was responsible for agricultural products. Source: Dr. Gareth Owens Some writers say that the name "Idaean Dactyli" was given to the first settlers of the lower slopes of Mt. Ida, for the lower slopes of mountains are called "feet," and the summits "heads"; accordingly the several

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extremities of Ida (all of which are sacred to the Mother of the gods) were called Dactyli.84.Aeneas was a Trojan leader and ancestor of the first emperors of Rome. He was the son of Aphrodite by Anchises, a member of the royal line of Dardania. Born on Mt. Ida, he was reared by nymphs and brought to Anchises when he was five years old. Anchises was maimed by Zeus for revealing the name of the child's mother. Source: Mel Copeland ‘Translation of Phrygian Language’ DEMETER

 Demeter Goddess of Harvest

Demeter, whose nurse was Eirene (Peace), is the goddess of fertility, and the mother of the corn. For she, after inventing the grain in the island of Sicily, was the first to gather, prepare, preserve it, and the first to instruct mankind how to sow it. It is told that when Demeter, being a child, was playing with Hercyna and this girl let loose a goose, the goddess, when removing the stone under which the goose was hidden, caused water to flow. This is how the river Hercyna in Boeotia, came to be. Her title of Damater was equally foreign to Greece; and came from Babylonia, and the east. It may after this seem extraordinary, that she should ever be esteemed the Goddess of corn.This notion arose in part from the Grecians not understanding their own theology: which had originally, became continually more depraved, through their ignorance.

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The towers of Ceres were P'urtain, or ȆȡȣIJĮȞİȚĮ; so called from the fires, which were perpetually there preserved. The Grecians interpreted this ʌȣȡȠȣ IJĮȝİȚȠȞ; and rendered, what was a temple of Orus, a granary of corn. In consequence of this, though they did not abolish the antient usage of the place, they made it a repository of grain, from whence they gave largesses to the people upon any act of merit.ȉȠʌȠȢ ȘȞ ʌĮȡ' ǹșȘȞĮȚȠȚȢ, İȞ Л țȠȚȞĮȚ ıȚIJȘıİȚȢ IJȠȚȢ įȘȝȠıȚȠȚȢ İȣİȡȖİIJĮȚȢ İįȚįȠȞIJȠǜ ϳșİȞ țĮȚ ȆȡȣIJĮȞİȚȠȞ İțĮȜİȚIJȠ, ϳȚȠȞİȚ ʌȣȡȠIJĮȝİȚȠȞǜ ʌȣȡȠȢ ȖĮȡ ϳ ıȚIJȠȢǜ In early times the corn there deposited seems to have been for the priests and diviners. But this was only a secondary use, to which these places were adapted. They were properly sacred towers, where a perpetual fire was preserved. As in these temples there was always a light, and a fire burning on the hearth, some of the Grecians have varied in their etymology, and have derived the name from ʌȣȡ, Pur. Suidas supposes it to have been originally called ȆȣȡȠȢ IJĮȝİȚȠȞ.ȆȡȣIJĮȞİȚȠȞ, ʌȣȡȠȢ IJĮȝİȚȠȞ, İȞșĮ ȘȞ ĮıȕİıIJȠȞ ʌȣȡ Others tell us, that the Prutaneion was of old called Puros Tameion, from ʌȣȡ, pur: because it was the repository of a perpetual fire. It was sacred to Hestia, the Vesta of the Romans; which was only another title for Damater: and the sacred hearth had the same name.̴ıIJȚĮȞ į' ĮȞ țȣȡȚȦIJĮIJĮ țĮȜȠȚȘȢ IJȘȞ İȞ ȆȡȣIJĮȞİȚУ, İij' ψȢ IJȠ ʌȣȡ IJȠ ĮıȕİıIJȠȞ ĮȞĮʌIJİIJĮȚ.’ (Jacob Bryant) It is said that Demeter fell in love with handsome Iasion, and that they lay in a thrice-plowed field. For this love, some believe, Iasion perished, being killed by Zeus with a thunderbolt. Yet others have said that Iasion was destroyed by his own horses, and still others do not think he died at that time; for otherwise they had not said that Demeter could regret his graying hairs (see also Plutus). Some have called Iasion son of Thuscus or son of Ilithius, but others have said that he was the son of Zeus and Electra one of the PLEIADES. It was Zeus, they say, who instructed his son Iasion in the initiatory rite of the mysteries in Samothrace, the island in the northern Aegean Sea, and they add that Iasion was the first to initiate strangers into them. Among these was Cadmus, who married Harmonia in Samothrace, where he was initiated by Iasion. Apparently it was at the wedding of Cadmus and Harmonia , Iasion's sister, that Demeter fell in love with Iasion, having children by him, Plutus (Wealth) and Philomelus, who never agreed with each other. But Philomelus, having received nothing from Plutus, and being left with his own talent alone, became the inventor of the wagon, supporting himself by cultivating the fields. It has also been told that Iasion married the goddess Cybele, and that after their son Corybas, the CORYBANTES, who celebrate the rites of his mother, were named. Iasion is now among the stars; for some say that the constellation of the Twins (Gemini) shows Iasion and Triptolemus,

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the young man who received from Demeter wheat and a chariot of winged Dragons with which, flying through the sky, he sowed the whole inhabited earth. Colchian or Pelasgian Origin Mother Goddesses – Demeter - Ancient Colchian or Pelasgian or Iberian Origin The names of the mythographers of the Pelasgic period have not come down to us, but the gods – personages of mythos – have survived The principal gods of the ancient Greek pantheon are of Pelasgic origin, including Zeus. A Pelasgic chthonic Zeus whose cult is connected with the oak is known to have existed; Hera was an ancient Pelasgic-Iberian goddess, also Demeter, in connection with whose stem Acad. I. Javakhishvili pointed out that the stem de is absolutely alien to the ancient Greek language. To be sure, meter does mean mother, but de is a stem of purely Iberian origin, de or deda denoting mother-goddess. Thus, Demeter is the image in which the ancient Colchian or Pelasgian mother-goddess became fused with the ancient Greek goddess. This is how the ancient Greek pantheon became grafted, as it were, on the proto-Georgian, protoIberian, or Pelasgic pantheon. Lecture The Idriart Festival held at Tbilisi Philharmonic House, May 2.1990—Zviad Gamsakhurdia HAGHIOS STEPHANOS Haghios Stephanos in Laconia is a few hours north of Kythera by ship. the inscription A – MA was found there on a schist plaque. It appears to be the abbreviation of a longer word possibly an administration term. From Haghios Stephanos the route leads inland via Vapaio to Sparta on the river Eurotas near the Menelaion.Another route by sea from Kythera and Haghios Stephanos would have been around the Mani peninsula to Pylos in Messenia on the south-west point of the Peloponnese. Minoan finds have been discovered both in the vicinity of Nestor’s Palace at Epano Englianos and at the nearby tholos tomb of Peristeria. The clearest expression of the presence of Minoans are the ‘Masons’ Marks’, found in the tholoi tombs and one, a double-axe found in the Palace of Nestor.

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At Pylos there is also a reference to Ke-re-si-jo we-ke “of Cretan workmanship.” on the famous tripod tablet, which proved beyond any doubt the decipherment of linear B. showing that the Minoans were not strangers to the Mycenaean mainland. OLYMPIA From Pylos the route passes the Bay of Kiparissia and inland to Olympia in Eleia. A – QA – JO A - SO – NA KA –RO –QO (The above inscription was found at Kaphkania in 1994, 3 km, from the site of ancient Olympia.) It was earlier postulated by L.Godart that it proved that linear B was ‘invented’ on the mainland. Dr.Gareth Owens, disagrees with Godart’s statement. From a reexamination of the inscription “In the light of Minoan and Mycenaean epigraphy which will lead to an alternative conclusion regarding the linear inscription from Olympia.” Olympia has also produced Minoan finds such as an incomplete kylix with a scene including a double-axe and four anthromorphic Minoan clay votive figurines. There is evidence for a religious presence at Olympia and it is of note that the Minoan interest in rites involving sports and competition is well documented. Source: Dr. Gareth Owens KAPHKANIA Kaphkania is located a few kilometers nort of Olympia. The excavator Xeni Arapoyianni described her excavations in Kathimerini; “The excavation of a low mound with the toponym ‘Agrilitses’ at Kaphkania took a few days in April 1994, with important results. Just below the surface were uncovered the remains of a prehistoric building of which the two surviving walls were built from unworked stones, of medium size without building material. The largest surviving height was 40 cm the floor largely destroyed, was strewn with semiworked flat stones. The building was destroyed by fire, shown by the thick layer of ash. The ceramic, also burned belongs purely to the MH 111

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period showing that there was only a single occupation phase which after its destruction was covered and never re-used.Aside from the pottery, stone tools were also collected. (A spindle, two chisels, a grindstone, obsidian blades, etc.) and a marble female figurine (surviving height 9 cm.) This figurine with its great art and perfect working of the material is unique in continental Greece and could be compared with the earlier figurines from Crete, a fact that shows links between Crete and Eleia already in the MH period. The most important find of the excavation was a small egg-shaped stone, 4.9 x 4.08 x 1.62 cm – 48g. in weight, found in an undisturbed destruction layer, wedged on the side of one of the building’s walls, below the first series of stones. On one face of the pebble there is an inscription of linear B, while on the other face there is a double-axe with two symbols of the same writing on the lower part, on both sides of a vertical line that forms the handle of the double-axe. According to Professor L. Godart who has examined the stone, of the eight symbols engraved on it, five are common to linear A and linear B, while three are found only in linear B. This shows that it is linear B and indeed, it belongs to an early form of the script. The inscription on one side of the pebble consists of six syllabograms. The other word is probably a Greek personal name, equivalent to ‘Kharopos’ or ‘Kharops’. The two syllabograms that frame the double-axe give a term that appears for the first time and is perhaps related to some religious practice, since the double-axe is known to be a sacred symbol that is mainly Minoan. The date of the Kaphkania inscription in the mid 17th, century BCE apportains to the related questions of the chronological appearance of linear B and the place where this writing was invented. The finds of Kaphkania are therefore exceptionally significant because they prove what until now was only suspected, that continental Greece had invented its own writing already from the end of the MH period. Excavation Reviewed A response to the Kaphkania double-axe site appeared (BSA/JHS AR 1996-97 edited by D.Blackman. The excavator offers a wrong interpretation of the first word and indeed misunderstands the sign group by interpreting the double-axe as a sacred symbol. Linear A and Linear B here does not stand between the other two syllabograms which the excavator identifies as a term that appears for the first time and is probably religious. More important however for the

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indisputable religious Context of this inscription is its find place at Olympia with a marble female figurine. The present study will be limited to why the Olympia inscription may be a Minoan and or Mycenaean inscription.

Conclusion The Minoan inscriptions in Mycenean Greece can be attributed to; A Minoan script used by Minoan residents. B Minoan script used by Cycladic islanders and Mycenaean mainlanders, C Minoan inscriptions imported from Crete. D A combinatiom of all the above. There is still no evidence that the Mycenaean Greeks wrote before the linear B. Archive of Knossos c.1400 BCE. Source’ Dr. Gareth Owens

AN OVERVIEW OF THE ATTEMPTS TO DECIPHER THE PHAISTOS DISC

In 1931, F.G. Gordon published ‘Through Basque to Minoan’. He tried to read Minoan, which he thought was a non-Indo-European (Iberian language), assigning Basque to try and decipher the signs on the Phaistos Disc. Each sign he identified as an object, then it was assigned a name as a word. Others interpreted that the sign was not a full word, but only the first part, or the first letter of the word. He read the signs from left to right, or right to left as it felt his fancy. His translation was as follows; the lord walking on wings the breathless path, the star-smitter, the foaming gulf of water, dog fish smiter on the creeping flower; the lord smiter of the horse-hide (or the surface of the rock), the dog climbing the path, the dog emptying with the foot, the water-pitchers, climbing the circling path, parching the wine-skin

After the imaginative attempts of F.G.Gordon a Greek scholar K.D. Ktisopoulos took his own look at the Phaistos Disc. He made a study of it by using statistical work on sign frequency in the linear scripts. He attributed the text of the disc to be that of a Semetic language. A portion of his translation is as follows; Supreme – deity, of the powerful thrones star supreme – tenderness of the consolatory words supreme – donator of the prophecies supreme – of the eggs, the white—

Note; K.D. Ktisopoulos did admit he was ‘no expert’ in Semetic philology so no credence can be assigned to his interpretation of the disc either. R.D. Morritt. In 1930 Professor Axel Persson who previously in 1926 had directed excavations of a late Mycenaean tomb at Asine (near Navplia) in the north-east Peloponnese where a jar was found with signs attributed to the classical Cypriot syllabry.

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In 1950 a German scholar, Professor Ernst Sittig, looked at the Cypriot inscriptions which were not in Greek.) He analysed the frequency of the signs the assured the relationship of the Cypriot language with that of Minoan. He was able to identify Linear B signs on a combination of their statistical frequency, also their resemblance to Cypriot syllabry. Unfortunately his assumption was wrong that the two languages were related of fourteen signs that he identified it is now known that only three were correct. The method he used in other linguistic circumstances would have been more interesting.

Introduction For years the origin of the Phaistos has intrigued many scholars. Recent theories suggestt the Disc may have a Colchian, or Cretan or even an Elamite or a Phoenician origin.. The disc appears to depict a Semetic influence. A new theory has been expounded by Dr. Gia Kvashilava of the Georgian Republic. He indicated to me that he has spent over 28 years analyzing this. It is kind of him to share his theory here (apart from a brief abstract he presented in London, England on the occasion of the ‘100th Anniversary of the ‘Finding’ of the Phaistos Disc.)(See Appendix) This is the first appearance of his theories in ‘book form’ . (Apart from an article in Minerva Magazine - for which I personally thank Jerome Eisenberg for his kindness in allowing me to quote extracts.) .Dr. Kvashilava presents an intriguing Colchian source , and makes a strong case,supplying diagrams of his analysis of the Disc symbols, also a ‘local’ Colchian fragment that appears to match the stamped figures on the Disc ‘found’ in Crete in 1908. Andis Kaulins has suggested new information that needs to be tested of a possible Elamite origin, his late colleague , Dr. Teresa Pusylewitsch, in 1977 brought back a book from ‘The Heraklion Museum in which, a photo of Side A of the Phaistos Disc was pictured, was it, written in an Indo-European language? If so, Kaulins concluded, it would have to bear a close relation to the Baltic language. (The most archaic still spoken IndoEuropean tongues) and Kaulins states, in that case, it should be decipherable. Kaulins, published his monograph ‘The Phaistos Disc – Hieroglyphic Greek with Euclidean Dimensions, Darmstadt 1980. In which he alleged to have derived a solution to the problem which of course needs to be tested by others.

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I am also grateful to both Dr. Gareth Owens of TEC Crete and Dr. Thomas G. Palaima of the University of Texas ar Austin for their kind input and diagrams of the Phaistos Disc. I am indebted to all who have given me permission to introduce their excellent work on a very controversial topic and extend my sincere appreciation to them. PHAISTOS DISC (Side A)

The Phaistos Disc Side A (Drawn approximately to scale)

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PHAISTOS DISC (Side B)

The Phaistos Disc Side B (Drawn approximately to scale)

Permission of Andis Kaulins

An Ancient Enigma On October 31.2008, the International Conference on the Phaistos Disc was held at the Society of Antiquaries in London, England, to commemorate the hundred years that had passed since the discovery of the disc by Italian Archaeologist Luigi Pernier at Phaistos Crete,on the morning of July 3.1908. It was discovered with a Proto-Linear A tablet and pottery, much of which was Kameres ware. This gives a likely date of the First Place Period i.e. before 1600 BCE (Dr.Gareth Alun Owens – TEC – Crete). Andis Kaulins presented a paper entitled The Phaistos Disc – An Ancient Enigma.

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In 2008, Andis Kaulins using that dual syllabic grid of the two Old Elamite scripts and the Phaistos Disc was able to determine that the Old Elamite scripts were written in Ancient Greek and to decipher them as funerary texts.

The Key – Old Elamite Script Written records place the beginning of of Elamite culture ca.320 BCE. Mainstream Archaologists view old Elamite to be an undeciphered Pictographic script – for whose syllabic values have in any case been Alleged to apply to Old Elamite by some researchers as follows: Old Elamite is known to be genuine because of an Akkadian bilingual Text. An old Elamite script states “Foe his master Inshushinak, the Sculptor of human forms, I, Shilhak – Insushinak, Administrator of Susa, King of Elam, has dedicated the Shempishukische, an obelisk or column of copper and cedar wood.” Kaulins observed the following, “Since a number of symbol combinations are repeated identically on both Elamite scripts in this presentation, it is logical to presume that both Old Elamite scripts have a similar content and relate to the dedication of monuments to, or by, important Elamite personages at Susa.” Kaulins writes ,”I discovered two texts that contained symbols with a great deal of similarity to a number of symbols on the Phaistos Disc that I had obtained 30 years previously. I was able to read those Old Elamite scripts without difficulty. They were written in Ancient Greek Language and the author was presumably Palamedes, the son of Clymene and the inventor of Greek letters.”

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Old Elamite Language

By kind permission of Lawrence Lo

Old Elamite Script Tablet There are three known writing systems for the Elamite language and they were written in a variety of mediums including stone, metal, and clay. The first system is Proto-Elamite a pictographic script that is thought to be derived from Sumerian cuneiform. The second is Linear Elamite, a hieroglyphic syllabary with some logograms. The third and most recent one is Elamite cuneiform, a syllabary adapted from Akkadian cuneiform. Although Proto-Elamite and Linear Elamite still remain a mystery, Elamite cuneiform have been successfully deciphered.Elamite cuneiform comes in two variants, the first, derived from Akkadian, was used during the 3rd to 2nd millennia BCE, and a simplified form used during the 1st millennium BCE The main difference between the two variants is the reduction of glyphs used in the simplified version At any one time, there would only be around 130 cuneiform signs in use. Throughout the script’s history, only 206 different signs were used in total. (KAULINS-London 2008)

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Palaeo Elamite

Elamite Scripts

Illustrations - Lawrence Lo

Syllabic Grid (5th postulate of Euclid) Kaulins observed that the 45 pictographs on the Phaistos Disc appeared 241 times and appeared to be divided into words by vertical lines. Were the symbols ayllabic? He sensed that statistical analysis of letter frequencies and distribution would help solve the mystery. A chart was made up of the distribution and frequency of the pictographs. This frequency was then compared to the distribution of letters and letter combinations found at the beginnings of words in Ancient Greek and also Latvian and Lithuanian languages (the most archaic still spoken in the Indo-European tongues.) Based on those statistics and supported by Greek, Latvian and Lithuanian terms for the objects depicted on the Disc by the symbols, syllabic values were derived and analyzed in a comprehensive Michael Ventris-Alice Kober type of syllabic grid, which included the major language, consonants and vowels. The decipherment that Kaulins advanced on the basis of this syllabic grid is that the Phaistos Disc contains the 5th postulate of Euclid. Such a decipherment is difficult to confirm without corroborative texts, but Kaulins himself alleged to have found two Such texts 30 years later, in 2008. The alleged corroborative texts come from Elam, the virtual ‘home” of ancient printing via stamped symbols, a technique later used on the Phaistos Disc.Was there a connection of the two? Note: One of the five postulates, or axioms, of Euclid underpinning Euclidean geometry. It states that through any given point not on a line there passes exactly one line parallel to that line in the same planeevident. The uniqueness of Euclidean geometry, and the absolute identification of mathematics with reality, was broken in the 19th century when Nikolay Lobachevsky and János Bolyai (1802–60) independently discovered that

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altering the parallel postulate resulted in perfectly consistent nonEuclidean geometries. Source- Andis Kaulins

Corroboration of the Genuiness of the Phaistos Disc and its Decipherment “Using the Dual Syllabic Grid for the Phaistos Disc and the Old Elamite scripts, it has proven possible to decipher both Old Elamite scripts with sensational content and thereby also to corroborate not only the genuineness of the Phaistos disc but also the correctness of its decipherment as an Ancient Greek Mathematical text. The deciphered content of the Phaistos Disc is mathematical in nature.It is a pre-Euclidean proof viz. lemma regarding the paradoxof Parallel Lines, very similar in approach to that used by the great mathematician Lobachevsky more than 3500 years later .

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Interpretation of the Text An interpretation of this text, most closely keeping to the "Minoan" sequence (and omitting the spread of the necessary question-marks) would be: Face A We-invoke Goddess Mighty-of-the-Hills, We-invoke of-the-ten Goddesses, To-Lord give wholesome-powers. Lordesses open harbours. Lordesses worship Mighty-of-the-Hills. Lordesses open harbours and navigation. Silver of-the-tithes of-the-Lord spenders (f.) victory to-his participators (f.). Protection his to-the-land by-Goddesses. Face B He Takatusu Achaians adversary victorious-he(was). Fleet-the his-the of-by-the Takatusian victorious-he(was). His hand victorious raging among-Achaian divine by-power of-Sipapasu. Shipping returnees of-land-the led-he by-Goddes[-the-]ses. With-Goddess Wanakaso to-Siphnosian finished-he(has) fights of-his silver-mines. Or, as a free translation in the proposed order of the two Faces: Face B He the Takatusu has beaten the hostile Achaians. By his Takatusian fleet he was victorious. His victorious hand raged among the Achaian by force of the divine Sipapasu (Minoan God of War?). He led the return shipment by the Goddesses of the land. Under the Goddess he finished the fights of the Siphnos-Wanakaso for his silver-mines. Face A We implore the Goddess Mighty-of-the-Hills, we implore the Goddesses of the ten, give wholesome powers to the Lord. Lordesses open harbours. Lordesses give thanks to the Mighty-of-the-Hills. Lordesses open harbours and navigation. Spend silver of the tithes of the Lord taking part in his victory. His protection to the land by the Goddesses.

COLCHIS

Mingrelia Colchis was celebrated in Greek mythology as the destination of the Argonauts. The legend of the Argonauts relates that once upon a time in Aea-Colchis there ruled the mighty King Aeetes, son of Helios, father of Medea. Alongside with other numerous riches he possessed the Golden Fleece (Okros Satsmisi in Georgian) - the skin of a sheep with the Golden Fleece . Ancient authors (Palephatus, Dionysius of Miletus, Strabo, Appian, Charaxes of Pergamon gave a different interpretation of the Golden Fleece. Sheep-breeding was widespread among the ancient west-Georgian tribe of Tibareni (Tibaren) and highly developed metallurgy among the Halybs (Khalib/Khaldi) and Mossynici (Mosiniks). Ancient Greeks considered Halybes to be "the inventors of iron". In the 3rd or 2nd millennia BCE in Georgia there was a high level of development in metal processing, gold in particular, thus corroborating the reality of the basis of the myth of the Golden Fleece. The name Colchis first appears in Aeschylus and Pindar. It was inhabited by a number of tribes with settlements along the shore of the Black Sea. Colchis (Kolkha, Kolkheti) is old name of Western Georgia. and was centred in the fertile valley of the Phaisos river. (The modern ‘Rion’). It was formed by the union of various tribes in the region which became organized into the Kingdom of Colchis around the 13th Century BCE This kingdom was celebrated in mythology as the destination of the Argonauts, the home of Medea and the special domain of sorcery. It, was known to Urartians as Qulha (aka Kolkha, or Kilkhi. In permanent wars with neighbouring nations, the Colchians managed to absorb part of Diauehi in the 750s BC, but lost several provinces (including the “royal city” of Ildemusa) to Sarduris II of Urartu following the wars of 750-748 and 744-742 BCE., Overrun by Cimmerians and Scythians c. 730s-720s BCE the kingdom disintegrated and became part of the Achaemenid Persian Empire in mid-6th century BC. Tribes living in southern Colchis became part of the 19th Satrapy of the Persia, while the northern tribes submitted voluntarily.

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Eventually the Colchians overthrew the Persian Oligarchy and created their own state. Ancient Colchis now known as Mingrelia , is located in Georgia on the eastern shore of the Black Sea in the Caucusus Region.

Colchis mentioned by Heredotos Now from the Maiotian lake to the river Phasis and to the land of the Colchians is a journey of thirty days for one without encumbrance; and from Colchis it is not far to pass over to Media, for there is only one nation between them, the Saspeirians, and passing by this nation you are in Media. However the Scythians did not make their invasion by this way, but turned aside from it to go by the upper road which is much longer, keeping Mount Caucasus on their right hand. Then the Medes fought with the Scythians, and having been worsted in the battle they lost their power, and the Scythians obtained rule over all Asia.

Apollonius Rhodius Born c.235 BCE. Apollonius Rhodius, also known as Apollonius of Rhodes (Latin; Greek ‫ں‬ʌȠȜȜȫȞȚȠȢ ‫ދ‬ȩįȚȠȢ Apoll‫ٯ‬nios Rhódios), early 3rd century BCE – He was a librarian at the Library of Alexandria, best known for his epic poem the Argonautica, which told the mythological story of Jason and the Argonauts' quest for the Golden Fleece, and which is one of the chief works in the history of epic poetry. He did not come from Rhodes, but was a Hellenistic Egyptian. He lived in Rhodes for part of his life and while living there adopted "Rhodian" as a surname. The are contradictory reports of Appollonius’ place of birth; Strabo was in favour of Alexandria, Athenaeus and Aelian stated he was born in Naueratia. He wrote the Argonautica, resided in Alexandria, and belonged to the Ptolemais tribe. He was the son of Silleus, or according to some of Illeus. He lived at the time of the third Ptolemaeus [246-222 BCE] and was a pupil of Callimachus.. Later in life he wrote poems.

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The Argonautica differs in some respects from traditional or Homeric Greek epic, though Apollonius certainly used Homer as a model. The Argonautica is shorter than Homer’s epics, with four books totaling less than 6000 lines, while the Iliad runs to more than 16,000. Apollonius may have been influenced here by Callimachus’ brevity, or by Aristotle’s demand for "poems on a smaller scale than the old epics, and answering in length to the group of tragedies presented at a single sitting" (the Poetics). Apollonius' epic also differs from the more traditional epic in its weaker, more human protagonist Jason and in its many discursions into local custom, aetiology, and other popular subjects of Hellenistic poetry. Apollonius also chooses the less shocking versions of some myths, having Medea, for example, merely watch the murder of Apsyrtus instead of murdering him herself. The gods are relatively distant and inactive throughout much of the epic, following the Hellenistic trend to allegorise and rationalise religion. Many critics regard the love of Medea and Jason in the third book as the best written and most memorable episode.Opinions on the poem have changed over time. Some critics in antiquity considered it mediocre. Recent criticism has seen a renaissance of interest in the poem and an awareness of its qualities: numerous scholarly studies are published regularly, its influence on later poets like Virgil is now well- recognised, and any account of the history of epic poetry now routinely includes substantial attention to Apollonius. Note: Herodotus mentions the following account which may have bearings on the origin of The Argonautic ‘legend’. In this manner the Persians report that Io came to Egypt, not agreeing therein with the Hellenes, and this they say was the first beginning of wrongs. Then after this, they say, certain Hellenes (but the name of the people they are not able to report) put in to the city of Tyre in Phenicia and carried off the king's daughter Europa;—these would doubtless be Cretans;—and so they were quits for the former jury. After this however the Hellenes, they say, were the authors of the second wrong; for they sailed in to Aia of Colchis and to the river Phasis with a ship of war, and from thence, after they had done the other business for which they came, they carried off the king's daughter Medea: and the king of Colchis sent a herald to the land of Hellas and demanded satisfaction for the rape and to have his daughter back; but they answered that, as the Barbarians had given them no satisfaction for the rape of Io the Argive, so neither would they give satisfaction to the Barbarians for this.”

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Jason and the Argonauts (The Argonauta – Appollonius Rhodius) BOOK II (ll. 1242-1261) Thence they sailed on, past the Macrones and the farstretching land of the Becheiri and the overweening Sapeires, and after them the Byzeres; for ever forward they clave their way, quickly borne by the gentle breeze. And lo, as they sped on, a deep gulf of the sea was opened, and lo, the steep crags of the Caucasian mountains rose up, And at night, by the skill of Argus, they reached broad-flowing Phasis, and the utmost bourne of the sea. (ll. 1262-1276) And straightway they let down the sails and the yardarm and stowed them inside the hollow mast-crutch, and at once they lowered the mast itself till it lay along; and quickly with oars they entered the mighty stream of the river. Round the prow the water surged as it gave them way. And on their left hand they had lofty Caucasus and the Cytaean city of Aea, and on the other side the plain of Ares and the sacred grove of that god. (Where the serpent was keeping watch and ward over the fleece as it hung on the leafy branches of an oak. Aeson's son himself from a golden goblet poured into the river libations of honey and pure wine to Earth and to the gods of the country, and to the souls of dead heroes; and he besought them of their grace to give kindly aid, and to welcome their ship's hawsers with favourable omen. And straightway Ancaeus spake these words: (ll. 1277-1280) "We have reached the Colchian land and the stream of Phasis; and it is time for us to take counsel whether we shall make trial of Aeetes with soft words, or an attempt of another kind shall be fitting."2 (ll. 1281-1285) By the advice of Argus Jason bade them enter a shaded backwater and let the ship ride at anchor off shore; and it was near at hand in their course and there they passed the night. And soon the dawn appeared to their expectant eyes. BOOK III (ll. 11-16) "Do thou now first, daughter of Zeus, give advice. What must be done? Wilt thou devise some scheme whereby they may seize the golden fleece of Aeetes and bear it to Hellas, or can they deceive the king 2 Aeëtes (also spelled Æëtes) (Greek: ǹ۞ȒIJȘȢ) was a son of the king-god Helios, brother of Circe father of Medea, Chalciope and Apsyrtus. Note; even though this is a mythic tale it shows the Cretans were cognizant of Colcian geography. See – The Phaistos Disc – Colchian origin.

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with soft words and so work persuasion? Of a truth he is terribly overweening. Still it is right to shrink from no endeavour." (ll. 83-89) She spake, and Hera again addressed her with prudence: "It is not in need of might or of strength that we have come. But just quietly bid thy boy charm Aeetes' daughter with love for Jason. For if she will aid him with her kindly counsel, easily do I think he will win the fleece of gold and return to Iolcus, for she is full of wiles." Myself,but now, since this pleases you both, I will make the attempt and coax him, and he will not say me nay." (ll. 210-259) And as they went Hera with friendly thought spread a thick mist through the city, that they might fare to the palace of Aeetes unseen by the countless hosts of the Colchians. But soon when from the plain they came to the city and Aeetes' palace, then again Hera dispersed the mist. They stood at the entrance, marvelling at the king's courts and the wide gates and columns which rose in ordered lines round the walls; and high up on the palace a coping of stone rested on brazen triglyphs. And silently they crossed the threshold. And close by garden vines covered with green foliage were in full bloom, lifted high in air. And beneath them ran four fountains, ever-flowing, which Hephaestus had delved out. One was gushing with milk, one with wine, while the third flowed with fragrant oil; and the fourth ran with water, which grew warm at the setting of the Pleiads, and in turn at their rising bubbled forth from the hollow rock, cold as crystal. Such then were the wondrous works that the craftsman-god Hephaestus had fashioned in the palace of Cytaean Aeetes. BOOK III (ll. 320-366) "Aeetes, that ship forthwith stormy blasts tore asunder, and ourselves, crouching on the beams, a wave drove on to the beach of the isle of Enyalius in the murky night; and some god preserved us. For even the birds of Ares that haunted the desert isle beforetime, not even them did we find. But these men had driven them off, having landed from their ship on the day before; and the will of Zeus taking pity on us, or some fate, detained them there, since they straightway gave us both food and clothing in abundance, when they heard the illustrious name of Phrixus and thine own; for to thy city are they faring. “ “And if thou dost wish to know their errand, I will not hide it from time. A certain king, vehemently longing to drive this man far from his fatherland and possessions, because in might he outshone all the sons of Aeolus, sends him to voyage hither on a bootless venture; and asserts that the stock of Aeolus will not escape the heart-grieving wrath and rage of implacable Zeus, nor the unbearable curse and vengeance due for Phrixus,

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until the fleece comes back to Hellas. And their ship was fashioned by Pallas Athena3, not such a one as are the ships among the Colchians, on the vilest of which we chanced. For the fierce waves and wind broke her utterly to pieces; but the other holds firm with her bolts, even though all the blasts should buffet her. And with equal swiftness she speedeth before the wind and when the crew ply the oar with unresting hands. And he hath gathered in her the mightiest heroes of all Achaea, and hath come to thy city from wandering far through cities and gulfs of the dread ocean, in the hope that thou wilt grant him the fleece. But as thou dost please, so shall it be, for he cometh not to use force, but is eager to pay thee a recompense for the gift. He has heard from me of thy bitter foes the Sauromatae, and he will subdue them to thy sway. And if thou desirest to know their names and lineage I will tell thee all. This man on whose account the rest were gathered from Hellas, they call Jason, son of Aeson, whom Cretheus begat. And if in truth he is of the stock of Cretheus himself, thus he would be our kinsman on the father's side. For Cretheus and Athamas were both sons of Aeolus; and Phrixus was the son of Athamas, son of Aeolus. And here, if thou hast heard at all of the seed of Helios, thou dost behold Augeias; and this is Telamon sprung from famous Aeacus; and Zeus himself begat Aeacus. And so all the rest, all the comrades that follow him, are the sons or grandsons of the immortals." (ll. 572-575) So he spake, and straightway sent Argus to return in haste to the city; and they drew the anchors on board at the command of Aeson's son, and rowed the ship close to the shore, a little away from the back-water. (ll. 576-608) But straightway Aeetes held an assembly of the Colchians far aloof from his palace at a spot where they sat in times before, to devise against the Minyae grim treachery and troubles. And he threatened that when first the oxen should have torn in pieces the man who had taken upon him to perform the heavy task, he would hew down the oak grove above the wooded hill, and burn the ship and her crew, that so they might vent forth in ruin their grievous insolence., for all their haughty schemes. For never would he have welcomed the Aeolid Phrixus as a guest in his halls, in spite of his sore need, Phrixus, who surpassed all strangers in gentleness and fear of the gods, had not Zeus himself sent Hermes his messenger down from heaven, so that he might meet with a friendly host; much less would pirates coming to his land be let go scatheless for long, men whose care it was to lift their hands and seize the goods of others, and 3

An interesting notation as to the structure of Colchian Ships.

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to weave secret webs of guile, and harry the steadings of herdsmen with ill-sounding forays. And he said that besides all that the sons of Phrixus should pay a fitting penalty to himself for returning in consort with evildoers, that they might recklessly drive him from his honour and his throne; for once he had heard a baleful prophecy from his father Helios, that he must avoid the secret treachery and schemes of his own offspring and their crafty mischief. Wherefore he was sending them, as they desired, to the Achaean land at the bidding of their father—a long journey. Nor had he ever so slight a fear of his daughters, that they would form some hateful scheme, nor of his son Apsyrtus; but this curse was being fulfilled in the children of Chalciope. And he proclaimed terrible things in his rage against the strangers, and loudly threatened to keep watch over the ship and its crew, so that no one might escape calamity. (ll. 825-827) Then Argus bade his brothers remain there to learn the maiden's mind and plans, but himself turned back and went to the ship. (ll. 1146-1162) So did they two make trial of one another thus far with gentle words; and thereafter parted. Jason hastened to return in joyous mood to his comrades and the ship, she to her handmaids ( (ll. 1191- (ll. 1225-1245) Then Aeetes arrayed his breast in the stiff corslet which Ares gave him when he had slain Phlegraean Mimas with his own hands; and upon his head he placed a golden helmet4 with four plumes, gleaming like the sun's round light when he first rises from Ocean and he wielded his shield of many hides, and his spear, terrible, resistless; none of the heroes could have withstood its shock now that they had left behind Heracles far away, who alone could have met it in battle. For the king his well-fashioned chariot of swift steeds was held near at hand by Phaethon, for him to mount; and he mounted, and held the reins in his hands. Then from the city he drove along the broad highway, that he might be present at the contest; and with him a countless multitude rushed forth. And as Poseidon rides, mounted in his chariot, to the Isthmian contest or to Taenarus, or to Lerna's water, or through the grove of Hyantian Onchestus, and thereafter passes even to Calaureia with his steeds, and the Haemonian rock, or well-wooded Geraestus; even so was Aeetes, lord of the Colchians, to behold. (ll. 1246-1277) Meanwhile, prompted by Medea, Jason steeped the charm in water and sprinkled with it his shield and sturdy spear, and sword; and his comrades round him made proof of his weapons with might 4

I concur with the opinion of K. Massey to Dr. Gia Kvashilava that the ‘helmeted man’ who he postulates “bears a resemblance to Scythian models.” Certainly gives the Phaistos disc an origin outside of Crete’ and possibly brought to Crete from the Black Sea area.

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and main, but could not bend that spear even a little, but it remained firm in their stalwart hands unbroken as before. But in furious rage with them Idas, Aphareus' son, with his great sword hewed at the spear near the butt, and the edge leapt back repelled by the shock, like a hammer from the anvil; and the heroes shouted with joy for their hope in the contest. And then he sprinkled his body, and terrible prowess entered into him, unspeakable, dauntless; and his hands on both sides thrilled vigorously as they swelled with strength. And as when a warlike steed eager for the fight neighs and beats the ground with his hoof, while rejoicing he lifts his neck on high with ears erect; in such wise did Aeson's son rejoice in the strength of his limbs. And often hither and thither did he leap high in air tossing in his hands his shield of bronze and ashen spear. Thou wouldst say that wintry lightning flashing from the gloomy sky kept on darting forth from the clouds what time they bring with them their blackest rainstorm. Not long after that were the heroes to hold back from the contests; but sitting in rows on their benches they sped swiftly on to the plain of Ares. And it lay in front of them on the opposite side of the city, as far off as is the turning-post that a chariot must reach from the starting-point, when the kinsmen of a dead king appoint funeral games for footmen and horsemen. And they found Aeetes and the tribes of the Colchians; these were stationed on the Caucasian heights, but the king by the winding brink of the river. (ll. 1-5) Now do thou thyself, goddess Muse, daughter of Zeus, tell of the labour and wiles of the Colchian maiden. Surely my soul within me wavers with speechless amazement as I ponder whether I should call it the lovesick grief of mad passion or a panic flight, through which she left the Colchian folk. (ll. 6-10) Aeetes all night long with the bravest captains of his people was devising in his halls sheer treachery against the heroes, with fierce wrath in his heart at the issue of the hateful contest; nor did he deem at all that these things were being accomplished without the knowledge of his daughters. (ll. 99-108) Thus he spake, and straightway clasped her right hand in his; and she bade them row the swift ship to the sacred grove near at hand, in order that, while it was still night, they might seize and carry off the fleece against the will of Aeetes. Word and deed were one to the eager crew. For they took her on board, and straightway thrust the ship from shore; and loud was the din as the chieftains strained at their oars, but she, starting back, held out her hands in despair towards the shore. But Jason spoke cheering words and restrained her grief.

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(ll. 109-122) Now at the hour when men have cast sleep from their eyes~huntsmen, who, trusting to their bounds, never slumber away the end of night, but avoid the light of dawn lest, smiting with its white beams, it efface the track and scent of the quarry—then did Aeson's son and the maiden step forth from the ship over a grassy spot, the "Ram's couch" as men call it, where it first bent its wearied knees in rest, bearing on its back the Minyan son of Athamas. And close by, all smirched with soot, was the base of the altar, which the Aeolid Phrixus once set up to Zeus, the alder of fugitives, when he sacrificed the golden wonder at the bidding of Hermes who graciously met him on the way. There by the counsels of Argus the chieftains put them ashore. (ll. 123-161) And they two by the pathway came to the sacred grove, seeking the huge oak tree on which was hung the fleece, like to a cloud that blushes red with the fiery beams of the rising sun. But right in front the serpent with his keen sleepless eyes saw them coming, and stretched out his long neck and hissed in awful wise; and all round the long banks of the river echoed and the boundless grove. Those heard it who dwelt in the Colchian land very far from Titanian Aea, near the outfall of Lycus, the river which parts from loud-roaring Araxes and blends his sacred stream with Phasis, and they twain flow on together in one and pour their waters into the Caucasian Sea. And through fear young mothers awoke, and round their new-born babes, who were sleeping in their arms, threw their hands in agony, for the small limbs started at that hiss. And as when above a pile of smouldering wood countless eddies of smoke roll up mingled with soot, and one ever springs up quickly after another, rising aloft from beneath in wavering wreaths; so at that time did that monster roll his countless coils covered with hard dry scales. And as he writhed, the maiden came before his eyes, with sweet voice calling to her aid sleep, highest of gods, to charm the monster; and she cried to the queen of the underworld, the night-wanderer, to be propitious to her enterprise. And Aeson's son followed in fear, but the serpent, already charmed by her song, was relaxing the long ridge of his giant spine, and lengthening out his myriad coils, like a dark wave, dumb and noiseless, rolling over a sluggish sea; but still he raised aloft his grisly head, eager to enclose them both in his murderous jaws. But she with a newly cut spray of juniper, dipping and drawing untempered charms from her mystic brew, sprinkled his eyes, while she chanted her song; and all around the potent scent of the charm cast sleep; and on the very spot he let his jaw sink down; and far behind through the wood with its many trees were those countless coils stretched out.

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Hereupon Jason snatched the golden fleece from the oak, at the maiden bidding; and she, standing firm, smeared with the charm the monster's head, till Jason himself bade her turn back towards their ship, and she left the grove of Ares, dusky with shade. And as a maiden catches on her finely wrought robe the gleam of the moon at the full, as it rises above her high-roofed chamber; and her heart rejoices as she beholds the fair ray; so at that time did Jason uplift the mighty fleece in his hands; and from the shimmering of the flocks of wool there settled on his fair cheeks and brow a red flush like a flame. And great as is the hide of a yearling ox or stag, which huntsmen call a brocket, so great in extent was the fleece all golden above. Heavy it was, thickly clustered with flocks; and as he moved along, even beneath his feet the sheen rose up from the earth. And he strode on now with the fleece covering his left shoulder from the height of his neck to his feet, and now again he gathered it up in his hands; for he feared exceedingly, lest some god or man should meet him and deprive him thereof. BOOK 1V (ll. 183-189) Dawn was spreading over the earth when they reached the throng of heroes; and the youths marvelled to behold the mighty fleece, which gleamed like the lightning of Zeus and each one started up eager to touch it and clasp it in his hands. But the son of Aeson restrained them all, and threw over it a mantle newly-woven; and he led the maiden to the stern and seated her there, and spake to them all as follows: (ll. 190-205) "No longer now, my friends, forbear to return to your fatherland. For now the task for which we dared this grievous voyage, toiling with bitter sorrow of heart, has been lightly fulfilled by the maiden's counsels. Her—for such is her will—I will bring home to be my wedded wife; do ye preserve her, the glorious saviour of all Achaea and of yourselves. For of a surety, I ween, will Aeetes come with his host to bar our passage from the river into the sea. But do some of you toil at the oars in turn, sitting man by man; and half of you raise your shields of oxhide, a ready defence against the darts of the enemy, and guard our return. and now in our hands we hold the fate of our children and dear country and of our aged parents; and on our venture all Hellas depends, to reap either the shame of failure or great renown." (ll. 206-211) Thus he spake, and donned his armour of war; and they cried aloud, wondrously eager. And he drew his sword from the sheath and cut the hawsers at the stern. And near the maiden he took his stand ready armed by the steersman Aneaeus, and with their rowing the ship sped on as they strained desperately to drive her clear of the river.

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(ll. 212-235) By this time Medea's love and deeds had become known to haughty Aeetes and to all the Colchians. And they thronged to the assembly in arms; and countless as the waves of the stormy sea when they rise crested by the wind, or as the leaves that fall to the ground from the wood with its myriad branches in the month when the leaves fall—who could reckon their tale?—so they in countless number poured along the banks of the river shouting in frenzy; and in his shapely chariot Aeetes shone forth above all with his steeds, the gift of Helios, swift as the blasts of the wind. In his left hand he raised his curved shield, and in his right a huge pine-torch, and near him in front stood up his mighty spear and Apsyrtus held in his hands the reins of the steeds. But already the ship was cleaving the sea before her, urged on by stalwart oarsmen, and the stream of the mighty river rushing down but the king in grievous anguish lifted his hands and called on Helios and Zeus to bear witness to their evil deeds; and terrible threats he uttered against all his people, that unless they should with their own hands seize the maiden, either on the land or still finding the ship on the swell of the open sea, and bring her back, that so he might satisfy his eager soul with vengeance for all those deeds, at the cost of their own lives they should learn and abide all his rage and revenge. (ll. 236-240) Thus spake Aeetes; and on that same day the Colchians launched their ships and cast the tackle on board, and on that same day sailed forth on the sea; thou wouldst not say so mighty a host was a fleet of ships, but that a countless flight of birds, swarm on swarm, was clamouring over the sea. (ll. 241-252) Swiftly the wind blew, as the goddess Hera planned, so that most quickly Aeaean Medea might reach the Pelasgian land, a bane to the house of Pelias, and on the third morn they bound the ship's stern cables to the shores of the Paphlagonians, at the mouth of the river Halys. For Medea bade them land and propitiate Hecate with sacrifice. Now all that the maiden prepared for offering the sacrifice may no man know, and may my soul not urge me to sing thereof. Awe restrains my lips, yet from that time the altar which the heroes raised on the beach to the goddess remains till now, a sight to men of a later day. (ll. 253-256) And straightway Aeson's son and the rest of the heroes bethought them of Phineus, how that he had said that their course from Aea should be different, but to all alike his meaning was dim. Then Argus spake, and they eagerly hearkened: (ll. 257-293) "We go to Orchomenus, whither that unerring seer, whom ye met aforetime, foretold your voyage. For there is another course, signified by those priests of the immortal gods, who have sprung from Tritonian Thebes. As yet all the stars that wheel in the heaven were not,

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nor yet, though one should inquire, could aught be heard of the sacred race of the Danai. Apidanean Arcadians alone existed, Arcadians who lived even before the moon, it is said, eating acorns on the hills; nor at that time was the Pelasgian land ruled by the glorious sons of Deucalion, in the days when Egypt, mother of men of an older time, was called the fertile Morning-land, and the river fair-flowing Triton, by which all the Morningland is watered; and never does the rain from Zeus moisten the earth; but from the flooding of the river abundant crops spring up. (ll. 303-337) Now some of the Colchians, in a vain search, passed out from Pontus through the Cyanean rocks; but the rest went to the river, and them Apsyrtus led, and, turning aside, he entered the mouth called Fair. Wherefore he outstripped the heroes by crossing a neck of land into the furthest gulf of the Ionian sea. For a certain island is enclosed by Ister, by name Peuee, three-cornered, its base stretching along the coast, and with a sharp angle towards the river; and round it the outfall is cleft in two. One mouth they call the mouth of Narex, and the other, at the lower end, the Fair mouth. And through this Apsyrtus and his Colchians rushed with all speed; but the heroes went upwards far away towards the highest part of the island. And in the meadows the country shepherds left their countless flocks for dread of the ships, for they deemed that they were beasts coming forth from the monster-teeming sea. For never yet before had they seen seafaring ships, neither the Scythians mingled with the Thracians, nor the Sigynni, nor yet the Graucenii, nor the Sindi that now inhabit the vast desert plain of Laurium. But when they had passed near the mount Angurum, and the cliff of Cauliacus, far from the mount Angurum, round which Ister, dividing his stream, falls into the sea on this side and on that, and the Laurian plain, then indeed the Colchians went forth into the Cronian sea and cut off all the ways, to prevent their foes' escape. And the heroes came down the river behind and reached the two Brygean isles of Artemis near at hand. Now in one of them was a sacred temple; and on the other they landed, avoiding the host of Apsyrtus; for the Colchians had left these islands out of many within the river, just as they were, through reverence for the daughter of Zeus; but the rest, thronged by the Colchians, barred the ways to the sea. And so on other islands too, close by, Apsyrtus left his host as far as the river Salangon and the Nestian land. (ll. 338-349) There the Minyae would at that time have yielded in grim fight, a few to many; but ere then they made a covenant, shunning a dire quarrel; as to the golden fleece, that since Aeetes himself had so promised them if they should fulfill the contests, they should keep it as justly won, whether they carried it off by craft or even openly in the king's despite; but as to Medea—for that was the cause of strife—that they should give her in

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ward to Leto's daughter apart from the throng, until some one of the kings that dispense justice should utter his doom, whether she must return to her father's home or follow the chieftains to the land of Hellas. (ll. 350-354) Now when the maiden had mused upon all this, sharp anguish shook her heart unceasingly; and quickly she called forth Jason alone apart from his comrades, and led him aside until they were far away, and before his face uttered her speech all broken with sobs: (ll. 355-390) "What is this purpose that ye are now devising about me, O son of Aeson? Has thy triumph utterly cast forgetfulness upon thee, and reekest thou nothing of all that thou spakest when held fast by necessity? Whither are fled the oaths by Zeus the suppliants' god, whither are fled thy honied promises? For which in no seemly wise, with shameless will, I have left my country, the glories of my home and even my parents—things that were dearest to me; and far away all alone I am borne over the sea with the plaintive kingfishers because of thy trouble, in order that I might save thy life in fulfilling the contests with the oxen and the earthborn men. Last of all the fleece—when the matter became known, it was by my folly thou didst win it; and a foul reproach have I poured on womankind. Wherefore I say that as thy child, thy bride and thy sister, I follow thee to the land of Hellas. Be ready to stand by me to the end, abandon me not left forlorn of thee when thou dost visit the kings. But only save me; let justice and right, to which we have both agreed, stand firm; or else do thou at once shear through this neck with the sword, that I may gain the guerdon due to my mad passion. Poor wretch! if the king, to whom you both commit your cruel covenant, doom me to belong to my brother. How shall I come to my father's sight? Will it be with a good name? What revenge, what heavy calamity shall I not endure in agony for the terrible deeds I have done? And wilt thou win the return that thy heart desires? Never may Zeus' bride, the queen of all, in whom thou dost glory, bring that to pass. Mayst thou some time remember me when thou art racked with anguish; may the fleece like a dream vanish into the nether darkness on the wings of the wind! And may my avenging Furies forthwith drive thee from thy country, for all that I have suffered through thy cruelty! These curses will not be allowed to fall unaccomplished to the ground. A mighty oath hast thou transgressed, ruthless one; but not long shalt thou and thy comrades sit at ease casting eyes of mockery upon me, for all your covenants." (ll. 391-394) Thus she spake, seething with fierce wrath; and she longed to set fire to the ship and to hew it utterly in pieces, and herself to fall into the raging flame. But Jason, half afraid, thus addressed her with gentle words:

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(ll. 395-409) "Forbear, lady; me too this pleases not. But we seek some respite from battle, for such a cloud of hostile men, like to a fire, surrounds us, on thy account. For all that inhabit this land are eager to aid Apsyrtus, that they may lead thee back home to thy father, like some captured maid. And all of us would perish in hateful destruction, if we closed with them in fight; and bitterer still will be the pain, if we are slain and leave thee to be their prey. But this covenant will weave a web of guile to lead him to ruin. Nor will the people of the land for thy sake oppose us, to favour the Colchians, when their prince is no longer with them, who is thy champion and thy brother; nor will I shrink from matching myself in fight with the Colchians, if they bar my way homeward." (ll. 410-420) Thus he spake soothing her; and she uttered a deadly speech: "Take heed now. For when sorry deeds are done we must needs devise sorry counsel, since at first I was distraught by my error, and by heaven's will it was I wrought the accomplishment of evil desires. Do thou in the turmoil shield me from the Colchians' spears; and I will beguile Apsyrtus to come into thy hands—do thou greet him with splendid gifts— if only I could persuade the heralds on their departure to bring him alone to hearken to my words. Thereupon if this deed pleases thee, slay him and raise a conflict with the Colchians, I care not." (ll. 421-422) So they two agreed and prepared a great web of guile for Apsyrtus, and provided many gifts such as are due to guests, and among them gave a sacred robe of Hypsipyle, of crimson hue. The Graces with their own hands had wrought it for Dionysus in sea-girt Dia, and he gave it to his son Thoas thereafter, and Thoas left it to Hypsipyle, and she gave that fair-wrought guest-gift with many another marvel to Aeson's son to wear. Never couldst thou satisfy thy sweet desire by touching it or gazing on it. And from it a divine fragrance breathed from the time when the king of Nysa himself lay to rest thereon, flushed with wine and nectar as he clasped the beauteous breast of the maiden-daughter of Minos, whom once Theseus forsook in the island of Dia, when she had followed him from Cnossus. And when she had worked upon the heralds to induce her brother to come, as soon as she reached the temple of the goddess, according to the agreement, and the darkness of night surrounded them, that so she might devise with him a cunning plan for her to take the mighty fleece of gold and return to the home of Aeetes, for, she said, the sons of Phrixus had given her by force to the strangers to carry off; with such beguiling words she scattered to the air and the breezes her witching charms, which even from afar would have drawn down the savage beast from the steep mountain-height.

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(ll. 452-481) When the heroes had left the maiden on the island of Artemis, according to the covenant, both sides ran their ships to land separately, and Jason went to the ambush to lie in wait for Apsyrtus and then for his comrades.,but he, beguiled by these dire promises, swiftly crossed the swell of the sea in his ship, and in dark night set foot on the sacred island; and faring all alone to meet her he made trial in speech of his sister, as a tender child tries a wintry torrent which not even strong men can pass through, to see if she would devise some guile against the strangers. And so they two agreed together on everything; and straightway Aeson's son leapt forth from the thick ambush, lifting his bare sword in his hand; and quickly the maiden turned her eyes aside and covered them with her veil that she might not see the blood of her brother when he was smitten. And Jason marked him and struck him down, as a butcher strikes down a mighty strong-horned bull, hard by the temple which the Brygi on the mainland opposite had once built for Artemis. In its vestibule he fell on his knees; and at last the hero breathing out his life caught up in both hands the dark blood as it welled from the wound; and he dyed with red his sister's silvery veil and robe as she shrank away. And with swift sideglance the irresistible pitiless Fury beheld the deadly deed they had done,. and the hero, Aeson's son, cut off the extremities of the dead man, and thrice licked up some blood and thrice spat the pollution from his teeth, as it is right for the slayer to do, to atone for a treacherous murder. And the clammy corpse he hid in the ground where even now those bones lie among the Apsyrtians. (ll. 481-494) Now as soon as the heroes saw the blaze of a torch, which the maiden raised for them as a sign to pursue, they laid their own ship near the Colchian ship, and they slaughtered the Colchian host, as kites slay the tribes of wood-pigeons, or as lions of the wold, when they have leapt amid the steading, drive a great flock of sheep huddled together. Nor did one of them escape death, but the heroes rushed upon the whole crew, destroying them like a flame; and at last Jason met them, and was eager to give aid where none was needed; but already they were taking thought for him too. Thereupon they sat to devise some prudent counsel for their voyage, and the maiden came upon them as they pondered, but Peleus spake his word first: (ll. 495-502) "I now bid you embark while it is still night, and take with your oars the passage opposite to that which the enemy guards, for at dawn when they see their plight I deem that no word urging to further pursuit of us will prevail with them; but as people bereft of their king, they

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will be scattered in grievous dissension. And easy, when the people are scattered, will this path be for us on our return." (ll. 503-506) Thus he spake; and the youths assented to the words of Aeacus' son. And quickly they entered the ship, and toiled at their oars unceasingly until they reached the sacred isle of Electra, the highest of them all, near the river Eridanus. (ll. 507-521) But when the Colchians learnt the death of their prince, verily they were eager to pursue Argo and the Minyans through all the Cronian sea. But Hera restrained them by terrible lightnings from the sky. And at last they loathed their own homes in the Cytaean land, quailing before Aeetes' fierce wrath; so they landed and made abiding homes there, scattered far and wide. Some set foot on those very islands where the heroes had stayed, and they still dwell there, bearing a name derived from Apsyrtus; and others built a fenced city by the dark deep Illyrian river, where is the tomb of Harmonia and Cadmus, dwelling among the Encheleans; and others live amid the mountains which are called the Thunderers, from the day when the thunders of Zeus, son of Cronos, prevented them from crossing over to the island opposite. (ll. 522-551) Now the heroes, when their return seemed safe for them, fared onward and made their hawsers fast to the land of the Hylleans. For the islands lay thick in the river and made the path dangerous for those who sailed thereby. Nor, as aforetime, did the Hylleans devise their hurt, but of their own accord furthered their passage, winning as guerdon a mighty tripod of Apollo. For tripods twain had Phoebus given to Aeson's son to carry afar in the voyage he had to make, at the time when he went to sacred Pytho to enquire about this very voyage; and it was ordained by fate that in whatever land they should be placed, that land should never be ravaged by the attacks of foemen. Therefore even now this tripod is hidden in that land near the pleasant city of Hyllus, far beneath the earth, that it may ever be unseen by mortals. Yet they found not King Hyllus still alive in the land, whom fair Melite bare to Heracles in the land of the Phaeacians. For he came to the abode of Nausithous and to Macris, the nurse of Dionysus, to cleanse himself from the deadly murder of his children; here he loved and overcame the water nymph Melite, the daughter of the river Aegaeus, and she bare mighty Hyllus. But when he had grown up he desired not to dwell in that island under the rule of Nausithous the king; but he collected a host of native Phaeacians and came to the Cronian sea; for the hero King Nausithous aided his journey, and there he settled, and the Mentores slew him as he was fighting for the oxen of his field.

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(ll. 557-591) When Apsyrtus had fallen in mighty overthrow Zeus himself, king of gods, was seized with wrath at what they had done and he ordained that by the counsels of Aeaean Circe they should cleanse themselves from the terrible stain of blood and suffer countless woes before their return. Yet none of the chieftains knew this; but far onward they sped starting from the Hyllean land, and they left behind all the islands that were beforetime thronged by the Colchians—the Liburnian isles, isle after isle, Issa, Dysceladus, and lovely Pityeia. Next after them they came to Corcyra, where Poseidon settled the daughter of Asopus, fair-haired Corcyra, far from the land of Phlius . (ll. 627-658) Thence they entered the deep stream of Rhodanus which flows into Eridanus from Rhodanus they entered stormy lakes, which spread throughout the Celtic mainland of wondrous size; and there they would have met with an inglorious calamity; for a certain branch of the river was bearing them towards a gulf of Ocean which in ignorance they were about to enter, and never would they have returned from there in safety, but Hera leaping forth from heaven pealed her cry from the Hercynian rock; and all together were shaken with fear of her cry; for terribly crashed the mighty firmament. And backward they turned by reason of the goddess, and noted the path by which their return was ordained and after a long while they came to the beach of the surging sea by the devising of Hera, passing unharmed through countless tribes of the Celts and Ligyans. For round them the goddess poured a dread mist day by day as they fared on. And so, sailing through the midmost mouth, they reached the Stoechades islands in safety by the aid of the sons of Zeus; wherefore altars and sacred rites are established in their honour for ever; (ll. 659-684) And from there they passed through the sea, beholding the Tyrrhenian shores of Ausonia; and they came to the famous harbour of Aeaea, and from the ship they cast hawsers to the shore near at hand and here they found Circe bathing her head in the salt sea-spray, for sorely had she been scared by visions of the night. With blood her chambers and all the walls of her palace seemed to be running, and flame was devouring all the magic herbs with which she used to bewitch strangers whoever came; and she herself with murderous blood quenched the glowing flame, drawing it up in her hands; and she ceased from deadly fear. Wherefore when morning came she rose, and with sea-spray was bathing her hair and her garments. And beasts, not resembling the beasts of the wild, nor yet like men in body, but with a medley of limbs, went in a throng, as sheep from the fold in multitudes follow the shepherd. Such creatures, compacted of various limbs, did each herself produce from the primeval slime when she had not yet grown solid beneath a rainless sky

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nor yet had received a drop of moisture from the rays of the scorching sun; but time combined these forms and marshalled them in their ranks; in such wise these monsters shapeless of form followed her. And exceeding wonder seized the heroes, and at once, as each gazed on the form and face of Circe, they readily guessed that she was the sister of Aeetes. (ll. 685-717) Now when she had dismissed the fears of her nightly visions, straightway she fared backwards, and in her subtlety she bade the heroes follow, charming them on with her hand. Thereupon the host remained stedfast at the bidding of Aeson's son, but Jason drew with him the Colchian maid and both followed the selfsame path till they reached the hall of Circe and she in amazement at their coming bade them sit on brightly burnished seats and they, quiet and silent, sped to the hearth and sat there, as is the wont of wretched suppliants. Medea hid her face in both her hands, but Jason fixed in the ground the mighty hilted sword with which he had slain Aeetes' son; nor did they raise their eyes to meet her look. And straightway Circe became aware of the doom of a suppliant and the guilt of murder. Wherefore in reverence for the ordinance of Zeus, the god of suppliants, who is a god of wrath yet mightily aids slayers of men, she began to offer the sacrifice with which ruthless suppliants are cleansed from guilt when they approach the altar. first, to atone for the murder still unexpiated, she held above their heads the young of a sow whose dugs yet swelled from the fruit of the womb, and, severing its neck, sprinkled their hands with the blood; and again she made propitiation with other drink offerings, calling on Zeus the Cleanser, the protector of murder-stained suppliants and all the defilements in a mass her attendants bore forth from the palace—the Naiad nymphs who ministered all things to her and within, Circe, standing by the hearth, kept burning atonement-cakes without wine, praying the while that she might stay from their wrath the terrible Furies, and that Zeus himself might be propitious and gentle to them both, whether with hands stained by the blood of a stranger or, as kinsfolk, by the blood of a kinsman, they should implore his grace. (ll. 718-738) But when she had wrought all her task, then she raised them up and seated them on well polished seats, and herself sat near, face to face with them. And at once she asked them clearly of their business and their voyaging, and whence they had come to her land and palace, and had thus seated themselves as suppliants at her hearth. For in truth the hideous remembrance of her dreams entered her mind as she pondered; and she longed to hear the voice of the maiden, her kinswoman, as soon as she saw that she had raised her eyes from the ground.

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For all those of the race of Helios were plain to discern, since by the far flashing of their eyes they shot in front of them a gleam as of gold. So Medea told her all she asked—the daughter of Aeetes of the gloomy heart5, speaking gently in the Colchian tongue, both of the quest and the journeyings of the heroes, and of their toils in the swift contests, and how she had sinned through the counsels of her much-sorrowing sister, and how with the sons of Phrixus she had fled afar from the tyrannous horrors of her father; but she shrank from telling of the murder of Apsyrtus. Yet she escaped not Circe's ken; nevertheless, in spite of all, she pitied the weeping maiden, and spake thus: (ll. 739-748) "Poor wretch, an evil and shameful return hast thou planned. Not for long, I ween, wilt thou escape the heavy wrath of Aeetes; but soon will he go even to the dwellings of Hellas to avenge the blood of his son, for intolerable are the deeds thou hast done. But since thou art my suppliant and my kinswoman, no further ill shall I devise against thee at thy coming; but begone from my halls, companioning the stranger, whosoever he be, this unknown one that thou hast taken in thy father's despite; and kneel not to me at my hearth, for never will I approve thy counsels and thy shameful flight." (ll. 749-752) Thus she spake, and measureless anguish seized the maid; and over her eyes she cast her robe and poured forth a lamentation, until the hero took her by the hand and led her forth from the hall quivering with fear. So they left the home of Circe.

5

A Cretan recognition that they were acquainted with the Colchian language.

ANCIENT ECONOMIES

The Argonaut Epos and Bronze Age Economic History The first part of this essay seeks to "decipher" the mythical component of the Argonaut epos and lay bare its underlying economic meaning. Stanford (1939: 181-82) makes clear that deciphering is required because: No genre of Greek poetry is entirely free from deliberate ambiguities, whether trivial puns, superstitious or sophisticated etymologies, cryptic oracles, diplomatic evasions, cunning and deceptive equivocations, humorous or cacemphatic doubles entendres, unconscious foreshadowings of catastrophe, allusive phrases, associative meanings and vagueness, or any other of the manifold devices of ambiguity in its wider sense. Simpler lyric poetry had least of it, drama most. More specifically, as Bacon (1925: 65) aptly notes: "The Greek fantasy did not scorn the quest for riches or despise economic motives; it dissembled them." Then, in the second part, attention is given to the question of whether the trade pattern depicted in the epos is consistent with what is known about economic potentialities or alternatively, is purely fictional. The ultimate objective is to use evidence from literary documents including even mythology to help bridge some of the gaps in our knowledge of commercial life in the second millennium BCE. In brief explanation of this unorthodox, for economists, source of data let me quote the apt remarks of Purcell (1985: 1) in his article about "Wine and Wealth in Ancient Italy": The nature of our evidence about economic production in the ancient world is such that we usually know far more about the cultural and intellectual repercussions of changes than we do about the changes themselves. So it is perverse to refuse to use the widest range of ancient cultural material in the attempt to shed light on the evolution of economic and social realities. A bare-bones summary of the epos should suffice for the present. The action is set at a point in time prior to the Trojan War. Jason and his fellow Argonauts (termed "Minyans") receive a commission from Pelias, the ruler of Iolkos (current Volos), in Thessaly (northern Greece) and sail off in the Argo to Kolchis in quest of the "Golden Fleece" (Pi. P. 4.69, 165; Hes. Th. 165).

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The destination, Kolchis (capital city Aia) is a land located at the extreme eastern shore of the Black Sea in the Georgia region (Boardman 1980: 254). After various adventures, Jason returns to Iolkos, with the Golden Fleece and Medea, the daughter of Aietes, the Kolchian ruler. Source – Ancient Economies - Morris Silver B.A. Ph D (Economics)6 There are two rather obvious indications that Jason is a trader on a trading mission. First, Pelias speaks openly of Jason's athlon or (aethlon) whose basic meaning is "activity carried out for a prize" (LSJ s.v.) or, in the language of commerce, a "commission." Second, is the fact that Jason's "son" is a trader. In the Iliad (7.470-73) we find Euneos "Ship-man," the son of Jason and ruler of Lemnos (an island in the northeastern Aegean), selling wine to the Greek army before Troy. Business relationships in the ancient world were often expressed by means of metaphorical extensions of kinship terms. Thus, the word "son" might mean "son" or "servant" or "employee" or "agent" (Silver 1995: 50-3).

Analysis of the Epos - Nature of the Golden Fleece We come immediately to the very heart of the myth: What is a Golden Fleece? The main competing answer to the one I propose below is that, as reported by Strabo, Appian, and several modern observers, gold was obtained from the gold-bearing rivers of Colchis by means of sheepskins. Strabo (11.2.19) maintains that the Kolchians collected gold dust by suspending fine-wooled fleeces in the Phasis; see also Ryder (1983: 14647). Appian, a Roman historian of the second century CE, suggests that "Many streams issue from Caucasus bearing gold dust so fine as to be invisible. The inhabitants put sheepskins with shaggy fleece into the stream and thus collect the floating particles; and perhaps the golden fleece of Aeetes was of this kind" (quoted by Lordkipanidze 2001: 26). Lordkipanidze (2001: 29) adds the important point that furthermore, in the mountain regions of Western Georgia the technique of obtaining gold with the help of sheepskins ... was preserved until recently. 6 Morris Silver presents a very informative study of Ancient Economies. His insight into Archaic Cultural trade is accurately presented, especially his insight into ‘Greek’ (or Cretan) cultural interaction with Colchis and often overlooked archaic ‘trade area.’ His ideas have not been condensed to the extent which would inhibit the ‘depth’of his analysis or the quality of his presentation, my abbreviations are for technical purposes only. (R.D.Morritt)

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According to ethnographers' descriptions, in Svaneti (i.e. a mountain region on the south-western slope of the Greater Caucasus from where the gold-bearing river Inguri flows): "gold is obtained by means of sheepskins. A sheepskin, stretched over a board or flattened in some other way was placed in the river, fixing it so as not to be carried away by the stream, with the fleece on the upper side. The soaked fleece trapped the gold particles... In 1984, the well-known traveller-experimentalist Tim Severin, who retraced the way of the Argonauts in a 20-oar boat, witnessed the obtaining of gold in Svaneti with the help of sheepskins. This may well be the case but I believe that the argument presented below explains more of the available evidence. Hoffman (1994: 36) suggests that "In economic terms 'Golden Fleece' joins wealth in metals (gold) with wealth in flocks (fleece), and these two commodities together constitute the basis of the pre-monetary economy." But the Athenian orator Isocrates (436-338) was struck by the fascination with which men viewed porphyra "purple dye" and gold (Panath. 12.39; cited by Crane 1993: 131). Jenkins (1985: 123-24) adds that there is, perhaps, no more concrete demonstration of the affinity between the finest textiles and objects of precious metal than in Homer, where time and time again the two commodities are coupled as the status trappings of aristocratic wealth, the textile counterpart of gold was purple-dyed cloth. The answer proposed here goes beyond mere commonalities or linkages in arguing that "golden fleece" (chryseion kôas) signifies wool or cloth or woolen garments that are dyed with murex-purple and then exchanged for gold. Before defending this proposition, it should be explained that purple dye was obtained from the hypobranchial gland in the mantle cavity of Murex and Thais (or related Purpura and Nucella) marine snails (see Reese 1979-1980: 79). There were, of course, regional differences in the distribution of the different species and, hence, in the local availability of their characteristic dyes. (Reese 1979-1980: 81). The defense of our interpretation of "golden fleece" begins with the report of the first century BCE Roman writer Varro (On Agriculture, II, i, 6) stating that flocks with valuable fleeces "like [those] of Atreus in Argos" were said to have "golden fleeces" (cited by Ryder 1983: 14). Euripides had earlier made this point in more dramatic fashion. When, in the Electra (700-10), Pan brought forth from the flocks of Atreus to the marketplace (agora) "a lamb bright-fleeced with the splendor of gold" the "herald" (keryx), here arguably meaning "auctioneer," cried for all to behold the "awesome portent" (Way 1912; LSJ s.v. keryx). Thus, reading between the lines, a portent of wealth was to determine whether Atreus or Thyestes should become king (compare Lordkipanidze

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2001: 3-4). "The one who holds the golden lamb must hold the kingship," according to a scholia to Il. 2.105 (cited by Faraone 1992: n. 18, 30). Apollodorus (Ep. 2.10-12) adds that Atreus choked the lamb and deposited it in a larnax "coffer, box chest"; the larnax found its way into the hands of Thyestes who produced the golden lamb and was made king (Frazer 1921). One may observe that a larnax was a suitable place for depositing gold!

Purple Dyed Cloth In the Agamemnon of Aeschylus a purple-dyed carpet is considered much too good to walk on for it is argyro ne tos (949) meaning "bought with silver" or, better, "worth silver." Reference is also made in the same drama to "juice of purple, worth its weight in silver ... for the dyeing" (959-60; Deniston and Page 1957: 154). Similarly, the fourth century BCE historian Theopompus reported that "purple for dyes fetched its weight in silver at Colophon [in Asia Minor]" (cited by Athenaeus [12.526] in c. 200 BCE; Gulick 1941). Although this is a matter of dispute among linguists and regarded as not proven, it does seem possible that in Ugarit the same word argamannu (alphabetic argmn or irgmn) meant both "purple" and "tribute". (van Soldt [1990: 344] maintains that argmn means only "tribute" in the Ugaritic texts.) It is clear, however, that in the first millennium, in areas of Hittite background, the Akkadian word argamannu means both "red purple wool" and "tribute" (CAD s.v. argamannu). In any event an identification of purple-dyed cloth with precious metal or means of payment generally is not drastically out of line with the "moneyness", to use a term coined by economists, of this commodity. Not only was purple easily transformed into gold via the market, but also, like gold, it was an excellent store of value when embodied in cloth. This is well illustrated in Plutarch's Life of Alexander (36.1) by the report that the Persian ruler Darius' treasury at Susa housed 5,000 talents by weight of purple-dyed cloth, which had lost none of its freshness of color during almost two centuries of storage. Purple was (almost) as good as gold! With respect to the "golden fleece" of the Argonaut myth, the scholarly commentary on the words "fleece all golden" in Euripides' Medea (5) suggests that while some interpreters described the fleece itself to be of gold, Simonides (sixth to fifth century BCE) said in his Hymn to Poseidon (fr. 21) that "it was dyed with sea-purple" (Edmonds 1924: 2: 273). Apparently the same view was expressed by another writer of the fifth

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century, Acusilaus as reported in a scholia on Apollonius Rhodius (4.117) (Braund 1994: 23-4; Bacon 1925: 21; cf. Str. 1.2.40). On the other hand, against my interpretation, a fragment of Mimnermus (sixth century BCE) seems to speak of Jason bearing "the fleece away from Aia home". Yet, in another fragment of the same early writer, the description of Aia's treasured asset seems to fit gold better than fleece: (M.Silver) Aietes' city where the swift sun's flame [rays] lies stored within its golden treasury [thalamos]. By Ocean's marge where godlike Jason came. (Both Mimnermus fragments cited by Bacon 1921: 21). In connection with previous contacts with the Black Sea region mention should be made next of the blind Thracian seer Phineus a "son" of Poseidon (or Agenor) who received his gift of divination from Apollo. This Phineus advised Phrixos how to sail from Kolchis to Greece. He also told the Argonauts in detail the safe route from Thrace to Kolchis.

At Kolchis was it trade or war? Standard translations of verse 212 of Pindar's Fourth Pythian Ode have the Argonauts rather mysteriously "joined in battle" with the Kolchians. Farnell (1932: 163), who supports this translation, nevertheless remarks that "The scholiasts, evidently in ignorance of any such tradition [of battle] explained it as meaning 'they in their might [bian] mingled with the Kolchoi; neither Pindar nor any other Greek would use such a phrase." It is difficult to believe, however, that the scholarly commentators were unaware of the limits of Greek usage. The Return Journey from Kolchis Diodorus Sicilus (4.49.1-3) has the Argonauts, on their return journey from Kolchis, landing at the mouth of the Pontos to set up altars at the site of Byzantium and then sailing through the Propontis and Hellespont to the Troad. Then they set forth from the Troad and arrived at Samothrace, an island northeast of Lemnos, where they again paid their vows to the great gods and dedicated in the sacred precincts the bowls which are preserved there even to this day" (D.S 4.49.3; Oldfather 1933; emphasis added). Note that the Kabeiroi, arguably representing a corporation of artisantraders, had cults on Lemnos and the island of Samothrace. Apollonius Rhodius (1.913ff) has the Argonauts voyage from Lemnos to Samothrace to be initiated into the mysteries of the Kabeiroi prior to sailing on to Kolchis. Herodotus (2.51) claims that these mysteries were first introduced

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by the "Pelasgians" (see II.D). Interestingly, in historical times the initiated received a purple scarf to protect them on their travels (Lehmann 1960: 29). Consider further that Apollonius Rhodius (4.302) has the Argonauts set a complicated return course to avoid interception by the pursuing Kolchians. This course took them to the island of the Phaeacians, where Alkinoos ruled (see, for example, 4.769, 990-92, 113ff, 120ff). We are further informed that this island once was called Makridie_s (or Makris?) and now is called Drepane_ ("sickle") (Ap.R. 4.990, 1175; 4.540). Homer (Od. 5.34-35; 6.1-12) calls the land (island?) of Alkinoos and the Phaeacians "Scheria". In Homer's Scheria The women are concerned with weaving purple-dyed cloth: "The queen was sitting by the fireside with her attendant women, turning seapurple yarn on a distaff" (Od. 6.53; cf. 6.305ff; Lattimore 1965). For their part, the men were expert mariners and navigators (Od. 6.255-73): In the Phaeacian palace are fifty serving women and of these... there are those who weave the webs and who turn the distaffs, sitting restless as leaves of the tall black poplar, and from the cloths where it is sieved oozes limpid olive oil. As much as the Phaiakian men are expert beyond all others for driving a fast ship on the open sea, so their women are skilled in weaving and dowered with wisdom bestowed by Athene, to be expert in beautiful work... (7.103-11; Lattimore 1965) To close this discussion of a possible second call of the Argo at Lemnos for the purpose of settling accounts, let us take note of one more thing. Apollonius Rhodius (4.1141-42) says that "the [Argonauts and Phaeacians] spread a mighty couch; and thereon they laid [estoresan] the glittering fleece of gold" (Seaton 1912). The explanation for this display (of gold, I submit) is unconvincing: "So the marriage (of Jason and Medea) might be honored and the theme of songs" (Ap.R. 4.1142-43; Seaton 1912). I propose that Apollonius Rhodius changed the name of the island from Lemnos to Drepane (Scheria) and had the Argonauts spread out the gold earned at Kolchis for distribution among the cooperating parties, Argonauts and Lemnian women. Epos and Economic Potentialities. Let us begin by considering whether and when there were "Kolchians" and whether they might have had gold to give to the Greeks. It is well documented that in the early second millennium BCE Assur in Assyria exported tin and woolens overland to Anatolia and took in return silver and sometimes gold (Silver 1995: 82). In roughly the middle of the second millennium, gold in nontrivial quantities is listed in the Hittite royal inventories (Kempinski and Košak1977: 90). In fact, gold is

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geologically available in Anatolia (Maxwell-Hyslop cited by Stech and Pigott 1986: 48). Again, in the Iliad (18.268-92), Hektor laments that once, that is before the Greek war of attrition, Troy was spoken of as "a place with much gold and bronze" (Lattimore 1951; Graves 1960, 2:303). Moving closer to Kolchis, Cyzicus, a city situated on a large island close to the southern shore of the Propontis, had access to gold, as is demonstrated by its famous "white gold" coinage of the later sixth century BCE (Wallace 1987) Strabo (11.2.19) says that Colchis possessed gold mines in the course of suggesting a motive for the mythical voyage of the Argonauts but, as Braund (1994:62) points out, "he seems to have in mind the mineral wealth of Colchis is his own day." However, modern scholars inform us that according to the geology of the region Kolchis itself did not have rich gold deposits (Tsetskhladze and Treister cited by Muhly 1998:321). Braund (1994: 24) adds that "Colchian gold is only found in any quantity from the fifth century BC: before the seventh century there is almost nothing." In the fifth century BCE Greek goldsmiths became very active in the area. Indeed we have frequent mention in Greek literature of the second half of the first millennium BCE of "Golden Kolchis" (Lordkipanidze cited by Tuplin 1987: 35). But if, contrary to Strabo, Kolchis did not have gold mines of its own, where did the Colchian goldsmiths get their gold? Surely gold must have been near at hand. Boardman (1980: 245) stated that the search for metals had probably inspired the [Greek] foundations along the southern shores of the Black Sea and in the east, where the resources of the Caucasus and of Armenia might be tapped. ... There was gold at Phasis, and remoter sources might also have been exploited. There does seem to be direct evidence of gold mining in the Caucasus. Strabo mentions the existence in his own day of gold mines in Iberia in eastern Georgia. Pliny, indeed, makes a royal descendant of Aietes responsible for the beginning of mining in western Georgia; he is said to have extracted a large quantity of gold and silver in the land of the Suani, that is, the mountains of Svaneti [in northwest Georgia]" (Braund 1994: 61, citing Pliny NH. 33.52). Barnett (1956: 221) reports that the ninth- to sixth-century inscriptions from Urartu (central Armenia) frequently refer to the kingdom of Kulhai. This is the land of Kolchis and the recent Russian excavation of burials rich in gold and silver at Trialeti in central Caucasus, belonging to the late Bronze Age, shows that the Golden Fleece need not be considered all a figment of the imagination.[Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Del Monte indicated (ANE, January 28, 1999) that the identification of Qulha (modern reading) with Kolchis seems sound.]

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Hittite tablets of the fourteenth century BCE mention wars with peoples inhabiting the Armenian plateau (Suny 1988: 7). In the thirteenth century an Assyrian inscription records a campaign in the highlands around Lake Van against peoples designated collectively as Uruatri (Urartu). Somewhat later the population of this region are referred to as Nairi. Then, in the later twelfth century, an inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I (1115-1077) records a campaign in the lands of the Nairi which, Piotrovsky (1969: 43-4) explains: was directed not against the region to the southeast of Lake Van ... but against the whole western part of the Armenian highland area, from north to south. ... The Assyrian annals describe the campaign in the following words: "The god Ashur, my lord and master, sent me against the lands of the distant kings who dwell on the shore of the Upper Sea (i.e., the Black Sea), owning no master; and thither I went. ... Sixty kings of the lands of Nairi, together with those who came to their aid, did I drive my spear as far as the Upper Sea, I captured their great cities, I carried off their riches and spoils. (Emphasis added) Among the peoples defeated by the Assyrians are two, Mushki and Tabal, known for their metallurgy (Suny 1988: 6). So it is clear enough that the Black Sea region possessed ample gold and a significant urban civilization no later than the twelfth century BCE. It seems clear that "Kolchis" was the name of a significant civilization in the Black Sea region no later than the early first millennium. The Linear B tablets from Pylos in Messenia mention gold relatively frequently and in significant quantities. Orchomenos in northern Boeotia is, of course, famous for its so-called "Treasury of Minyas" and Homer (Il. 9.379ff) compares it to Thebes in Egypt as a city "where the greatest possessions lie up in the houses" (Lattimore 1951). Nilsson (1932: 137-38) takes note of the rich finds from the Mycenaean age in the neighborhood of Iolcos. At Kapakli quite near Iolcos Dr. Kuruniotes excavated a tholos tomb which was almost untouched and yielded rich finds, especially gold objects. In Thessaly the excavations (presumably) at Iolkos in Magnesia, the city where the Argonauts received their commission, revealed, indeed, a Mycenaean palace: It lies on a 25-acre hill within the periphery of modern Volos, its site marked by twenty feet of deposit. It flourished from 2500 to 1200 BCE , The excavators note a copper crucible of 2200. Iolkos increased in importance in Late Helladic I and II (1500-1400), perhaps under Minoan influence or at any rate through sea-borne commerce: vessels are figured on the pottery. In Late Helladic III (1400-1200) kylikes, many local, some

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from the Peloponnese [Mycenae?] abound, bespeaking a palace, as at Pylos. (MacKendrick 1981: 30).

Epos and Economic Potentialities – Excavations at Volos A report in The Timesof May 16, 2001 that Greek archaeologists have, they believe, found the site of Iolcos: "The archaeologists found the remains of two parts of a building, covering about 7,000 square yards, and traces of a wide thoroughfare, during excavations on the purported site of the city, a promontory opposite the modern port of Volos. Vasiliki Ardymi-Sismani, of the Ministry of Cuture, said: 'We believe that this building was a palace, not only because of its size, but also its complexity.' The palace appears to have been a manufacturing and trading centre, with areas for the storage of food, pottery making, a jeweller’s workshop and a weapons factory." In a recent article in the Athens Annals of Archaeology (Vol. 32-34, 1999-2001), Dr. Adrymi-Sismani illustrates Linear B signs on a stone object and a kylix sherd from Iolcos. Where did the Mycenaean gold come from? In the absence of significant production within Greece, it must have been of foreign origin .see Chadwick 1976: 45)However, neither the Linear B texts nor archaeology pinpoint the foreign source(s). However, it is reported that about 20 percent of the analyzed Mycenaean gold is of the tin-and platinum-free type also found in the rich gold found at Varna on the Bulgarian coast of the Black Sea (Muhly 1983: 3-4, citing Hartmann). Outright plunder no doubt made a contribution, but more or less peaceful trade cannot be excluded as a major source. Specifically, Thessaly's exports of cloth to the Black Sea region (Kolchis) may have made a significant contribution. Perhaps Pylos earned a share of the Kolchian gold by exporting oil to Thessaly Mycenaean interconnections are demonstrated by finds of labeled Cretan stirrup jars at Mycenae, Tiryns, Thebes, Eleusis, Kreusis and Orchomenos (Hallager 1987; 79).

Did the Kolchians Value Purple-dyed Fleece? The best that can be done in answering this question is to examine the preferences of their neighbors, including the Hittites. Cultural connections and similarities between the Hittites and the peoples of the Black Sea region are at least hinted by the excavation of Hittite-style pottery at various sites including Dundartepe near Samsun on the Black Sea (Macqueen 1986: 104). Rubinson (1977: 241-43) has noted several parallels

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between the metalwork of central Anatolia and objects found at Trialeti in Georgia. The texts of the Hittites are not silent concerning the "Fleece". At their religions center Zipplanda they celebrated a "Voyage of the 'Sacred Fleece' (kuršaš) in the Winter" (Singer 1984: 108, 120). "In the myth of the god who disappears [Telipinu] the kursa of a sheep is hanging from an evergreen tree [eyan-tree or pole] filled with all good things like 'sheep's fat, (abundance of) grain, (wild) animals, and wine, cattle and sheep, long lifetime, and progeny'" (Güterbock 1989: 115; cf. Hoffner and Beckman 1990: 17). (We also find "the gentle message (sound) of the lamb" [Watkins 2002: 171]. Clearly, the eyan-tree is a symbol of wealth/ prosperity (Westbrook and Woodard 1990: 649).

The Argonaut Epos - Purple Dyeing Of Wool In one version of the Argonaut Epos the Golden Fleece is draped over an (evergreen?) oak tree [Ap.R. 4.122-25].) Hittite texts disclose the existence of a spring festival in which the kurša or "Sacred Fleece" was carried from one city to another (Haas 1975: 228). We also find the phrase "the fleece of Inara". This Inara, the mistress of waters, was the possessor of a "house" or "house of the wave (Haas 1975: 229-30; Puhvel 1981: 354). Morris (2001: 431) takes the kurša to be a kind of bag and she adds that "In etymology and in meaning its relatives include the Greek word bursa [my transliteration], both a leather bag and a source of wealth, and the modern purse, French 'bourse', or Italian 'borsa'." She relates the kurša not only to the Golden Fleece but to "the device which decorates the breast of Artemis as a series of leather bags, and Athena, in the shape of a scaly aegis" (Morris 2001: 431). In this connection Watkins (2002: 172) cites the formulaic similarity between Iliad 2.447 wherein Athena is pictured "holding the precious aegis, unaging, undying, whose 100 tassels all in gold flutter in the wind" and Pindar (Pyth. 4.230-231): "Let him bring the imperishable coverlet, the gleaming fleece tasseled in gold." It is not known whether the sheep of Hittite Anatolia and the Black Sea region had the fine white fleece suitable for purple-dyeing (H.B. Carter 1969: 15). Carter (1969: 15) surmises that the appropriate breed of sheep "may have been known in some early form to the Minoan civilization of Crete or Mycenaean cities of pre-Achaean Greece." In fact, the purple dyeing of wool (or cloth) is mentioned in the Linear B texts. It is known of course that Anatolia imported woolen garments and mašku_ šapa_tim "woolen fleeces" (literally "hides with wool") or mašku_ šapi_u_tim ["hides thick (with wool)"] from Assur in Assyria in the early second

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millennium (Veenhof 1972: 132). Moreover, the documents of this Old Assyrian trade refer to sa_mun "red" and šinu_m "dyed" wool and cloth (Veenhof 1972: 131-33, 188).

How ancient is the connection between Greece and the Black Sea region? There is a good deal of evidence of Greek contacts with Anatolia. Note first that place names with non-Indo-European terminations in -ssos or ttos, in -inthos or -indos and in the plural -enai (e.g. Parnassos, Hymettos, Cnossos, Corinth, Tiryns, Athenai and Mycenai) ... are found most thickly in western and southern Asia Minor, the Aegean islands, and eastern peninsular Greece, but rarely in Macedonia and Epirus. (Hammond 1986: 38-9) More recent research suggests that the place name endings are in fact Indo-European and "can be accounted for as typically Anatolian or, to be more precise, Luwian" (Finkelberg 1997: 7) Hammond (1986: 38-9) believes that "this pattern of distribution [of place name endings] is an indication of settlement". We may certainly agree that is an indication of early interaction between Greece and Anatolia. In this connection it is well to note that Homer (Il.4.681) speaks of a "Pelasgian Argos" in Thessaly which Kirk (1985: 228-29) explains must be the region of the Sperkheios River and the Malian plain. The Pelasgoi were thought of as prehistoric inhabitants of Greece. There were Pelasgoi in Crete according to Od. 19.177. and there were Pelasgoi in Asia Minor too Hittite texts of (roughly) the fourteenth to thirteenth century mention the countries of Ahhiyava and Lazpa and someone named Tavakavalas is termed an Ayavalash king and a "brother" of the ruler of Ahhiyava. In discussing these references Hammond (1986: 51-2) maintains that The word "Ahhiyava" (or in an earlier form "Ahhayiva") is clearly a transcription of the Greek word "Akhaïa," just as "Ayavalash" (of which the ending is a Hittite ethnic) is a transcription of "Akhaïos" ... "Lazpa" was doubtless the island Lesbos, and "Tariosa" (in another Hittite document) was Troy.

The Argonaut Epos With respect to the linguistic difficulties in identifying the ethnikon Ahhiyawa with Greek Achaioi, Finkelberg (1988) has argued that the Greek can be derived from the Hittite by means of the application of

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phonetic developments operative in Greek between the fourteenth and eighth centuries, the time of Homer. Hiller (1991: 214) notes a "striking correspondence" between names in the Argonaut epos and names in Mycenaean Linear B, especially from Pylos: he lists Aiaia (the island of Aia), Aites (the Lord of Aia), Athamas (father of Phrixos), Kretheus (brother of Athamas), Amythaon (son of Kretheus), Iason (leader of the Argonauts), Mopsos (seer of Argonauts), and Lynkeus (spy of Argonauts). Hiller (1991: 214) concludes most significantly that These names (for some of which it has to be admitted that they can be transliterated also in other ways) cannot of course, prove anything else but their mere existence already in the Mycenaean period. It could, however, be of some importance that for the greater part they are attested in the Pylos tablets. The Argonauts are traditionally regarded as Minyans who were at home in Southern Thessaly and Northern Boeotia; the same is true for the Pylian Neleides.

Epos and Economic Potentialities Thessalian names at Mycenaean Pylos As has been recognized long ago, there is a remarkable coincidence of river names both in Thessaly and in the Thessalian offspring of the Neleid dynasty. For the same reason a clustering of heroic personal names, originally at home in Thessaly, could be expected to reappear in Mycenaean Pylos. That this is really the case, lends further confidence to the assumption of a Mycenaean origin of the Argonaut epos Certainly this kind of evidence does on balance favor the idea that mainland Greece was involved in Anatolian and Pontic affairs no later than the second half of the second millennium (see Gütterbock 1983; Bryce 1989). Turning to archaeological evidence, let us first of all note the important evidence from Samothrace. (It will be remembered [see I.E] that the Argonauts voyaged from Lemnos to nearby Samothrace to be initiated in the mysteries of the Kabeiroi.) Dimitri Matsas (1995) published a Linear A inscription—in fact, one in the series of five finds inscribed in Cretan Hieroglyphic and Linear A— which was unearthed in Samothrace in the northeastern Aegean. The archaeological context suggests that these finds—two roundels, two noduli and a nodule—should be dated as early as MM II/MM IIIA (the second half of the 18th century BC. Moving from a coastal island to the continent, J. Warner (1979: 146) suggests that "The West Anatolian building tradition of the Early Bronze

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Age seems most closely related to the architecture of Thessaly and SE Europe where both the megaron and aspidal plans appear in the Early Bronze Age and before; the relationship is particularly close between the Anatolian and Thracian examples." Vase shapes (the kantharos with crinkled rim) believed to be of Anatolian origin have been discovered at Crete and dated to the early second millennium (Watrous 1987:67, 70, citing E. Davis). Indeed, Pefkakia (ancient Neleia?), a port on the coast of Thessaly near Volos (Iolkos) was receiving pottery linked to western Anatolia as early as the end of the third millennium (Warren 1989: 7). Figurines attributed to the Hittites have been found in Tiryns and Nezero in Thessaly (Yakar 1976: 126, citing Canby).

Aegean Trade Settlements in Anatolia In 1978 and 1998 Mee surveyed the archaeological indications of Aegean trade/settlement in Anatolia. He cites the finding of: Mycenaean pottery sherds in central and coastal sites, especially Troy; Minoan style pottery at Akbük, Didyma, Iasos (also Minoan style architecture) and, especially, Miletus (together with Minoan architecture, frescoes and jewellery); and Middle Minoan pottery linking Caria with the Cyclades in the third millennium. Mention should be made of a Mycenaean-type sword found accidentally at the Hittite capital, Hattushas (Cline 1996). Lightfoot (1998: 47-8) reports the find of two relief vases in northern central Anatolia which are tentatively dated to the seventeenth century BCE. The smaller of the two vases bears one particularly striking and significant scene, for it depicts a bull above which there are two somersaulting acrobats. Since the vase would seem to predate the famous bull fresco found in the Minoan Palace at Knossos in Crete, the discovery provides new evidence for cross-cultural links and, possibly, for Anatolian influences on Minoan civilization.

Frescoes also Linear B at Miletus Several caveats must be kept in mind, however. Maria C. Shaw points to the remains in Crete of bull-leaping frescoes that are earlier than the "famous" example and, more importantly, that we need to see illustrations of this vase before we can from an opinion on the question of interconnections and transmissions of themes. There is no reason why bull leaping may not have been practiced both in the Aegean and the Near East. When it comes to representations in art, however, that is a much more

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complex issue. So far "bull leaping" representations in Near Eastern scenes are idiosyncratic; they look different from those in the Minoan frescoes of the theme. (AEGEANET, February 6, 1998). Niemeier (1998) reports strong evidence, in the form of masonry techniques, pottery, fragments of wall-frescoes, of Minoan and Mycenaean influences at Miletus and other sites in western Anatolia. He concludes that the Miletus evidence favors an actual Minoan settlement possibly as early as the mid-seventeenth century and, somewhat later, settlement by Mycenaeans. Further, the excavators of Miletus found two fragments of local pithoi each bearing a sign that was incised before firing. Both are regarded as Linear B signs "but this identification is not completely unequivocal" (Niemeier 1998: 37). Most dramatically, Niemeier (1996; 1998:28) reports the find in a secure deposit dated to c. 1425 (Aegean low chronology) or c. 1490/70 (Aegean high chronology) of three joined fragments of a local clay vessel bearing three signs, incised before firing, in the Linear A script. There are also "claimed Linear A inscribed 'spindle whorls' from Troy" (Godart, cited by John Younger, AEGEANET, November 29, 1998). Tom Palaima writes: "The Linear A on spindle whorls is pure fantasy. These are spindle whorls with abstract patterns, nothing more (AEGEANET April 25, 2004). With respect to the Miletus Linear A inscription, Palaima suggests that sign no. 1 (L 1/AB 56) occurs infrequently also in Mycenaean Greek Linear B, but in a pattern of alternative spellings that clearly shows that the sign was retained by the Mycenaean scribes to render in precise spellings Minoan anthroponyms, theonyms, toponyms, and two Minoan loan words for a special kind of vessel and a particular color used in dyeing textiles. As such AB 56 (along with AB 22 and AB 29) are closely connected with the phonological peculiarities of the Minoan language. This makes it nearly certain that the Linear A MIL Zb 1 represents a Minoan word. (AEGEANET, July 25, 1996)

Black Sea origins excavated? Margalit Finkelberg noted that "most of the hypotheses circulating today claim that the Minoan language is somehow related to ANATOLIAN" and she cited new evidence that may point in this direction (AEGEANET, March 8, 1998). Issues of this kind are, however, beyond the scope of this essay. For the present study of course evidence of interactions in the Pontic area are of the greatest importance. Rubinson (1991: 283-85) reports that

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some kind of contact, either direct or indirect must have existed between Transcaucasia and Mycenae during the mid-second millennium B.C.E. ... The primary evidence comes from the site of Trialeti ... located on the Tsalk Plateau in the southern Georgian SSR. It is the burials belonging to the last phase, Middle Bronze III, ca, 1600 to ca. 1450 B.C.E. from which the materials with Aegean parallels are found.. In light of the close technical and stylistic similarities of the cauldrons [the Trialeti cauldron and one found in Shaft Grave 4 at Mycenae] the features of the spear points and other weapons shared between Trialeti and the Aegean may be considered possible influences, rather than accidental similarities. ... Dating to slightly later, the thirteenth century B.C.E., Mycenaean IIIB ceramics were found at Mashat in Anatolia, not far from the Black Sea Coast. These may have arrived there via the Black Sea rather than overland as the excavator suggests. Harding (1984: 49) mentions that "two {copper] ingots, one allegedly bearing Aegean signs ["stamped or incised Linear A or Cypro-Minoan signs"], have been recovered from the Black Sea off Bulgaria" (Emphasis added). One possibly of ox-hide, an ingot, without incised signs, was found in the Black Sea by underwater archaeology near Cape Kaliakra, in the region of Balchik on the northern Bulgarian coast. [J.G. de Boer (2002: 444), however, states flatly that the description of this ingot "as an ox-hide ingot is a pure invention on the part of the excavator".] The second, more standard looking copper ox-hide ingot, lacking only the four carrying handles, does bear Linear script. It comes from the Bulgarian village of Cherkovo in the Bourgas region (Petya Hristova, AEGEANET, January 21, 1999). Hiller (1991: 209-10) states that "The ingot from Cerkovo (near Karnobat) - it seems to be of copper - bears an incised mark comparable to Aegean Linear signs. Brendan McDermott cautiously suggested that the incised mark looks like a plus sign (AEGEANET, January 21, 1999). Robert Drew's suggested (to Morris Silver in correspomdence in 1989) that "A Golden Fleece does suggest an imaginary ingot of gold (analogous to the 'ox-hide ingots of copper that have turned up in so many places)." The ox-hide ingots of copper date from the period 1500 to 1100 ( Silver 1995: 142). Another find is a clay object in the form of a prism bearing a Linear inscription and a pictograph, possibly of a metal ingot. This object comes from the surface of a pre-historic settlement near Bourgas. There is also a clay tablet with Linear script which was found in the pre-historic settlement at Drama in Iambol. (Petya Hristova. AEGEANET, January 21, 1999).

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Mellink (1988: 115-16) adds that Lévèque "confidently" lists several indications of Aegean-Pontic contacts: one is the silver "Vaphio cup" [Vaphio lies to the south of Sparta] from Kirovakan in Soviet Armenia. ... It dates to the 15th or 16th century B.C.. The other reference is to the ingot found near Cape Kaliakra [noted above] and several anchors of East Mediterranean type

Does Homer provide evidence of Bronze Age Greek contacts with Anatolia and the Pontos? Homer is conventionally dated to the eighth century. However, a passage in the Odyssey (12.70) refers to the Argo as being "in all men's minds" (Lattimore 1965). As Hiller (1991: 213, citing Lesky) points out, the implication of this clearly intended quotation is that there existed a still earlier version of the Argonaut myth. More concretely, the Iliad (2.851-77; especially 853-55) displays a considerable knowledge of the southern coast of the Black Sea.,beyond Homer's surviving "Catalogue of Trojan Allies," Strabo (1.1.10) maintains that Homer mentioned "the Propontis and the Euxine Sea as far as Colchis and the limits of Jason's expedition" (H.L. Jones 1932). Drews (1976: 201) argues that there is no basis for the argument that the material in the Iliad represents a late interpolation and he goes on to reason that if one accepts the conventional date for the Iliad and ascribes the Catalogue of Trojan Allies to the poet of the Iliad one must conclude that by the late eighth-century some Greeks, at least, knew about a number of native settlements on the Paphlogonian coast.. If, on the other hand, one believes (with Allen, Page, Lazenby and R.H. Simpson) that the Catalogue of Trojan Allies was passed down from the end of the Bronze Age, one must assume that the Mycenaean Greeks were familiar with the Paphlagonian coast, and that the native settlements on that coast retained their identity through the troubled Iron Age. (Drews 1976: 21-2) It is of interest in this connection that, according to a geological study, Homer's description of the geography of the area around Troy is consistent with the sediment record of the Dardanelles coastline in c. 3000 BCE. Of course this constancy of identity over so long a period is troubling. On the other hand, it would not be unprecedented historically and, as the remarks of Hammond (1986: 63) demonstrate, the Iliad does preserve Bronze Age data: A number of names in the Trojan catalogue recur in Hittite and Egyptian documents of the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries: Ilioi

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(Iliunna), Dardanoi (Dardenui), Lukie and Lukioi (Luka), Pedasos (Pidasa), Asios (Asuva), Musoi (Musa), while Troia (Tariosa), Lesbos (Lazpa) and Kilikes (Kilikisha) occur elsewhere in the Iliad. To Hammond's report we may append that "a Luvian text, more or less contemporary with the Mycenaean period identifies the city as Ilium and even employs a popular formula in the Iliad: 'steep Ilium'" (Scully 1990: 7, citing Watkins; compare Kullman 1999: 108) Bennet [1997 524-26] has pointed out several features of epic language, that take us back to the period of Linear B.) Morris (2001: 4256) notes the identification of Homer's "Asia" (Il. 2.461) with Hittite Aššuwa and Linear B Aswiyos. Kullman (1999: 108) notes that "there exists a conspicuous onomastic parallel between a certain vassal of the Hittite king, Alaksandus by name, ruling at the beginning of the 13th century BC in a city called Wilusa, and Alexandros as the name of a prince of Ilion." Kullman (1999: n. 42, 108) is not convinced by Starke's identification of Ilion with Wilusa. However, his objection is not linguistic , but rather seems to be of an a priori kind: "there is an enormous chronological gap between the Anatolian texts and the tradition of the Greek singers." Kullman (1999: 108), similarly, rules out the possibility that the name Alaksandus was transmitted from the Bronze Age to Homer. However, he admits that "we have no evidence that the name of a King Alaksandus was current among the Anatolian population at the time of the Greek singers and could therefore have been borrowed by them." The geographic data found in Homer serve to reinforce the view that the Argonaut epos provides invaluable evidence of regular Greek contacts with the Black Sea region prior to the eighth century BCE and even as early as the second half of the second millennium. If Homer really wrote in the eighth century it appears that he had access to records of the Bronze Age which might have been maintained by temples. The role of Egyptian temples as repositories of economically valuable geographic information is reasonably well-attested (Silver 1995: 25-27). The Argonaut epos has been interpreted here as meaning that the Thessalians produced wool and cloth which they had purple-dyed at Lemnos in the northeastern Aegean and then carried to the Black Sea and exchanged for Kolchian gold. There is no proof that this is what really happened. Morris Silver, presented grounds for believing that this commodity composition of trade is at least consistent with the available evidence for the economic potentialities of Bronze Age Greece.

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The main difficulty is the availability of purple in Meliboea and the absence of direct evidence, literary or archaeological, for murex working in Lemnos. However, there is circumstantial evidence that is at least consistent with a Lemnian connection with purple dyeing. (Morris Silver’s) interpretation of the Argonaut epos replaces a nearly total vacuum in our knowledge of commercial relations between Bronze Age Greece and Asia Minor. Allowing another more small step towards solving the mysteries of ancient economic life. Note - Homer was well aware not only of the myth of the Argonauts, he knew about the existence of Aea-Colchis and ancient Colchian tribes. In the Iliad (II, 856), Halysones, a Pelasgo-Colchian tribe is mentioned for the first time. "Halysones came from the eastern silver-making town Halyb". Strabo identifies the tribe of Halysones with the ancient westGeorgian (Colchian) tribe of Halybes (or Khalib/Khaldi). Source- Iliad 11,856) and Strabo – Karalahana- Classical source. R.D.Morritt

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Appendix 1 - Sources for the Argonaut Epos Homer, conventionally dated to the eighth century, refers to the homeward voyage of the Argo from Aietes Od. 12.69ff) and describes the dangers of the Planktai (Roving Rocks) (Od. 12.59ff). In the Iliad (7.470-73; cf. 21.40-1), Homer tells that wine was brought from Lemnos and sold to the Greek army before Troy by Euneos who is called "son of Jason". Iolkos and Pelias are also mentioned by Homer (Od. 11.254-58). Hesiod, also dated to the eighth century, mentions the river Phasis (Th. 340) and speaks more expansively of Jason's return to Iolkos with the "daughter of Aietes" aboard a "swift ship" after he had completed the aethlon "commission" for Pelias Th. 956-69, 992-1002; cf. 956-61). Fragments of the late seventh-century poet Mimnermus identify Aietes' city with the land of Aia, refer to tasks demanded by Pelias, and, most importantly link Jason explicitly with the quest for the "fleece" (cited by Bacon 1925: 21). Kolchis is first mentioned in the later eighth century by the Corinthian Eume_los (cited by Graham 1958: n. 31, 41; cf. Braund 1994: 15). Epimenides of Crete is said to have written in the early sixth century mentioning the building of the Argo and Jason's voyage to the Kolchians (Diog. Laert. 1.111, cited by Braund 1994: 15-16). Early in the fifth century Pindar brought several key motifs together in his Fourth Pythian Ode: the Minyans (69) and the aethlon from Pelias (165); they depart for Kolchis and the Golden Fleece (69); and the daughter of Aites is named Medea (218). Pindar (Pi. 4.10ff, 210ff) and, somewhat later in the fifth century, Herodotus (1.2) identify Aia with Kolchis and locate it on the banks of the Phasis River (current Rion River) (see also Th. 340). The fifth century writer Xenophon (An. 5.6.37) points out that Aites was a patronymic of a dynasty of Kolchian kings (see also Str. 1.2.39). Again in the fifth century, fragments of Sophocles' Kolchides have Jason in Kolchis carrying out tasks assigned by Aietes, including a battle with brazen bulls (cited by Bacon 1925: 26). Aeschylus (fifth century) mentions Kolchis in the same context with Scythia (north of the Black Sea), Lake Maeotis (current Sea of Azov), the Caucasian Mountains, and "Arabia" (Pr. 414-24). Herodotus (1.104) explains that from the Maeotic lake to the river Phasis and the territory of the Kolchians is a thirty days' journey for the active traveler. From Kolchis it is no great distance to cross over into Media; in between there is only one nation, the Saspires. (Grene 1987). Additional details are provided by two fragmentary sixth century sources: Pherekydes and Simonides; the fifth century dramatists;

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Apollonius Rhodius and Eratosthenes in the third century; Apollodorus in the second century; the learned commentaries; Pausanias and Hyginus in the second century CE; and in the fifth century CE (?) by Stephanus of Byzantium.

Appendix 2 - Notes on Additional Economic Themes in the Argonaut Epos Monosandalos Theme A faint clue to the financial background of Jason's commission from Pelias of Iolkos may be found in the man-with-one-shoe or monosandalos theme. Jason arrived at Pelias' sacrifice to Poseidon wearing only one sandal. (Mentioned by Pherekydes in the earlier 6th century BCE, cited by Bacon 1925: 32; Pi. P.4.74ff, 4.92ff; Ap.R.1.5-14; Ap. 1.9.16 Near Eastern evidence may cast light on this theme. In the Bible's book of Ruth (4.7-8) the passing of one's shoe, like the passing to the straw (festuca) among the Romans, appears to be a conventional ritual which serves to bind an individual (the passer) to make delivery, repay a debt or the like. Lipinski (1982: 177) notices a similar practice in an Akkadian language letter from Ugarit dating from the fourteenth-thirteenth century. Morris Silver suspected that the meaning is that Jason had pledged his services or a tithe to cult (see I.C on the cultic auspices of the expedition.) According to Kingsley (1995: 250), "the single bronze sandal—symbol of Hecate—[served as the] magical sign of the ability to descend into the underworld." (A reference to P. Ashcroft.) Hekate, who counted Medea among her votaries, was worshipped in many places including Thessaly, Lemnos, Samothrace, and Caria in Asia Minor (Peck 1896: s.v. Hecate). Hekate plays a not unimportant role in Apollonius Rhodius' version of the epos (see 3.477-78; 842, 1035, 1211). Thucydides (3.22) tells that in c. 427 several hundred members of the garrison in Plataea, including most of the Athenians, crossed the Spartan lines wearing only their left shoe "to stop them slipping in the mud" (R. Warner 1954). This seems, pardon the pun, a rather lame excuse. According to M. Silver he found it more likely that the "escapees" gained their freedom by promising to pay ransom to the Spartans. That is, they passed their sandals to their captors. It is of some interest that Jason's sandal is pictured on coins of Larissa dating to about 480 BCE.

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Aphetai Theme The above interpretation finds support in the aphetai theme. The Argonauts began their voyage at a port in Magnesia called Aphetai. (fragment of Hes. cited by Huxley 1969: 107; Pherekydes cited by Ap. 1.9.19; Ap.R. 1.591; Str. 9.5.15) Lindsay (1965: 88) explains that "Aphetai was the ritual name given to animals set free for consecration to a god, or to men liberated by the gods for certain earthly servitudes or as a result of carrying out their wills" (for the passive use, see LSJ s.v. aphetos; cf. Dominique Thillaud, AEGEANET, September 26, 1998). Huxley (1969: 107) adds that the name Aphetai means "place of quittance." This would refer to the drawing up of contracts and the settlement of accounts at the completion of a long-distance trading mission, probably at a temple-gate where oaths were sworn and documents deposited (see Silver 1995: 18-25). With respect to the binding/liberation theme suggested by aphetai, note may be taken of reports that the settlers of various Greek colonies had first been dedicated to Apollo at Delphi and then sent abroad by the god (Burkert 1985: 84). Thus, after they had been defeated by Herakles and dedicated to Apollo, the Dryopes, a "Pelasgic" people, were sent off to the Peloponnesus (Pa. 4.34.9). c. Meaning of Jason (Iaso_n) The name Iaso_n is from iaomai "to heal" (Astour 1967: 276) and may be translated "Healer" or One Who Heals" (Swanson 1974: 273). Again we glimpse an economic aspect. Herakles was "healed" (hygiastheis) when he sold himself into slavery and gave the purchase price as compensation to the sons of a man (Iphitos) he had murdered (D.S. 4.31.4-6). That something of this kind underlies Jason's name is suggested by the observations in Pindar (P. 4.159-62) and Apollonius Rhodius (2.1190-5, 3.330-9) that Jason had performed a "healing act"—i.e. made good on a debt—by returning the "Golden Fleece" to Iolkos (see Astour 1967: 208). For the, not very convincing, suggestion that Jason also healed physical ailments, see Mackie, C.J. (2001). "The Earliest Jason. What's in a Name?". Greece & Rome, 48, 1-17. d. Role of Cheiro_n Centaurs Jason tells Pelias that he was apprenticed to Cheiro_n, a Centaur (Pi. P 4.10ff;cf. N 3.53; Hom. Il.) 1.268, 2.743, 11.832; Od.21.295f); Ap. 1.2.4; Frazer 1921: 1. n.6,12-13.) The Centaurs (Kentauroi), a Magnesian race (Pi. Pi, 2.78ff) are half-man and half-horse, man above and horse.. This

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mingled form certainly goes back to the early first millennium BCE as seen on a terra cotta figurine from Euboea at Lefkandi, a wealthy international center in the 11th-9th centuries (OCCC 1998: s.vv. Centaurs, Lefkandi). Apparently, it is also found in Mycenaean times, where we find men joined at the waist to horses' bodies engraved on a gem from the Heraeum at Argos and on a Cretan bead-seal (Graves 1960: 1.209). These examples have been questioned but we also have the finding of Mycenaean terracotta centaurs at Ugarit (Shear 2002). In the Greek world, among other meanings, the horse certainly symbolized transport. To cite one example, in the Odyssey (4.708-9) Penelope notes the "fast-running ships which serve as horses for men on the salt sea" (Lattimore 1965; cf Silver 1992: 98, 128; Braarvig 1997).

COLCHIS - THE CLASSICAL AGE

Colchis in ancient times was situated in the present day Georgian Provinces of Mingrelia, Imereti, Guria, Ajaria, Svaneti, Racha, Abkhazia also in Turkey’s Rize province and parts of Trabizon and Artvin Provinces. The first mention of Colchis by ancient authors was Aeschylus and Pindar. The writers mention it as Aea (Aia).The residence of the mythical King Aeetes. The chief towns were Dioscurias, Sarapana, Phasis (now Poti) Pityus (now Pitsunda), Apsaros (now Nokatakevi), Macheiresis and Cyta or Cutatisium (now Kutaisi). Since ancient Colchian tribes maintained very close, in some cases even genetic, contacts with the ancient inhabitants of the Aegean Basin (Pelasgians) and Asia Minor. The capital of Colchis was the city Aea (now Kutaisi). Classical age authors indicated that Colchis was bounded on the Southwest by Pontus, on the West by the Pontus Euxinus as far as the river Corax. Buffered in the North by the mountains of the Caucasus and in the East by Iberaia and Montes Moschici present day, the lesser Caucasus and the Southern border of Armenia. Authors differed in opinion on the location of the western border. Strabo indicated that Colchis began at Trapezus (Trebizond) whilst Ptomely ‘extended Pontus’ as far as the river Phasis. (Pityus was the last town located to the north of Colchis. Many hills, and places of reputed sanctity were denominated from shepherds in the vicinity of Colchis, had its name conferred by Jupiter in memory of Caucasus a shepherd. ȊȡȡȢȡȣ ıțȣijțȞșȟijȡȤȇȡțȞıȟȡȣȁįȤȜįIJȡȟȞıijȡȟȡȞįIJįȣ Alexander at last arrived at the Tanäis, which divides Europe and Asia. Here he founded a colony; leaving behind him some of his people, as he had just before done at Colchis. These nations are said to the last to have retained memorials of their original from Egypt. About the same time Asia Minor, and most of the islands near it, fell into his hands. (Source Jacob Bryant, London, 1807). An Englishman described Colchis in the year 1672: On the 30th of August we departed from Cassa on a ship bound for Mingrelia the straight (strait) opens into Lake Moe-otis to Mingrelia, (it) is six hundred miles along a pleasant woody shore. On 10th of September

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1672 we arrived at Isgadour a Port in Mingrelia. Colchis or Mingrelia is situated at the bottom of the Black Sea; and on the north by Mount Caucasus. The rivers Codours and Rione; the Corax and Phasis of antiquity, divide it; the one from the Abcas and the other from the Imeretta.” —Sir John Chardin - Through Mingrelia and Georgia into Persia, by William Fordyce Mavor – 1798

Colchis and Iberia (Early Georgian States) c-600 – 150 BCE

Map: Early Georgian States By permission of Andrew Anderson

Colchis – Earliest History In the middle Bronze Age both Colchis (The Colchian culture and their neighbouring culture of Koban were well developed. During the late Bronze Age (15th. to 8th century, BCE) they were known for their expertise in smelting also metal casting in this field it is alleged that they were specialized long before the process evolved in

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Europe. This resulted in the creation of agricultural implements which utilized within a mild climate and well irrigated lowlands ensured the growth of their society. .

Did the Greeks go to Colchis for Metals? Gocha Tsetskhladze - Department of Classics Royal Holloway University of London A too simple understanding of the process of Greek colonisation, especially the reasons for it, sometimes leads modern scholars to unrealistic conclusions. This paper examines the view commonly found in the literature that the main reason for the arrival of the arrival of the lonians in Colchis in the middle of the 6th century BC was the area's richness in metals. Archaeological material discussed here shows that Eastern Pontus was far from being so well endowed and that the local tribes were less advanced in metallurgy than is often The Scythian 'incursion'into Colchis at the end of the 7th century BC both introduced Colchians to iron metallurgy and gave rise to a lacuna in the material culture of the area. The Greeks, trying to adapt their art to the tastes of the local rulers, established in Colchis in the 5th century BC schools of gold- and silversmiths, as well as the production of metal seals and engraved gems. Source – Colchian Empire – Mel Copeland

Tribes (Suggested Origins) Colchis was inhabited by a number of related tribes with settlements mainly along the shore of the Black Sea. The main tribes were; Abasci, Apsilae, Coraxi, Geloni, Lazi , Heniochi, Machelones, Macrones, Marres, Melanchlaeni, Moschi, Mossynoei, Sanigae, Soani (Suani) Tibareni and Zydretae. These tribes differed very much in their language and appearance from their surrounding ‘nations’ that archaic sources presented theories of their origination. Heredotus stated that they, with the Egyptians and the Ethiopians were the first to practice circumcision and believed them to have originated as remnants of the army of Pharoah Sesostris 111 he regarded them as Egyptians. Apollonius Rhodius mentioned that the Egyptians of Colchis preserved as heirlooms a number of tablets showing seas also highways with considerable accuracy. Modern theorists have re-examined their origins

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and suggest they had noted an African component (which predates the Arab Slave Trade) along the Black Sea region. It is suggested that their origins could be traced to an ancient Extra-Africa expedition, but this cannot be confirmed by archaeological evidence. The tribes in Colchis consolidated during the 13th. century BCE. This was at the period mentioned in Greek mythology as Colchis as the destination of the Argonauts and the home of Medea in her domain of sorcery. She was known to Urartians as Qulha (Kolkha or Kilkhi).

Colchis – Mentioned in Antiquity The Colchians were frequently at war with neighbouring nations, they ‘absorbed’ part of Diaokh (c.750 BCE) and lost several provinces. One that included the ‘Royal City’of Ildemusa to Sarduris 11 of Urartu following the wars of 750-748 and 744- 742, BCE. Colchis was overrun by the Cimmerians and the Scythians 73-720 BCE the Kingdom disintegrated. It came under the ‘control’ of the Achaemenid Persian Empire mid 6th century BCE, Tribes were incorporated into the 19th. Satrapy of Persia with Colchis now situated within the Persian Empire and with the backing of economic and commercial ties, they became self-sufficient and eventually were able to overthrow Persian authority and formed an independent state. The territory of the Moschi, in which is situated the temple, is divided into three portions one of which is occupied by Colchians, another by Iberians, and the third by Armenians. There is in Iberia on the confines of Colchis, a small city, the city of Phrixus, the present Idessa, a place of strength. The river Charis flows near Dioscurias. Source: Translation of the Phrygian language (Mel Copeland) Colchian Linen (Egyptian Style) Besides gold the only significant product ascribed to Kolchis in the ancient literature is linen, worked in Egyptian style. According to Herodotus (2.105): "The Colchian linen is called by the Greeks Sardonian [from Sardina?] but that which comes from Egypt is called Egyptian" (Grene 1987). Strabo (11.2.17) adds, "Their linen industry has been found far and wide; for they used to export linen to outside places" (H.L. Jones 1932) Source – Ancient Economies - Morris Silver B.A. Ph D (Economics)

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Colchians – Egyptian Knowledge The Egyptians were very famous for geometrical knowledge: and as all the flat part of their country was annually overflowed, it is reasonable to suppose that they made use of this science to determine their lands, and to make out their several claims, at the retreat of the waters. Many indeed have thought, that the confusion of property, which must for a while have prevailed, gave birth to practical geometry, in order to remedy the evil: and in consequence of it, that charts and maps were first delineated in this country. These, we may imagine, did not relate only to private demesnes: but included also the course of the Nile in its various branches; and all the sea coast, and its inlets, with which lower Egypt was bounded. If then the Colchians had this science, we may presume that their mother country possessed it in as eminent a degree: and we are assured, that they were very knowing in this article. Clemens Alexandrinus mentions, that there were maps of Egypt, and charts of the Nile very early. And we are moreover told, that Sesostris (by which is meant the Sethosians) drew upon boards schemes of all the countries, which he had traversed: and copies of these were given both to the Egyptians, and to the Scythians, who held them in high estimation. Prometheus was worshipped by the Colchians as a Deity; and had a temple and high place, called ̓ΉΘΕ΅ȱ̖ΙΚ΅ΓΑ΍΅, upon Mount Caucasus: and the device upon the portal was Egyptian, an eagle over a heart.

Colchis referenced in Anabasis by Xenophon Translation by Henry G.Dakins Dedicated to Rev. B. Jowett, M.A. Master of Balliol College Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Oxford Excerpt from The Anabasis – Part VIII The story of the march to Persia to aid Cyrus, who enlisted Greek help to try and take the throne from Artaxerxes, and the ensuing return of the Greeks, in which Xenophon played a leading role. This occurred between 401 B.C. and March 399 B.C. From this point the Hellenes marched through the country of the Macrones three stages—ten parasangs, and on the first day they reached the river, which formed the boundary between the land of the Macrones and the land of the Scythenians. Above them, on their right, they had a country of the sternest and ruggedest character, and on their left another

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river, into which the frontier river discharges itself, and which they must cross. This was thickly fringed with trees which, though not of any great bulk, were closely packed. As soon as they came up to them, the Hellenes proceeded to cut them down in their haste to get out of the place as soon as possible. But the Macrones, armed with wicker shields and lances and hair tunics, were already drawn up to receive them opposite the crossing. They were cheering one another on, and kept up a steady pelt of stones into the river, though they failed to reach the other side or do any harm. At this juncture one of the light infantry came up to Xenophon; he had been, he said, a slave at Athens, and he wished to tell him that he recognised the speech of these people. "I think," said he, "that this must be my native country, and if there is no objection I will have a talk with them." "No objection at all," replied Xenophon, "pray talk to them, and ask them first, who they are." In answer to this question they said, "they were Macrones." "Well, then," said he, "ask them why they are drawn up in battle and want to fight with us." They answered, "Because you are invading our country." The generals bade him say: "If so, it is with not intention certainly of doing it or you any harm: but we have been at war with the king, and are now returning to Hellas, and all we want is to reach the sea." The others asked, "Were they willing to give them pledges to that effect?" They replied: "Yes, they were ready to give and receive pledges to that effect." Then the Macrones gave a barbaric lance to the Hellenes, and the Hellenes a Hellenic lance to them: "for these," they said, "would serve as pledges," and both sides called upon the gods to witness. After the pledges were exchanged, the Macrones fell to vigorously hewing down trees and constructing a road to help them across, mingling freely with the Hellenes and fraternising in their midst, and they afforded them as good as market as they could, and for three days conducted them on their march, until they had brought them safely to the confines of the Colchians. At this point they were confronted by a great mountain chain, which however was accessible and on it the Colchians were drawn up for battle. In the first instance, the Hellenes drew up opposite in line of battle, as though they were minded to assault the hill in that order; but afterwards the generals determined to hold a council of war, and consider how to make the fairest fight. From this place they marched on two stages—seven parasangs—and reached the sea at Trapezus, a populous Hellenic city on the Euxine Sea, a colony of the Sinopeans, in the territory of the Colchians. Here they halted

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about thirty days in the villages of the Colchians, which they used as a base of operations to ravage the whole territory of Colchis. The men of Trapezus supplied the army with a market, entertained them, and gave them, as gifts of hospitality, oxen and wheat and wine. Further, they negotiated with them in behalf of their neighbours the Colchians, who dwelt in the plain for the most part, and from this folk also came gifts of hospitality in the shape of cattle and now the Hellenes made preparation for the sacrifice which they had vowed, and a sufficient number of cattle came in for them to offer thank-offerings for safe guidance to Zeus the Saviour, and to Heracles . Continuing their march that day and the next, on the third they reached Cerasus, a Hellenic city on the sea, and a colony of Sinope, in the country of the Colchians. Here they halted ten days.

Xenophon Xenophon the Athenian was born 431 B.C. He was a pupil of Socrates. He marched with the Spartans, and was exiled from Athens. Sparta gave him land and property in Scillus, where he lived for many years before having to move once more, to settle in Corinth. He died in 354 B.C. It is very certain, that the people of Colchis, who were a colony from Egypt, had charts of this sort, with written descriptions of the seas and shores, whithersoever they traded: and they at one time carried on a most extensive commerce. We are told, says the Scholiast upon Apollonius, that the Colchians still retain the laws and customs of their forefathers: and they have pillars of stone, upon which are engraved maps of the continent, and of the ocean: ǼȚıȚ įİ, ijȘıȚ, țĮȚ ȞȠȝȠȚ ʌĮȡ' ĮȣIJȠȚȢ IJȦȞ ȆȡȠȖȦȞȠȞ, țĮȚ ȈIJȘȜĮȚ, İȞ ΥȚȢ ȖȘȢ țĮȚ șĮȜĮııȘȢ ĮȞĮȖȡĮijĮȚ İȚıȚ. The poet, upon whom the above writer has commented, calls these pillars, țȣȡȕİȚȢ: which, we are told, were of a square figure, like obelisks: and on these, he says, were delineated all the passages of the sea; and the boundaries of every country upon the earth. ՓțİșijȡțȗȢįʍijįȣʍįijıȢȧȟԛȚıȟıțȢȤȡȟijįț ȁȤȢȖıįȣՍțȣıȟțʍįIJįțՍİȡțȜįțʍıțȢįij ıįIJțȟ աȗȢșȣijıijȢįĴıȢșȣijıʍıȢțȠıʍțȟıțIJIJȡȞıȟȡțIJțȟ These delineations had been made of old, and transmitted to the Colchians by their forefathers; whose forefathers were from Egypt.

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Hittite Text Source ( Colchis – Qulha) “Sarduri II (c. 764-735 B.C.) inherited a kingdom at the zenith of its power, its northern frontiers secured against attack and its great rival Assyria so humbled that it posed no threat whatsoever. Further expansion to the north is indicated by references to Qulha, an area whose identification with the later Colchis seems acceptable, and which came into direct contact with Urartu as the result of the removal of the buffer state of Diauehi.” Source; Source:http://www.matavot.com/Phrygian.html’

Colchian and Corybantes – Mentioned in Antiquity Archaic Greeks sources related that Corybantes (Priest – Deities) created a sacred script that they kept secretly. (Dobson 1828 .1. xxx1v) (Drummond 1826, 111-199-200) “Corybantes was the son of Helios and came to Crete and Euboea, Samothrace and other Meditteranian ilands from the country of Colchis.” Strabo An ancient source stated that the Cyrbels were tablets used by Colchis - Chkonia 1896, 124-125). The script was named crusografia (Goldscript) (as is the stamped text of the Phaistos disc). Eustathius of Thessalonica wrote about the script in his comments regarding the Colchian ‘Golden Fleece.’ Mentioned by Dionysius Periegetes he refers to Harax of Pergamon’s record. ‘It has been postulated that Harax of Pergamon’s term ‘crusografia’ means writing with gold ‘which is alleged to have been a specialized art of writing used by Colchis. (Jacoby 11 -482-493, Muellerus 111. 636-645) So Medea told her all she (Circe) asked – the daughter of Aeetes of the gloomy heart, speaking gently in the Colchian language. Apollonius of Rhodes (1V, 729-731)

Old Greek sources state that the following persons all spoke the Colchian Language. The children of Perseus, Queen Pasyphae the wife of King Minos, Aeetes the King of Aea-Colchia. Circe the daughter of Aeetes Source- Appolodorus of Athens, also Herodotus. An interesting indication of the Colchian language spoken and possibly used by female ‘Oracles’ in ceremonies using the Phaistos Disc. When it migrated by Priests (or to be used by a Priest cult or Female Oracle) in Minoan Crete.

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The late Austrian researcher H.R.Zebisch indicated that the language of the Pre-Greek population, namely, Pelasgian, “Is the mother of Kartvelian language.” In 1988 in Budapest at the 18th International Congress of EIRENE, he declared that the language of the Phaisos Discc is proto-Georgian-Iberian/Kolchian. Leucothoea was once a mortal woman but now lives in the depths of the sea and is called Leucothea, after having cast herself into the sea. This was the result of the plot she conceived against the children of her husband's first wife, when she attempted to arrange their death. These, however, could escape to Colchis borne through the sky by the Ram with the Golden Fleece. Ino was daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia. She married Athamas and had by him two sons: Learchus and Melicertes (see Athamas). It was Ino, as Leucothea, who saved the shipwrecked Odysseus (see Nausicaa). (Apd.1.9.1-2, 3.4.2; Cic.ND.3.39, 3.48; Hes.The.976; Hom.Od.5.333; Hyg.Fab.4, 224; Nonn.5.198; Pau.9.5.2; Pin.Oly.2.30; Pin.Pyth.11.2; Stat.Theb.1.14).

Greek Colonization Colchis with it advanced economy also with a favourable geographic and good agriculture attracted the Milesian Greeks attention. in the 6th – 5th centuries BCE, Milesians colonized the Coast building trading posts at Phasis, Gyenos and Dioscurias. The Greeks considered that “it was the farthest voyage”. It was said to be, ‘the easternmost location in that society’s known world, ‘where the sun rose’. Colchis was situated just outside lands conquered by Alexander the Great. Phaisis and Droscurias were splendid Greek cities dominated by mercantile oligharcies. After the fall of the Persian Empire a large area of Colchis, known as Egrisi became annexed to a new Kingdom of Iberia (Karti) c. 302 BCE. Colchis later seceded but broke up into several small princedoms ruled by sceptuchi. They retained a degree of independence until conquered c.101 BCE by Mithradates V1 of Pontus. M.G.Corsini in June 2006 corresponded to Gia Kvashilava as follows; “The Aptheosis of Rhadamanthys (The Egyptian Pharoah Montuhotep 1) is in the proto-ionic Greek dialect of about 1840BCE.My research now seems to point to the origin of the pictographic writing in Colchis where the disc of Vladikavkaz ( with the name Rhadamanthys slightly varied: Montuhotep 1 varied his name three times) was found years ago.”

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“as you (Gia) say, Minos was the husband of Pasiphae, sister of Circe and Aeetes, and in the Apotheosis we have Minos (Amunemhat 111) and Megaera, daughter of river Acheron (on the Black Sea.)” “I think now that Greek sailors and merchants (at the orders of the Egyptian Pharoahs) in search of gold (the Golden Fleece)gave the writing to the Black Sea peoples to better comprehend each other.” “We are at the beginning of the European civilization”

Rulers Aeetes – Mentioned in Greek legends as a powerful King of Colchis. Akes – (Basileus Aku) (end of 4th century BCE) Kuji – A Prince of Egrisi under the authority of Pharnavaz 1of Iberia (c.302-237 BCE) Mithradates Chrestus – ruled under the suzerainty of Pontus (c.83 BCE)

GREEK PENETRATION OF THE BLACK SEA

In 1948 R. Carpenter expressed his opinion that the Black Sea was closed to Greek sailors before c. 680 BC and only with the development of the first powerfully oared vessel – the pentekonter7 - were the Greeks able to pass through the Bosphorus, thus explaining why there is no archaeological evidence of colonization in the Pontus area before about 80 BC (Carpenter 1948). In response to this two articles appeared written by B. W. Labaree (1957) and A. J. Graham (1958), in which it was demonstrated that the Greeks were able to sail into the Black Sea. Graham based his thesis on information provided by ancient authors, to the effect that the first Greek colonies - Sinope and Trapezus - had been founded as early as the 8th century BC. The lack of archaeological proof for such early dates he explains by the fact that the region to the south of the Black Sea has not been investigated (Graham 1958, 31-3; cf. Cook R. 1946, 71-2, 84). Soon more general works appeared whose authors were more cautious in their approach to the question of the dating of the founding of the Greek colonies on the Black Sea, trying to bring together written sources and archaeology (Roebuck 1959, 116-24; Cook J. 1962, 53-9; Huxley 1966, 64-9, etc.). In 1971 Graham (1971, 39) reasserted his original position, and he was supported by R. Drews (1976) who took Graham's ideas one stage further. The theory assumed its complete form in the Chapter on colonization by Graham in CAH in 1982 (CAH, 122-30, 160-2). Archaeologists had more confidence in archaeological material, placing the date of the founding of the first colonies on the Black Sea in the second half of the 7th century. In 1990 the controversy flared up again and the opposed views of historians and archaeologists were aired once more. Graham accepts the first date given for the founding of Sinope by the Milesians, before 756, as found in Ps.-Skymnus (986-97), and accepts 756 (1990, 52-4; cf. CAH, 122-3) As the foundation date for Trapezus, colony of Sinope (Xen. An.IV 8. 22). In support of the appearance of Greeks in the Black Sea as early as the 7

The Pentekonter ʌİȞIJȘțȩȞIJȠȡȠȢ was a fifty-oared an ancient Greek galley in use since the archaic period.

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8th century he calls attention to early pottery (Graham 1990, 53^1) alleged to have been found in Histria (the rim of an LG kotyle) (Graham 1990, 53; cf. Alexandrescu 1978a, 21, no. 15) identified by J. N. Coldstream as a Euboean copy of a Corinthian type dated to c. 750-720 BC, (1968, 377, no. 8). Another vessel is allegedly from Berezan (Graham 1990, 53). It is a small Geometric hydria bought from a dealer (cf. Farmakovsky 1910, 227) called Attic or Atticizing by Coldstream (1968, 337, no. 7) and assigned by him to MG II (c. 800-760). Reference is also made to fragments of Cypriot "White Painted IV" ware from the Cypro-Archaic period (c. 740660) found at Histria and Berezan (Graham 1990, 53-4; cf. Alexandrescu 1978a, 63, no. 256; Demetrion 1978). In response to this J. Boardman published a short but very detailed article, in which he clearly stated his purpose: "Whether there is any archaeological evidence for earlier [8th century] exploration or settlement is another matter, but Graham has pressed claims which, as I hope to show, cannot be upheld, since the dating of the pottery or its pedigree are either wrong or too dubious to be taken seriously, however tempting they may seem" (1991, 387).

The author did, indeed, succeed in showing that the 'fact' that the vessel had been found in Berezan and in a tomb was merely the assertion of a dealer, while excavation of that site over many years had not produced any pottery earlier than the late 7th century. "In the circumstances such a dealer's provenance should not be taken seriously" (Boardman 1991) 387; for the same opinion, see: Vinogradov Y. G. 1989, 35, Note 13). Fragments allegedly originating from Histria, currently kept in the Museum of Classical Archaeology in Cambridge, were found in Al Mina, and it is possible "that an unlabelled fragment could move from one tray or box to another, in the course of an exercise in comparison of colonial pottery"(Boardman 1991, 387-8). This opinion was supported by Professor R. M. Cook of Cambridge, who catalogued the fragments in 1961, despite the fact that the fragments had been acquired in 1950. "It seemed to Cook improbable that an excavator [Mme Lambrino] who was also a pottery expert would have given away what was obviously the earliest piece from the site" (Boardman 1991, 387). Moreover, the Cypro-Archaic pottery is of the "Cypro-Archaic II" period, which may bring it well down into the 6th century (Boardman 1991, 389) After this it might have appeared that the questions concerned had all been clarified, but Graham, who considers that "it is bad method to prefer

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an archaeological argumentum e silentio to statements in literary sources" (CAH, 123), in December 1993 stressed in his paper in Washington entitled "Greek and Roman settlements on the Black Sea Coasts. Historical Background" that archaeologists were unable to agree amongst themselves over the chronology of pottery: while criticizing Boardman's article in OJA, he expressed his mistrust of archaeologists and once again repeated his opinion regarding the appearance of the Greeks in the Black Sea in the 8th century BC He agreed, however, that the Histria pottery should be disregarded, and implied that Boardman had "re-dated" the Cypriot pottery, which is not the case. What lies behind this controversy? The answer is simple: written sources are contradictory and offer differing dates for the founding of one and the same Greek cities. The value of such information has long been exhausted. In archaeology the situation is far from ideal. No strict chronology for early Greek pottery has been elaborated; the Greek cities on the southern coasts of the Black Sea have not yet been investigated for a number of objective and subjective reasons. 'Western' scholars use, to a limited degree, the achievements and publications of new material from the excavations of the last decade undertaken by 'eastern' archaeologists. At the same time 'eastern' scholars have only had access to 'western' literature for the last three to five years.

Early and Precolonial Contacts The tribes that inhabited the Black Sea region had enjoyed some kind of contact with the Aegean world since the beginning of the second millennium BC. No Mycenaean pottery has been found along the Black Sea coast and finds at Masat, inland from Samsun (shoulder of an LH IIIA2 stirrup jar) (Mellink 1984, 445; 1985, 558; Mee 1978, 132-3), cannot be seen as penetration from the Black Sea: they are more likely to have made their way there overland (French 1982, with extensive bibliography on the problem). Some Mycenaean-type objects are known from West and North-West Pontic areas: swords, spears and double axes of Mycenaean types (Bouzek 1985, 31-5, 41-6, 213-4; 1990, 13-5). Aegean swords have been found in Transcaucasia, gold roundels of the Shaft Graves period and double-axes (Bouzek 985, 35, 46, 82). These finds do not demonstrate Mycenaean colonization of the Black Sea nd are probably the result of royal trade (along the Danube and in the Transcaucasian region), which included, among the commodities, amber (Kilian 1990, 465).Stone anchors of the second half of the second and

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beginning of the first millennia BC at many points on the Bulgarian coast (Ropotamo, Masalen Nos, Kaliakra, Sozopol, Nesebar) have given rise to the view that native Thracian chieftains sponsored sailing along the coast, both long before and after the Greek settlements Some scholars see these as a sign that Greek sailors penetrated as far as the Black Sea as early as the Late Bronze Age (Bouzek 1990, 13; cf. Nibbi 1993) The eastern part of the Black Sea region, where Greek colonies appeared as early as the mid-6th century, provides material to justify the assumption that there were precolonial links in the 8th-7th centuries. This includes the so-called Caucasian bronze arc-shaped fibulae, which probably appeared there in the 8th century: Greek fibulae clearly played a large part their evolution, giving rise to the emergence in the Caucasus of a local north-eastern in variant, and it is evident that the Greek models must have made their way to the region along the southern coasts of the Black Sea (Bouzek 1983, 204-5; 1985, 153; 1990, 15; Voronov 1983). For a long time bronze figurines of a sleeping woman holding a child to her breast, from Samos (Jantzen 1972, 80-5) and Nigvziani (Mikeladze 1985, 59-62; 1990, 63-6), and small bronze bells from Samos, were believed to have been made in the Caucasus (Jantzen 1972, 80-5; Boardman 1980, 240-1). M. Voyatzis, however, has doubts about this and sees the figurine from Samos as being of local Greek origin (1992, 262-9). Clay figurines depicting two- and three-headed fantastic animals from Vani, dating from the 8th-7th centuries, are also of debatable origin. It is difficult to form a clear opinion: they could have been made under the influence of Luristan bronzes, or that of the Greek world, where they are known from the 8th7th centuries on (Lordkipanidze 1991, 150-9, pi. 2a, b; Tolordava 1990, 243-7, 298-301).It is unlikely that these early relations were of any regular kind (Buchholz 1983). It can be assumed, with a good deal of probability, that the Greeks knew the Black Sea as early as the 8th century BC. This is indicated both by archaeological material from Georgia, and by the first information about Pontus in Greek literature (Eumelus, fr. 2; Hesiod., Theog., 337340). Thus the 8th century appears to have been a time of exploration (Huxley 1990, 200). Greek mythological tradition links the first contacts between the Greeks and the peoples of Pontus in the story of the Argonauts' voyage to Colchis in search of the Golden Fleece. Some scholars place this myth in the category of those that reflect history, and believe that the voyage took place before the Trojan War. They support

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this idea by reference to the fact that Homer mentions the myth (Lordkipanidze 1966, 9-18; 1986, 15-47; Urushadze 1980, 21-28, etc.) They consider it to have been second only in its popularity to that of the Trojan War (Lordkipanidze 1979, 4), and they are even convinced that the "Journey of the Argonauts was a journey after gold!" (Lordkipanidze 1984, 43). I should like to approach this myth from the archaeologist's viewpoint, to determine whether or not it was so popular. It is unjustified from the methodological point of view to see the myth as a reflection of reality this question is too delicate and complex (Brillante 1990; SourvinouInwood 1987; Thomas E. 1976; Thomas C. 1993, etc.) Especially when we have it most fully presented only in Hellenistic poetry, when the Greeks were already well acquainted with Colchis. Virtually all scholars, apart from the Georgians, maintain that the land of Aia, where the Golden Fleece was to be found, had no real geographical existence. For them, it is one of those fantastic countries at the edge of the world, which include the Isles of the Blessed, the Gardens of the Hesperides, the Island of Erytheia, the mythical Ethiopia, most of the countries visited by Odysseus, the Dionysiac Nysa, Plato's Atlantis, etc. With the growth of rationalism, attempts were made to identify all these places. Since Aia was imagined to lie somewhere in the North and at the same time in the East (closer to sunrise), it was finally identified with Colchis. The word aia is found in poetic speech signifying 'earth, country' - but, of course, a fabulous region must have borne a less abstract, more expressive proper name. Moreover, the Odyssey describes another locality with a very similar name, the island of Aiaie, where Aeetes' sister, the sorceress Circe, lived (Cook J. 1962, 52; Astour 1967, 283-8; Huxley 1969, 60-79; Boltunova 1976, etc.) When did the identification of Aia with Colchis take place? Eumelus (c. 700) is the earliest witness to its localization in Colchis beside the River Phasis, which traditionally marked the eastern boundary of the known world. This identification points to the period of increasing exploration and colonization, when a New World was fitted to old perceptions. The identification was probably arbitrary. For Eumelus (fr. 2) the River Phasis was the eastern border of the known world, and in the myth of the Argonauts Aia was also the eastern kingdom. This identity probably became more credible only thanks to Herodotus (VII. 193) in the 5th century, when it was already known to the Greeks that Colchis, like the mythical Aia, was a 'gold-rich' country. It was then

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that the wealth of gold and the Golden Fleece merged together for the Greeks of Colchis, as a single concept and image. To determine whether the myth of the Argonauts was as widely popular as it is held to have been by Georgian scholars, we must turn to visual art." In architectural sculpture the only scenes linked with the Argonauts are on the so-called Sicyonian Treasury at Delphi, of the second quarter of the 6th century (Ridgway B. 1966, 196-7; 1993, 341-2; Szeliga 1986; Griffin 1982, 92-119; cf. Voyatzis 1982, 32-3). These need not be explained with reference to the myth's popularity or to links with Colchis itself. Such travel myths found their first monumental expression in the western areas of colonization and in the great pan-Hellenic sanctuaries, especially Delphi, once the oracle assumed the role of leader of colonists (Ridgway B. 1991; Penglase 1994, 8). Some twenty general scenes from the voyage have been found dating from the 5th-2nd centuries BC (LIMC 2, 593-7; Simon 1990, 227-9; Olmos 1990, 231-4). Jason was depicted 57 times. The early depictions date from around 600, as does that on a Corinthian vase. Most date from the 5th-4th centuries (LIMC 5, 630—7). Medea was more popular in Roman than Greek art. Only about ten depictions of her are known in Greek art and six on Etruscan vases. The early depictions on Etruscan vases date from 630-600, the early Greek ones from 530 BC, while the rest are of the 5th-4th centuries (LIMC 6, 388-95; SourvinouInwood 1990). Altogether approximately 93 depictions of subjects from the myth are known It must be judged poorly illustrated. Several vase paintings indicate versions of myths that are lost or almost lost in literature (Schefold 1992, 183-97). Jason does not seem to be a very common figure - he was an antihero (presented as such by Apollonius Rhodius), helpless (LIMC 5, 630). It was only thanks to Medea, a barbarian princess, that he was able to bring the Golden Fleece to Greece and, again thanks to her, become king of Corinth. Medea - a murderess with a tragic destiny from a barbarian world - was better known to the Greeks via tragedy (Kerenyi 1979, IO-^Q) The majority of the depictions are from the 5th century, which again serves to underline that Aia was probably then first identified with Colchis. So the myth could not reflect any voyage to the Black Sea allegedly undertaken by Greeks in the 13th century. We frequently want to believe the myths of the Greeks more than they did themselves (Breamer 1987; Penglase 1994, 9-14; Henrichs 1987; Buxton 1994, 155-68). Penetration of the Black Sea region by the Greeks began in the second half of the 7th century . This is linked in the main with

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the colonizing endeavours of Miletus, which was reputed to have possessed as many as 75 or even 90 colonies. In the words of Strabo: "the city [Miletus] is known to many, and mainly thanks to the large number of its colonies, since the whole of Pontus Euxinus, Propontis and many other places have been settled by Milesians" (XIV. 1. 6). What follows is a series of observations on some aspects of the three archaic stages of Milesian colonization.

The First Greek Colonies The question as to the identity of the first Greek colonies in the Black Sea is controversial. Some scholars have more faith in written sources (Graham 1958; CAH; Drews 1976), and others in archaeological ones (Boardman 1980, 242); the controversy focuses on Sinope. We have accounts by two ancient authors Eusebius and PseudoSkymnus. Most troublesome is the 756 foundation-date given by Eusebius (II. 81) for Trapezus and, by implication, a date thereabouts for Sinope, its mother city. Eusebius, however, dates the foundation of Sinope to the 37th Olympiad (631/630). Pseudo-Skymnus (941-952) mentions an earlier foundation of Sinope by Habrondas, which was destroyed by the Kimmerians, to be refounded later by two exiles from Miletus, Kretinus and Kous, when the Kimmerians were pillaging Asia. Some scholars consider that Sinope was founded in the first half of the 8th century BC by the Corinthians, others that it was founded by the second half of the 7th century, and a third group by the end of the 7th century, and so on (Hind 1988; Kacharava and Kvirkveliya 1991, 239^42). Without dwelling on the Kimmerian advance into Asia I should like to draw attention to one point. Virtually all scholars refer to the account by Herodotus (I. 15; 104; 109) and hold that the Kimmerians used the Maeoto-Colchian (eastern) route. The second account, which deserves our confidence, is usually ignored, namely Strabo's (I. 3. 21). According to Strabo the Kimmerians advanced along the western shore of the Black Sea. Archaeological material supports this. The most important question is also controversial – identification of Kimmerian culture (Sulimirski 1960; Kvirkveliya 1985; Ivantchik 1993). Thus it is inappropriate to speak of two different Sinopes - Sinope I and Sinope II - in other words of the founding of Sinope in two stages: before and after the Kimmerian campaign. It is unlikely that one controversial issue will be resolved with the help of another.

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Excavation at Sinope (modern Sinop), which occupies a peninsula site with a superb harbour, is complicated by the fact that it has since been built over. Smallscale excavations have unearthed a cemetery. The pottery from the graves is largely from East Greece with a little Corinthian. All pottery dates from the late-7th century to a little after 600 BC and the Phrygian pottery that has been found attests to close relations with the peoples of the interior. The same can be said of Amisos (Samsun) (Akurgal and Budde 1956, 9; Boysal 1959; Hind 1964, 174-5; 1984, 95; Boardman 1980, 254-5).16 We have no archaeological information about Trapezus. G. Huxley's recent study shows that "neither excavations nor Eusebian chronography confirm the notion of 8th-century settlement at Trapezus" (Huxley 1990, 2000) Among the earliest Milesian colonies in the Black Sea region are Histria in the West and Berezan in the North. They were both founded on peninsulae, were well protected and had convenient harbours.18 Written sources offer a variety of dates. For Histria it is 656/5 (Eusebius) and the end of the 7th century (Pseudo-Skymnus). Excavation in Histria has yielded 36 items of Middle Wild Goat Class pottery, which go back to c. 630 BC, between the dates given by the literary sources. In any case, Histria appears to have been a fully viable centre at the end of the 7th century (Alexandrescu 1978a, 19; 1978b; Bouzek 1990, 21-5; Coja 1990, 160; Dmitriu and Alexandrescu 1973; Dupont 1983). The settlement on Berezan, which was identified with Borysthenites (cf. Hdt. IV. 17; 24; 78) is given a foundation date of 646/5 by Eusebius. The earliest examples of East Greek pottery found on the modern island of Berezan can be dated to the second quarter of the 7th century: they are, however, very few and scattered (fragments of kylikes with birds and geometric decoration) (Kopeikina 1973, 240). The bulk of the pottery dates from the second half of the 7th century. All the fragments were found in occupation deposits. L. Kopeikina provides the following numbers for fragments of different classes of archaic pottery from the 1962-79 excavations, sector G and the NW sector together: Wild Goat (Milesian, Clazomenian and North Ionian) - 1083; Fikellura - 200; Chiot - 123; Ionian banded-ware - 536; Clazomenian Black Figure - 43; Corinthian - 125; Attic Black-Figured 552; Attic Red-Figured - 8 (Kopeikina 1986, 42). This pottery shows that the settlement was founded by the Milesians no later than the third quarter of the 7th century and possibly nearer the

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middle of it (Kopeikina 1979, 107). The first settlers lived in dugouts or semi-dugouts. The 1989 excavation revealed a rectangular pit-shelter (no. 51) 3.8 x 5.0m and 1m deep. East Greek painted pottery dates this complex to the last quarter of the 7th century, making it the earliest reliably dated habitation area on the site (Treister and Vinogradov 1993, 539). An important find was a hoard of coins, which included coins of Miletus dating from the last third of the 7th century (Karyshkovskii and Lapin 1979). The question as to the nature of the settlement on the modern island of Berezan is controversial. The scholars most likely to have resolved this problem consider that the settlement had been an emporion (Kopeikina 1979, 109; cf. Vinogradov Y. G. 1989, 60-62). This is borne out by the fact that in the 7th century the settlement did not have its own agricultural area - chora. Fragments of early pottery have been found deep in Berezan's hinterland (Nemirov, Trachtemirov, etc.) (Boardman 1980, 243-4). The next city on the Black Sea that was founded in the 7th century BC, was Apollonia in Thrace. According to Pseudo-Skynmus (728-731) it was founded by the Milesians in 610. Part of the city had probably been built on an island (at the time of Strabo) and it had a convenient harbour. The earliest pottery dates from the late 7th century (Hind 1984, 72-3; 1993, 84-5). Archaeological dates from Histria, Berezan and Apollonia (as well as Byzantion) indicate that all these cities were founded in more or less the same period. For Apollonia, this would indicate that it was not founded as a port of call for ships on their way to Histria and Berezan, but as an apoikia in its own right (Isaac 1986, 243). Thus, the first colonies on the Black Sea were founded by the Milesians in the second half of the 7th century (Sinope, possibly Trapezus, Histria, Berezan, Apollonia and Amisos). Most of the colonies in the Propontis were probably founded at that time as well (Malkin and Shmueli 1988). Originally, these were trading settlements (Histria, Berezan), being situated on peninsulas without their own chora. Apart from Greeks, the population would have included representatives of local tribes (the handmade pottery in Berezan) (Marchenko 1979; Kopeikina 1981). Apollo was worshipped: the Milesians sought advice in Didyma, the oracular sanctuary, the oracular of Apollo founded by Miletus arid shared by all the Pontic colonies, according to which their god and protector was Apollon letros (Ehrhardt 1983, 145-7; Vinogradov Y. G. 1989, 30-1). Discrepancies in the dating of the first colonies on the Black Sea in written sources are a major obstacle, but it would seem that archaeologists

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should have the last word. After all, the priority of archaeology over and against accounts by Thucydides, as regards the foundation dates of the Greek colonies in Sicily, has already been acknowledged (Snodgrass 1987, 53-60). Should not the same approach be adopted when it comes to the colonies around the Black Sea? As usual, we are obliged to judge when the early colonies were founded on the basis of pottery finds: yet when it comes to determining dates, it emerges that the earliest pottery fragments are few in number. We have to decide whether to take into account the small number of samples, or even isolated finds, or to explain their presence in other ways (for example, that a vessel had been a family heirloom). The problem is as important as it is complex. The principle should be that when dates for foundations are being calculated, all early archaeological material should be taken into account, even isolated examples. A quantitative approach is evidently inappropriate here, since it can be assumed that the earliest artefacts are bound to be few in number. Indeed, the first group of settlers is unlikely to have been large. It is difficult to imagine that they would have set off on a long and extremely difficult voyage to foreign lands loaded with fragile tableware. Let us recall, for example, the story of the apoikia from Thera to Cyrene narrated by Herodotus (IV. 150-158): the settlers succeeded in consolidating their position in their new home only after grim and lengthy tribulations. It might also be added that the archaic levels in most sites are those most inaccessible for the archaeologist, and secondly that these levels are usually thin, indeed they are most likely to be almost non-existent (Kuznetsov 1991, 32-3). In these circumstances it is difficult to expect that the earliest pottery could be abundant. Yet the approach to each site should be adapted to the specific conditions. If, for example, the earliest pottery from Berezan (several dozen fragments) gives Kopeikina grounds for dating the settlement to the third quarter of the 7th century, which enabled her to bring into line the archaeological material and the written sources, it may be that the situation is rather different in Olbia. Here all the archaic pottery was confined to the 6th century, with the exception of one sherd from the third quarter of the 7th century. Its presence can, however, perhaps be explained by the presence nearby of the earlier settlement of Berezan (Kuznetsov 1991, 33).

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The Second Stage of Greek Colonization At the beginning of the 6th century BC Miletus began extending its colonizing activity. In Berezan there appeared a new wave of settlers and stone buildings. This new population ushered in the gradual penetration by Greeks from Berezan of the mainland and the opening up of a chora. The earliest of these settlements within the chora were founded no later than the second quarter of the 6th century BC clustered on the left bank of the Berezan estuary and in the western part of the Dnieper-Bug estuary in the immediate vicinity of Berezan (Vinogradov 1989, 51). A similar situation is to be observed at Histria where the first city walls were built in 575 (Coja 1990, 159-60). Apart from the extension of the colonies that had already been founded, new cities appeared. In the western part of Pontus, Tomis was founded, where the early pottery dates from the early 6th century (Bouzek 1990, 28; Hind 1993, 89). At this stage Olbia was also founded by the Milesians not far from Berezan. Only two fragments of pottery found there have been dated to the third quarter of the 7th century, while there is more dating from the first half of the 6th century (Korpusova 1987; Vinogradov Y. G. 1989, 36, Note 16). Its emergence can probably be placed earlier than the end of the first quarter of the 6th century BC, or later than the beginning of its second quarter (cf. Graham in CAH, 125-26 and Vinogradov Y. G. 1989, 36).20 The bulk of the archaeological material and remains of buildings do not appear before the third quarter of the 6th century (Kryzhitskii and Otreshko 1986). Olbia then extended her zone of influence and founded rural settlements in the lower reaches of the River Bug. In the Archaic period Olbia's chora comprised 107 settlements (Kryzhitskii, Buiskikh and Otreshko 1990, 12 3). Miletus by this time was beginning to settle new territories - the Taman and Kerch peninsulae. The earliest pottery is in the burial at Temir-Gora an oinochoe belonging to the Vlasto group and dated to 635-625 (Korpusova 1980; Kopeikina 1972). In this area one Greek settlement had already been in existence, unfortunately not well known, the so-called 'Taganrog settlement'. It has been totally destroyed by the sea. A collection of pottery from the sea-bed and the shore, not yet properly published, allows us to assume that this settlement had already been in existence in the last third of the 7th century (Treister and Vinogradov 1993, 551, fig. 17). (It had probably played a similar role in the development of areas adjacent to it, as had Berezan). Excavations of the

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last 10-15 years make it possible to review the dates of the founding of many colonies in the Kimmerian Bosporus. Panticapaeum. Mithridates Mount is dated to the last decades of the 7th century (Blavatskii 1964, 23), or to the beginning of the 6th century (Noonan 1973, 80). The pottery associated with the earlier date is slight. The rest, mainly Ionian, gives grounds for the first appearance of Greeks at c. 590-570. The first colonists lived in dugouts (Koshelenko and Kuznetsov 1990; Kuznetsov 1991, 33; Tolstikov 1992). Nymphaeum was firmly dated to the second quarter of the 6th century, which might be narrowed down to approximately 580-570 BC (Kuznetsov 1991, 33). Theodosia was usually held to have been founded in the second half of the 6th century, yet pottery of an earlier period has been found during excavation, which obliges us to consider an earlier date of c. 580-570 (Kuznetsov 1991, 33). Myrmekion was founded in the second quarter of the 6th century. The first colonists there lived in dugouts (Vinogradov Y. A. 1992). Tyritake produced material very similar to that found at Myrmekion, from which we assume that the founding dates were also the same (Kuznetsov 1991, 33). A similar, but evidently somewhat more complex situation is to be observed on the Asian side of the Bosporus: Hermonassa was a joint colony of Miletus and Mytilene. The early level of the city-site is dated roughly to the second quarter of the 6th century (Kuznetsov 1991, 33). Kepoi. Fairly numerous finds of pottery from previous and recent excavations give a date of 580-560 (Kuznetsov 1991a; 1992) Patraeus is usually dated to the second half of the 6th century: but appears to have been founded somewhat earlier than the middle of the century, to judge by the pottery that has been found (Koshelenko and Kuznetsov 1990). Early Greek pottery was also found in the so-called Tuz.lian Cemetery (not far from Hermonassa) which belonged to some kind of Greek settlement. The settlement has been destroyed by the sea, and the early pottery can be dated to 580-560 (Kuznetsov 1991, 32). This means that there is every reason to assume that the first mass wave of Greek colonists in the territory of the Kimmerian Bosporus arrived approximately during the period 580-560, several decades earlier than had been proposed in most previous literature. Within the territory of the European Bosporus, we see five centres of that date, and four within the territory of the Asian Bosporus. All these cities were situated right on the coast and had convenient harbours.

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The Third Stage of Greek Colonization The third stage of the Greek penetration of the Black Sea began after 560 BC, assumed a particularly wide scale after the middle of the 6th century and lasted until approximately 530 BC, when Miletus, because of strong pressure from the Achaemenians, was obliged to abandon its colonizing activity. This period is also characterized by the appearance of colonies which were founded by people other than Milesians, but their number is small. New parts of the Black Sea region (Colchis) were being opened up. Heraklea was founded to the South of the Black Sea in 554 by Megarians and Boeotians (Pseudo-Skynmus 968-975). Different written sources provide different kinds of information about the founding of the city (Burstein 1976, 12-8). The city (modern Eregli) has never been the subject of archaeological excavation: investigations of other parts of the Black Sea region have shown, however, that Heraklea developed into a major trading centre of importance for the whole of Pontus and that it even founded two of its own colonies - Callatis (in modern Bulgaria) and Chersonesus in the Crimea (see below) (Hind 1984, 75-6; Saprykin 1986, 52-69). Admittedly on the subject of the founding of Callatis there is information (Ps.-Skynmus 761-64; cf. Strabo VII. 6. 1; XII. 3. 6) to the effect that it took place in the last quarter of the 6th century BC, but archaeological excavations point to its having been founded in the early 4th century (Hind 1984, 765; Isaac 1986, 261-5). On the western shore of the Black Sea, Odessus was founded by the Milesians. Pseudo-Skymnus even gives a date: "It is said to have been founded when Astyages ruled the Medes" (748^49). This was c. 585-539. Excavation brought to light a thin archaic level and three ritual pits of the middle/late 6th century. Pottery, including Corinthian and East Greek, rosette bowls and Fikellura ware, suggests that the city was founded a little before or after 560 (Hind 1984, 74; Isaac 1986, 254-5; Boardman 1980, 247). Excavation has also shed light on many small settlements, which were situated right on the sea-shore. They probably appeared as a result of the extension of the Greek cities that had already been founded in the western part of the Black Sea region and had been part of their chora (Hind 1984, 72-7; Isaac 1986, 238-78). To the North of the Black Sea, near Olbia and Berezan, major changes were taking place. Olbia was already a polls: the city itself and the chora were extensive and it had its own coinage.22 Berezan had already become part of Olbia (Rusyaeva 1986; 1992; Kryzhitskii and Buiskikh 1989; Wasowicz 1975; Vinogradov Y. G. 1981; 1989)23. In the mid-6th century

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New cities appeared as well: Tyras, Nikonion and a large number of settlements (approximately 50) which, taken together, formed the chora of those cities (Treister and Vinogradov 1993, 531-9; Karyshkovskii and Kleyman 1985; Samoylova 1988; Sekerskaya 1989). New cities also appeared within the Kimmerian Bosporus. The only colony that had not been founded by the Milesians was Phanagoria, an apoikia of the Teians. The written tradition (Arrian, Byth., fr. 56 Rocs) and archaeological material show that Phanagoria was founded around 542 (Koshelenko, Kruglikova and Dolgorukov 1984, 77). It was also at this time that the city of Gorgippia (or to be precise, that Greek city which preceded Gorgippia - Sindica) was founded (Alekseeva 1991). To that period the founding of the small city of Toric - at the location of the modern town of Gelendzhik - was dated (Onaiko 1980). A large number of small centres of population grew up in the territory of the Asian Bosporus (approximately 30) (Abramov and Paromov 1993; Paromov 1990). In the territory of the European Bosporus, on the other hand, only a few small cities appeared: Akra, Porthmeus and Iluraton (Treister and Vinogradov 1993, 547). On the Taman peninsula more than 30 sites relating to the period embracing the middle and the third quarter of the 6th century have been recorded (many of the cities and settlements are now under the sea). The majority of those centres of population is situated either right on the seashore (9 of them), or on the banks of deep straits or rivers of the Kuban. Unlike the situation obtaining in the second stage (when all the cities were situated only on the coasts), settlements had, by now, also appeared in the interior. During the third stage of the colonization of Pontus, the lonians began settling new territory - in Eastern Pontus (Colchis). We know very little about this process and for this reason the subject of the Greek colonization of Colchis nowadays appears the most controversial and difficult problem of Black Sea archaeology, and very far from a final solution. The controversy stems mainly from the fact that the Greek cities have been virtually ignored, so far, by those engaged in archaeological research. The names of the Greek cities are known from written sources. They are Phasis, Gyenos and Dioscuria. According to both the written tradition and archaeological evidence, the Greek cities were founded by Miletus in the middle of the 6th century (notwithstanding the existence of examples, few in number, of early Greek pottery in Colchis, dating from the second quarter of the 6th century) (Lordkipanidze 1983; 1985; 1991; 1991a; 1991b; Tsetskhladze 1992; 1993; 1994; 1994a-d).

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Apart from the Greek cities, Hellenic settlements existed elsewhere in Colchis - at Pichvnari and Tsikhisdziri. Unfortunately, we know practically nothing about them because, to date, only Greek graves have been studied and not the settlements themselves. We know of the burial customs of the Greeks in Colchis, especially how they adapted their funeral practices to the local climatic and natural conditions. At the same time the Hellenization of the local population was quite strong. Study of these graves shows that there existed either a separate Greek settlement or quarter within the Colchian one (Pichvnari) or a mixed lonian-Attic-Colchian settlement (Tsikhisdziri). The cults of Apollo and Demeter were practised in both places (Tsetskhladze 1994d) and the cult of Apollo Hegemon was the official cult of colonists in Phasis (Tsetskhladze 1994b) A question which in recent years has been widely debated is the date of the foundation of Chersonesus in the Crimea. For a long time it was held that it was the only Dorian colony on the northern Pontic shore and had been founded by colonists from Heraklea Pontica in 422/21 (Saprykin 1986, 52-69, with bibliography). Yet during excavations at Chersonesus earlier material kept appearing, admittedly in small quantities: painted Ionian pottery, and black and red-figure pottery. Scholars put forward a variety of explanations for what had been, until recently, a question of isolated finds. Some had assumed this to be an indication that a trading station and Ionian settlement had come into being there as early as the 6th century BC; others that the Dorian colony had been preceded by a mooring for ships (Koshelenko et al. 1984, 15) Renewed interest in this problem has resulted from the excavations undertaken in the Chersonesus Historical-Archaeological Reserve in the north-eastern part of the city-site, begun in 1976. On this part of the site many hundreds of objects from the Archaic period of various categories have been found: a large collection of Ionian and Corinthian vessels and Attic black-figure pottery, archaic amphorae and terracotta figurines, an Ionian ring, and cast Olbian coins. All this material dates from the last quarter of the 6th century and the 5th century BC (Vinogradov and Zolotarev 1990; Chtcheglov 1992, 21420). I shall consider some of the material which may help determine the date of the founding of Chersonesus: one black-figure lekane lid, of which 15 fragments have been preserved. The inner surface is painted. The outside is decorated with three friezes using silhouette technique. The lid dates from the third quarter of the 6th century BC and was made in a Boeotian (?) workshop (Vinogradov and Zolotarev 1990, 88).

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At first glance such an early date for the lid of a painted Boeotian lekane is difficult to associate with the main mass of archaic material found on the site. The dozens of pieces of Ionian and Attic pottery found date from the late 6th century and the beginning of the 5th century BC. The earliest archaeological level at Chersonesus is datable 25-30 years after the founding of the Dorian settlement in the first quarter of the 5th century BC. This time-gap of a quarter of a century spans the period between the foundation and the appearance of the first burials (Zedgenidze and Savelya 1981; 198 la). In the northern part of the city over 100 burials of the late 5th and 4th centuries BC have been studied. The burials in other parts of the necropolis are also of this date. In the necropolis in the northern part of the city, however, scholars have identified five burials in amphorae used as funerary urns. Three were in amphorae from Samos dating from the very beginning of the 5th century, one in an amphora from Thasos and one in a proto-Thasian amphora of the very late 6th century BC. Thus the earliest burials appear to predate the founding of the settlement, just as the earliest settlement level does, by 25-30 years, i.e. by a single generation. The excavations of the last decade also brought to light a series of 26 graffiti "ostraka" from amphorae and black-glaze pottery. They are inscriptions of male names, both with and without patronymics, and they date from some time during the 5th century. A comprehensive study of them (Y. G. Vinogradov) has shown that of the 26 "ostraka" containing 24 prosopographical units, the earliest two were executed in the Megarian alphabet dating back to 500-480 BC (Vinogradov and Zolotarev 1990, 103-9). Analysis of the remaining "ostraka" has shown that from the second quarter of the 5th century the names are written in a more legible Milesian alphabet, while the predominance of Dorian personal names is retained. The Dorians are represented by ten names, but four names on three "ostraka" bear strongly pronounced Ionic features. The discovery of the "ostraka", dating from the 5th century BC, provided grounds for some scholars to suggest that a new colony was founded in the last quarter of the 6th century BC in the south-west of the Crimea jointly by lonians from Sinope and Dorians from Heraklea (Vinogradov and Zolotarev 1990, 103-9). This hypothesis would appear premature since there is not yet adequate material for such a far-reaching conclusion. We can only say with confidence that at the site of Chersonesus, founded in 422-421 BC, there existed a large setlement which had been founded in the last quarter of the 6th century BC by lonians. The question

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as to the status of the settlement still remains open, as does that regarding its relationship to the later city of Chersonesus. The city had probably been refounded by the Dorians from Heraklea Pontica. It had always been thought that the first houses at Chersonesus had been built of stone. New excavations in the third sector of the northwestern part have, however, brought to light dwellings sunk into the rock. These were round or oval in shape with earthen floors, hearths and walls: those parts of the dugout protruding above earth were made of mud-brick. Amphorae have been found Herakleian, Mendean, etc., many of which bear stamps dating from the end of the 5th century BC. To this period also date the large quantity of fragments of black-glaze Attic and handmade pottery (Zolotarev 1990). This means that the dugout buildings are the earliest of the city, similar to those of Berezan, Olbia, Panticapaeum, Nymphaeum, etc. (Kryzhitskii 1982, 10-1). They were in use between the end of the 5th century and the first quarter of the 4th century BC. Around the middle of the 4th century BC stone buildings above ground were erected over the rock dugouts.

Conclusions: The Reasons for Colonization This highly complex problem has been argued over by scholars for more than 150 years. The Greeks themselves tell us many times and in many ways that they were forced to leave home to search for a new place to live: they were unwilling colonists, driven from home by various disasters. Rarely is there explicit mention of commercial or agricultural benefits that must have lured the colonists to explore new sites. Instead, colonial narratives emphasize the negative factors - natural, political, personal and physical that encouraged the colonists to leave their homeland (Dougherty 1993, 16-8). I shall not dwell in detail on all the points in this controversy (Kocybala 1978, 126-36). They can be summarized in the words of J. Fine: "Greek colonization of the Black Sea region was of great importance for subsequent Greek history. A huge area, rich in metals, timber, grain, fish and many other products, was thus opened to a Greek world, whose resources in raw materials and food products were inadequate for the constantly growing population. The necessity to pay for those imports stimulated the activity of Greek craftsmen - especially the potters and metal-workers" (1983, 81). Most scholars, following C. Roebuck (1959, 116-30), consider that the main reason behind colonization of the Black Sea was interest in the metal

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of the southern and eastern parts and the grain of the North. Recent studies have shown that these regions, in particular the southern coast, were not all that rich in metal and alternative reasons for colonization have to be sought (Jesus 1978; cf. Treister 1988; 1992). A. Shcheglov (Chtcheglov) In his highly detailed analysis of the available written, archaeological and palaeobotanical sources connected with the grain trade in the Black Sea region, ended with the conclusion that the real picture did not match the generally accepted view of a large-scale and well regulated GraecoScythian grain trade in the 7th-5th centuries and later: "Such trade was a myth that evolved in the minds of modern scholars". He draws a convincing conclusion that, if we accept as probable that grain was exported from Greek centres along the north coast of the Black Sea in the 7th-5th centuries, then it could have been grain that was grown in the chora of those cities rather than acquired from the population of the steppe and wooded steppe zones. In any case, the export of grain from any centre on the north coast of the Black Sea could not have been a permanent or regular phenomenon that continued without interruption and always on a significant scale (Chtcheglov 1990; cf. Noonan 1973a). The reasons for colonization were never exclusively agrarian, or commercial, or connected with the need for metals on the one hand, or with over-population on the other. There was a whole range of reasons. Each mother-city had its own reasons for sending out colonies (Blavatskii, Koshelenko and Kruglikova 1979). First, it is important to analyse the metropolis and the reasons that might have obliged the Greeks to emigrate, and then look for reasons in the region where the colonies had been founded - natural resources and local conditions (Koshelenko and Kuznetsov 1992). This is the appropriate order in which to approach this question rather than to start with the natural resources. Virtually all the colonies in the Black Sea region were founded by Miletus. What compelled Milesians to seek their fortune beyond the confines of lonia, which became involved in the colonization process later than the other cities of homeland Greece? We must remember that the Ionian poleis were situated in favourable geographical conditions and possessed large expanses of fertile land (Hdt. I. 142). Herodotus refers to Miletus as "the pearl of lonia" (V. 28). At the end of the 8th century the Ionian poleis began advancing deep into the mainland, enlarging their territory. Miletus pushed back its boundaries up the river valley twenty or thirty miles (Cook J. 1968, 35). Expansion of this kind was typical of the other Ionian poleis. After the Mermnad dynasty had been established (c. 675), clashes began between

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Lydia and the Greeks (Dandamaev 1989,1Q-A-). The next Lydian dynasty, that of the Gyges, continued to pursue a hostile policy and its campaigns against Miletus and other cities (Hdt. I. 14-15). Particularly unfortunate was the outcome of the war waged by Alyattes against Miletus (Hdt. I. 16-18). His successor Croesus was known for his hostile stance towards most Greek cities (Hdt. 1. 26-28). The purpose of Lydia's aggression was to seize agricultural land (Hdt. I. 73). The main result of the Graeco-Lydian wars was the curtailing of the possessions of the Ionian poleis, including Miletus. The expansion of Lydia's territory led to a restructuring of the economy and foreign policy of the Ionian poleis. When extension of land became out of the question (and existing possessions had been reduced) the lonians began to search for overseas colonies, and trade was to become one of their major activities (Cook J. 1962, 50; Akurgal 1962, 373). Miletus' loss of part of its chora led to a grim struggle within the polls itself (Hdt. V. 28-29) (Jeffery 1976, 214). The very existence of part of the civilian population was under threat when discussion was underway as to how existing land ought be redistributed. One of the most radical solutions was emigration. At that time there was only one region that had not yet been colonized by other Greek cities - the Black Sea - and it was precisely towards Pontus that Miletus looked. The Milesian colonies appeared after the middle of the 7th century, when Lydia had already begun its expansion. This is the first stage of Greek penetration of the Black Sea. Miletus founded only seven settlements - on its northern, southern and western coasts. They were all small and situated on islands or peninsulae. Most probably they were designed to serve as bases for future reconnaissance. Their purpose was to collect information about those lands and to examine possibilities for further colonizing. Cautiously, they sought to forge relations with the local population of Scythians, Thracians etc. In the 7th century few imports are to be found on the native sites: relations clearly expanded rapidly in the 6th century. The long struggle for land between Miletus and Lydia always led to losses for Miletus. It came to an end at the beginning of the 6th century when Miletus was obliged to accept a treaty that reduced its possessions (Hdt. 1. 25). This led to an internal crisis and one of the methods used to resolve it was emigration. New waves of emigrants set off for the shores of Pontus. This is the second stage of the Greek colonization of the Black Sea.

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The crisis in Miletus ended for a time and relations between Lydia and Greece were friendly, with Lydia coming under the influence of Greek culture (Dandamaev 1989, 21-2; Hanfmann 1978). The flowering of Miletus was not to last for long. In the middle of the 6th century disaster struck again: this time dealt by the Persian king, who began to conquer the Greek cities of Asia Minor (Dandamaev 1989, 23-8). Once again the lonians were obliged to send off new colonies to Pontus. This is the third stage of the colonization of the Black Sea. The written sources make it quite clear, for example, that the Phocaeans and Teans were fleeing so as to avoid Persian conquest and enslavement: the Teans founded Abdera in Thrace (Hdt. 1. 168-169) and Phanagoria in the Kimmerian Bosporus about 542 (Arrian, Byth., fr. 56 Roos). This did not mark the end of forced emigration. After the lonians had been defeated in their revolt against the Persians, in the first quarter of the 5th century, they were obliged once again to flee from their native cities (a fourth stage of colonization) The constant armed incursions by the Lydian kings against the Greek cities of Asia Minor, on which they embarked not long before the end of the 7th century, had the most disastrous consequences for the Greeks. Their cities had been founded in geographically advantageous locations and, unlike the poleis of mainland Greece, did not suffer from a shortage of fertile land. Now they were not only robbed of a chance to extend their territory but had also lost part of their chora. To make matters worse, some of the cities had been seized and destroyed by the Lydians. Such was the fate of Smyrna, for example (Hdt. I. 16). Trial and tribulation were also to be the lot of Miletus, whose lands were laid waste over the course of many years. Similar examples could be cited in relation to other poleis. All this gave rise to a crisis in lonia, a crisis which was reflected in a shortage of the very means of subsistence, above all a shortage of land. Each polls sought its own solution. One involved extension of trading so as to obtain food, but trade could not compensate for the losses resulting from incessant hostilities. Trade alone was not enough to feed a substantial section of the hungry (if not starving) population, which, in addition, was threatened by death or slavery. There is no doubt that at critical moments in their history many Ionian poleis had to resolve to take the one remaining step open to them which could provide a fundamental solution to their problem - to leave their homeland and settle elsewhere. As G. Koshelenko and V. Kuznetsov observed: "An important consideration here was that the Ionian polls, as a result of all this, had to

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lower itself one or more steps beneath the level of culture which it would have achieved by the time the struggle against Lydia began, or later. Consequently, the Ionian Greeks were obliged not only to endure economic losses and, as a result, live in conditions of growing social tension in the cities, but also renounce the level of prosperity and culture (in the broad sense of the term) to which they were accustomed. This meant that the very principles underlying the existence of the polls were under threat. By setting up their apoikiai the Greeks not only delivered themselves from physical destruction and slavery, from economic and social problems, but also endeavoured to return to their earlier way of life and civilization befitting a polls" (1992, 24-5). Source – Lecture - in the Ruskin Lecture Theatre of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (1 March, 1994). G. R. Tsetskhladze.

Overview of Professor Tsetskhladze’s Lecture "Archaeologists will welcome secure evidence for the discovery of Geometric Greek material on Black Sea shores and will join historians in speculation about how it arrived there, in the hands of Greeks or of others. But we are still waiting, and patience is no lesser archaeological virtue than discretion" (Boardman 1991, 389)

Some scholars assume that Balkan-Anatolian connections existed in the Late Chalcolithic period (see: L. Thissen, "New Insights in BalkanAnatolian connections in the Late Chalcolithic: Old Evidence from the Turkish Black Sea littoral", Anatolian Studies 43 (1993), 207-37) After the expedition of T. Severin to test the credibility of the voyage of the Argonauts to Colchis, these authors refer to that voyage as the "new Argonauts" and adhere more firmly than ever to their opinion that the myth reflects reality (see: T. Severin, The Jason Voyage. The Quest/or the Golden Fleece (London 1985)). Moreover, some distinguished Georgian archaeologists consider the opinion of Severin (a traveller not a scholar) the absolute last word on this problem, quoting him as a mantra, e.g. D. Khakhutaishvili: "The leader of the expedition of the new Argonauts, Tim Severin, after acquainting himself with the city-site and the collection of finds in Kobuleti, commented: 'At last everything fell into place. Without doubt this was the final confirmation of the legend of Jason, the detail which noone could invent after the event - neither Apollonius Rhodius, nor other authors who wrote about the Golden Fleece. . . Every detail of the legend found its archaeological confirmation (my italics). What had seemed to us to be no more than an old fairy-tale at the beginning of the "Jason Voyage"

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suddenly emerged as reality in Georgia, 1,500 miles from the starting point at lolkos (Volos)'" (D. Khakhutaishvili, Les sites )

In Colchis burials of the local nobility contain an abundance of golden jewellery of the 5th century (Lordkipanidze 1979, 85-100). We know nothing about other Milesian colonies in the southern part of the Black Sea region: Kerasos, Kotyora, Tios and Sesamos. A. A. Zedgenidze fiercely opposes any suggestions to the effect that Chersonesus was founded earlier (Zedgenidze 1993). V. Kuznetsov holds that it is necessary to set the foundation of the early settlement still further back in time and he suggests the second quarter of the 6th century BC as a probable date (Kuznetsov 1991, 36, note 42). According to calculations by N. Ehrhardt the number of Milesian settlements reached approximately seventy, which is close to the number given by Seneca (Consol. ad. Helv. matr. VII.2). See also: Graham 1983,98-117. . The Athenians, whose interest in the Black Sea began as early as the 6th century, included Pontus in their empire from the middle of the 5th century (Bouzek 1989; 1990, 51-2; 1994, 241-3). Moreover, Greek cities in both the European and Asian parts of the Kimmerian Bosporus united in 480 BC as one state, which came to be known as the Bosporan Kingdom with its capital at Panticapaeum (Gajdukevich 1971, 32-49; Shelov-Kovedyaev 1984, 63-78). - G. R. Tsetskhladze

Sources and abbreviations From the lecture presented by G. R. Tsetskhladze in the Ruskin Lecture Theatre of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (1 March, 1994) GCNP: J.-P. Descoeudres (Ed.) Greek Colonists and Native Populations. Proceedings of the First Australian Congress of Classical Archaeology held in honour of Emeritus Professor A. D. Trendall (Oxford, U. P. 1990). INA: Institute of Nautical Archaeology. KSIA: Kratkiye Soobshcheniya Instituta Arkheologii Akademii Nauk SSR (Short Bulletins of the Institute of the Institute of Archaeology, Academy of Sciences of the USSR), Moscow (in Russian). Le Pont-Euxin: 0. Lordkipanidze and P. Leveque (Eds.), Le Pont-Euxin vu par les Grecs. Sources ecrites et archeologie. Symposium de Vani (Colchide), septembreoctobre 1987 (Paris 1990).

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SA: Sovetskaya Arkheologiya (Soviet Archaeology), Moscow (in Russian with summaries in French and English). Tskhaltubo 1977: 0. D. Lordkipanidze (Ed.), Problems of Greek Colonisation of the Northern and Eastern Black Sea Littoral. Materials of the 1st All-Union Symposium on the Ancient History of the Black Sea Littoral (Tbilisi 1979). Tskhaltubo J979: 0. D. Lordkipanidze (Ed.), The Demographic Situation in in the Black Sea Littoral in the Period of Great Greek Colonization. Materials of the 2nd All-Union Symposium on the Ancient History of the Black Sea Littoral (Tbilisi 1981) Tskhaltubo-Vani 1985: 0. D. Lordkipanidze (Ed.), Local Ethno-polltical Entities of the Black Sea Area in the 7th-4th cents. BC. Materials of the 4th All-Union Symposium on the Ancient History of the Black Sea littoral (Tbilisi 1988). Vani 1987: 0. D. Lordkipanidze (Ed.), The Black Sea Littoral in the 7th-5th cents. EC: Literary Sources and Archaeology (Problems of Authenticity). Materials of the 5th International Symposium on the Ancient History of the Black Sea Littoral (Tbilisi 1990). VDI: Vestnik Drevnei Istorii (Journal of Ancient History), Moscow (in Russian with summaries in English). (G. R. Tsetskhladze)

CORYBANTES, CYRBEIS AND A LITTLE ETYMOLOGY

Basing on old historical sources Strabo (X, 3, 19) wrote that Corybantes who were the sons of Helios and half-brothers of the king of Colchis Aeetes came to Crete, Euboea, Samothrace and other islands of the Mediterranean sea and Phrygia from the Country of Colchis (Parada 1993). According to Theopompus of Chios (Jacoby 1927, IIB, 526-617; Müllerus 1885, I, 278), Theophrastus of Eressos (Fortenbaugh 1984, 59) Apollodorus of Athens (Müllerus 1885, I, 432), Photius (1864, I, 360) and Suida, Cretan Corybantes are believed to have created Cyrbeis (kÚrbij, kÚrbeij) the sacred written inscriptions (Dobson 1828, I, xxxiv). According to Cratinus, Lysias, Plato, Aristotele, Timaeus, Apollonius of Rhodes, Aristophanes, Plutarch, Zenobius, Cometas and others, these inscriptions were made on clay or copper tablets, on wooden boards, columns or stelae. Diodorus of Sicily (V, 49 2-3) says that the word Corybantes comes from the name of the son of the Great Mother Goddess Rhea-Cybele – Corybas (Drummond 1826, III, 200). According to Etymologicon Magnum (1816) Corybas – Corybas/Cyrbas is derived from a verb meaning I hide, I conceal, I protect. As I think, this etymology seems to have its origin in the secret character of the mysteries of Corybantes. C. Ritter says that Cyrbeis were tablets and they were used by Colchis (Chkonia 1896, 124-125). Basing on the old Greek sources, a Georgian scholar A. Urushadze (1964, 154) supposed that Cyrbis means hard and firm material. V. Sichinava (1953, III, 81-101) thinks that the word Cyrbis is related to Colchian >iribi, the corresponding Georgian form being *>rawi>>ravi – sheep (on the alteration [w]/[b] see Gamkrelidze, and Machavariani 1965, 111). R. Schmitt-Brandt (2002-a, 101) connected the Linear B sign I[qi] – meaning sheep – with >iribi. I think >iribi could be connected with the assumed *qi-ri-bosheep – of the Linear B script (comp. Gordeziani 2007, II, 206). A similar root is the Colchian word do>iribua, which, I suppose, means engraving or printing signs narrowly and tight after one another on wet clay tablets with seals.

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Note - Strabo (X, 3, 12;19) identifies Corybantes with the deities of blacksmith – with Cabeiri and Curetes. Herodotus (III. 37) says that Cabeiri were the sons of Hephaistus. According to U. Drummond (1826, III, 199) Caberos is identified with Mercury. (Dr.Gia Kvashilava) Diadorus of Sicily mentioned the word Corybantes came from the name of the son of the great Mother Goddess, Rhea-Cybele-Corybas. Corybas is derived from the verb KrUbw which means hide/conceal/ protect.

The Corybantes The Corybantes8 are represented as a kind of inspired people, subject to Bacchic frenzy, and inspiring terror at the celebration of the sacred rites by means of war-dances, noise, cymbals, drums, and arms. They have been called attendants of Rhea, identified as Cybele, the Mother of the Gods worshipped in Phrygia, and guardians of Dionysus2 in his growing days. It is also told that the CORYBANTES, came from Colchis (today Georgia in the Caucasus), and were given as armed ministers to Rhea by the TITANS. The CORYBANTES are inclined to dancing and to religious frenzy, and worship the Mother of the Gods with orgies. The CORYBANTES are sometimes said to have been expelled from their country by their father Socus, and to have ruled the Euboean battalions that joined Dionysus in his war against the Indians. CORYBANTES have been called the following: Acmon , Cyrbas, Damneus, Idaeus 3, Melisseus , Mimas, Ocythous , Prymneus, and Pyrrhichus.

The Corybantes, the Cabiroi, the Dactyls and the Tekchines Are sometimes represented as identical with the CURETES, and sometimes as kinsmen of one the CABIROI westward, particularly to the Pangæan mountains, and the region Curetis, where the Cyclopians dwelt in Thrace: also to the region Trinacia and Leontina, near Ætna, which they occupied in Sicily. (Jacob Bryant, London – 1807)

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Strabo (X ,3, 12;19) identifies Corybantes with the deities of blacksmith – with Cabeiri and Curetes.

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The Cabiroi The Cabiroi9 are the children of Hephaestus and Cabiro, a Thracian woman, daughter of Proteus, the seer who is known as the Old Man of the Sea. The surviving names of the CABIROI are Alcon and Eurymedon. Three of them (the others are not named) are said to be the children of Cadmilus, who is also a son of Hephaestus and Cabiro. But those who said that the CORYBANTES are sons of Zeus and Calliope, also say that the CORYBANTES and the CABIROI are identical. The NYMPHS CABIROIDES are the daughters of the CABIROI, though three of them are said to be the children of Hephaestus and Cabiro. The CABIROI were honored in Imbros, Lemnos, and also in different cities of the Troad Strab.10.3.21. The Curetes, and Corybantes, who were the same as the Idæi Dactyli, are supposed to have learned the mystery of fusing and forging metals. From them it was propagated to many countries westward (Jacob Bryant, London – 1807) The Curetes The Curetes, often identified with the CORYBANTES, guarded the infant Zeus, clashing their spears on their shields in order that Cronos might not hear the child's voice. They could have been descendants of the DACTYLS. Their life is the tune of pipes, and the noise of beaten swords. They have been described as flute-players, and wearing brazen shields. They have been called the rearers and protectors of Zeus, having been summoned from Phrygia to Crete by Rhea1.offspring of Gaia. Apd.1.1.7, 1.8.3, 2.1.3; Cal.Ze.51; DH.2.70.3ff.; Dio.5.60.2, 5.65.1; Eur.Bacc.120; Nonn.13.155; Vir.Geo.4.151; Strab.10.3.11, 10.3.19. Hesiod says that five daughters were born to Hecaterus and the daughter of Phoroneus, from whom sprang the mountain-ranging nymphs, goddesses, and the breed of Satyrs, creatures worthless and unfit for work, and also the Curetes, sportive gods, dancers4 And the author of Phoronis speaks of the Curetes as "flute-players" and "Phrygians"; and others as "earth-born" and "wearing brazen shields." Some call the Corybantes, and not the Curetes, "Phrygians," but the Curetes "Cretes," and say that the Cretes were the first people to don brazen armour in Euboea, and that on this account they were also called "Chalcidians"; still others say that the 9

Herodotus (III. 37) says that Cabeiri were the sons of Hephaistus. According to U. Drummond (1826, III, 199) Caberos is identified with Mercury (Dr.Gia Kvashilava).

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Corybantes, who came from Bactriana (some say from among the Colchians), were given as armed ministers to Rhea by the Titans. In Cretan accounts the Curetes are called "rearers of Zeus," and "protectors of Zeus," having been summoned from Phrygia to Crete by Rhea. Some say that, of the nine Telchines who lived in Rhodes, those who accompanied Rhea to Crete and "reared" Zeus "in his youth" were named "Curetes"; and that Cyrbas, a comrade of these, who was the founder of Hierapytna, afforded a pretext to the Prasians for saying among the Rhodians that the Corybantes were certain genii, sons of Athena and Helius. Further, some call the Corybantes sons of Cronus, but others say that the Corybantes were sons of Zeus and Calliope and were identical with the Cabeiri, and that these went off to Samothrace, which in earlier times was called Melite, and that their rites were mystical. some say from among the Colchians), were given as armed ministers to Rhea by the Titans. But in the Cretan accounts the Curetes are called "rearers of Zeus," and "protectors of Zeus," having been summoned from Phrygia to Crete by Rhea. Some say that, of the nine Telchines who lived in Rhodes, those who accompanied Rhea to Crete and "reared" Zeus "in his youth" were named "Curetes"; and that Cyrbas, a comrade of these, who was the founder of Hierapytna, afforded a pretext to the Prasians for saying among the Rhodians that the Corybantes were certain genii, sons of Athena and Helius. Further, some call the Corybantes sons of Cronus, some, however, believe that the Curetes were the same as the Corybantes and were ministers of Hecate. But the Scepsian again states, in opposition to the words of Euripides, that the rites of Rhea were not sanctioned or in vogue in Crete, but only in Phrygia and the Troad, and that those who say otherwise are dealing in myths rather than in history, though perhaps the identity of the place-names contributed to their making this mistake. For instance, Ida is not only a Trojan, but also a Cretan, mountain . The Scepsian says that it is probable that the Curetes and the Corybantes were the same, being those who had been accepted as young men, or "youths," for the war-dance in connection with the holy rites of the Mother of the gods, and also as "corybantes" from the fact that they "walked with a butting of their heads" in a dancing way the Corybantes are inclined to dancing and to religious frenzy, we say of those who are stirred with frenzy that they are "corybantising."

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The Mountain Goddess Cybele - (Kybele) Rhea

Source: Dr. Vollmer's Wörterbuch der Mythologie aller Völker. Stuttgart: Hoffmann'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1874. "Kybele: Rhea. [So named] from the Kybela mountains; for she is a mountain goddess; that is why she rides in a chariot drawn by a team of lions ... effeminates are present in the mysteries of Rhea." - Suidas "Kybele" "The Great Mother, the patron of Cybele, the cymbals of the Corybantes." Source - Virgil, Aeneid 3.111

Cybele - (Kybele) Rhea “Cybele (Kybele) the cult of oracle had ordered the Phrygians to bury the body of Attis. Attis or Atys was the young consort of the Phrygian goddess Cybele. Attis was a son of Nana, a daughter of the river-god Sangarius. There are many questions here: Whether the cult was an

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extension from the Greek islands, as the goddess seen on seals who is seated between two lions with the Tree of Life in the background; whether the Mater Catal Hyuk is the same and finally whether the Mater of Malta also is related. Also, the Thracian cults, including the tradition that Dionysus’ feast was adapted from Cybele’s., also the theme of rebirth. Cybele is known as the self-generated goddess (she sprouted from an almond tree or pine tree which grew from some semen accidentally spilled on the ground by Zeus. Attis, Adonis, Christ, Dionyses seem to be related to the theme in their mysteries of rebirth. The earth-mother, defender of cities, aka Cybele and also called Baba (A Midas Monument altar refers to BABA.). Source:http://www.matavot.com/Phrygian.html’ (by permission of Mel Copeland) The origin of the cult of Cybele or the Great Mother in Asia Minor. According to Diodorus, the oracle had ordered the Phrygians to bury the body of Attis and to worship the Great Mother, or Cybele, in order to be protected from epidemics and drought. Or, in other words, the cult of Cybele was imported on the territory of Asia Minor from other Pelasgian lands, especially from the region of the Lower Danube, connected to Asia Minor through many ethnic, economic and religious ties. Source: Greek Mythology Link, Carlos Parada.

Colchian Roots The Classical Grail (The Golden Fleece) The Golden Fleece is referred to in spiritual science as the classical Grail. The Golden Fleece in the Classical period was the same as the Grail and the philosophers’ stone in the Middle Ages, the two being identical notions. Search for the philosophers’ stone is not only a search for physical gold but also a search for spiritual initiation for god, and for a definite developmental level of spiritual consciousness conveyed in Classical Greek mysteries as a quest for the Golden Fleece. The latter, as you are well aware, was preserved in Colchis, the golden ram having flown to Colchis from Greece. But this was a period when Pelasgic culture was flourishing in Greece, namely the Pelasgic culture of Argos. The ship was called Argo, for the. stem of the word is of Colchian provenance; note the Georgian place names Argo, Argveti, Egrisi, containing the Colchian stem gr. The expedition to Colchis was symbolically or imaginatively undertaken in quest of mysterious wisdom which at the time was preserved in Colchis alone, no longer existing in the territory of Greece or in the countries of the Mediterranean basin. Consider

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also Theseus’ travel to Crete – again to acquire the wisdom that no longer existed in Classical Greece. Note that the greatest heroes of Greece, Theseus, Heracles, and Jason (incidentally, Heracles too was on board the Argo), set out in quest of spiritual or mysterious wisdom in countries of proto-Georgian, protoIberian origin. Minoan Crete was one such country (incidentally Minos means a bearer of reason, a thinker); Theseus’ arrival in Crete, his entrance of the labyrinth; slaying of the Minotaur, and coming out purported the adoption of the Minoan cultute that was older than and superior to ancient Greek culture. The same refers to ancient Colchian culture which was at the time at a higher level than its Greek counterpart (It is not accidental that Aeetes’ sister Pasiphae was Minos’ wife). Thus, the expeditions of these heroes were invariably directed to Kartvelian countries. Heracles too goes to the Garden of the Hesperides in Spanish Iberia to fetch the apples. The myth of Orpheus, too, gives his main objective as the revival of the cult of his Pelasgian ancestors. Orpheus was of Pelasgian origin, the son of Oeagrus (incidentally, the name of Orpheus’ father directly coincides with the name of Colchis: Egrisi, Egri). His purpose was to breathe new life into Pelasgian culture that had declined in the Hellenic period. As for the voyage of the Argonauts, as noted above, it deals with different stages of ancient Greek, specifically Doric, initiation, and it is no mere chance that Doric – active – initiation is related to the Colchian world. In Pindar’s Fourth Ode, Jason – as a figure and hero – is referred to as panther-skinned; he is not only the procurer of the Golden Fleece but a panther-skin hero as well. In general, panther-skin heroes are related to the proto-Georgian world. However, panther-skin priests occur in Egyptian mysteries too. Incidentally, the Trojan Paris also wears a panther skin, as do other Trojan heroes. The Dionysiac processions too were led by a panther, Dionysus himself wearing a panther’s skin. Thus the skin of a panther is an ancient totemic image of Japhetic mankind or the Caucasian race. The principal divinity of the Japhetid or Kartvelian people was Mother-Goddess appearing in various aspects in different branches of this people, hence her name myrionym, i.e. with myriad names. This was the central mother-goddess found by the Greek colonists in Phasis, her large statue standing at the entrance to Phasis. In this country it is known as “mother-goddess” or “mother of the place” represented as Demeter or Hera in proto-Kartvelian countries. The cult of Artemis stems from this

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goddess, a parallel cult existing in Svaneti as the cult of Dali. As you know, the cult of Asia Minor goddesses is related to this ancient Japhetic mother-goddess.

The Myth of Prometheus Pelasgian Origin The myth of Prometheus is most important from the viewpoint of the evolution of humankind as well as of the ethnogeny of the Georgians, The basic development of the Creek mythos, (Zviad Gamsakhurdia postulates) are connected with the Caucasus. (He recalled) ”The expedition of the Argonauts and the chaining of Prometheus to the Caucasus Range, both major events in Creek mythology.” The names of the personages of mythos (Myths were created in ancient mysteries by the priests, devotes, and adepts), as well as the names of came to Greece later, established its cult by force, and chained Prometheus to the Caucasus; What was the cause of this punishment? It was the meeting of the representatives of two cultures or peoples in Corinth, one aligned to Prometheus, and the other to Zeus. This was a symbolic reflection of the coming together of two cultures or peoples one was the indigenous, primordial Creek population and the other a newly arrived , IndoEuropean or Hellenic.culture. At this meeting, Prometheus and his attendant priests cheat Zeus and his friends in sharing the sacrificial ox. The deception of Zeus’ priests was made possible because the intellect and thinking of Prometheus’ priests were more advanced. It is symbolic of the superior intellectual development of the indigenous people: in other words. Pelasgic culture that the recently arrived Indo-Europeans found in Greece was superior to theirs. The culture of thought was correspondingly higher; subsequently the Indo-Europeans raised the Greek culture of thought to a higher stage of development. However, this was still the period of the first confrontation between the two peoples,two peoples. When Prometheus’ priests divide the ox in such a way that the bones and fat fall to Zeus, and the best parts of the animal to themselves. This too is symbolic, for there we are dealing with a dual interpretation of the offering, Zeus’ priests pretending to have deliberately allowed themselves to be cheated. Then Zeus addresses Prometheus: – The son of Iapetus, the noblest of all rulers, the greatest seer of the future, friend, why did you share the ox thus?”

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Zeus is late in perceiving what Prometheus has done. Having understood Prometheus’ quality, Zeus refuses to give fire to mankind and chains Prometheus to the Caucasus as a punishment for his having provided men with it. Here fire is a symbol of man’s self. As you know, among the four elements (fire, water, earth and air) it is fire that corresponds to man’s self or identity. Zeus’ refusal to give mankind its identity, which it therefore lacks, and Prometheus’ provision of men with fire, i.e. their identity, reflects a definite stage in the development of mysterious culture when men received the self by descending into the physical body; now the chaining of Prometheus is precisely the stage at which man’s soul and his self descend from the spiritual world into the physical body and man becomes aware of his self (Incidentally, the burial of the Titans in Tartarus following their struggle with the gods has the same implication) This is the consequence of Prometheus’ provi-sion of mankind with fire, for all culture comes from self, in the same way as civilization follows from the use of fire. We learn from such symbols that Prometheus reflects the culture of mysteries that was primordial in ancient Greece and later became located in the Caucasus. which is reflected symbolically in the chaining of Prometheus to the Caucasus. Prometheus is tormented by Zeus’ eagle. On the one hand, the eagle is a symbol of spiritual flight upward and cognition, and on the other, it symbolizes imperial power and violence that torments Prometheus. Prometheus chained to a rock, or thought chained to the physical body, was released by Heracles. What does Heracles represent? He represents a new culture of initiation – volitional, heroic initiation – a prototype of Christian initiation. In general, the ancient Greek mysteries were prophetic in character. The central mysteries of ancient Greece were mysteries of “Eloizis”. This is an ancient Greek word and means a future event, what is to come to pass, prophecy. Exerpts from a lecture given at the Idriart Festival held at Tbilisi Philharmonic House, May 1990. Source – Spiritual Mission of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia. Prometheus was worshipped by the Colchians as a Deity; and had a temple and high place, called ȆİIJȡĮ ȉȣijĮȠȞȚĮ, upon Mount Caucasus: and the device upon the portal was Egyptian, an eagle over a heart. undoubtedly taken from the symbols and devices which were carved upon the front of the antient Amonian temples; and especially those of Egypt. The eagle and the vulture were the insignia of that country.

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Proto-Iberian - Relationship of the Basque and Georgian Cultures Of Basque and Georgian (Zviad Gamsakhurdia states.)”I can say that Basque is – like Georgian – a proto-Iberian language, but they have been separated from each other for great periods of time and have been developing separately so long as to render the establishment of their genetic relationship difficult. The relationship is being established rather by means of place names, separate phrases, and forms, as well as by the cultural-historical comparative method. Today Basque and Georgian do not scorn to be genetically related languages; however, this does not mean that the Basque and Georgian worlds did not form a single whole in antiquity. As I have said, this was one people, one race, and one language, but later Basque assumed such individuality that today scholars even find it hard to establish genetic relationship. There exists a different approach, based as I have said – on Humboldt’s well-known work on Basque, Western science has no greater authority than Humboldt; however, according to the latest studies of modern Kartvelologists (Jan Braun, and others), the view is gaining ground on Basque being a fourth Kartvelian langu.”

The Pelasgians

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The Pelasgians and the Sumerians were not Indo-Europeans This is proved by linguistic evidence. In the first place, the eminent Georgian scholar M. Tsereteli has demonstrated that the Sumerians were not Indo-Europeans, and that today only Kartvelian languages are related to Sumerian. The Indo-European languages are not related to these languages. As far the Pelasgians, Herodotus and other Greek histodans point out directly that they were Iberians. (Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Idriart Festival Tbilisi, May 2.1990) Iberians, Proto-Iberians (The Caucasus) In the twentieth century, the leading Georgian scholars Acad. Ivane Javakhishvili and N. Marr made a study of the genetic roots of the Georgian nation. Humboldt’s research into the Basque language and the ancient population of the Iberian peninsula led him to the conclusion that the primary, autochthonous population of Southern Europe, viz. the Iberian peninsula, Italy, and the Mediterranean islands, was Iberian. This population was called proto-Iberian, the later European population stemming from it. The term Mediterranean race (or people) is also used in scholarship. In order to refer to the people of the Caucasian race use is also made of the terms palaeo-Caucasian or ancient Caucasian race and ancient-Mediterranean race, the terms being interchangeable. and refers to the population diffused from the Iberian peninsula, into the Mediterranean and Aegean basins, the Balkans, into modern Greece, the Caucasus, and the territory of modern India as well as into Asia Minor and Palestine. This is the area of diffusion of the proto-Iberian people which, according to Humboldt, had many offshoots. These people had a single basic language with many dialectal branches, and even if these dialects assumed the character of separate languages, they remained kindred and developed as mutually related languages. That is why the term protoIberian gained currency, to which – as the ancient population of the Iberian peninsula and Italy, in particular, Basque, Lusitanian, Etruscan, Pelasgian, etc. is linked. Marr studied the language of the Sumerians, the ancient Iberian tribes of Asia Minor and Mesopotamia, while the eminent Georgian scholar Mikheil Tsereteli researched the genetic relationship of Sumerian and modern Georgian.

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Pyrenean and Caucasian Iberian Marr’s studies, as well as those carried out by objective representatives of Armenian scholars (e.g. Ghapantsian), have shown that a considerable part of the Asia Minor population belonged to the proto-Iberian race, represented by the Meskhians or Moschoi, Cappadocians, Colchians, Taochoi, and others. Therefore different branches of one and the same people are referred to academically as Kartvelian or proto-Iberian whilst Georgia in the Caucasus is linked to the Iberian-Caucasian branch. Of the numerous branches of Iberian, at present Pyrenean (Spanish) Iberian or Basque and Caucasian Iberian or Georgian (with its related tribes in the Northern Caucasus) have survived. The rest have already been assimilated into the Indo-European part of mankind. The Indo-Europeans seem to have arrived in Europe later, viz. after the second millennium B.C., whereas the proto-Iberian or palaeo-Mediterranean and palaeoCaucasian population is believed to have been on the upgrade from earliest times to the third millennium B.C. The decline of these people, i. e. their numerical diminishment and assimilation by the newly arriving IndoEuropeans, commenced in the third millennium. A Synthesis of Cultures From this time on , the Hittite and Ancient Greek or Hellenic worlds come to the fore. There occurred a synthesis of cultures: the primary cultures of Minos, the Aegean cultures, and Colchian (Ancient Colchian) cultures, the latter being closely connected with Minoan, became linked to the Mediterranean or proto-Iberian people. Subsequently – from the second millennium B.C. – the Hittite world, which was already Indo-European, began to advance to the foreground, along with the ancient Greek world, stemming from the Vedic Greek tribe that had come to the territory on which later arose the ancient Greek world and its culture. On the basis of the evidence of Greek historians the primordial populalion of ancient Greece is defined as Pelasgic or proto-Iberian. The Pelasgians formed a branch of the proto-Iberians, similarly to the Etruscans, the Colchians, and other peoples. The Colchian, Pelasgian, Trojan, and Minoan were closely related worlds, and for practical purposes of study can be considered as constituting one single world, a world reflected in the great epic of Homer. Modern scholarship of this civilization have not been given adequate publicity.

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Troy – Pelasgian Origin Georgian Professor Rismag Gordeziani made important inferences in studying the ethnogeny of the tribes mentioned in the Iliad, as. well as the role of Kartvelian or proto-Georgian tribes in the Trojan War. This has given a better insight through his studies on the genetic relation of the Georgian language to Etruscan and of Kartvelian tribes to the Lycians, Carians, and the entire world of Asia Minor and the Aegean – primarily to Troy.

The Trojan World Was older than the Hellenic The legend states that the Greeks fought in Troy in order to secure the sacred, mysterious wisdom of the Palladium. Troy is the same Colchian world, for in the dispute of the Achaeans with the Trojans the latter explain the abduction of Helen as a kind of revenge for the earlier carrying off of Medea by the Achaeans. The Trojans remonstrate with the Achaeans saying that inasmuch as earlier they had been deprived of a woman i.e. Medea, now Helen had been carried off in retaliation; thus, The Colchians appear in the role of the abductors. The Trojans and the Colchians are a people of the same stock as that which constitutes the population of the entire Mediterranean Basin and the bulk of the population of Asia Minor. The Indo-European people gained ascendancy from the second millennium, and the Trojan War, described in the Illiad, actually occurred at a time when the Indo-Europeans had already gained the upper hand both in Asia Minor and in Greece, while the Pelasgian people were threatened with a decline, though Achilles, the greatest hero of the Trojan War, is of Pelasgic origin, i.e. a representative of the Kartvelian people, while Agamemnon and Menelaus are of purely Hellenic extraction, representing the Hellenic world. Here we are dealing with an obvious conflict between the Hellenic and proto-Georgian worlds: Troy is the proto-Georgian world, whereas the Achaeans represent its Hellenic counterpart. One of the main objectives of the campaign one that stands out in the conflict, is to carry off the Palladium, which is symbolically effected through the Trojan horse. True, symbolically the motif of the abduction of a woman, but Helen is the symbol of the ancient pagan Sophia (the abduction of Wisdom or Sophia, and its subsequent retrieval is a

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widespread motif in classical poems), while the horse is known to have been the symbol of intelligence in ancient epic poetry and myths. The Achaean Greek mission of developing intelligence was already a new stage of consciousness, while ancient Colchian, Trojan, Pelasgic culture was a clairvoyant one which preceded intellectual, reasoning culture. Ancient Greek myths were in reality not Greek but Pelasgic, as noted by the eminent German philosopher Schelling, who defined the Pelasgic period in the development of Greece as Sabism, i.e. the period of clairvoyant wisdom. From Greek mythology of the subsequent period we learn that Perseus and other heroes transferred the clairvoyant, Pelasgic culture to a reasoning culture, i.e., intellectual, Greek culture.

PHAISTOS

The Italian Archaeological Mission 1900 We have followed the fortunes of the excavations at Knossos in considerable detail, not only as being the most important, but as illustrating also in the fullest manner the legendary and religious history of Crete. They are far from being the only important investigations which havs been conducted in the island, and it may even be said that, had Knossos never been excavated, it would still have been possible, from the results of the excavations made at other sites, to deduce the conclusion which has been arrived at as to the supreme position of Crete in the early Ægean civilization. Both in the Iliad and the Odyssey , Phæstos is mentioned along with Knossos as one of the chief towns of Crete; and it is at and near Phæstos that the most extensive and important remains of Minoan culture have been discovered, apart from the work at Knossos. The splendid valley of the Messara, on the southern side of the island, is dominated towards its seaward end by three hills, rising in steps one above the other, and on the lowest of the three, overlooking the plain, stood the Palace of Phæstos, the second great seat of the Minoan lords of Crete. In the case of Knossos, a few blocks of hewn stone, standing among the furrows of the cornfield which occupied the site, were the only indications of the great structure which had once crowned the hill, and it was the existence of these which induced the Italian Archæological Mission to attempt the excavation. In April, 1900, the first reconnaissance of the ground was made, with no very encouraging results. By September of the same year the great palace had been discovered, though, of course, the full revelation of its features was a matter of much longer time. The work has been carried on by Professor Halbherr, Signor Pernier, and others, concurrently with the excavations of Dr. Evans; and the result has been the revelation of a palace, similar in many respects to the House of Minos at Knossos, though on a somewhat smaller scale, and characterized, like the Labyrinth, by distinct periods of building. At Phæstos, indeed, the remains of the earlier palace, consisting of the Theatral Area and West Court, with the one-columned portico at its south

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end, are of earlier date than the existing important architectural features at Knossos, belonging to the period known as Middle Minoan II., the time when the beautiful polychrome Kamares ware was in its glory, while the main scheme of the palace at Knossos, as at present existing, must be placed somewhere in the following period, Middle Minoan III. This first palace of Phæstos had been destroyed, like the early palace at Knossos, but not at the same time, for it apparently lasted till the beginning of the Late Minoan period, while at Knossos the catastrophe of the first palace took place at the end of Middle Minoan II. From this fact it has been suggested that the first destruction of Knossos was the result of civil war, in which the lords of Phæstos overthrew their northern brethren of the greater palace, but the evidence seems somewhat scanty to bear such an inference. After the catastrophe at Phæstos, a thick layer of lime mixed with clay and pebbles was thrown over the remains of the ruined structure as a preparation for the rebuilding of the palace, and thus the relics of the earlier building, which are now unveiled in close connection with the later work, though on a rather lower level, were completely covered up before the second palace rose upon the site. The Theatral Area at Phæstos to some extent resembles that of Knossos, but is simpler, lacking the tier of steps at right angles to the main tier, and lacking also the Bastion, or Royal Box, which at Knossos occupies the angle of the junction of the two tiers. It consists of a paved court, ending, on the west side, in a flight of ten steps, more than 60 feet in length, behind which stands a wall of large limestone blocks. As at Knossos, a flagged pathway ran across the area, obliquely, however, in this case. Beneath the structure of the second palace were discovered some of the chambers of the earlier building with a number of very fine Kamares vases . But the chief glory of the palace at Phæstos is the great flight of steps, 45 feet in width, which formed its state entrance, the broadest and most splendid staircase that ever a royal palace had . 'No architect,' says Mosso, 'has ever made such a flight of steps out of Crete.' At the head of the entrance staircase stood a columned portico, behind which was the great reception-hall of the palace. The halls and courts of Phæstos are comparable for spaciousness even with the finest of those at Knossos, and, indeed, the Megaron, so called (wrongly), of Phæstos is a more spacious apartment than the Hall of the Double Axes at the sister palace, the area of the Phæstos chamber being over 3,000 square feet, as against the 2,000 odd square feet of the Hall of the Double Axes. The Central Court, 150 feet long by 70 broad, is a fine

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paved quadrangle, but has not the impressiveness of the Central Court at Knossos, with its area of about 20,000 square feet. On the whole, the two palaces wonderfully resemble each other in the general ideas that determine their structure, though, of course, there are many variations in detail. But, as contrasted with the sister palace, the stately building at Phæstos has exhibited a most extraordinary dearth of the objects of art which formed so great a part of the treasures of Knossos. Apart from the Kamares vases and one graceful flower fresco, little of importance has been found. The comparative absence of metal-work at Knossos can be explained by the greed of the plunderers who sacked the palace; but Phæstos is almost barren, not of metal-work alone.

The Discovery of the Phaistos Disc All the more interesting, therefore, was the discovery, made in 1908, of the largest inscribed clay tablet which has yet been found on any Minoan site. This was a disc of terra-cotta, 6.67 inches in diameter, and covered on both sides with an inscription which coils round from the centre outwards. 'It is by far the largest hieroglyphic inscription yet discovered in Crete. It contains some 241 signs and 61 sign groups, and it exhibits the remarkable peculiarity that every sign has been separately impressed on the clay while in a soft state by a stamp or punch. It is, in fact, a printed inscription. One of the hieroglyphs, frequently repeated, is the representation of the head of a warrior wearing a feathered headdress which remarkably resembles the crested helmets of the Pulosathu, or Philistines, on the reliefs of Ramses III. at Medinet Habu. From his analysis of the various signs Dr. Evans has concluded that the inscription is not Cretan, but may represent a script, perhaps Lycian, in use in the coast-lands of Asia Minor. No interpretation of the writing can yet be given, but Dr. Evans has pointed out evidences of a metrical arrangement among the signs, and has suggested that the inscription may conceivably be a hymn in honour of the Anatolian Great Mother, a goddess who corresponded to the Nature Goddess worshipped in Minoan Crete, whose traditions have survived under the titles of Rhea, Britomartis, Aphrodite Ariadne, and Artemis Dictynna. The pottery in connection with which it was found dates it to at least 1600, perhaps to 1800, B.C. [A. J. Evans, 'Scripta Minoa,' p. 24.]

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Luigi Pernier – The ‘discoverer’ of the Phaistos Disc The original facts in regard to archaeological details being described in more clarity, edited from the notes of Pernier of his ‘discovery’ of thedisc on the evening of July 3.1908. From; Luigi Pernier, "The Disco con caratteri di Phaestos pittografici" Ausonia 3, (1908) also edited transcription of the notes of Louis Godart regarding the disc from; Louis Godart, "The Disco di Festo, the enigma di una scittura" Itanos Re-edited from the original Italian language edition by Robert D. Morritt. The discovery of the disc was made in an area full of rocks near the Cliff of Astrac on the evening of July 3rd.1908. . The excavation revealed walls, with ashes above the earthern strata. Ceramic fragments were located together with a terracotta disc. Pernier noted that “ The earth the disc lay on rested not vertically but tilted to the north showing the face of the disc depicting a rosette in the centre. The disc had “obruta pittographici designs, The earth below the disc was full of rocks..” Pernier stated further the, “.”To date in which the position it found, clearly appears that the disc did not remain in situ, to where it lay. " This could mean that it was not a fabrication by Pernier, rather if fraudulent it could have been placed there by someone in order for the team to gain high recognition. The other possibility is that archaeological stratification was not fully developed at that time. Pernier may have misunderstand the level in which the disc was found or it had ‘fallen’ from a higher or a different level.

A brief contemporary history of the site The Site was excavated in four stages; 1900-1901: Excavations releasing first walls and objects from the Hellenistic period 1903: Updated pits 1-5 which contained no objects. 1908: Clearing pits 6-7, and the northern part accompanied by the discovery of several objects. The descriptions, drawings and photographs are abundant. 1909: Moving to the southern part located under the wall Hellenistic E figures. The Fosses 1 to 7 were empty.

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Found in the local 8; Fragments of vessels (mainly stone and clay) two epigraphic documents (Phaistos disk and tablet PH 1 in Linear A) a piece of obsidian, several bones of cattle, some burned and a tooth ruminant Ashes and embers .

Earliest mention of the Phaistos Disc Into quite a different category from any of the ordinary Minoan tablets is the disc found at Phæstos in 1908. The long inscription which covers both of its faces is written in a form of hieroglyphics which, to some extent, resemble the Minoan pictographic system, but is not the same. The crested helmets which occur frequently as signs, the round shields, the fashion of dress of both men and women, and the style of architecture depicted in the hieroglyphic rendering of a house or pagoda, are not Minoan. The evidence seems to point to the disc being the product of some allied culture, perhaps Lycian, in which a language closely akin to that of Minoan Crete was used. The inscription on the disc is carefully balanced and arranged, and each side contains exactly the same number of signgroups, with one additional group on face A, which is separated from the preceding part of the inscription by a dash. Certain sets of sign-groups recur in the same order, as though they constituted some kind of refrain. From these indications it has been suggested that the whole inscription is a metrical composition, a short poem or hymn—perhaps one leaf of an Anatolian Book of Psalms whose other pages have perished. It is agreed that the language and religion of the western coast of Asia Minor were closely allied to those of Crete, and it is possible that when the Minoans developed their own language on somewhat different lines from the mainlanders, they maintained in parts of their religious service the old form of the speech common to themselves and their Anatolian relatives, as a kind of sacred language.

Earliest attempts at translating the Phaistos Disc (1911) Two translations of the Phæstos disk have been put forward. The first is by Professor George Hempl, of Stanford University, U.S.A., and appeared in Harper's Magazine for January, 1911, under the title, 'The Solving of an Ancient Riddle.' The second, by Miss F. Melian Stawell, of Newnham College, appeared in the Burlington Magazine of April, 1911, under the title, 'An Interpretation of the Phaistos Disk.' Both are characterized by considerable ingenuity; but the trouble is that they do not agree in the very least. Professor Hempl maintains that the

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disk is the record of a dedication of oxen at a shrine in Phæstos, in atonement of a robbery perpetrated by Cretan sea-rovers on some shrine of the great goddess in Asia Minor. Miss Stawell, on the other hand, believes that the disk is the matrix for casting a pair of cymbals, and that the inscription is the invocation which the worshippers had to chant to the goddess. A comparison of portions of the two renderings will at least show that certainty can scarcely be said to have been reached. Professor Hempl thus renders the opening lines of Face A: 'Lo, Xipho the prophetess dedicates spoils from a spoiler of the prophetess. Zeus, guard us. In silence put aside the most dainty portions of the still unroasted animal. Athene Minerva, be gracious. Silence! The victims have been put to death. Silence!' Compare Miss Stawell's translation of the same lines: 'Lady, 0 hearken! Cunning one! Ah, Queen! I will sing, Lady, oh, thou must deliver! Divine One, mighty Queen! Divine One, Giver of Rain! Lady, Mistress, Come! Lady, be gracious! Goddess, be merciful! Behold, Lady, I call on thee with the clash! Athena, behold, Warrior! Help! Lady, come! Lady—keep silence, I sacrifice—Lady, come!' The Phaistos Disc is currently on display at the Museum of Heraklion.

Doubts about the circumstances of its discovery Several researchers have questioned the veracity of the report of excavations Pernier. Louis Godart said publicly in various international conferences in 1976 that Luigi Pernier had not witnessed the discovery and exhumation of the object in question "will nella del 8 luglio 1908", as he claimed in his report of Ausonia in 1908, for the simple reason that a laborer (Cretan) the site of Phaistos had not presented a basket filled with various fragments and a hard clay, intact, until the next day towards noon, Pernier who arrived on site after getting up late. Louisa Banti, assistant Pernier,and Doro Levi, who succeeded Pernier. As highlighted by Yves Duhoux in his book, stated that Pernier’s excavations bear the mark of their time. They did not stratigraphy objects discovered in 1901, as it they would today they happen to be imprecise and incomplete. The description of Pernier could therefore not tell the archaeological context. It is fragile because of its inaccuracies, if Pernier has also sought

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to recreate a scene he has not seen the report should be read with caution, including any attempt at dating the archaeological context. After the discovery of the Disc, Luigi Pernier published in 1908 in ‘Ausonia’, his comments related to drawings made by E. Stephani. His competitor, the famous Arthur Evans, hastened to publish its Scripta Minoa I in 1909. In the diagram (below) He conventionally attributed to each sign a number of 01 to 45, named each side as A or B des of the disc and number the signs from the center to the periphery. The numbering of the compartments was permanently reversed in 1977 following the epigraphic study of YvesDuhoux who maintained that the correct direction of reading the signs was ‘ to follow the direction of the printing and non-reversing signs.’ Jean-Pierre Olivier in 1975 published the first edition of the photographic record, raising the problem of lack of critical graphic signs. He noted that since its discovery, only drawings which were published by Evans, Stephani drawings are more accurate and realistic. See Phaistos Disc Side A & Side B Diagram from the diagram in the order Evans suggested and the two side of the disc published by Evans in Scripta Minoa I:

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Study of the Symbols on the Phaistos Disc

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Epigraphic study It is fundamental for any person wanting to study the disc. Yves Duhoux published his book "The Phaistos Disc” ( PeetersLeuven editions.) In this work Duhoux underook a very rigorous epigraphic study. The study gives much information concerning the impression of the isc and suggests that it proves the direction of writing. It depicts the ‘convenient’ place of its discovery and the time of its discovery. He then shows several details of the disc which were made from the first impression of the periphery towards the center, then that it had undergone several physical corrections to the symbols depicted on each side of the disc.

Phaistos Disc – Side A (From Sir Arthur Evans design in 1909) Description; The Phaistos disc measures 158 to 165 mm in diameter and 16 to 21 mm thick. It is baked clay, smooth and silky, almost completely devoid off impurities, has beautiful yellow-amber. Its color is uniform, except share off the B-side where it is almost brown. There each side is spiral divided into compartments by vertical lines. Within these compartments are distributed pictograms, all signs were printed one by one in the software clay using stamped gold seals. This makes the creator off this writing system the precursor off Gutenberg, or at least the inventor off the typewriter. Both sides, lines, spirals, the vertical lines and symbols are more gold (some) less intensely covered with is whitish substance. unlike the A side, B side has many small surface inlays, apparently input after the disc was made. The B side is remarkably flat,, however it has a perceptible bulge At B 30. A similar bulge is observed in the area A29/A23-A24. The edge side has (A1 to A13) was irregularly widened. The edge of the disc is not smooth, many fingerprints have been noted on the disc The irregularities of one side indicate that te that the disk was made by hand, not in a mould. Edited translation by R.D.Morritt

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Source - 1909: Arthur J. Evans' Scripta Minoa I., Oxford, 1909 1909

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Phaistos Disc – Side B – From Sir Arthur Evans design in 1909)

Source:- 1909: Arthur J. Evans' Scripta Minoa I., Oxford, 1909 1909

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Corrections

Correction A1 Signs 12, 13 and 01 were printed on an area effecée. The small horizontal line above the sign 13 could be a sign disappeared. Corrections A4 and A5 In A4 and A5 beginning of the clay surface has been irregularly cut by deleting the text in the original clay was still soft. In A5, before 04 (the prisoner), we see the trace of the divider removed: it begins to spiral A16/A5; a thin line down to 12, its end is traceable to the very edge of the disc. This divider separates originally A4 A5. The divider was removed to insert the signs 12 and 02, but the disappearance of the divider does not give enough room, the signs of the original A4 have been deleted and a good portion of the divider A3-A4. In space, it has printed 12 and 02, starting exceptionally by the left (04 is partly covered by 12, which itself was started by 02) to complement first A5. Then the divisor A4-A5 was drawn obliquely to keep plenty of space, the 3 signs of A4 were then printed in an arc to occupy as little space as possible. Finally, the scribe has drawn the new divisor A3-A4, causing slip between 29 and 07. Analysis: Zone A4-A5 Has been the subject of alterations or adjustments instead of judging by other traces erased in parts. We note first time a vestige of the sign removed above the bee. I made a montage below to show it is very clearly of the right leg 34. This sign was therefore aligned with the two other

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signs of compartment. The scribe had to delete it afterwards realizing it could come down. Another comment in the bee, there are 3 small features that correspond to the striations of the hair of 02, which would suggest that 02 was also subject to adjustments. Finally, note 2 holes right of 29 central. The state of the clay A4-A5 and depth of the zone is the result of several adjustments. Correction A8 The sign 12 has been printed on a surface cut by the deletion of a sign. The lower right side of the sign removed and the upper contour is further distinguished below and above 12. Yves J. Duhoux 06 indicates inconsistent for three reasons: the resemblance of the lower signs are not perfect the height of the sign removed is greater than the 06 sign the top left side of the sign removed seems right, while that of the sign 06 forms an angle Correction A10 Around 12 and the sign above the sign 41, the clay was dug and we see the remains following: left and bottom of the sign 12, a small triangle right and bottom of the sign 12, two lines forming an angle top and left of the sign 12, a slash in the top right of the sign 12, a small curved lineYves Duhoux determines that the remains did not identify the first printing. Analysis: The clay has been dug over 41: a small hole made the connection between 41 and 19. I think it is a simple shift of signs 41 and 19 for insert 12 I sign up below a montage: the signs correspond to the traces left after the correction and above the cleared area, wider than the old sign, clearly shows the shape of the lower part 19 and his upper left arm. This observation is more obvious on the photo in black and white. Correction A16 The area has been printed signs 12, 31 and 26, was dug after a deletion. The small hole visible between the sign 12 and the lower wing of the sign 31 is the remnant of a sign disappeared, unidentifiable by Yves Duhoux and compatible with the sign of 6 after Faure. Personal Analysis: The area has been properly removed leaving little clues. I wanted to verify if the hypothesis of a gap for insertion of 12 as in A10 was negative or not: Similarly, I made a montage, putting the 22 greenhouses on the remnant quoted Duhoux. Note that the partially excavated seems to follow

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the right side of the upper wing. The hypothesis of a shift to inclusion of 12 is not excluded. Correction B1 Under the sign 12 and perhaps under the sign 22, the clay was dug. At right and below 12, the track stands a sign erased rectengulaire shape. this track is, according to Paul Faure compatible with the sign 23. Correction B4 It clearly distinguishes the signs 22 and 25 were deleted and then reprinted. Correction B28 It can be seen through the study of Yves Duhoux that the scribe has made several corrections and the sign 12 is involved in almost all. This error is really astonishing: indeed, considering that he did not fit and had the map disc in mind, why has it always the same oversight? Make a mistake once, it's possible a second time the same, but he must have done it about six times ... Its behavior in response to this sign is even more incomprehensible. The most surprising is that it has corrected the mistakes as measuring its progress in the text. Recall that the sign 12 is widely used on side A (15 times for only 2 times on the other side) and when it is in second place, it is always preceded by the sign 2.

The Appearance of the Vladikavkaz Disc

Fragment of the Vladikavkaz Disc

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"According to information available, a house in Vladikavkaz was the subject in December 1992 with the cleaning of the cellar. This brick house with two floors was probably built in the late nineteenth century. Among the debris removed from there was discovered a piece of hard clay, covered over a f ace signs unknown. The anonymous locator of the disc took it to the museum in the Republic of North Ossetia. The disc is made of Vladikavkaz light brown pure clay .The mark of a board is visible on the reverse. discoidal form is evidenced by the curve of the remaining board, which allows to restore a diameter of 10 cm. The center thickness of 1.1 cm, the disc becomes thinner toward the edge where it measures only 0.5 cm thick, the cracks are a clear and patina give the impression of being old. The remaining fragment measured 5 cm from the edge to center, 5.2 cm along the edge. On the spot, in clay, have been traced before firing three concentric circles that divide the disk surface into four annular fields. The fields are cut by small vertical lines in areas within which were drawn from three to five signs. Presumably it is hieroglyphic symbols and sectors that correspond to words or phrases. There seems little doubt that we are dealing with an ancient script. At first glance, it is obvious that the closest point of comparison is offered by the famous "disk Phaistos on Crete. The latter is also divided into four concentric fields, intersected by vertical sectors trais containing hieroglyphics. The Phaistos disc was found in 1908 by Luigi Pernier during the excavation of a palace, along with ceramics of Middle Minoan III and a square tablet with an inscription in Linear A, dated the seventeenth century BC. BC The Phaistos disk is thus distinct from the fragment described here by a much larger diameter and by the use of matrices to print the signs. In addition, the inclusion occupies both sides, while the disc is covered Vladikavkaz signs on one side.

The Dissapearance of The Vladikavkaz Disc The fragment of Vladikavkaz is so unexpected and surprising that may fail to question its authenticity, its local provenance is excluded. Can it be a forgery of the nineteenth century, for example? This crucial issue will inevitably be discussed. Although it is difficult to accept the necessary level of knowledge of the Cretan-Minoan writing among forgers, remains a place for doubt. The similarity with the Phaistos disc is no doubt.. Efi Polygiannaki compares the two and concludes that the same writing system was used in both entries, except that the disc of Phaistos is "typographical", while that

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of Vladikavkaz is "handwritten". Thus the signs repeat messages with slight variations. If the fragment found in Vladikavkaz from the northern Caucasus or the north coast of the Black Sea (which we ignore), it can be a real evidence of direct links between the pontic world - especially its northern and north-eastern - and the Cretan-Mycenaean civilization. Another explanation, at least as likely, its presence in the cellar of a dwelling house in Vladikavkaz is possible: a local antique dealer or collector could have lived there , and this item could have been received by all sorts of complex pathways and intermediates. The fragment of disc, (to the dealer would appear..) incomprehensible and useless Object and then been thrown among the rubbish in the cellar, before starting a new life in 1992. This idea has unfortunately been verified. " Source of story = Ostraco "GRAM" THE BLACK SEA. Anyway the great similarity of two objects shows that they are creations of the same period, where at least not very distant in time and also created by related customs, religious beliefs etc. Here the word is common to the tablet and the Phaistos disk. It seems that according to religious customs of the time (the text of the tablet should be similar to that of the Phaistos disk), gave the believer's identity in a stylized ritual language. That is, was, where was he born, etc.. because the common word above (according to my study "The Phaistos disk speaks Greek," Efi Polygiannaki, Athens 1996) is the word e-phy-ke (phyo)

Search I conducted my own investigation to find out more about this fragment. The association Ossetian in France (which I thank the route) put me in connection with Professor Kuznetsov has published an article on the subject. In the letter he sent me and that I placed in the document database, he explained that the fragment belongs to private property, he held in his hand, has to his own eyes but he has "disappeared" and that it has more than a picture . So we have to study this fragment a photograph and we know that the drive has been brought to the museum by an anonymous inventor who reportedly discovered in a cellar of his house in Vladikavkaz, among other things. That little, really(little many ) few people were skeptical about the authenticity of this fragment, part of the circumstances of his discovery and his sudden disappearance .

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I finally joined after a closer look of this picture, because a detail upsets me very much, ... The messages differently. By cons signs Phaistos disc standard and appear absolutely identical in the repetition. It should be noted here that my extensive research has shown that writing the Phaistos disc is a system of linear syllabic hieroglyphs (as indeed the general opinion of scientists) from which the above Linear B. And also that certain characteristics of Cypriot as direct ancestors were signs of this system of hieroglyphics. Source: Ossetia and around No. 9, Paris, 2001, by VA Kuznetsov

The Phaistos Disc Text - Greek Origin? Note that the system of the Phaistos disc is a hieroglyphic related systems that have developed in Minoan Crete and have evolved to Linear A, B and Cyprominoen (former) from which probably the Cypriot syllabary (recent). This research has demonstrated in particular, not only that the text of the Phaistos disc is a Greek text, but also generally behind the hidden hieroglyphs Cretan Greek language, since the phonetic value of signs in their evolved form in Linear B is an acronym (the first syllable) Greek words that express exactly what the original symbol represents. We note then that a syllabic script Syllabic includes 80-90. (At least the Linear B and Cypriot Greek expressing involved as well as Linear A for which strong evidence exists that also expressed the Greek) Thus the 44 syllabic signs which were used for the phonetic requirements of the concrete text of the Phaistos disk is about half of all 80 - 90 as its syllabic writing system available. This new discovery, since it not only common signs with writing the Phaistos disc but also different, gives us the opportunity to complete a few other of the 44 known symbols of the hieroglyphic system. (A bronze ax Arkalochori in Crete, which bears an inscription of the same system gives six signs. Hopefully other similar discoveries will emerge, giving the opportunity to complete all the syllabary of the system). On the other side there on the shelf of nonverbal communication demonstrates that the two texts have different words, it is therefore a text content different from that of the Phaistos disk. There are still a group of signs identical between two perpendicular lines, being of course a separate word, which is also present on the disk of Phaistos. This undoubtedly means that the two texts are written in the same language. This language is, as I argue, Greek. Therefore the Caucasus disc was also in a Greek text.

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It is important to note that Minoan inscriptions are some of the symbols of the tablet are included among the 135 hieroglyphic symbols listed by Evans in Crete and others belong to the syllabary of Linear A and B. Regarding the origin of writing ceramics Caucasus, all leads, even if not in Crete, probably the larger Aegean region, where these records were created and have evolved a wide knowledge dissemination. Regarding the dating of this important and unexpected discovery, my opinion is it should not be more recent than 1700 BC, when are chronologically compare the Phaistos disk and the bronze axe Arkalochori because, the Cretan hieroglyphs ceased to be used after the 17th century BCE,even for important or sacred texts, as he came up to that date, although the entries are linear use. The systems are forgotten and hieroglyphic writings linear, scattered on both shores of the Aegean Sea, mainland Greece, the Ionian Islands and Cyprus are needed as more advanced and easy to use. However we can not say that the Caucasus Disk compared to the Phaistos is much older. Anyway the great similarity of two objects shows that they are creations of the same period, where at least not very distant in time and also created by related customs, religious beliefs and common language. (Kvashilava) Sources 1908

July: Discovery Phaistos disk by Luigi Pernier

1908:

Luigi Pernier, "The Disco con caratteri di Phaestos pittografici" Ausonia 3, pp. 280-295 drawings of E. Stephani.

1909:

Arthur J. Evans' Scripta Minoa I., Oxford, 1909 1909: A. Della Seta, "he disco di Phaistos," Rendiconti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei. Classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche, V18 Series pp. 297-367 1975: Jean-Pierre Olivier - "The Phaistos Disc - Bulletin photographic Bulletin of Correspondence Hellenic, Number 99, Volume 1 1976: Faure - "Observations on the Phaistos disk" ȀȡȘIJȠȜȠȖiĮ 2, pp. 47-64 1977: Yves Duhoux "The Phaistos disk", Editions Peeters, Leuven)

1983:

Yves Duhoux - "The Language of Linear A and the Phaistos disk" Minos 18 pp. 33-68 Louis Godart, "The Disco di Festo, the enigma di una scittura" Itanos

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Colchian Goldscript Old Greek sources tell that priest-deities Corybante were creators of a sacred script that was kept in secret (Dobson, 1828, I, xxxiv; Drummond 1826, III, 199-200). Old Greeks called this script crusografȓa or Goldscript. Eustathius of Thessalonica writes about this script in his comments on Colchian Golden Fleece, mentioned in Dionysius Periegetes’s work, where Harax of Pergamon’s record is referred to; the latter, in its turn, is based on the works of Euphemerus and Palaephatus (Jacoby, II, 482-493; Müllerus, III, 636-645; Urushadze 1964, 150). Georgian scholars P. Ingorokva (1939, 169-170) and Sh. Nutsubidze (1983, 99) write that Harax of Pergamon’s term crusografȓa means writing with gold; this was the special and unusual art of writing that was used by Colchis. Both scholars think that the methods of this script were described on the skin of a ram, and that the Argonauts traveled all the way from Greece to Colchis to study this very important Colchian art.

The Colchian Language Apollonius of Rhodes (IV,729-731) wrote: “So Medea told her all she [Circe] asked – the daughter of Aeetes of the gloomy heart, spoke gently in the Colchian Language.”; also, Diodorus of Sicily (IV,52-53) said: “[Medea] began to say a long prayer in Colchian dialect.”. (Morritt) Basing on old Greek sources Th. V. Gamkrelidze (1998; 1999; 2002, 4546; 2004) writes that the children of Perseis, the daughter of pre-Olympic Titans, Helios and Oceanus: the goddess of the island of Aeaea Circe, the wife of the king of Minos – the queen Pasyphae, the king of Aea-Colchis Aeetes (Apollodorus of Athens 1997, I,9,6; Herodotus I,2; VII,193,197) and his children: Medea, Chalciope and Apsyrtus spoke the Colchian (West Kartvelian) Language, the continuation of which today is Mingrelian and Laz or Chan. The term Colchian was also used by L. Hervás, and by A. Shanidze (1960; 1973, I, 631) to denote the ChanMingrelian. Mingrelian and Laz Languages belong to the Kartvelian group of languages. Today they are spoken by the people who inhabit the south of Caucasus and east coast of the Black sea: in west Georgia – Mingrelia, Abkhazia, and north-east of Turkey – Lazica. Chans call Mingrelians Macrones (Chikobava 1926; Javakhishvili 1979, 452; Chukhua 20002003, 84). I hope my research provides enough grounds to consider Colchian the proto-Kartvelian language.

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In addition to the above-said I would like to mention the hypothesis on the relation of the languages of the pre-Greek inhabitants and of the Caucasian languages that was suggested by a number of scholars, namely: L. Hervás, W. F. Humboldt, P. Kretschmer, A. P. Meillet, A. Dirr, E. Schwyzer, M. Sergievskij, F. Schachermeyr, S. Kaukhchishvili, G. Deeters, A. Chikobava, S. Janashia, G. Chitaia, A. Urushadze, P. Beradze, E. J. Furnée, Th. V. Gamkrelidze, R. Schmitt-Brandt, R. S. P. Beekes, R. V. Gordeziani, H. R. Zebisch, Z. K. Gamsakhurdia, and others.

Identifying the Direction of Reading of the Phaistos Disk After L. Pernier, Sir A. Evans, J. Chadwick, L. Godart, J.-P. Olivier, J. Faucounau, Y. Duhoux, V. J. Kean, G. A. Owens, T. Timm, H. R. Zebisch, K. Sornig, Ch. Henke, K. & K. Massey, D. Rumpel, and others I, too, think that the signs-groups printed on the Disk below present some ideas on the direction of reading of the text of the Phaistos Disk.. The direction of reading the text of the Disc from the periphery to the centre (i.e. from right to left) does not seem acceptable to me, and my arguments for reading it from the centre to periphery are given in the paper below. According to the general rule, the reading of hieroglyphic inscriptions is directed into the faces of all animate creatures. So it is, e.g. in Egyptian and Anatolian scripts, in which all living things are looking in the same direction. This general rule does not work for the Phaistos Disk, because here some of the same living creatures look in different directions: upwards, downwards, right or left. Such are, e.g. the signs of lioness c, eagle e, plumed head of Corybantes B.

Phaistos Disc – Direction of Reading the Signs

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L. Pernier, V. Georgiev, H. R. Zebisch, V. J. Kean, K. Aartun, D. Ohlenoth, S. V. Rjabchikov, A. Martin, H. Roolvink, K. & K. Massey and M. G. Corsini’s arguments that pictorial signs should be read from left to right, i.e. from the centre to periphery; Some of the researchers believe that the orientation of reading of the sign-groups could be defined according to the direction of the overlapping of the signs at printing, but on the Disk it is not plausible, because the directions of overlapping of signs on the Disk are different, e.g., in cell A18 one left sign slightly overstrikes the sign that is printed on its right. But in cell A27 the plumed head of the Corybantes B overlaps its left side sign – the shield L. I believe that this discrepancy shows that the direction of imprinting of sign-groups cannot be considered as grounds for defining the direction of reading either from the periphery to centre, or vice versa. The attempt to read the sign-groups from the periphery to the centre (from right to left) along the band of the spiral causes the following incongruity: in cells A3, A6, A9, A10, A13, A15, A16, A20, A22, A24, A27, A31, and B30 thirteen words would begin with the cluster of the signs: plumed head of the Corybantes B and shield L, which means, I think, that they should then be understood as the beginning of the word, with one and the same threefour syllable word-initial prefixed element. This I consider as an unlikely reading, especially if after L. Pernier, Sir A. Evans, Y. Duhoux, G. A. Owens, and others it is accepted that the text of the Disk is a hymn where for the sake of rhyme or as a refrain the same clusters of signs are expected to take the word final position, and not the initial one. Whereas, in reading from the centre to periphery, along the band of the spiral the cluster plumed head of Corybantes B and shield L appears in the final position of the above-mentioned thirteen groups, which means that the cluster of these signs represents the three-or-four syllable ending – rhyme or a refrain as naturally expected in a hymn. Some scholars supposed that the cluster of signs – shield L and plumed head of Corybantes B is a noun or a pronoun, I argue that it is either a verb or an adjective both conveying predication, and it is read as [p{r{-䁑{], that means: 1. hide, conceal; and 2. to be compared with, alike, [god]-like, and that rhymes and repeated as refrain in thirteen groups on the Disk. Source; DrGia Kvashilava.

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Analysis of the Phaistos Disc The vertical or slanting strokes given below some signs should be taken into account in the process of deciphering as the signs having phonetic and semantic value. In cells A11 and A17, e.g., the same sign pedestrian A has diagonal strokes on front or back legs (there are more similar examples on the Disk). Some researchers, the supporters of reading the text from its periphery to the centre, say that vertical and slanting lines / below the same signs are virƗma and they should be at the very end of the sign-groups because virƗma means vowellessness of the last syllable of the word. But even in reading from the periphery to the centre, the strokes are not always satisfactorily presented in the position that are right or expected for the sign of virƗma – i.e. they are not at the end of the word. So these strokes cannot be the cases of virƗma, and this theory cannot support the direction of reading from the periphery to the centre. 4.5. Basing on V. J. Kean’s (1985, 17, 30-32) idea about the sun symbol in the centre of side A, I believe the eight-leave rosette % [aԥa] to be a symbol indicating the beginning, in other words, it is the first syllable of the Disk, and here the reading starts. And here, with this sign, by some coincidence I started my deciphering, too. 4.6. L. Pernier and Sir A. Evans (1909, 274) suppose that the vertical line with five dots is the sign indicating the end of the text (Godart 1995, 74). I, too, presume that this sign indicates the end of writing or reading the text of sign-groups on sides A and B on the Disk. This sign is similar to the signs given in Etruscan, Iberian, Old Georgian Asomtavruli and other scripts: one or the vertically placed two, three, four, five, six or eight dots indicated the end of a word. So the beginning and the end are clearly shown on the Disk with the rosette % on the one hand and vertical dots, on the other. 4.7. Such are the arguments that support the idea of reading the signgroups of the Phaistos Disk from the centre to periphery (from left to right) along the band of the spiral – as claimed by L. Pernier and Sir A. Evans (1909, 274, 280, 282, 289, 290), and reading the sign groups in the opposite direction seems to be not acceptable.

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5. About Reading the Sign-Groups of the Phaistos Disk 5.0. The basis for my decipherment of the Phaistos Disk is the obvious fact that some of the same signs are presented at different angles, rotating differently along the band of the spiral, in other words, the signs are printed horizontally or vertically in more than one position. Here I will try to define and show more exactly what namely are the rotation positions of the signs on the Disk. 5.1. The initial position of rotated/non-rotated signs of the Disk and their reading 5.1.1. The notion of the initial position of the signs of the Disk crucial to my mind for decipherment is introduced here. The initial position of a from-centre-to-periphery oriented sign is defined as its horizontal position to either the spiral band or the vertical sign(s) or to the vertical line on the band, as the Disk is turned along the spiral from its periphery to centre, i.e. opposite to the direction of reading. 5.1.2. It is clear that the non-rotated signs of the Disk are impressed in only one fixed position; the initial position is the only position they have. 5.2. The algorithm of reading rotated and non-rotated signs on the Phaistos Disk is presented here: 5.2.1. A sign that is printed in its initial position, (i.e. its rotation angle is 0 ), is read fully as a two-syllable word; e.g. 9 [Jԥlԥ] – lioness. 0

5.2.2. If a sign is rotated at the angle of 900 to its initial position, and is thus vertically printed, only the first syllable of its corresponding word is read; e.g. [Jԥ]. 5.2.3. If a sign is at 1800 angle to its initial position – it is printed horizontally, but its position is directly opposite to the initial one – the syllables of the denoted word are read in reverse: first the second syllable, and then the first, and the result is a new word; e.g. [lԥJԥ] – copper. 5.2.4. If a sign is rotated at the angle of 2700 – it is then printed vertically and downward oriented – only the second syllable of the word is read; e.g. [lԥ].

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The Results of the Research 6.1. After Sir A. Evans and J. Chadwick (1967, 8, 12-15, 154-156; 1976, 4) I, too, say that the language of the clay tablets that were found on Crete and that are older than the 15th century BC is not Greek. 6.2. I agree with F. Schachermeyr (1955, 252, 255) that the language of the oldest Cretan inscriptions is a Caucasian language – the range of its area of spreading was then wider than in later periods. 6.3. A wet clay disk, the Phaistos Disk was fired at high temperature and became as hard as a stone (Fink 2001, 9); following the definition given in Old Greek sources, I believe that because of these qualities the Disk is a Cyrbis. 6.4. According to L. Godart (1995, 113-114), and the experts of engraving, the Phaistos Disk is printed with golden seals (other material would have impaired). Also, taking into consideration the analysis of P. Ingorokva and Sh. Nutsubidze (see paragraph 2) I presume that the Phaistos Disk is a sample of the art of imprinting in the Colchian Goldscript. 6.5. I also argue that the Phaistos Disk – a sample of the Colchian Goldscript is created and impressed on Crete or in Asia Minor by Colchian priests – the Corybantes on Crete or in Anatolia (comp. Urushadze 1964, 164-165; Apoll. Rhod., 1970, 352). They dedicated prayer-hymns printed in Goldscript to deities. This script was not used for commercial or administrative texts (comp. Duhoux 1976(1980), 112-136; Owens 2006, 43). 6.6. The acknowledgement of the relevance of the rotation of signs and of the significance of the vertical or slanting strokes below the signs for the process of deciphering the text has limited the reading of the inscription of the Phaistos Disk to only one possible language. After H. R. Zebisch (1987-1991; 1992, 206-209, 215, 217) and on the basis of my decipherment, I argue that the language of the Disk is the proto-Kartvelian – Colchian Language. 6.7. The Phaistos Disk text is a religious ritual text; it is a prayer and a hymn (comp. also: Pernier 1908; Evans 1909, I, 291-292; 1921, I, 3, 6, 51, 52). It is dedicated to the Great Mother of Gods, the goddess of fertility

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Nena or Rhea-Cybele that was worshipped by the people of Colchian origin Macrians (comp. Apoll. Rhod., I, 1092-1152; 1970, 345; Urushadze 1964, 142). 6.8. On the basis of the works of Hecataeus of Miletus, Apollonius of Rhodes (II, 392, 1242; Schol. Apoll. Rhod. 1854, I, 1024; Strabo (XII,3,18), Wendel 1932) and others, also of the works of Georgian scholars: I. Javakhishvili (1913, 29), I. Megrelidze (1938, 67), S. Janashia (1959, 6, 193), S. Makalatia (1941, 13), S. Kaukhchishvili (1964, 18), A. Urushadze (1964, 130-131, 133, 136-139, 166, 321), and others I argue that beginning from the 20th century BC, when Cretan inscriptions were created, Colchian tribes, the Macrians – later called Macrones/ Mingrelians inhabited Crete, Euboea, and other islands of the Mediterranean, also Anatolia. 6.9. The script of the Disk is syllabo-logogramic – the same rotating signs denote different syllables and words. 6.10. My decipherment of some signs of the Disk coincides with the reading of J. Faucounau, B. Fell, H. R. Zebisch, G. A. Owens, K. & K. Massey, and D. Rumpel. 6.11. I presume that the Colchian helmet, a crown "[tԥ], the symbol of the moon (tԥta, see: 8.5, and cells A21 and B30) imprinted in the centre of side B is the beginning sign, i.e. represents the first syllable of side B.

Linguistic Material - Verification the accuracy of the Decipherment 7.0. Linguistic material along with archaeology and paleography is among the most important arguments for the verification of decipherment. I am happy to say that in the case of the Phaistos Disk the well-studied linguistic material wholly supports my reading of the Disk. 7.1. The following phonetic units and clusters that were reconstructed for the proto-Kartvelian – Colchian language by a number of researchers are given in the text of the PhD. Most of these units had been earlier attested; some had been only presumed as characteristic of the Colchian phonetic system but declared to be not attested yet.

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The phonetic system of the Colchian language (and that of the Phaistos Disk inscription) is characterized with the following units: 7.1.1. An extremely simple vocalic system along with a rather complicated consonantal system (comp. Gamkrelidze and Machavariani 1965, 373). 7.1.2. The vowels [a], [e], [o] (comp. Gamkrelidze, Machavariani 1965, 1351,146, 171, 366-367; Gamkrelidze 2008, 31, 33) the frequency of occurrence of [a] being the highest, the least – of [e] on the Disk. 7.1.3. The ‘irrational’ neutral vowel [ԥ] that often occurs in the positions: -C, C-, C-C (comp. Gamkrelidze, Machavariani 1965, 370; Gamkrelidze 2008, 51), where it [ԥ] is often the variant of [i], [u], or rarely [o] (comp. Kajaia 2001, I, 26). 7.1.4. The voiceless consonant [Ț] before [a], [o], and before the neutral [ԥ], between two [a] vowels, and after [a] (comp. Kajaia 2001, I, 21, 25); after the neutral [ԥ]. 7.1.5. The consonant [l] preceded by the neutral vowel [ԥ] (comp. Gamkrelidze, Machavariani 1965, 118, 1183, 4). 7.1.6. The consonants [š], [J], [þ], and [b] (comp. Marr 1912, 1092; Gamkrelidze 1959, 52, 17,18; Gamkrelidze, Machavariani 1965, 7-9,72; Chikobava 1938, 6). 7.1.7. The clusters: [šk] and [þk] (comp. Gamkrelidze 1959, 19, 20, 2326, 28; Schmidt 1961, 149-163; Gamkrelidze, Machavariani 1965, 8, 72, $Q [þkԥ-š-rԥ-mpԥ-Țԥ] – our smith. 92). E.g., W'[škԥ-paԥ]– change; 8$ 7.1.8. The cluster [s>] (comp. Gamkrelidze, Machavariani 1965, 53, [nԥšԥ-rԥ-s>a-lԥ] – birth giving soul. 61). E .g., 87 7.1.9. The cluster [þx] (comp. Gamkrelidze, Machavariani 1965, 110, 117). E.g., 8 [rԥ-þxo] – found (imperative form). 7.1.10. The cluster [rg] (comp. Fähnrich, Sarjveladze 2000, 380; Chukhua 2000-2003, 87). E.g., 2DEV [ka-ԥr-ga-na] – an arch; 7.1.11. The cluster [št] (comp. Zhgenti 1949, 167; Gamkrelidze, Machavariani 1965, 92, 135-137, 1392, 3071, 3292, 3422). E.g. " [xԥ-š-tԥ]>*xušti>xuti – five. Comp. the archetype *xu(s1)t- that was reconstructed for proto-Kartvelian by G. A. Klimov (1964, 262; 1998, 332; Fähnrich, Sarjveladze 2000, 704). 7.1.12. The cluster [šb], comp. presupposed by Gamkrelidze, Machavariani (1965, 1352, 1391), but not attested until on the Disk. E.g., 1. 1; 2.

1[tԥ-š-ba] – 1. family’s source; 2. the purity of the kind.

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7.1.13. Roots of C-, CVC- structures mostly (comp. Gamkrelidze, Machavariani 1965, 304, 314, 315, 317, 318, 3185, 3551, 370, 371, 3713; Gamkrelidze 2008, 33, 51). 7.2. Phonetic processes of the later Kartvelian period are not found in Disk text, which could assist in more exact dating of the Disk as well as of dating of the splitting period of proto-Kartvelian into Georgian and Mingrelian-Chan that evidently took place later (comp. Gamkrelidze 2008, 87). These later phonetic changes not reflected on the Disk are as follows: 7.2.1. The change in the clusters: škԥ–>skԥ (comp. Gamkrelidze 1959, 1 37 ). The older form is given on the Disk: e.g., W'[škԥ-paԥ]. W' 7.2.2. The vowel shift *e>a, and *a>o (comp. Gamkrelidze 1959, 371; Gamkrelidze, Machavariani 1965, 148-151, 160, 164, 331-332; Polák 1955, 77) are not seen on the Disk E.g., 28 [ne-š->a-rԥ] - mother’s door; C" [pa-tԥ] – Phaistos. I’d like to mention here that škԥ–>skԥ process precedes the *e>a and *a>o vocalic shifts (comp. Gamkrelidze 1959, 371; Chikobava 1954, 11). It should be mentioned that in the later period *e>a, and *a>o processes preceded the process of the umlaut, the process of *ä>e under the influence of [i], just as it happened in Germanic Languages (comp. Prokosch 1948; 1954, 105; 1962, II, 141; Gamkrelidze, Machavariani 1965, 160, 161, 1611, 164). 7.2.3. a) Contraction -*aԥ>-e where -ԥ is the nominative case ending (comp. Kipshidze 1914, 08(60); Deeters 1926, III; 1927, IV, 68; Chikobava 1936, 30; Topuria 1954, VI, 448, 450-451; Gamkrelidze, Machavariani 1965, 165, 1652-5, 166, 1663) E.g., W'[škԥ-paԥ], *O [Ț{W' ma{] – night; b) contraction -*aԥ->-e- (comp. Gamkrelidze, Machavariani 1965, 165, 1652, 3). E.g., O5 [ma{-þx{] – purifiers. For all of these cases the older forms are attested on the Disk. 7.3. Morphology The following morphemic units are given in the text of the Disk: 7.3.1. -ԥ the nominative case affix (comp. Kajaia 2001, I, 28; GL 2008, 309, 286; Gamkrelidze, Machavariani 1965, 160, 161). 7.3.2. -ԥš, -š the genitive case affix (comp. Kajaia 2001, I, 28). 7.3.3. -ԥtԥ, -tԥ the instrumental case affix (comp. Chikobava 1936, 44; Kajaia 2001, I, 28). 7.3.4. -ԥp- the plural affix (comp. Mingrelian-Laz -ep-; Georgian -eb-. Kajaia 2001, I, 28).

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7.3.5. ne- the formant of feminine gender (comp. Marr 1911, 1202; Javakhishvili 1992, 184, 194, 450; Topuria 1938; 1941; Klimov 1964, 146; 1998, 140; Gamkrelidze, Machavariani 1965, 1372, 322-323, 3241). E.g., V [ne-na] – 1. mother 2. language. 7.3.6. Simple and compound pre-verbs: ga- and ga-š- (comp. Kipshidze 1914, 212(416), 218(422)). *ga- archetype was reconstructed for the period Georgian-Zan period (Klimov 1964, 59; Fähnrich, Sarjveladze 2000, 134-135). 7.3.7. bԥ- and ԥ>ԥ- prefixes (comp. Mingrelian i>o- prefix. Kipshidze 1914, 248(452)). 7.3.8. -ge suffixal emphatic particle expressing appeal, request (comp. Kipshidze 1914, 279 (483)). E.g.,

/$\ [nԥ-xo-mpԥ-ge] [we] appeal. Etc.

8. Instances of the words impressed on the Disk 8.1. After the identification of signs by L. Godart and myself, and according to rules 5.2.1-5 of the algorithm I’ll now read, e.g., cell A1, as follows: %; %; [aԥa-bԥ໠šԥ໡-pԥ] – Aea young-men.

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8.2. In cells B3 and B15 the name of the Colchian Mother of Gods V [ne-na]>Nana (comp. Chikobava 1938, 17; Klimov, Machavariani 1966, 19-25) or Nenana, Nanaia is imprinted which, according to M. Tsereteli (1924, 100-101), I. Javakhishvili (1979, 142, 164, 178-179) and V. K. Afanasjeva (MPW 1991, I, 595; 1992, II, 197) is a parallel to the Sumerian Goddess Ninanna, Innin, Inanna, Nanaia or Acadian Ishtar, and the Cretan-Anatolian Rhea-Cybele. 8.3. In cells A12 and A18 the name is imprinted of the Colchian, Pelasgian, Phrygian and Phoenician Priest-deities, the guards of the Great Mother Rhea-Cybele and her ministers – Corybantes, which is: E8 [ga-rԥpԥ]>koripu . 8.4. In cells A1 and A20 the following is imprinted: a) %[aԥa] that is, according to I. Kobalia (1903, 103) and I. Kipshidze (1914, 229, (433)), the name of the Colchian Sun – Goddess Aea. According to Acadian mythology the Goddess Aea is the wife of the SunGod Shamash (MPW 1992, II, 608); b) the Colchian toponym aΩa>ea (Weisman 1899, 2006, 27) that according to the thorough analysis of Herodotus’s History (I,2; VII,193,197) by S. Kaukhchishvili (1964, 9-11) and T. Kaukhchishvili (1960, 18-19, 48) is the synonym and the oldest name of Colchis. 8.5. In cells A21 and B30 the name of the Colchian Moon-deity "( [tԥta] (mtva-re (on the initial m- element see: Vogt 1958, 15; Gamkrelidze, Machavariani 1965, 3071) Moon deity and to the Egyptian Moon deity sVCo [GʈW] – Thoth, the Scribe of gods. 8.6. In cell B20 the name of the Colchian deity (J [ta-Ța], later the Anatolian deity Tarhun, storm-god, is given that, according to Shota Rustaveli (the 12th-13th centuries, 705-1/710-1), N. Marr (1910, 213), M. Tsereteli 1924, 77), I. Javakhishvili (1951, I, 134-138, 164; 1979, I, 173177) and O. Lortkipanidze (1986, 109) according to J. Chadwick (1989, 70), it is parallel to Mycenaean deity a-re (see also Gulizio 2001, 32-38).

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8.7. In cell B21 the following is imprinted: a) the name of the Colchian deity C" [pa-tԥ], that, according to Sir A. Evans (1952, II, 236) and J. Chadwick (1989, 70), corresponds, as I suppose, to Mycenaean Linear B units pa-ti and a-pa-i-ti-jo or to Egyptian deity GVÔo [pt}] – Phtah, Phat, the God of Fire (Herodotus 1890, 2005, II, 2, 3, 99, 101, 108, 110, 112, 121, 136, 141, 142, 147, 151, 153, 176, III, 37; Kvashilava 2006, 344; 2007, 224, 257; Beekes 2007, 7); b) the Colchian toponym *patΩ (*a>o: poti), that according to H. Vogt (1938), also to Th. V. Gamkrelidze, G. Machavariani (1965, 1491), R. Gordeziani (1971, 184; 1999, 100), S. Janashia (1988, 272-273) and O. Lortkipanidze (1986, 104), I presume that the toponym *pati is connected to pa-i-to/pa-i-ti-jo/pa-i-ti-ja –mentioned in some of the Linear A and Linear B texts (Auro-Jorro 1993, II, 67; Kvashilava 2006, 344; 2007, 224, 257-258; Gordeziani 2007, 306). 8.8. In cells A7, A10, A13, A16, A23 the sign flying eagle is imprinted in three positions. In the initial position it is read as the word  [kԥrԥ] (comp. Mingrelian kΩri, kiri; Laz kuri; Georgian kori). I believe that its form could be compared with the Linear B form which is supposedly *kuri-ko – eagle. To my mind the sign flying eagle that in its vertical position is read as the syllable

[kԥ], is similar to Linear A and Linear B signs

 [ku]. I also think that this Linear B sign is similar to the letter [k] of the Old Georgian (the 1st century) script (comp. Ingorokva 1978, IV, 488).

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On the basis of all the above-said it is possible to conclude: a) the language other than Greek can be traced for the inhabitants of the Mycenaean period as it was pre-supposed by J. Chadwick (1989, 42). I presume that this language is the proto-Kartvelian – Colchian language; b) the structures of the languages of the Phaistos Disk and Linear A are of the similar structure (comp. Chotalishvili 2003, 169, 170, 175).

The Arkalochoru Axe - Reading the signs on the Arkalochori Axe 9.1. L. Godart (1995, 145) and G. Neumann think that two signs of the Arkalochori Axe: a man’s profile

, the sign

[>a] and the vertically placed three dots

defined by me as hook

are similar to PhD-2,19,46

signs Q[Țo], 2[>a], [lԥa]. The sign-groups on Arkalochori Axe are read by me according to the rules that were given for the Disk, i.e. I begin with the upper sign of the left column I moving downwards; the reading is finished at the right column III lower part last sign. On the basis of the similarity of signs, according to reading rules 5.2.2 and 5.2.4 in column II of the Axe I have read the word [Țo-ba-lԥa], which is the name of the Colchian chthonian deity of fertility and blossom. – 1. axe. Blümner 1879, 2017, 202-203; 2. Cybele warrior-priest) and it is a chthonian spirit or the house-spirit.

Source – Dr.Gia Kvashilava

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Malia Stone Block Reading the signs on the Malia Stone Block 9.2. I think that the three pictures on the block of the Malia Stone Block a boy’s profile

, vertical line ʜ and the sign

defined by me as yoke

are similar to PhD-3,14,48 signs ;[bԥ໠šԥ໡@, = [ԥ],/ [š] and three signs on the Phaistos Vessel – bird

, fish

, and plant

are similar to

[ԥrԥ], [þxo], $ [mpԥ]. The inscriptions of the PhD-32,33,37 signs Malia Stone Block have been read by me in the same direction as were the signs on the Disc. Basing on the similarity of sign forms and according to reading rules 5.2.1 and 5.2.2 the last three signs on the Malia Stone Block were read: ʜ [bԥ໠šԥ໡-ԥԥ-š], which means the boy of ΩΩ (with the name of a father ΩΩ in genitive); and on the Phaistos Vessel the following words have been read: Goddess Life Eternal; Radiance.

Source – Dr.Gia Kvashilava

[ԥrԥnԥ-þxomԥ-mpԥ], that mean [ԥrԥnԥ-þxo-ԥrԥnԥ-mpԥ] – Goddess

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The Phaistos Vessel – Diagram

It is clear, I believe, that the inscriptions of the Phaistos Disk, Arkalochori Axe, the Malia Stone Block, and the Phaistos Vessel are non-commercial and non-administrative, but the texts of religious character. Source - Gia Kvashilava

The Phonetic Values of the Phaistos Disk Signs, the Original Text and the Translation Side B is addressed to Nena, Tarhun, Hephaistus – asking them to let flourish, renovate, and purify the temple, family, and place. On the Basis of all the above-said I could conclude:

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1. The Phaistos Disk is the sample of the Colchian (Proto-Kartvelian) language printed in the unique Colchian syllabo-logogramic Goldscript. 2. The correct direction for reading the text is from the center of the disk to its periphery. 3. The basic key for deciphering is that a part of signs rotate, the same signs thus being presented in more than one position. 4. Vertical and slanting strokes under signs are of special phonetic and semantic meaning. 5. I have deduced a general algorithm for reading rotated signs that works for other inscriptions: the Archalochori Axe, the Malia Stone Block and the Phaistos Vessel as well. 5.1. Rotated signs with the rotation angle of 00 are two-syllable logograms; 5.2. In reading the signs with the rotation angle of 900 only the first syllable of a logogram is read; 5.3. In reading the signs with the rotation angle of 1800 the order of syllables read is reverse to that of the sign in the initial position. 5.4. In reading the signs with the rotation angle of 2700 only the second syllable of the logogram is read. 6. The analysis and the algorithm rules restrict the number of interpretations, leaving me with the only one possible reading of the original text: a hymn to the Great Mother Goddess Nena (Rhea-Cybele). 7. The Archalochori Axe, the Malia Stone Block, and the Phaistos Vessel inscriptions are read with the same method and in the same language as the Phaistos Disk. 8. The argument for deciphering the Disk in Colchian rests on the strict judgment and is richly supported by linguistic, paleographic, archeological, historical, and ethnographic material.

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Notes [1]. This paper was read at the International Conference on the Phaistos Disk, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of its discovery, Friday, 31 October – Saturday, 1 November 2008; At the Society of Antiquaries of London (SAL), Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House. Organized and sponsored by Minerva, the International Review of Ancient Art & Archaeology. [2]. Strabo (X, 3, 12; 19) identifies Corybantes with the deities of blacksmith – with Cabeiri and Curetes. Herodotus (III, 37) says that Cabeiri were the sons of Hephaistus. According to U. Drummond (1826, III, 199) Caberos is identified with Mercury. [3]. The Georgian Khanmeti texts of the Bible shown that ‘division marks’ as well as other marks of punctuation were used in Georgian letters as early as the 6th century. Later the ‘division marks’ were used anew by Giorgi the Athonite (1009-1065). Ephrem Mtsire (the 2nd half of the 11th century) used these marks and defined them according to the number of dots: one dot as a small pause, two dots as separation words etc, and six dots were the final mark before the new beginning (the dots were also used to mark intonation patterns). (Javakhishvili 1949, 144-146, 315; also see: Anton I, 1885, 293; Zhordania 1892, I, 218).

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The Phonetic Values of the Phaistos Disk Signs, the Original Text and the Translation

By kind permission of - Gia Kvashilava

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By kind permission of - Gia Kvashilava

Side A is addressed to the Corybantes who are praised and then implored to protect (through concealing) the family and the country

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Side B is addressed to Nena, Tarhun, Hephaistus – asking them to let flourish, renovate, and purify the temple, family, and place.

Observations 1. The Phaistos Disk is the sample of the Colchian (Proto-Kartvelian) language printed in the unique Colchian syllabo-logogramic Goldscript. 2. The correct direction for reading the text is from the center of the disk to its periphery. 3. The basic key for deciphering is that a part of signs rotate, the same signs thus being presented in more than one position. 4. Vertical and slanting strokes under signs are of special phonetic and semantic meaning.

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5. I have deduced a general algorithm for reading rotated signs that works for other inscriptions: the Archalochori Axe, the Malia Stone Block and the Phaistos Vessel. 5.1. Rotated signs with the rotation angle of 00 are two-syllable logograms; 5.2. In reading the signs with the rotation angle of 900 only the first syllable of a logogram is read; 5.3. In reading the signs with the rotation angle of 1800 the order of syllables read is reverse to that of the sign in the initial position. 5.4. In reading the signs with the rotation angle of 2700 only the second syllable of the logogram is read. 6. The analysis and the algorithm rules restrict the number of interpretations, leaving me with the only one possible reading of the original text: a hymn to the Great Mother Goddess Nena (Rhea-Cybele). 7. The Archalochori Axe, the Malia Stone Block, and the Phaistos Vessel inscriptions are read with the same method and in the same language as the Phaistos Disk. 8. The argument for deciphering the Disk in Colchian rests on the strict judgment and is richly supported by linguistic, paleographic, archeological, historical, and ethnographic material.

Notes [1]. This paper was read at the International Conference on the Phaistos Disk, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of its discovery, Friday, 31 October – Saturday, 1 November 2008; At the Society of Antiquaries of London (SAL), Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House. Organized and sponsored by Minerva, the International Review of Ancient Art & Archaeology. [2]. Strabo (X 3,12;19) identifies Corybantes with the deities of blacksmith – with Cabeiri and Curetes. Herodotus (III, 37) says that Cabeiri were the sons of Hephaistus. According to U. Drummond (1826, III, 199) Caberos is identified with Mercury. [3]. The Georgian Khanmeti texts of the Bible shown that ‘division marks’ as well as other marks of punctuation were used in Georgian letters as early as the 6th century. Later the ‘division marks’ were used anew by Giorgi the Athonite (1009-1065). Ephrem Mtsire (the 2nd half of the 11th

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century) used these marks and defined them according to the number of dots: one dot as a small pause, two dots as separation words etc, and six dots were the final mark before the new beginning (the dots were also used to mark intonation patterns). (Javakhishvili 1949, 144 -146, 315; also see: Anton I, 1885, 293; Zhordania 1892, I, 218). Source – Dr.Gia Kashilvava, PHD, Elected academician of Abkhaz A/R National Academy of Sciences, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia Note: Dr.Kvashilava indicated to me that he has been working on the Phaistos Disk for nearly twenty years he states that he has deciphered the Disk into Colchian (Proto-Kartrelian language. The text is proved to be a hymn and a prayer to Anatolian Mother Goddess Nenana (Rhea-Cybele) and is printed in the Colchian Goldscript. He presented his paper to the International Conference in London, England November 1st. 2008. on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of its discovery of the Phaistos Disc, This is the first time this work has appeared in ‘book’ form other than briefly cited in magazines in the Georgian Republic and in Minerva magazine.

Dr. Gia Kvashilava at the 100th Anniversary of the finding of the Phaistos disc – London -2008

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Biography 1973 Born in the village of Kurzu, Martvili region, Georgian Republic. 1989 Finished Kutaisi School of Physics and Mathematics. 1995 Graduated from Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics as a mathematician. 1998 Finished the post-graduate course in mathematical physics at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. 1990-2001 Worked on deciphering the world’s first printed document the Phaistos Disc found on the Crete. 2001-To date, working on his scientific book, ‘The problems of the Phaistos Disc. He has been studyiing the Phaistos Disc since 1990 and succeeded in deciphering its text in 2001 also working on the deciphering of the Linear A and Cretan hieroglyphic scripts. 2006 onwards, Presently Senior Researcher in the centre of "Language, Logic, Speech" at the Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. 2007 Elected Academician of Abkhaz National Academy of Sciences; Georgian National Academy and Phasis Academy. 2010 Elected Director of the Colchian-Iberian Ethno-cultural Scientific Research Centre “Aia-Colchis”. He is working on the scientific problems of deciphering; he has published 28 scientific works.

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Dedicated to Herbert Zebisch and Akaki Urushadze Gia D. Kvashilava, Academician of Abkhaz Academy of Sciences The Phaistos Disc – Colchian Goldscript Abstract: The results of deciphering of a syllabic-logogram writing of the Phaistos Disc are given in this work. The text is written in the ancient Colchian, in its Cretan dialect. The disc is the oldest European religious and literary document, a verse of a hymn to the Aea and Chthonian (Colchian: “Aia-Neshkari/Nerchi”) Pelasgian-Colchian “Magna Mater deorum Idaea, Dea Dia”, Great Idaean Mother Goddess Nana/RheaCybele/Cibela/ Kubau/Kubaba/Kebat/; Colchian: “Nana” _ mother; Greek: Macronean (Colchian) Great Mother; the Goddess of fertility; Phrygian: Matar Kubileya; comp.: Hebrew: hvx [chwh], Chavoh/Hawah/ƪawwƗh/ ƪavah/Hava/ Heba/Eva _ the mother of all the living). This paper presents the information on deciphering by the author the complete text of the four-thousand year old first imprinted religiousliterary document _ the Phaistos Disc The document is widely known, and has not been read until today _ it has been read by the author in the Kartvelian/ Georgian language _ Colchian. By kind permission of Dr. Gia D. Kvashilava.

History of the Phaistos Disc The disc was discovered on the 3d of July of 1908 by Italian Archaeologist, Luigi Pernier on the island of Crete, in Phaistos near Hagia Triada on the south coast of Crete. It was found in building 101 of the Minoan Palace-site of Phaistos in the main cell of an underground “temple depository”. The basement cells were only accessible from above and were covered with a layer of fine plaster found in a rich deposit of black earth and ashes mixed with rich black earth and bovine bones. In the northern section of the main cell on the same floor Linear A –Ph-1 was found. It appeared that the site collapsed probably as a result of an earthquake which occurred c.1628 BCE during the Santorino volcano explosion. Luigi Pernier reported that the disc was located in a Middle Minoan undisturbed context. ((the Bronze Age, Proto-palatial/Old Palace and Neo-palatial/ New Palace periods, middle Minoan IIA-IIIB period)

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The disc is a clay plate of 6 inches (approximately 16 cm) in diameter, and weighs 380 grams. On both sides of the disc, on yet wet clay, 63 composite words are printed in the form of a spiral with 244 golden matrixes of pictorial signs (i.e. in “Goldscript”); the disc was then kilned. There are only 48 distinct pictorial signs that are often imprinted in different angle. The disc is kept in the archaeological museum of Heraklion (Gallery 3, box 41, #EP-1358), the main port of Crete, Greece.

In 1992 a fragment of a clay plate that resembles the Phaistos Disc was found in Vladikavkaz, Caucasus. V. A. Kouznetsov published the results of his analysis of the fragment in his paper “Une Énigme Archéologique du Caucase”. The originality of the Vladikavkaz Disc itself is considered doubtful by some researchers, though. The disc was studied by L. Pernier, Sir A. J. Evans, A. Della Seta, A. Kober, M. G. Ventris, J. Chadwick, and V. J. Kean. Speciaist research papers on the disc were written by L. Godart, Y. Duhoux, J.-P. Olivier, G.

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A. Owens, T. Timm, Ch. Henke, D. Rumpel, F. Rougemont, L. Chotalishvili, and others. Of special interest According to Dr.Kvashilava it was the hypothesis of an Austrian researcher H. R. Zebisch postulating on the possible language of the Phaistos Disc; the hypothesis presented in his book “Pelasgisch: Eine Iberische Sprache”. Zebisch argued that the language of the preGreek population, namely, Pelasgian “is the mother of COLCHIAN – Kartvelian Langage in Budapest/Hungary, at the 18th International Congress of the Committee EIRENE, he declared that the language of the Phaistos Disc is proto-Georgian _ Colchian. Kartvelian languages” ([98], p. 29) Dr. Gia Kvashilava indicated that a hypothesis on the relationship of the language of the pre-Greek people and Caucasian languages was put forward by W. F. Humboldt, P. Kretschmer, A. P. Meillet, E. Schwyzer, F. Schachermeyr, S. Kaukhchishvili, A. Chikobava, S. Janashia, A. Urushadze, E. J. Furnée, T. V. Gamkrelidze, R. Schmitt-Brandt, R. S. P. Beekes, R. V. Gordeziani, Z. K. Gamsakhurdia, and others. Dr. Kvashilava’s long time research and study of Kartvelian/Georgian languages enabled him to draw conclusions that the language of the “Cyrbis” created by Colchian Cotybantes (plate-letters) that the origin of the Phaistos disc is Kartvelian Georgian known as Colchian (from which the present Georgian ‘Mingrelian-Laz’ language is derived. Classical sources mentioned that, Corybantes were priests of Cybele, the matriarchal Goddess of the Pelasgians of The pre-Greek era.( In the period of autochthonous tribes and pre-Hellenic period on Crete.) Some call the Corybantes, the "Phrygians", but the Curetes _ "Cretes", and say that the Cretes were the first people to wear armor in Euboea, and that on this account they were also called "Chalcidians"; still others say that the Corybantes, who came from Bactriana/Bactria [the present northern Afghanistan and in the southeast of Turkmenistan; Margiana, Margu], some say from among the Colchians, were given as armed ministers to Rhea by the Titans Lat.: pl. Cyrbantes/Kyrbantes/Corybantes/Korybantes (Cyrbas/Kyrbas/ Corybas/Korybas) _ Corybantes, the children of the Sun-god Helios and the brothers of Aeetes, the priest of Rhea-Cybele and Zeus; Lat.: Cabiri; (“The Angel of the Hearth”) _ Cabeiri, the children of Hephaestus; God-protectors of smiths whose cult was on the island of Samothrace ([44], II, 51; III, 37). The old Colchian God of fertility; Georgian surnames: kobalaZe [k’obaladze].

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“Colchians preserve the writings of their forefathers, graven on pillars whereon are marked all the ways and the limits of sea and land as ye journey on all sides round”Mingrelian-Laz (Colchian/Kolkhian) belongs to South Caucasian, i.e. Kartvelian/Georgian family of languages spoken by the people of the Black Sea coast etc). Mingrelians call their own language “Margaluri Nina”, Mingrelian) “Lazuri Nina”. “Mingrelian and Laz are Colchian languages” according to Professor A. Shanidze according to Dr.Kvashilava who is a ‘native’ of the region. Classical sources alleged that the Colchian language was spoken by the pre-Olympic Titans, the Sun-god Helios and the daughter of the Oceanus, Perseis’s children: King Aeetes of the Aea-Colchis, Queen Pasiphae, the wife of king Minos of Crete, goddess Circe of the mythical island of Aeaea. Aeetes who it was mentioned was the father of Medea, Chalciope, and Apsyrtus. “So Medea told all she [Circe] asked the daughter of Aeetes of the gloomy heart, speaking gently in the Colchian tongue.” Dr.Kvashilava indicates that the pictorial signs imprinted on the disc are the specimens of “Colchian Goldscript and quotes the following. “The data about “Colchian Goldscript” Mycenaean Greek: "Y [ku-ru-so]; Georgian; oqro [okhro]; Mingr.: orqo [orkho]; Svan (of the group of the Kartvelian languages): (v)oqvr [(v)okhvr] gold) are mainly given in the works of Greek authors: Euhemerus, Haraxes of Pergamum, Joannes of Antioch, and Eustathius of Thessalonica A Colchian Interpretation of the Text Dr.Gia Kvashilava has analyzed the Phaistos disc and suggests the language is indeed Colchian. Andis Kaulins suggests a source further east in Elam. Here is a translation by Dr.Kvashilava of the ‘Colchian Text). The text of the Phaistos Disc is a hymn “Nenana” dedicated to the protector of “Aea-Neshkari”, Pelasgian-Colchian Great Mother Goddess Nana/Rhea-Cybele (Dr.Gia Kvashilava) “great Goddess Rhea-Cybele, Mother Goddess of fertility of Macrones/Macroneans of PelasgianColchian tribesof Mt. Dindymos in Phrygia; mountain mother; great Mother of the gods mother Cybele; of Mt. Cybele in Phrygia; great Mother Goddess of Mt. Ida in the Troad; of Mt. Cybelon in Phrygia; the mother of all the living_ old Thracian-Phrygian Goddess; the earth; mother-earth; Cybele/Kibele = ki + bele = earth + mother (or “mother-earth”) mother.

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Below the Colchian words inscribed on the Phaistos Disc are given with their Lexical parallels: nena/nenana Mother;

[nena/nenana] _ new Nana, the first mother, Saint

Colch.: nana/nanaia/naia/na [nana/nanaia/naia/na] _ mother, the Goddess of the Earth; _ one’s; _ mother; Abkhaz: ɧɚɧ!/nan! [nan] God; Georg.: anana [anana] mother of Moirae 1. part, share; 2. queen, lady; Sumer.: inanna/inana/nanna _ Queen of Heaven and Earth, Holy Priestess of Heaven, Morning Star; Hurrian: hannah _ mother/Nana; hannahannah _ the Goddess of the earth, mother/Nana of the Hittite gods; Svan: nene [nene] _ mother/Nana; Udi (of the languages of Lezgan subgroup): nana _ mother. NANA and declension, NANIE, (name) are found in Etruscan texts. NANA is in an Etruscan mirror, “ CF: "CF-1 MARIS HVSR NANA " I suspect "nana" is an old Indo-European word for "mother." Mel Copeland (http://www.maravot.com . Mentioned (Copeland/Morritt) the following - “Following your Colchian lead I read Mariam Gvelesiani's work, "Pagan cults of Pre-Christian Georgia" which addresses the two Georgian / Armenian gods Ainina and and Danina.” “Regarding the Assyrian Chronicles (The Kings were on a thousand-year long rampage to sack Armenian cities (Urartu) They carried away the Armenian gods, described as mother-father duality. Source – Mariam Gvelesiani. NANA - (Phrygian Source ‘Nana’) One day Nana, daughter of the river-god Sangarius, placed one of the fruits of the tree in her lap. It vanished and Nana found herself pregnant. In time she gave birth to a boy, whom she exposed. This child, Attis, was somehow suckled by a he-goat and grew up to be a handsome young man. nena/nenana [nena/nenana] new Nana, the first mother, Saint Mother; Source – Carlos Parada. Pelasgian or ‘Colchian Refugees’ (Mentioned by Classical sources) “According to Plutarch, Tyrrhenians (Etruscans) that were of Pelasgian origin lived first in Thessaly, then moved to Lydia; from Lydia they went

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to Italy. Plutarch confirms the fact basing on the ancient sources unknown to us; about Rome he writes that, according to old data, this town was founded by Romanos – the son of Circe, the sister of Aeetes _ the leader of the Pelasgians or Colchian refugees from Greek. Romanos is the son of Odysseus and Circe (Romulus, 1.2; 2.1)” ([90], p. 123). The old Greek logographer Hellanicus of Mitylene wrote in his work that during the reign of Nana, the successor of King Pelasgus of Thessaly, Etruscans were turned out to Italy ([90], pp. 109, 272). Colchians, Cols; Georg.: kolxi [k’olxi] = kol [k’ol] + xi [xi] = “Coli” people; Old Mingr.: xi [xi] _ people), Colchis, country in Caucasus; "The Colchians who were ruled by Aeetes, the son of Helios and [the Oceanid] Perseis, and was brother of Circe and Minos’ wife Pasiphae" “Cols, people that live in Caucasus.. The Caucasian mountain ridges are called the Coli Mountains, and the country in called Colice.” “According to the latest studies, the existence of Colchian statehood should be assumed by the 15th century B.C., since many names known to us from the "Argonautic myth", including such names as "(the land of) Aea", Colchis, Jason, etc., are recorded in Greek inscriptions of the Mycenaean period (15th/14th cent. B.C.E.” Kartvelian presence in Crete – Early presence in Crete (Where the Phaistos Disc was ‘found’). Dr. Kvashilava source emphasized to note the mention of Crete as an entry Port for Kartvellian tribe presence, consider significant of a Black Sea cultural ‘immigration. Crete is the main region of Minoan culture in the 2nd millennium BC. According to modern researches, it is possible that a part of Kartvelian tribes migrated from the Caucasian area to Aegean Islands in the 2nd-3d millennium BC, which became the beginning of the foundation of the Pelasgian ethnos. From here one part of the Kartvelian tribes moved to Crete, the other one to Italy. The basis for this hypothesis is the existence of clearly Kartvelian elements in pre-Greek, Minoan and Etruscan linguistic data.” “The initial habitat of the Pelasgians – Corinth – Ephyra was, according to the old sources [Eumelus of Corinth; Epimenides of Crete, Simonides of Ceos, Lycophorn of Chalcis, and others], under the reign of Helios’ son Aeetes. Jason and Medea went to Corinth as their own country”“Aeetes is connected to Ephyra, i.e. to one of the main regions of the pre-Greek tribes; after her departure from Colchis to west Circe reigned in Thyrsenia _ Etruscans’ country, and Pasiphae becomes the wife of the king of Crete Minos.

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Dr. Kvashilva further states “the basic idea of Sir A. Evans, J. Chadwick, J.P. Olivier, H. R. Zebisch and F. Rougemont that the set of signs on the Phaistos Disc is a text;” V. J. Kean and H. R. Zebisch’s hypothesis that on side A of the disc the central symbol of the Sun – “Aea” – the eight-petaled rosette %[aԥa] is the initial sign/syllable; On side B of the disc the central symbol of the Moon – “Thutha” – the Colchian crown Thoth, the god of the Moon; Egypt: Pharaoh’s white royal crown of Upper Egypt. The Transcription of the Hymn “Nenana” Printed on the Phaistos Disc in Colchian Goldscript Dr. Gia Kvashilava Side A I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV.

aԥa-bԥšԥ-pԥ | maԥ-þxԥ | ԥrþxԥ-mpԥ-ne-nԥkԥ-nԥkԥpԥrԥ -oþԥ | aԥa-bԥšԥ-pԥ | ne-š->a-rԥ | maԥ-þxԥ-pԥrԥ-o | pԥrԥ-kԥa-kԥ | >a-ԥr-ga-na | kԥnԥ-ga-ԥrԥ-ԥ-kԥnԥ-pԥrԥ-o | kԥa-š-rԥkԥ-pԥrԥ-o | bԥ-š-maԥ-lo | ga-rԥ-pԥ-nԥ-kԥnԥ-o | kԥa-š-kԥrԥ-pԥrԥ-o | rԥ-þxo | ԥrþxԥ-mpԥ-ne-kԥnԥ-kԥnԥ-pԥrԥ-o | kԥa-š-kԥrԥ-pԥrԥ-o | ԥ>ԥ-š-maԥ-lo | ga-rԥ-pԥ-nԥ-kԥnԥ-o | škԥ-paԥ | aԥa-š-rԥ-ԥrԥ-pԥrԥ-o | tԥ-ta-ԥ-maԥ | ne->a-ԥ-pԥrԥ-o | ne-kԥa-kԥ | ԥrԥ-ga-na-pԥrԥ-o | xԥ-dԥ-kԥnԥ | pԥrԥ-tԥ-ba-kԥnԥ | þxo-ta-ma-pԥrԥ-o | s>a-Jԥlԥ-Jԥlԥ | tԥ-š-ba-lԥJԥ | pԥrԥ-ta-pa | ga-šmaԥ-þxԥ-pԥrԥ-o lΩa

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Side B I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV.

tԥ-š-ba | nԥšԥ-rԥ-s>a-lԥ | tԥ-rԥ-ne-na-o | tԥ-ga-paԥ-e-nkԥ | xԥ-š-tԥ-a-Jԥ-ge | pa-ga-rԥ-tԥ | tԥ-š-ba-tԥ | ne-ga-tԥ | nԥ-rԥ-s>a-kԥnԥ | ar-š-tԥ-a-Jԥlԥ-ge | tԥ-š-ba-Jԥlԥ | þxԥ-xԥ-Jԥlԥ | xԥ-š-tԥ-a-Jԥ | maԥ-kԥnԥ-nkԥ-o | þxo-paԥ-ԥrԥ-ne-na | maԥ-þxo-lԥJԥ | ga-ԥ-xa | ne-o-pa-pa-lԥJԥ | maԥ-aԥa-nԥ-kԥnԥ | ta-a-kԥa-o | ne-ta-pa-tԥ | nԥ-xo-mpԥ-ge | ga-maԥ-þxԥ-tԥ-a | þxo-paԥ-maԥ-þxԥ | mԥ-š-ga-rԥ-xa | pԥrԥ-o-pa-þxo | kԥnԥ-nԥ-ge | þkԥ-š-rԥ-mpԥ-o | ne-tԥ-ba-kԥnԥ | tԥ-ta-ge-pԥrԥ-o

The Translation of the Hymn “Nenana” printed on the Phaistos Disc in Colchian Goldscript Side A I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV.

Aea-young-men | purifiers | [of] the purgatoryconcealed | Aea-young-men | [who are of] mother’s door | purifiers-like | conceal | the arch | [you] the divine-like | [you] the country’s column-high-like | [you] guide | [you who are] the country’s eagle-like [strength] | found | the purgatory-concealed | [you who are] the country’s eagle-like [strength] | [you] ever-moving | change | the life of Aea in all ways | [you] by the moon-at-night | illuminated | mother’s country | always-conceal | put [your] hand | [on it with] concealing [protection] | [you] radiant-concealers | [of] the family-base | [of its] kind’s pulsation | [of its] revolve | [you] purifiers-like

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Side B I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII.

Nenana-[of]-generation | let be flowered | the five-branches-yes | beautiful | with the purity-[of]-the kind | with novelty | covered-demeanour | [you] one-powerful-branch-yes | [you of] the family-purity powerful | [you] the [strong] head | [of the] five-branches | [you] the concealer | radiant-Nana-goddess|[[1] [you] family’s source | the birth-giving-soul | you] the leader | prolong | mother’s temple-[of]-copper | [you] flower-making | Tarhun][2] [you] illuminated-Hephaistus] [3] |[you] melting-yes | leader | radiant-purifier her blazing | hidden-palace | conceal-do |

XIV. [you] our smith | [you] novelty-covered | [you] moon-like-yes Notes; 1. Nana-goddess-Mother God-Rhea Cybele 2.Tarhun-God of Thunder 3 Hepaistus-Master God, the God of Fire

The Elamites Mesopotamian cuneiform texts. Mesopotamia was certainly the center of civilization up to 600 BC. Rich agriculturally but lacking in other resources. According to Mesopotamian texts, the Eastern part of their land, Elam, was occupied by a people called the Elamites. Indigenous to the country, and speaking an agglutinative non-Semitic language still not well understood to this day. Khuzestan was the center of their loosely organized federation of states which stretched north into Lurestan, south to Fars, and as far as Bushehr on the Gulf. Important Elamite Cities such as Awan or Simash are still to be located. Other important Elamite sites however have been excavated such as Choga Zanbil, Haft Tape and Susa on the Khuzestan plain; and Tape Malyan (Anshan) on the Marv Dasht plain near Persepolis in Fars.

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Susa was always the pride and joy of the Elamites and later the Persians, a city that stood for 5000 years until totally sacked and raised to the ground by the Mongols in the 13th C AD, maybe a reason why we have to refer to Mesopotamian texts for the history of Elam. The Elamites mountainous land gave them wood, marble, alabaster, lapis lazuli, metal ores, precious stones all of which were sought by the Mesopotamians who were rich agriculturally but short on raw materials. Susa soon became a trading center with routes stretching as far as Sistan, Balouchestan, Afghanistan and India. The love hate relationship that existed between the Elamites and their Mesopotamian neighbors-the Assyrians heightened c. 647 BC when Elam then a mighty kingdom fell to Ashurbanipal. Who recorded his devastation of Susa as an act of avenge for the humiliations the Elamites had inflicted on the Mesopotamians over the centuries. “I devastated the land of Elam and on their lands I sowed salt” he said. Iran which basically means the land of the Aryans was since 1000 BC being inhabited by Indo-Europeans who had begun migrating entering the plateau from beyond the Caucasus via routes around the Caspian Sea. Those settled in the northern and central areas were called the Medes and those settled in the Fars area were called the Persians. These IndoEuropean newcomers were soon involved in the conflicts between the Elamites, Babylonians, and Assyrian empires. The Medes were victorious from these conflicts when they defeated the Assyrians in 612 BC destroying Nineveh.

Origins The origin of the Elamites of Southwest Iran is completely unclear. The Sumerian language is not related to any language spoken today. Elamite also bears no relation to living languages, but not enough of it is known to be certain. The cultural development or Sumer and Elam ran parallel. A script was in use in Elam (Kerman) simultaneous to the first pictorial writing in Ur (3000 B.C.). Temple structures in both areas had the same ziggurat form, the man-made mountain reminiscent of their highland origins. Many cultic and religious habits were the same throughout Mesopotamia; the snake cult of Elam however was distinct and foreign. Elam controlled the plain between the Zagros Mountains and the swamps of the two rivers as well as the entire Iranian Plateau to the great salt desert. This gave the Elamites great advantages, as suppliers of gold,

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timber, stone and other basic raw materials, which had to be imported by the civilizations in the alluvial plain. At times, when the lowlands of Elam were overrun by invaders from Mesopotamia, indigenous Elamite dynasties recovered the loss after weathering the storm by withdrawing to the mountains. While dynasties and population groups in Mesopotamia changed drastically, Elam retained continuity. Metallurgy and the introduction of the chariot introduced revolutionary changes. Dependence on horses and metals from the mountains of Iran and Eastern Anatolia grew, and control of the source was vital. Larger armies could be formed and greater distances covered. The spoils accrued by successful war became ever more luring.Two important changes occurred after 1000 B.C. The rivers pushed the land further out into the Persian Gulf and fused to form the Arvand Rood. The swamps receded down river. This changed and weakened the strategic position of Elam. It is known from the clay-tablet records, with details often filled in by archaeological excavations, that the Babylonians and Elamites formed a defensive union and prolonged war started. Assyria, after successfully attacking Egypt, launched a large-scale amphibian invasion with a substantial fleet through the headwaters of the Persian Gulf on the shores of Elam. This invasion was repelled (698), but a new attack was mounted two generations later, when there was serious internal strife and conflict over the royal succession in Elam. The Elamites army with its Persian tribal levies was decisively defeated in the battle of the Ulai River (652). Shortly thereafter Babylon was invested, Elam completely destroyed (639) and the Chaldeans of Ur were pushed into the swamps. Achaemenes had become king of the Persians just prior to the showdown between the Assyrians and Elamites (700). The Assyrian commander who destroyed Elam (639) met with Cyrus I in the area of today’s city of Behbahan and accepted his son as hostage. The Persians were biding their time. Their enlarged kingdom was temporarily divided between two grandsons of Achaemenes - Cyrus I and Ariaramnes - as kings, respectively, of Parsumash and Parsa. Assyria had extended its power to the limits. The Chaldean kings of Sumer revitalized Babylon. A Babylonian and Medic coalition attacked Nineveh and Khorsabad and destroyed the royal Assyrian cities and Assyrian power (612). Neobabylonia expanded, opened the sea route through the Mediterranean, fruitlessly attacked Egypt but did not attempt to force the mountains where Cambyses, son of Cyrus I, had inherited the crowns of Parsumash and Parsa and reigned as King of Anzan (600-559).

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History of Elam Elamite history can be divided into three main phases: the Old, Middle, and Late, or Neo-Elamite, periods. In all periods Elam was closely involved with Sumer, Babylonia, and Assyria, sometimes through peaceful trade, more often through war. In like manner, Elam was often a participant in events on the Iranian Plateau. Both involvements were related to the combined need of all the lowland civilizations to control the warlike peoples to the east and to exploit the economic resources of the plateau. Elamite Haltami, Akkadian Elamtu, also called SUSIANA, ancient country in southwestern Iran approximately equivalent to the modern region of Khuzestan. Four prominent geographic names within Elam are mentioned in ancient sources: Awan, Anshan, Simash, and Susa. Susa was Elam’s capital, and in classical sources the name of the country is sometimes Susiana.

Old Elamite Period Throughout the late prehistoric periods, Elam was closely tied culturally to Mesopotamia. Later, perhaps because of domination by the Akkadian dynasty (c. 2334-c. 2154 BC), Elamites adopted the Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform script. Eventually Elam came under the control first of the Guti, a mountain people of the area, and then of the 3rd dynasty of Ur. As the power of Ur in turn declined, the Elamites reasserted their independence. In that turbulent period Elam’s unique system of matrilinear succession emerged; sovereignty was hereditary through women, in that a new ruler was always “son of a sister” of some member of an older sovereign’s family. The earliest kings in the Old Elamite period may date to approximately 2700 BC. Already conflict with Mesopotamia, in this case apparently with the city of Ur, was characteristic of Elamite history. These early rulers were succeeded by the Awan (Shustar) dynasty. The 11th king of this line entered into treaty relations with the great Naram-Sin of Akkad (c. 2254-c. 2218 BC). Yet there soon appeared a new ruling house, the Simash dynasty (Simash may have been in the mountains of southern Luristan). The outstanding event of this period was the virtual conquest of Elam by Shulgi of the 3rd dynasty of Ur (c. 2094-c. 2047 BC)

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Eventually the Elamites rose in rebellion and overthrew the 3rd Ur dynasty, an event long remembered in Mesopotamian dirges and omen texts. About the middle of the 19th century BC, power in Elam passed to a new dynasty, that of Eparti. The third king of this line, Shirukdukh, was active in various military coalitions against the rising power of Babylon, but Hammurabi (c. 1792-c. 1750 BC) was not to be denied, and Elam was crushed in 1764 BC. The Old Babylon kingdom, however, fell into rapid decline following the death of Hammurabi, and it was not long before the Elamites were able to gain revenge. Kutir-Nahhunte I attacked Samsuiluna (c. 1749-c. 1712 BC), Hammurabi’s son, and dealt so serious a defeat to the Babylonians that the event was remembered more than 1,000 years later in an inscription of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal. It may be assumed that with this stroke Elam once again gained independence. The end of the Eparti dynasty, which may have come in the late 16th century BC, is buried in silence. About 1600 BC new invaders of Mesopotamia, the Kassites, may have caused the fall of both Babylonia and Elam. Thereafter almost nothing is known of Elam until the latter part of the 13th century BC, when it began reemerging as a substantial international power. The Elamite kings Shutruk-Nahhunte and Kutir-Nahhunte invaded Mesopotamia and succeeded in securing a large number of ancient monuments,such as the Victory Stele of Naram-Sin and the stele bearing the law code of Hammurabi. Shilkhak-In-Shushinak campaigned vigorously, and for at least a short period his domain included most of Mesopotamia east of the Tigris River and reached eastward almost to Persepolis. This greatest period of Elamite conquest ended when Nebuchadrezzar I of Babylon (reigned c. 1124-c. 1103 BC) captured Susa. For almost 300 years thereafter nothing is known of Elamite history. In 640 BC, however, the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal invaded Elam, sacked Susa, and deported some of the leading citizens to Samaria in Palestine. Later Elam formed a satrapy of the Achaemenian Empire, and Susa became one of the three most important cities of the Persian realm. Elam’s cultural accomplishments do not appear to have been extensive. Written business and governmental documents are limited in scope; still less is known of Elamite religious beliefs because no epic or religious materials in the Elamite language have been discovered. The language itself is not clearly understood and had no known ancient relatives and no

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modern descendants. Elam’s art and architecture clearly derived much of its inspiration from Babylonia.

The Middle Elamite Period After two centuries for which sources reveal nothing, the Middle Elamite period opened with the rise to power of the Anzanite dynasty, whose homeland probably lay in the mountains northeast of Khuzestan. Political expansion under Khumbannumena (c. 1285-c. 1266 BC), the fourth king of this line, proceeded apace, and his successes were commemorated by his assumption of the title “Expander of the Empire.” He was succeeded by his son, Untash-Gal (Untash (d) Gal, or UntashHuban), a contemporary of Shalmaneser I of Assyria (c. 1274-c. 1245 BC) and the founder of the city of Dur Untash (modern Chogha Zanbil). In the years immediately following Untash-Gal, Elam increasingly found itself in real or potential conflict with the rising power of Assyria. Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria (c. 1244-c. 1208 BC) campaigned in the mountains north of Elam. The Elamites under Kidin-Khutran, second king after Untash-Gal, countered with a successful and devastating raid on Babylonia. In the end, however, Assyrian power seems to have been too great. Tukulti-Ninurta managed to expand, for a brief time, Assyrian control well to the south in Mesopotamia, Kidin-Khutran faded into obscurity, and the Anzanite dynasty came to an end. The Second Half of the Middle Elamite Period After a short period of dynastic troubles, the second half of the Middle Elamite period opened with the reign of Shutruk-Nahhunte (c. 1160 BC). two equally powerful and two rather less impressive kings followed this founder of a new dynasty, whose home was probably Susa, and in this period Elam became one of the great military powers of the Middle East. Tukulti-Ninurta died about 1208 BC, and Assyria fell into a period of internal weakness and dynastic conflict. Elam was quick to take advantage of this situation by campaigning extensively in the Diyala River area and into the very heart of Mesopotamia. Shutruk-Nahhunte captured Babylon and carried off to Susa the stela on which was inscribed the famous law code of Hammurabi. Shilkhak-In-Shushinak, brother and successor of Shutruk-Nahhunte’s eldest son, Kutir-Nahhunte, still anxious to take advantage of Assyrian weakness, campaigned as far north as the area of modern Kirkuk. In

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Babylonia, however, the 2nd dynasty of Isin led a native revolt against such control as the Elamites had been able to exercise there, and Elamite power in central Mesopotamia was eventually broken. The Elamite military empire began to shrink rapidly. Nebuchadrezzar I of Babylon (c. 1124-c. 1103 BC) attacked Elam and was just barely beaten off. A second Babylonian attack succeeded, however, and the whole of Elam was apparently overrun, ending the Middle Elamite period. It is noteworthy that during the Middle Elamite period the old system of succession to, and distribution of, power appears to have broken down. Increasingly, son succeeded father, and less is heard of divided authority within a federated system. This probably reflects an effort to increase the central authority at Susa in order to conduct effective military campaigns abroad and to hold Elamite foreign conquests. The old system of regionalism balanced with federalism must have suffered, and the fraternal, sectional strife that so weakened Elam in the Neo-Elamite period may have had its roots in the centrifugal developments of the 13th and 12th centuries.

The Neo Elamite Period A long period of darkness separates the Middle and Neo-Elamite periods. In 742 BC a certain Huban-nugash is mentioned as king in Elam. The land appears to have been divided into separate principalities, with the central power fairly weak. The next 100 years witnessed the constant attempts of the Elamites to interfere in Mesopotamian affairs, usually in alliance with Babylon, against the constant pressure of Neo-Assyrian expansion. At times they were successful with this policy, both militarily and diplomatically, but on the whole they were forced to give way to increasing Assyrian power. Local Elamite dynastic troubles were from time to time compounded by both Assyrian and Babylonian interference. Meanwhile, the Assyrian army whittled away at Elamite power and influence in Luristan. In time these internal and external pressures resulted in the near total collapse of any meaningful central authority in Elam. In a series of campaigns between 692 and 639 BC, in an effort to clean up a political and diplomatic mess that had become a chronic headache for the Assyrians, Ashurbanipal’s armies utterly destroyed Susa, pulling down buildings, looting, and sowing the land of Elam with salt independence. The end of the Eparti dynasty, which may have come in the late 16th century BC, is buried in silence.

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Old Elamite Culture Written records place the beginnings of Old Elamite culture at CA 3200 BCE Old Elamite is perceived to be an undeciphered pictographic script. One script was found with an Akkadian bilingual text. Translation based on the Akkadian script only. “For his master Inshushinak the sculptor of human forms. I ShilhakInsushnak Administrator of Susa, King of Elam, has dedicated the Shempishhukische, an obelisk (pr column) of copper and cedar wood.” An Elamite Verse “Ruler over all (Pantarchas). In memory, the deceased in these walls of a new temple is laid to rest. the collected elders ordained by God, and the lone (sole) companion of King Labynetus, Niokris administrator, in death, in Susa erected this temple, in memory, in sorrow created.” Source T.Palaima – University of Texas at Austin

Biblical References to Elam The Elamites were the Persians; they acted against God's Israel, and must be reckoned with. Evil pursues sinners. God will make them know that he reigns. Yet the destruction of Elam shall not be forever. Source – Jeremiah - Verse 34-39- Elam takes up the quiver, with her charioteers and horses; Kir uncovers the shield. Isaiah 22:6 A dire vision has been shown to me: The traitor betrays, the looter takes loot. Elam, attack! Media, lay siege! I will bring to an end all the groaning she caused. Isaiah 21:2 “Elam is there, with all her hordes around her grave. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword. All who had spread terror in the land of the living went down uncircumcised to the earth below. They bear their shame with those who go down to the pit. Ezekiel 32:24

Whatever the reason, a new script tradition appeared in Elam at approximately 2900 BCE. Called proto-Elamite, this script represented the earliest native writing system in Elam. Visually, proto-Elamite is quite

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unlike the cuneiform script prevalent in other parts of Mesopotamia, and instead is composed of lines and circles. All proto-Elamite texts can be demonstrated to be accounting records, as numbers are preceeded by one or more non-numerical signs, which were logograms and maybe even syllabograms. However, this is about all we know about proto-Elamite, as the script remains undeciphered due to lack of a sizeable corpus and any bilingual text. The following is an example of a proto-Elamite accounting tablet. The direction of reading is right-to-left, then downward when the end of line is reached.

Diagram by kind permission of Lawrence Lo.

Elamite Script By the latter half of the 3rd millenium BCE, the proto-Elamite script had evolved into the Linear Elamite script. The discovery of a bilingual text, with one version in Linear Elamite and the other in Old Akkadian, in 1905 at the Elamite capital of Susa made it possible to partially decipher Linear Elamite. The system is discovered to frequently make use of syllabograms, with logograms sprinkled in. The following is the Elamite portion of the bilingual tablet, which is attributed to the Elamite king Puzur-Inshushinak around the 22th century BCE.

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Diagrams by kind permission of Lawrence Lo.

Like cuneiform scripts at roughly the same time, the set of syllabograms contains both signs to represent consonant-vowel syllables and signs for vowel-consonant syllables. However, not all readings presented are certain. The same sign is used to end a CVC syllable where the vowel can be either /a/ or /u/, so it is hard to tell the exact vowel for this sign. The most problematic of the readings on this table is the phrase "son of Shimpishhuk". From the Old Akkadian version, scholars know that this phrase is in the text, but there is disagreement on how the signs should be read. Another school of thought states that only the first seven signs form this phrase, leaving the last three out, and the sequence should instead be read as "shi-in-pish-hu-uk shak-ik". Problems of this kind persist in Linear Elamite epigraphy, and there is no remedy in the forseeable future. A basic requirement for deciphering a writing system is a large corpus of texts, but only few examples of Linear Elamite texts have been found so far. Another problem is the poor understanding of the Elamite language, which is unrelated to any other language in the world, and also suffers from being less studied than other Mesopotamian languages like Sumerian and Akkadian.

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The native Elamite writing system would not endure, as no other examples of Linear Elamite date past the 22th century BCE. And due to the tremendous prestige of Mesopotamian languages and scripts, almost all texts from Elam for the next thousand years were either Sumerian or Babylonian. For 900 years, the Elamite literary tradition remained silent. Only starting from the 13th century BCE onward did the Elamite language reappear in the archaeological record, but at this point in time the Elamite had borrowed and adapted the cuneiform script to write their language. Unlike their Mesopotamian neighbors which had more than 700 signs, the Elamite cuneiform only contained 145 signs, where 113 were syllabograms, twenty five were logograms, and seven were determinatives. The most famous Elamite cuneiform inscription comes from the rock inscriptions at Behistun, carved by the order of the Persian king Darius I of the Achaemenid dynasty, around the 5th century BCE. At this time, Elamite, Old Persian, and Aramaic, were the "official" languages used in the Persian court and bureaucracy, while older Mesopotamian languages such as Babylonian and Sumerian continued to be used in literary, religious, and scientific circles. As such, Elamite appeared along side with Babylonian and Old Persian on the Behistun inscriptions. The following is an excerpt of the Elamite text.

Elamite Text – courtesy of Andis Kaulins.

While important during the early history of the Persian empire, Elamite gradually faded from history after the 5th century BCE as Aramaic became increasingly important as the "international" language of the Persian empire. As such, Elamite has remained an enigma even today.

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The Importance of Elam to the Beginnings of Writing and Civilization (It) was here (in Elam), rather than in Mesopotamia proper-which after all lies only fifty miles to the west of Susa- that civilization as we know it truly began. Richard Critchford, “How Lonely Sits The City” Susa and Elam are therefore of great historical and archaeological interest. Jacque de Morgan, famed for having found the Code of Hammurabi and called the ‘Father of Prehistoric Archaeology” by some, wrote “Recherches Sur les origins des peoples du Caucase.” (p.16 -1912) “In the Nile valley I developed the conviction that the first civilizations from which the Egyptian empire arose, came from Chaldea and that the Mesopotanian plains had therefore been the cradle of human progress. Susa , because of its very early date, provided the possibility of solving The greatest and most important problem of our origins. This city in my View, belonged to that primordial world that witnessed the discovery of Writing; the use of metals, the beginnings of art. If the great problem of origins was to be solved one day it was in Chaldea, And especially at Susa that it was necessary to seek the basic elements.” The ancient name for Troy was Ilium or Ilion (Greek – Troia or Ilion (Hittite – Triwisa or Wilusa) Ilium thus bears a close word correspondence to the term Elam did both identify the same place? In Persia? There is almost no probative evidence proving Hisarlik was actually Troy. Nothing in archaeological data gives Hisarlik any great ancient importance. Homer spoke of Springs west of the City of Troy, but there are none at Hisarlik. - Source - Andis Kaulins10 10

Kaulins is correct, John Morritt found proof of Springs in 1794, but not at Hisarlik, they were at Bunarbishi and no remains of consequence were to be found there only at Hisarlik, per ‘The Quest’(Cambridge Scholars 2010- Morritt). Calvert using Morritt’s notes later excavated and found ancient objects at Hisarlik, followed by Schliemann ‘digging’ unauthorized on the land owned by Calvert.

GEOGRAPHIC PLACEMENT OF TROY TOWARD PERSIA

Suggested By Other Evidence The iliou persis (in Latvia; Ilupersis) is a lost Greek epic of the so-called Epic Cycle. (also called Trojan Cycle) of Greek literature of which fragments have survived. The current mainstream translation of the title phrase Iliou persis as ‘Sack of Ilium’ is unpersuasive and doubtful. In view of the Ancient Greek root ( Persis “Persian”)whereby (persis) “destruction” is surely a derivative meaning attached to the folk name. Iliou persis in its original context thus must have likely meant “Elam in Persia” or “Hellas in Persia”. In any case, it was in fact the similarly name Paris (perhaps originally “Persis” the Greek from Persia) who according to the legend of the cause of the Trojan War eloped with, or abducted Helen of Troy, the stepdaughter of King Tyndareus that ancient complex of ancient tales provide4s us with the necessary Mycenean connection, as follows according to the Greek legend. Source- Andis Kaulins

The Mycenaean Connection “Tyndareus” (or Tyndareos) was a Spartan King, husband of- Leda and (step) father of Helen, Tyndareus wife. Leda, was seduced by Zeus… disguised as a swan. She laid two eggs, each producing two children.from one egg, Pollux and Helen were the children of Zeus. From the other, Castor and Clytemnestra, were the children of Tyndareus. When Thyestes seized control of Mycenae, two exiled Princes came to seek her hand. Tyndareus (would not) send any of the Suitors away for fear of …giving ground for a quarrel….Odysseus proposed that , before the decision was made, all suitors should swear a most solemn oath to defend the chosen husband against whosoever should quarrel with the chosen one. This stratagem succeeded and Helen and Menelaus were married. Eventually Tyndareus resigned in favour of his don-in-law and Menelaus became King of Sparta. Some years later, Paris, a Trojan Prince

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came to Sparta to marry Helen, whom he had been promised by Aphrodite Helen fell in love with him and left willingly (although it is also suggested that he may have simply kidnapped her, with neither theory being conclusively proven) leaving behind Menelaus and Hermione, their nineyear-old daughter. Menelaus’ attempts to retrieve Helen…caused the Trojan War. (Source T.Palaima) Helen of Troy and Paris In Cyprus, Sidon (Phoenicia, including Tyre) and Egypt (Sais) The connection to Crete is strengthened by the legendary account that on the night that Helen and Paris left Sparta, they were able to do so because Menelaus had left Sparta to sail to Crete for the funeral of his grandfather King Catreus; “The myth about Catreus (son of King Minos of Crete) and his children is proof (Known as well from the archaeological findings) that in the so called “heroic age” a close relation existed between Crete, Mycenae and other places in the Peloponnese and also between Crete and the islands such as Rhodes.The Trojan War holds more surprises in the legendary account some of which seems to be conveniently ignored by those who modernly discuss the location of Troy. As written by Robert Graves (Robert von Ranke-Graves) based on numerous Greek sources. Helen and Paris after leaving Sparta, sailed to Cyprus, Sidon (Phoenicia) and the Nile Delta of Egypt where at the latter they founded a temple on the Canopic branch of the Nile.This could have been at Sais: “Sais” or Sa el-Hagar was an ancient Egyptian town in the Western Nile Delta on the Canopic branch of the Nile. The patron goddess of the “Egyptian” city Sais was Neith, whose cult at Sais is allegedly attested in texts clear back to the 1st. Dynasty, but nothing Archaeologically has been found earlier than the New Kingdom at the alleged location of Sais, in fact “only a few relief blocks in situ.” Interesting then, according too legend, is that ancient Sais was allegedly bult by Greeks not Egyptians, prior to the cataclysm. Heredotus wrote that Sais is where the grave of Osiris was located… Diodorus Siculus attested that it was the Athenians who built Sais before the cataclysm. While all Greek cities were destroyed during the cataclysm, the Egyptian cities Including Sais survived. There are today no surviving traces of this town prior To the Late New Kingdom (ca. 1100 BCE)

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The Legendary Route of Helen and Paris The legendary route of Helen and Paris to Troy does not speak for Hisarlik as Troy, for Paris and Helen went to Troy after leaving Egypt as they would not have gone that far South only to return even further to the North. Troy is ‘ clearly elsewhere’. (Source- Andis Kaulins)

Helen of Memphis – ‘The Temple of the ‘foreign Aphrodite’ Heredotus mentioned the following interesting account of Helen that preeceds Homer’s Tale of ‘Helen of Troy’ as follows ; “After him, they said, there succeeded to the throne a man of Memphis, whose name in the tongue of the Hellenes was Proteus; for whom there is now a sacred enclosure at Memphis, very fair and well ordered, lying on that side of the temple of Hephaistos which faces the North Wind. Round about this enclosure dwell Phenicians of Tyre, and this whole region is called the Camp of the Tyrians. Within the enclosure of Proteus there is a temple called the temple of the "foreign Aphrodite," which temple I conjecture to be one of Helen the daughter of Tyndareus, not only because I have heard the tale how Helen dwelt with Proteus, but also especially because it is called by the name of the "foreign Aphrodite," for the other temples of Aphrodite which there are have none of them the addition of the word "foreign" to the name.,and the priests told me, when I inquired, that the things concerning Helen happened thus: Alexander having carried off Helen was sailing away from Sparta to his own land, and when he had come to the Egean Sea contrary winds drove him from his course to the Sea of Egypt; and after that, since the blasts did not cease to blow, he came to Egypt itself, and in Egypt to that which is now named the Canobic mouth of theNile and to Taricheiai. Now there was upon the shore, as still there is now, a temple of Heracles, in which if any man's slave take refuge and have the sacred marks set upon him, giving himself over to the god, it is not lawful to lay hands upon him; and this custom has continued still unchanged from the beginning down to my own time. Accordingly the attendants of Alexander, having heard of the custom which existed about the temple, ran away from him, and sitting down as suppliants of the god, accused Alexander, because they desired to do him hurt, telling the whole tale how things were about Helen and about the wrong done to Menelaos; and this accusation they made not only to the priests but also to the warden of this river-mouth, whose name was Thonis.

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Thonis then having heard their tale sent forthwith a message to Proteus at Memphis, which said as follows: "There hath come a stranger, a Teucrian by race, who hath done in Hellas an unholy deed; for he hath deceived the wife of his own host, and is come hither bringing with him this woman herself and very much wealth, having been carried out of his way by winds to thy land. Shall we then allow him to sail out unharmed, or shall we first take away from him that which he brought with him?" In reply to this Proteus sent back a messenger who said thus:"Seize this man, whosoever he may be, who has done impiety to his ownhost, and bring him away into my presence, that I may know what he will find to say." Hearing this, Thonis seized Alexander and detained his ships, and after that he brought the man himself up to Memphis and with him Helen and the wealth he had, and also in addition to them the suppliants. So when all had been conveyed up thither, Proteus began to ask Alexander who he was and from whence he was voyaging; and he both recounted to him his descent and told him the name of his native land, and moreover related of his voyage, from whence he was sailing. After this Proteus asked him whence he had taken Helen; and when Alexander went astray in his account and did not speak the truth, those who had become suppliants convicted him of falsehood, relating in full the whole tale of the wrong done. At length Proteus declared to them this sentence, saying, "Were it not that I count it a matter of great moment not to slay any of those strangers who being driven from their course by winds have come to my land hitherto, I should have taken vengeance on thee on behalf of the man of Hellas, seeing that thou, most base of men, having received from him hospitality, didst work against him a most impious deed. For thou didst go in to the wife of thine own host; and even this was not enough for thee, but thou didst stir her up with desire and hast gone away with her like a thief. Moreover not even this by itself was enough for thee, but thou art come hither with plunder taken from the house of thy host. Now therefore depart, seeing that I have counted it of great moment not to be a slayer of strangers. This woman indeed and the wealth which thou hast I will not allow thee to carry away, but I shall keep them safe for the Hellene who was thy host, until he come himself and desire to carry them off to his home; to thyself however and thy fellow-voyagers I proclaim that ye depart from your anchoring within three days and go from my land to some other; and if not, that ye will be dealt with as enemies."

Helen of Sidon This the priests said was the manner of Helen's coming to Proteus; and I suppose that Homer also had heard this story, but since it was not so suitable to the composition of his poem as the other which he followed, he dismissed it finally, making it clear at the same time that he was

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acquainted with that story also: and according to the manner in which he described the wanderings of Alexander in the Iliad (nor did he elsewhere retract that which he had said) it is clear that when he brought Helen he was carried out of his course, wandering to various lands, and that he came among other places to Sidon in Phenicia. Of this the poet has made mention in the "prowess of Diomede," and the verses run this: "There she had robes many-coloured, the works of women of Sidon, Those whom her son himself the god-like of form Alexander Carried from Sidon, what time the broad sea-path he sailed over Bringing back Helene home, of a noble father begotten."

And in the Odyssey also he has made mention of it in these verses: "Such had the daughter of Zeus, such drugs of exquisite cunning, Good, which to her the wife of Thon, Polydamna, had given, Dwelling in Egypt, the land where the bountiful meadow produces Drugs more than all lands else, many good being mixed, many evil."

And thus too Menelaos says to Telemachos: "Still the gods stayed me in Egypt, to come back hither desiring, Stayed me from voyaging home, since sacrifice was due I performed not."

In these lines he makes it clear that he knew of the wandering of Alexander to Egypt, for Syria borders upon Egypt and the Phenicians, of whom is Sidon, dwell in Syria. By these lines and by this passage it is also most clearly shown that the "Cyprian Epic" was not written by Homer but by some other man: for in this it is said that on the third day after leaving Sparta Alexander came to Ilion bringing with him Helen, having had a "gently-blowing wind and a smooth sea," whereas in the Iliad it says that he wandered from his course when he brought her. Let us now leave Homer and the "Cyprian" Epic; but this I will say, namely that I asked the priests whether it is but an idle tale which the Hellenes tell of that which they say happened about Ilion; and they answered me thus, saying that they had their knowledge by inquiries from Menelaos himself. After the rape of Helen there came indeed, they said, to the Teucrian land a large army of Hellenes to help Menelaos; and when the army had come out of the ships to land and had pitched its camp there, they sent messengers to Ilion, with whom went also Menelaos himself; and when these entered within the wall they demanded back Helen and the wealth

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which Alexander had stolen from Menelaos and had taken away; and moreover they demanded satisfaction for the wrongs done: and the Teucrians told the same tale then and afterwards, both with oath and without oath, namely that in deed and in truth they had not Helen nor the wealth for which demand was made, but that both were in Egypt; and that they could not justly be compelled to give satisfaction for that which Proteus the king of Egypt had. The Hellenes however thought that they were being mocked by them and besieged the city, until at last they took it; and when they had taken the wall and did not find Helen, but heard the same tale as before, then they believed the former tale and sent Menelaos himself to Proteus.

Why did the Greeks have trouble finding Troy? Who did they really attack? According to Herodotus, the Greeks had trouble finding Troy, which seems to exclude Hisarlik as the location for Troy, since that location would easily have been known to them, being in their own back yard. The legend relates that the Greek warships in pursuit of Helen and Paris Initially and mistakenly attacked the people called the Teuthranians (We think this was the Tyranians, the people of Tyre near Sidon) who claimed that Helen was not in their land and put up fierce resistance inflicting serious losses on the Greeks. Tye would in that case be the origin of the later name Troy, which became confused historically by the ancient writers with Ilium (Elam) the actual location of Helen and Paris. Queen Nitokris and Crete In addition to the above connections of Helen of Troy and other essential historical personages to Mycenae and Crete by legend, there is also a potential linguistic connection to Crete in the name of Queen Nitokris. The Egyptian Queen Nitokris, according to current scholarship is regarded to be a different Queen than the “Babylonian: Elamite Queen Nitokris but we leave a discussion of whether there were separate Queens or not to a later date, since this is a question of chronology and other matters too broad to discuss here. In the Mycenean context here; it is important to note that Nitokris is read Neit-krety in Egyptology and would in fact thus be read as “goddess (or woman) of Crete “. In very archaic Indo-European (e.g., Latvian) the term meita is similar to neit viz. neith and means simply “girl” or “woman”.

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So that the original meaning of Neit-krety might simply have been “girl fom Crete.” Sais in Egypt was thus The Temple of Neith and the similarly named Susa was the city of the Queen from Crete, but that could also be Clymene rather than Helen of Troy, whose husband hailed from Crete.

Queen Napirasu of Elam Helen of Troy (or, also possibly, Clymene) was conceivably Queen Napirasu, wife of King Untash-Napirisha (either King Labynetus or King Naublius) of Elam, whereby the similar name Na-piris-ha, could be the Paris of ancient Grrek legend who eloped with Helen – or in the alternative – Napirisha could Be the name equivalent to Naublium, but of course, this is all speculative right now. A statue of Queen Napirasu, unique for its time, composed of 3760 pounds of bronze and copper was found in Susa, Elam and is today, perhaps fittingly for its namesake, a part of the Iran collection in the Louvre in the city of Paris, France. In that the statue we thus see Helen of Troy, or Clymene is the life-size statue of Queen Napirasu.

ARCHAIC GREEK (ACHAEANS – PELASGIANS – THE EARLY SETTLERS)

The Akhaians (Achaians/Achaeans) and Dorians were Greeks; the Akhaians had established themselves in the Knossos area by the 14th century BCE and the Dorians may well have made there way there also by the 13th century BCE. Ancient tradition generally linked the Pelasgians with the Etruscans, Tyrrhenians and Lydians and placed them in the northen part of the Aegean area. A characteristic Pelasgian place-name is 'Laris(s)a' and this is attested as the earlier name of Gortyn in Crete and in the area of Hierapytna, thus lending credence to the veracity of Homer's list. Whether the Pelasgians had migrated there from the northern Aegeean area before the arrival the Greeks or whether they followed the Greeks, we cannot tell.

Indigenous People - The Kydones That the Kydones inhabited the western part of the island seems confirmed by the name the Greeks gave to the ancient city on the site of the modern Khaniá, namely ȀȣįȦȞȓĮ (Kydonia), i.e. ‫ ۏ‬ȀȣįȦȞȓĮ ʌȩȜȚȢ (the Kydonese city). Minoan remains have been found at ancient Kydonia which date back at least to the 2nd millennium BC and, indeed, archaeological evidence shows that the Akrotiri peninsula was well populated in the late Bronze age. The Eteocretan inscriptions, however, all come from the eastern part of the island. The Eteocretans, on the other hand, were traditionally associated with Prasos or, as it was more commonly known, Praisos in the eastern part of Crete. ȆȡĮȚıȩȢǜ ʌȩȜȚȢ ȀȡȒIJȘȢ, șȘȜȣț‫ޒ‬Ȣ. IJ‫ۂ ܞ‬șȞȚț‫ܞ‬Ȟ ȆȡĮȓıȚȠȢ țĮ‫ܜ‬ ȆȡĮȚıİȪȢ. Praisos: a city of Crete, feminine. The ethnicon is 'Praisios' and 'Praiseus'. Stephen of Byzantion (entry in lexicon). Praisos is the name found in insciptions and on coins. Willamowitz (Hermes, 40, 1905, page 151 sq.) suspects Ȇȡ‫ݙ‬ıȠȢ ĸ *Ȇȡ‫ݚ‬ıȠȢ ĸ

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ȆȡĮ‫ݶ‬ıȠȢ, showing the normal Greek development of the "long diphthong" [a:i] to simple long vowel [a:]. Whether the ancient accentuation should be ȆȡĮ‫ݶ‬ıȠȢ or ȆȡĮȚıȩȢ is not certain.The place name is not of Greek origin. It possibly shows the same formative suffix -isos found in Cretan non-Greek feminine place-name Tylisos. Ancient Praisos was near the modern Cretan village of Praisós, which adopted the ancient name in 1956, being called Vavéli before that date. As at least half the known inscriptions are from Praisos, it seems reasonable to assume that the language is, indeed, that of the Eteocretans.

Archaric Cretan Greek Alphabet (Semetic Influences) Those who study scripts and forms of writing often distinguish between: an "abjad" [Arabic: 䁑ab䁡 䁡ad, being a vocalization of 䁑-b-䁡 䁡-d, the first four letters of the old Semitic script in the modern Arabic pronunciation11] whose letters denote consonants only; an "alphabet" [Greek: ‫ڲ‬ȜijȐȕȘIJȠȞ (alpȸabƝton) ĸ ‫ڶ‬ȜijĮ /a/ + ȕ‫ݨ‬IJĮ /b/] whose letters denote both consonants and vowels. The ancient Semitic abjad consisted of 22 letters, each representing a consonant value. Their order appears to have been fixed at a very early date; and the modern Hebrew script still contains only 22 letters, preserved exactly in the old Semitic order. However, the ancient Semitic names, from which most of the Greek names ultimately derive, are not preserved. Semitic names are known to us only from very late sources. The earliest are from rabbinical texts and from the Septuagint Greek transcription of names before the alphabetically arranged verses of Jeremiah's Lamentations. The Syriac names are very similar. Many of the Ethiopic names differ considerably. The Arabic names, although derived from older Semitic forms, are considerably shortened and some have clearly been remodelled. In short, the ancient names, are now lost. By comparing the names of the letters handed down in the various Semitic languages, T. Nöldeke (Beiträge zur semitischen Sprachwissenschaft, 1904, pp. 133 sq.) tried to arrive at the earliest forms. It is these names which I use in these pages, thus: ‫ݠ‬alf, bƝt, gaml, delt, hƝ, wau, zai, ‫ف‬Ɲt, ‫ډ‬Ɲt, jǀd, kaf, lamd, mƝm, nnjn, semk, ‫ޚ‬ain, pƝ, ‫ٿ‬ƗdƝ, 11

The Arabic abjad has extended the original Semitic abjad of 22 letters to 28 and considerably re-arranged the order of letters. Recollections of the older system is still preserved in the numeric values attached to letters and, as here, in the word 䁑ab䁡 䁡ad.

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qǀf, rǀš, šƯn, tau Note: 'j' is used with its Italo-Germanic value, i.e. IPA /j/, as in "hallelujah". From Phoenicia to Greece (from abjad to alphabet) At sometime in the early years of the 2nd millennium before the the 8th century BCE, the 22 letter Phoenician abjad came to be used to spell Greek and, in the process, became an alphabet. It is most likely to have happened in bilingual trading communities and, indeed, the first to write Greek in Phoenician letters may well have been Phoenician scribes. One such place was certainly Crete. One extra letter The most ancient Greek alphabets were content merely to add just one more letter to the Phoenician abjad by, in fact, deriving two letters from the one Phoenician letter wau, namely

, which retained its original

position as the 6th letter and denoted the consonant /w/, and

, which

took up the 23rd position and denoted the vowels /u/ and /uɏɏ/. 'Matres lectionis' Although the Semitic letters originally all denoted consonant sounds, early on the need was felt, at least where a long vowel had developed following the loss of a final consonant, to preserve the consonant letter as an indication of the vowel. A letter used this way is traditionally termed a mater lectionis "reading mother". The letters most often occurring as matres lectionis were ‫ݠ‬alf, wau and jǀd indicating /aɏɏ/, /uɏɏ/ and /iɏɏ/ respectively. We have seen that wau became two letters, one to denote the consonant /w/ and the other the vowel /u(ɏɏ)/. As Greek did not have phonemic /䁑䁑/ or /j/, ‫ݠ‬alf and jǀd simply aquired the vowel sounds /a/ and /i/ respectively. Indeed, it is unlikely that the Greeks even "heard" /䁑䁑/ and /j/, the consonant values of ‫ݠ‬alf and jǀd, as distinct phonemes. Glottal and pharyngeal consonants Greek did not have the range of glottal and pharyngeal sounds that the Semitic languages had; indeed, while the ancient Semitic abjad had letters for four such sounds, some Greeks had only one and others had none! It is unlikely that the Greeks heard the differences as different sounds and in using them as vowels probably thought they were more or less following

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Phoenician usage. Indeed, there is evidence most may have already functioned as matres lectionis in Semitic usage. The four are: whose sound was /䁑䁑/ voiceless glottal plosive). This is dealt ‫ݠ‬alf with in the previous paragraph. hƝ whose sound was /h/ (voiceless glottal fricative). This is used in some early Hebrew texts as a mater lectionis. Its name was obviously heard simply as [e] and that was the name the early Greeks gave the letter*. They used it to represent /e/, /e/ and, in some dialects, /䀘䀘/ also. * The name ‫ۆ‬ȥȚȜȠȞ (epsilon) is a much later invention. ‫ޚ‬ain O whose sound was /䁒䁒/ (voiced pharyngeal fricative). There is no reason to suppose the ancient Greeks heard this as a distinct sound any more than most anglophones do today. It was used in the archaic Greek alphabets for both /o// as well as /䀑 䀑/. According to Hans Jensen (Sign Symbol and Script, London, 1970, p. 457), Hans Bauer, one of the early decipherers of the Ugaritic script, has pointed out that in the Ugaritic cuneiform abjad, ‫ޚ‬ain was apparently used as a mater lectionis for /o/. whose sound was /ƫ/ (voiceless pharyngeal fricative). ‫ف‬Ɲt Speakers of western Greek and other dialects, which retained the ancient Greek /h/, used this letter for their /h/, calling it "hƝta". But those dialects, such as most of the Ionian dialects and Cretan Doric, that "dropped their aitches" simply called it "Ɲta"and used it from the start to denote the long low-mid vowel /䀘䀘/. This was always the usage in the archaic Cretan alphabets. The 'emphatic' plosives. The old Semitic adjad contained two so-called 'emphatic' plosive consonants: ‫ډ‬Ɲt whose sound is coventionally transcribed as ‫ ډ‬and was probably pronounced /tߊ/ (a velarized or phayngealized t). This was used in the archaic Greek alphabets and all later alphabets, simplified as Ĭ, to denote /tȸȸ/. This is found in the archaic Greek inscriptions at Dreros. It has not been found in any extant Eteocretan texts written in the archaic alphabet. qǀf ࠘ whose sound was /q/. In the earliet Greek inscriptions, Ȁ was used before Į, İ and Ț, and ࠘ before Ƞ and ȣ. But usage varied considerably in local alphabets; eventually ࠘ was dropped everywhere, Ȁ being used exclusively. It lived on, however, as a numeral for 90 and as Q in the Roman alphabet. It is not found in the archaic Dreros and Praisos inscriptions. The sibilants.

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Greek also did not have the range of sibilant consonants that the Semitic languages had, and the use and naming of these consonants shows confusion on the part of the Greeks. The old Phoenician alphabet has four sibilants: whose sound was /z/. It was used from the start to represent a zai sound which varied in the Greek dialects thus: [dd]~ [zd] ~ [zz] semk

whose sound was /s/. It is found in some of the archaic

. It was later used in eastern alphabets as an alternative way of writing Ionian alphabets to denote /ks/, but this usage is not attested in any of the archaic alphabets nor known in the alphabets of the western Greeks. whose sound was probably /s/ (velarized or pharyngealized s, ‫ٿ‬ƗdƝ i.e. "emphatic" s). This was used in Crete, Thera, Melos, Sikinos, Corinth, Korkyra (Corcyra, Corfu), Sikyon, Argolis and Lokris to denote Greek /s/. The Doric name ıȐȞ (san) suggests a conflation of the Semitc ‫ٿ‬ƗdƝ and šƯn. is Normally, where this sign was adopted, šƯn was simply not used. regularly used to denote /s/ in the archaic inscriptions at Dreros and Praisos. šƯn Ȉ or ˿ whose sound was /䁀 䁀/. This was used in Athens, Euboia, Elis, Lakonia and generally in the later western and eastern Greek alphabets for is not found; but, according to C.D. /s/. Where Ȉ is used, generally Buck (The Greek Dialects, Chicago, 1955, p.349) both letters have been found at Argolis and Lokris. The Greek name ıȓȖȝĮ or ı‫ݶ‬ȖȝĮ (both accentuations are found in codices) seems to be a conflation of Semitic semk and šƯn. The reasons for the confusion of names and distribution of this and the previous letter are unclear. The letter is not used in archaic Cretan alphabets.

THE LEMNOS STELE

The Lemnos Stele - in 1885 a stone stele was discovered near the village of Kaminia on the Greek island of Lemnos. It is written in a western Greek alphabet and in language which appears to be akin to, though not the same as Etruscan. It is dated to the late 6th century BCE and is probably a funerary inscription. The Lemnian language is the language of a 6th century BC inscription found on a funerary stela on the island of Lemnos termed the Lemnos stele, discovered in 1885 near Kaminia. The inscriptions are in an alphabet similar to that used to write the Etruscan language and the older Phrygian inscriptions, all derived from Euboean scripts (Western Greek alphabet, alphabets of Asia Minor). These scripts are ultimately of West Semitic origin and were adapted by various peoples from the 8th century. Characters similar to those used in Lemnos Stele inscription are also found on some pottery fragments on Lemnos.

Courtesy of R.A.Brown, M.Litt

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Enlarged Example of Text from the Stele

Dieter H. Steinbauer, Neues Handbuch des Etruskischen 1999, pages 357-366. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/ ll text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

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The Lemnos stela The stela was found built into a church wall in Kaminia and is now at the National Museum, Athens. The 6th-century date is based on the fact that in 510 BC the Athenian Miltiades invaded Lemnos and Hellenized it. The stele bears a low-relief bust of a helmeted man and is inscribed in an alphabet similar to the western ("Chalcidian") Greek alphabet. The inscription is in Boustrophedon style, and has been transliterated but had not been successfully translated until serious linguistic analysis based on comparisons with Etruscan, combined with breakthroughs in Etruscan's own translation started to yield fruit. The inscription consists of 198 characters forming 33 to 40 words, word separation sometimes indicated with one to three dots. The text consists of three parts, two written vertically and one horizontally. Comprehensible is the phrase avis sialchvis ("aged sixty", B.3), reminiscent of Etruscan avils maȤs ĞealȤisc ("and aged sixty-five"). Transcription: front: A.1. hulaieš:naijuș:šiaši A.2. maraš:mav A.3. sialȤveiš:aviš A.4. evisșu:šerunaiș A.5. šivai A.6. aker:tavaršiu A.7. vanalasial:šerunai:murinaic side: B.1. hulaieši:ijukiasiale:šerunaiș:evisșu:tuveruna B.2. rum:haraliu:šivai:eptešiu:arai:tiš:ijuke B.3. šivai:aviš:sialȤviš:marašm:aviš:aumai Dieter H. Steinbauer, Neues Handbuch des Etruskischen 1999, pages 357-366. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/ ll text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

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Translation of the Lemnos Stele In order to properly translate the stele, one must sift through a sea of hearsay and speculation that abounds about this cloudy text. Some words attract an especially inordinate amount of controversy, yielding multiple and conflicting translations for the same word. We need to obtain a more accurate picture of what this text is telling us. The only way to do this is through a balanced analysis of the smallest details while keeping sight of the larger context at the same time. Let's undo some of the myths that continue to rear their ugly head. No, is not a numeral one of these overly debated words is . The word is seen in A.2 and assumed by some to be part of a phrase identifying the age of a deceased person with further comparison to Etruscan . Thus is often translated as "five" with slight resemblance to Etruscan 'five' and 'fifty'. However this is certainly false because the age is repeated twice in the text, once on line A.3 and another on B.3 where is nowhere to be seen. Unable to accept this fact, some further imagine that must be a scribal error for *mavašm. Again, however this is unlikely because the so-called error is repeated twice ( on line A.2). More likely is that a would-be translator has fallen prey to his or her own imagination without paying proper attention to these important text patterns. Whatever the value of really is, it is certainly not a number. The value of Most have already seen that is surely relatable to well attested phrases in Etruscan, most notably 'lived 76 years' (inscription known as TLE 880). Since is without a doubt 'to die' in Etruscan, there is strong likelihood that Lemnian šivai means 'died' and thus the person to whom this stele is dedicated had died at the age of 60. But who then was this person? The name of the person to whom this was dedicated. As one would expect, the person being celebrated is very likely at the beginning of the text on A.1 () with a genitive suffix -š attached, meaning 'of' as it does in Etruscan. The name is repeated again at the very beginning of line B.1 () with a dative suffix -ši meaning "to" or "for", which is again comparable to Etruscan . Immediately after we find with another recognizable dative suffix from Etruscan, ale. Thus the name of the person deceased is most likely Hulaie Phukiasi. Both the first and last names are given the dative suffix on line B.2. This may seem odd to English speakers, but this is the pattern we see also in Etruscan -- means 'I am of Laris Meminiie', not 'I am of Laris of Meminiie', written on a cup in Campania (ETP 30). So this

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last name on the stele is then further compared with (line B.2) presumed to mean Phocaea, an important region in Asia Minor in those times. This suggests that he was Phocaean, and thus called literally Hulaie the Phocaean. Suffixes & The comparison between the instances of both and helps us to properly identify a suffix -m which when compared to Etruscan is the phrasal conjunctive meaning 'and'. A phrasal conjunctive is a suffix used specifically to link two sentences together. An example of phrasal conjunction is "I went to school and I listened to the teacher". In Etruscan, phrasal conjunction is distinguished from nominal conjunction (eg: "both the father and the mother", Pillar of the tomb of Claudii in Cerveteri, 4th c.BC) where two nouns, not two phrases, are linked with another suffix, . Surprisingly, we see that in Lemnian -c may indeed be also used as a second conjunction suffix (note line A.7 ) Is Hulaie's age "60" or "40"? Another important controversy involves the value of itself. Some say it's 'of 60'; some say it's 'of 40'. This confusion stems from the interpretation, or rather misinterpretation, of the Tartaria dice, an important Etruscan find. On the dice we find the numbers '1' to '6' just as we find on modern dice, except they have been kindly written out in letters for us by the person who made them long ago. Many presume that the pattern of the numbers as they are arranged on the six sides of the dice is such that the value for each side when added to the value on the opposite side equals sevenAssuming this pattern is real for a moment, if we find on one side and on the other, and if we are certain from other texts that is "three", then must be "four" since 3 + 4 = 7. Unfortunately, these are only assumptions based on even more assumptions. Other Etruscan dice have been found which do not show the same pattern. We can't assume. For all we know the Tartaria dice could in fact show another equally valid pattern: Maybe all the sides when subtracted give three (eg: "six" minus "three" perhaps). Also, based on the first pattern, if is really "four", must be "six" but it is known that the pre-Greek name of Tetrapolis (meaning 'Four-cities' in Greek) was "Yttenia", thought to be a Tyrrhenian name containing the numeral and dating to a time when Etruscans were still in Asia Minor and the Aegean islands (nb. Herodotus' account in Histories). Thus some insist the opposite, that means "four" and means "six". Which value should we give this number?

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Some common sense is in order by directing our attention to the phrase . Since Etruscan is known to mean 'grandson', it stands to reason that Hulaie is a grandfather. If he were truly '40', we can't explain the mention of his grandson here who is surely old enough to have participated in the funeral to have special mention! Further while there was much hardship in ancient times, nobility were known to live much longer than common folk. Forty would still be a little young for someone with enough money to erect a stele with his name on it. So in all, it's likelier that Hulaie was in fact sixty at the time of his death, meaning that has the value of 'of 60' and that Etruscan must mean "six". The Lemnos Stele The inscription is in two parts and reads: Direction of writing

In standard Greek script

ĸ ĸ ĺ ĸ ĺ ĸ ĸ

A. The front of the stele hȠȜĮȚİȗ:ȞĮijȠș:ȗȚĮȗȚ ȝĮȡĮȗ:ȝĮࠝ ıȚĮȜȤࠝİȚȗ:ĮࠝȚȗ İࠝȚıșȠ:ȗİȡȠȞĮȚș ȗȚࠝĮȚ Įțİȡ:IJĮࠝĮȡȗȚȠ ࠝĮȞĮȜĮıȚĮȜ:ȗİȡȠȞĮȚ:ȝȠȡȚȞĮȚȜ

ĸ ĸ ĺ

B. The side of the stele hȠȜĮȚİȗȚijȠțȚĮıȚĮȜİ:ȗİȡȠȞĮȚș:İࠝȚıșȠ:IJȠࠝİȡȠȞĮ ȡȠȝ:hĮȡĮȜȚȠ:ȗȚࠝĮȚ:İʌIJİȗȚȠ:ĮȡĮȚ:IJȚȗ:ijȠțİ ȗȚࠝĮȚ:ĮࠝȚȗ:ıȚĮȜȤࠝȚȗ:ȝĮȡĮȗȝ:ĮࠝȚȗ:ĮȠȝĮȚ

268

Direction of writing ĸ ĸ ĺ ĸ ĺ ĸ ĸ

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In modern Roman script12 A. The front of the stele holaiez:naijoș:ziazi maraz:maw sialȤweiz:awiz ewisșo:zeronaiș ziwai aker:tawarzio wanalasial:zeronai:morinail B. The side of the stele holaiezi:ijokiasiale:zeronaiș:ewisșo:towerona rom:haralio:ziwai:eptezio:arai:tiz:ijoke ziwai:awiz:sialȤwiz:marazm:awiz:aomai

The Lemnos Stele - Order of Rows (Table) The order of the rows is uncertain. J. Friedrich in "Kleinasiatische Sprachdenkmäler" (Berlin, 1932) lists the orders given by other scholars. He himself adopts the order given by Nachmanson (1908). I list these below with the addition of N. Pallottino in "L'origine degli Etruschi" (Rome 1947) 12

In accordance with common convention in the transcription of Etruscan, the symbols ș, ij and Ȥ are used to represent aspirated voicless plosives: [tȸ], [pȸ] and [kȸ] respectively. However I have departed slightly from normal Etruscan transcription in that /k/ is represented by k (rather than c) and /w/ is represented by w (rather than v).

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Front of the stele

Side

Order adopted above

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 2 3

Bréal (1886), Bugge (1886), Torp (1903)

1/2 3

4

5

6

8

7

1 2 3

Corsten (1930)

1

5

4

3

2

7

6

1 2 3

Dee (1886)

1/5 4

3

2

8

7

6

1 2 3

Friedrich (1932), Nachmanson (1908)

(a) (b) 1 (b) 2 (b) 3 (b) 4 (c) 1 (c) 2 1 2 3

Hammarström (1926 & 1928)

7

Kretschmer (1929), Pauli (1886 I & 1894)

1

2

3

4

5

6

3 2 1

II4

II3

II1

II1

III2 III1 1 2 3

Lattes (1894)

1/2 5

4

3

9

6/7

8

1 2 3

Pollottino (1947)

1

4

2

3

6

7

1 2 3

5

Analysis of the text (by R.A.Brown, Mlitt.) Comments It will be seen that the text contains no voiced plosives, but it does show a sries of unaspirated voiceless plosives and of aspirated voiceless plosives which is exactly what we find in Etruscan. Furthermore, only four vowels are attested: a, e, i and o. Etruscan also has only four vowels: a, e, i and u. If the Lemnian language is related to Etruscan, then clearly Lemnian o will correspond to Etruscan u. We do not know what sound z denoted in either language; possibly it was some sort of voiceless affricate such as [䁣] or [䁤].

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Line A1 We possibly have here the name of the dead person, Holaie; it has been suggested that this name might be the same as the proper name ‫܂‬ȜĮ‫ݶ‬ȠȢ found in several Greek inscriptions from Central Greece, Macedonia and North Black Sea (e.g. IG IV 732, 28; IG V,2 11, 17-18; FD III 2:86, 9, etc.). This is followed by a term of relationship naijoș, cf. Etruscan napti ~ nefts "grandson". The case ending -z or -zi appears to be a genitive or dative, cf. Etruscan -s, -si. Thus we may tentatively read: "To Holaie grandson of Zia". Line A2 maraz is possibly akin to Etruscan maru (but see the note below), the title of a magistracy which appears in Latin as maro and Umbrian as maron-, i.e. this denotes Holaie's rank. The second word maw is unknown to me. Line A3 sialȤweiz awiz is strongly reminiscent of Etruscan sealȤls avils "forty years" or, according to others, "60 years"; Line A4 ewisșo is a mystery. But both zeronaiș in this line and zeonai in Line A7 seem to have locative endings, cf. Etruscan -i, -iș. It possibly refers to the tomb, cf Etruscan zeri- "sacred act, rite, sacred thing". If this so, then zerona- will have been formed from zer- by adding the formative suffix ona- = Etruscan -una-, cf. Pupluna "Populonia" [name of town], aisunaetc. Thus zeronai may mean "in the tomb". Line A5 ziwai recalls Etruscan ziva- "dead".; see also Line B3. Line A6 I can offer no suggestions for this line. Line A7 The meaning of the first word is unknown; but its ending -asial, and that of morinail may be cognate with Etruscan endings -ale, -asial., which are used particularly in the onomastic field, cf. Larșiale, Helvasial etc. It is possible that morin- refers to the Lemnian city of ȂȣȡȓȞȘ. (MurinƝ). For zeronai, see Line A4 above. More recently Glen Gordon has proposed a different interpretation of this line on his Paleoglot blogspot. Also he and others have suggested that

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the mor- of morinail may be related to an Etruscan root *mur- which some give as "(to) die" and others as "(to) stay." Line B1 The words holaiezi and zeronaiș have already been discussed in Lines A1 and A4 respectively. We possibily have the onomastic formative -asial(e) in ijokiasiale which may mean something like " from Phokaia" (on the coast of Asia Minor). We have once more the unknown word ewisșo which we had in Line A4. Also towerona remains a mystery, though it may contain the formative affix -ona. Line B2 Most of this line remains a mystery to me. But we do have ziwai "dead?" (see Line A5). We may have another reference to Phokaia in the last word ijoke. Line B3 The phrase ziwai awiz sialȤwiz is very reminiscent of Etruscan formulae such as avils cealȤls lupu "years thirty dead" (that is: died when he was thirty) and lupum maȤs ĞealȤlsc "... and-dead years five forty/sixty" (and he died when he was forty five [or sixty five]). So the opening three words are probably telling us that Holaie died when he was forty or sixty. The word marazm is the maraz of Line A2 with the enclitic -m "and" which is also found in Etruscan and used like the Latin -que So Holaie was forty when he died and had been maraz for ?? years or for just a year. The last word unknown to me. So it would seem we have an inscription in a language akin to Etruscan which, perhaps, tells us that Holaie, the grandson of Zia, died at the age of (40 or 60), having held the rank of maraz for at least a year, and that, possibly, he came from Phokaia and now lies in his tomb in Murine.

Eteocretan Language A language believed to be descended from a language used in Linear A tablets. It appears to be a non-Indo European or pre-Indo European language. The late Professor Cyrus Gordon, known for his work on Ugaritic, argued that it was a Semetic language closely related to Phoenician. Unfortunately His deciphements have been proven to be inaccurate. A realation to Luwian an Anatolian language belonging to the Indo-european Family has also been suggested.

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Writing system The inscriptions are in an alphabet similar to that used to write the Etruscan language and the older Phrygian inscriptions, all derived from Euboean scripts (Western Greek alphabet, alphabets of Asia Minor). These scripts are ultimately of West Semitic origin and were adapted by various peoples from the 8th century. Characters similar to those used in Lemnos Stele inscription are also found on some pottery fragments on Lemnos.

Lemnian and Etruscan – Relationship with Lemnian (Tyrrhenian Grouping) A relationship between Lemnian and Etruscan, sometimes grouped together as Tyrrhenian or Aegean languages is largely accepted because of the strong connections between vocabulary and grammar. For example, both Etruscan and Lemnian share two unique dative cases, masculine *-si and feminine-collective *-ale, shown both on the Lemnos Stele (Hulaie-ši "for Hulaie", ĭukiasi-ale "for the Phocaean") and in inscriptions written in Etruscan (aule-si "To Aule" on the Cippus Perusinus as well as the inscription mi mulu Laris-ale VelȤaina-si "I was blessed for Laris Velchaina"). They also share the masculine genitive in *-s and a simple past tense in *-a-i (Etruscan as in ame "was" (< *amai); Lemnian as in šivai "lived"). Such strong evidence such as this provides little doubt of their true kinship. Like Etruscan, the Lemnian language appears to have had a four-vowel system consisting of "i", "u", "a" and "e". Having a contrast between front and back vowels, it would appear to lack a high back vowel (a "u"-like sound) which is curious because this defies the linguistic universal of contrast maximization. Since vowel systems such as these without "u" are rare, it is strongly likely that what we transliterate as "o" from the symbol omikron was in fact meant to record a high, back, rounded vowel instead (written in IPA as /u/). This is not unusual considering that different languages may take the same letter to transcribe different sounds. Note for example how "u" in English is used to write a front vowel in French muet, a sound that does not exist in standard English. Note also that in English, the "o" may also denote /u/, e.g. in the word "to". Also, there is the argument concerning the origin of Tyrrhenians in general. If it is true that they originate from Lydia, it is rather coincidental that the languages neighbouring this region, namely Hittite and Akkadian, also happen to have the same four-vowel systems lacking "o". This suggests early areal influence.

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Eteocypriot, Eteocretan Beyond Etruscan and Rhaetian, further relationships to Lemnian become more tentative and highly debated. There is a possible affiliation of Eteocypriot to the above Tyrrhenian grouping. Texts in Eteocypriot (few are known, making it difficult to determine language affinity) have been found in the vicinity of the Lemnian language sphere, amidst the Aegean islands. Debate continues on concerning the relationship of Eteocypriot, Eteocretan and Minoan to this family. The Amathus bilingual written in Eteocretan shows important structural similarities bearing what appears to be a genitive in -O-SE (Etruscan and Lemnian ) as well as a 3ps animate pronoun A-NA (Etruscan 'he, she'). The meager text however makes it difficult to prove a kinship for certain. Eteocretan likewise shows grammatical similarities and vocabulary terms but again the number of texts are meager. Since Minoan texts are also few and far between, any grammatical similarities with Etruscan are always tentative. However it has been noted by some online that the oft-repeated Minoan U-NA-KA-NA-SI and U-NA-RU-KA-NA-SI may bear resemblance to what would be written in Etruscan as *unȤva cenase "bearing libations" which is surprisingly reasonable considering that the objects on which this is consistently written are in fact libation tables. (The value of as 'libation' is proven by its repeated usage in the Liber Linteus.) Time will tell whether these connections bear fruit. Dieter H. Steinbauer, Neues Handbuch des Etruskischen 1999, pages 357-366. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/ ll text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

Indo- European Scholars now generally agree that these Tyrrhenian languages are not members of the Indo-European family and any connections with the Anatolian languages in particular are probably due to areal influence at best. At the present time without strong evidence one way or another, most academics remain conservative about external connections and consider Tyrrhenian, however it may be eventually defined, an isolate family. Some modern scholars have claimed that the Tyrrhenian family as a whole is distantly related to the Indo-European languages (IE), citing similarities in grammatical endings and vocabulary. With the paucity of complete texts, this is merely conjecture at present. For now, many remain

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conservative and consider Tyrrhenian to be an isolate group. A connection with IE is merely one of the strongest possibilities so far but not proven satisfactorily. Some contend that the and genitival endings seen in Tyrrhenian languages are evidence of substrate influence from the Anatolian languages (which are part of the Indo-European family), acquired during a time when Tyrrhenian languages were still centered around Asia Minor. Classical sources The ancient Greek historian Herodotus referred to the pre-Greek population of Lemnos as the ȆİȜĮıȖȠȚ 'Pelasgoi' (see Pelasgian). However, Herodotus may well have incorrectly lumped two distinct nonGreek peoples together. According to other authors like Thucydides, the pre-Greek population of Lemnos were called ȉȣȡıİȞȠȚ 'Tyrsenoi' (alternatively, Tyrrhenoi) (see Tyrrhenian). In his Natural History (1st century AD), Pliny wrote about Alpine peoples: "The Rhaetians and the Vindelicans border with these [Noricans], all distributed in numerous cities. The Gauls maintain that the Raetians descend from the Etruscans, pushed back under the leadership of Raetus." Based on this and linguistic data it's clear that Etruscan ought to be related to Raetic. However, beyond these known facts, there is ample debate and hearsay that follows. The Eteocretan Texts There are at least five Eteocretan inscriptions: two from Dreros and three from Praisos. In addition, there are some other inscriptions which may be Eteocretan. Of all these inscriptions, at least three are written in varieties of the local archaic Cretan Greek alphabet. The later inscriptions use the Ioanian Greek alphabet in the form adopted in 5th century BCE Athens which subsequently became the common Greek alphabet. Each inscription is transcribed in both the common Greek alphabet, since they were written in Greek alphabets, and the modern Roman script for those less familiar with Greek. In addition, various other marks are used to indicate damaged letters, missing letters and blanks or spaces.

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The Texts Note: the spelling of Greek place names vary in different publications. These spellings are based on Greek spelling; some use Latinized spellings in the ancient Roman manner; others use spellings based on modern Greek pronunciation. Dieter H. Steinbauer, Neues Handbuch des Etruskischen 1999, pages 357-366. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/ ll text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

DREROS

Dreros is located in northern Crete in the Mirabello Disrict. It is a postMinonan Archeological site. Dreros was founded in the Geometric period and was mentioned by Theognostus (Deorthographia) a ninth-century grammarian. The site was first excavated in 1917 by S.Xanthoudides. Later in 1935 by Spiros Marinates. It was most prosperous in the 8th – 6th centuries BCE. Inscriptions from Dreros indicate that it was destroyed by enemies from Lyttos (another Cretan City State) in the late third century BCE. The Delphinium at Dreros was dedicated to Apollo-Delphinius. Items found in the Temple (c.a., 650 BCE) were statuettes of Apollo, Leto and Artemis. They were made of sheet bronze, hammered over wooden cores. A group of Archaic inscriptions were found in a fill of a later Hellenistic cistern. Source; PECS 283-284 Leekley and Noyes -1975 -56, Rossiter -1977, 733.

Early Political Office Reference From a Tablet inscription An brief excerpt from an interesting observation in reference to the duties of office as they relate to a Magistrate The Law of Dreros on Crete (650-600 BC) Fornara No. 11 Probably the earliest surviving Greek law. “May God be kind (?). This has been decided by the city: When a man has been Kosmos, for ten years that s|ame man shall not be Kosmos. If he should become Kosmos, whatever judgments he gives, he himself shall owe double, and he | shall be useless as long as he lives, and what he does as Kosmos shall be as nothing. vv | The swearers (to this shall be) the Kosmos, the Demioi and the Twenty of the city. Notes: Kosmos = chief magistrate. (The Demioi and the Twenty are not known.) Source; University of Texas (Palaima)

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Tablets (DREROS #1) These, which appear to have been bilinguals, were found, together with six others all in Greek, in the western part of the large hellenistic cistern next to the east wall of the Delphinion (temple of Apollo Delphinios) in Dreros, at a depth between 3 to 4 metres. The texts give official religious and political decisions and probably came from the east wall of the Delphinion; they were published by Henri van Effenterre in 1937 and 1946 and were kept in the museum at Neapolis. It is thought that the bilinguals were lost during the Italo-German occupation of the island in WWII and still remain lost. From the Delphinion at Dreros – (Dreros #1: late 7th or early 6th century BCE)

Dimensions: width 750 mm; height 260 mm; thickness 245 mm.Transcription

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DREROS # 1 – Transcription (a ) In standard Greek script

Direction of writing

1. 2.

--.ȡȝĮ˾ ˾|İIJ|ȚıĮȜĮȡȕİ_ҕțȠȝȞ ĸ --.į|ȝİȞ|ȚȞĮȚ|ȚıĮȜȣȡȚĮ|ȜȝȠ vac. ĸ

3. 4. 5.

--..IJȠȞIJȣȡȠȞȝȘĮ.ȠĮȠȚİ˾ ˾Įį İIJȣȡȠ...ȝҕȣȞĮ.ȠĮ.İȞȘҕ---ȝĮIJȡȚIJĮȚĮ--

(b) In modern Roman script 1. 2.

--.rmaw|et|isalabre_ҕkomn --.d|men|inai|isaluria|lmo vac.

3. 4. 5.

--..tonturonmƝa.oaoiewad eturo...Pҕuna.oa.enƝҕ---matritaia--

ĸ ĺ ĸ Direction of writing ĸ ĸ ĸ ĺ ĸ

Text A (first two lines): has deeply engraved characters in an archaic Cretan alphabet; has both lines are written sinistrorsely, in the Semitic fashion, as all writing was in the very earliest Greek inscriptions (This inscription is from 7th century BC); uses a vertical bar as a word divider. Text B (last three lines): has much less deeply engraved letters which are, therefore, less well preserved are boustrophedon, with first and third lines being sinistrorse and second line dextrorse in the usual Greek manner of the late 7th and early 6th centuries uses no word division. This inscription was found in autumn of 1936 by P. Demargne and H. van Effenterre in the western part of the large Hellenistic cistern next to the east wall of the Delphinion (temple of Apollo Delphinios) in Dreros, at

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a depth between 3 to 4 metres. It probably came from the east wall of the Delphinion where seven other texts giving official religious and political decisions were found. It was published by Henri van Effenterre in Revue de Philologie, 3rd series, Volume XX, Fascicule II, 1946 (Paris), pages 131 seqq. According to the publication, this is a block of grey schist, complete except on the right where a fragment of the inscribed surface has been detached by chipping; the missing fragment probably contained several letters in each line. Before World War II it was kept in the museum at Neapolis in eastern Crete. Regretably it was lost during the Germano-Italian occupation of the island.

DREROS #2 Dreros #2: late 7th or early 6th century BCE This inscription, from the Delphinion in Dreros, was published by Henri van effenterre in Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 70 , 1946 (Paris), pages 602 & 603. According to the publication, this is a block of grey schist, of long, irregular form. Two breakages have detached important chips at each end. The fragment on the left had been recovered and fitted exactly; but the fragment (or fragments) on the right was lost at the time of publication (the entire block is now, alas, lost)

Dimensions of the block: width 990 mm; height 230 mm; thickness 230 mm.

The first line is written sinistrorsely and all the letters, apart from the last three, are much larger than the rest. This part is meaningless in Greek. The rest of the inscription is written in smaller letters and is certainly Greek; it is boustrophedon as we would expect Greek to be written at this period, with the initial line (just three letters) being sinistrorse. The Greek was possibly added later. Some word dividers are noted.

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The letters follow the irregular shape of the stone; thus we can be certain that the text on the left is complete. We cannot, however, be certain how much is missing on the right. As Van Effenterre points out, the text on the right could well have continued on another stone. Indeed, if this is a bilingual there must be much of the Eteocretan text missing. According to Van Effenterre, the reading of the letters on the remaning part of the stone is certain. In the transcription below, I will indicate the larger Eteocretan letters by using upper case, and transcribe the Greek in lower case. DREROS # 2 - Transcription (a) In standard Greek script 1. 2. 3.

--Ȉ|ȉȊȆȇȂǾȇǿǾǿǹȠȝȠ ĸ ıĮȚįĮʌİȡİȞȠȡțȚȠȚıȚ|Į-ĺ --țĮșĮȡȠȞȖİȞȠȚIJȠ ĸ

(b) In modern Roman script 1. 2. 3.

Direction of writing

Direction of writing

--S|TUPRMƜRIƜIAomo ĸ saidaperenorkioisi|a-ĺ --katȸȸarongenoito ĸ

The Greek text this may be read as: ‫ۮ‬ȝȩıĮȚ į‫ڵݠ‬ʌİȡ ‫ۂ‬Ȟ ‫ۯ‬ȡțȓȠȚıȚǜ ‫ڲ‬.... țĮșĮȡ‫ܞ‬Ȟ ȖȑȞȠȚIJȠ "but may he swear the very things [which he has sworn] in oaths; .... may it become pure." ors: ‫ۮ‬ȝȩıĮȚ į‫ڵݠ‬ʌİȡ ‫ۈ‬ȞȠȡțȓȠȚıȚǜ ‫ڲ‬.... țĮșĮȡ‫ܞ‬Ȟ ȖȑȞȠȚIJȠ "but may he swear the very things [he has sworn] to the Oath-keepers [i.e. deities]; ....may it become pure." The Greek text cannot be fully understood since part of it is missing. All we can say is that it is about oaths to be sworn and about a matter of purification.

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Eteocretan text Unhappily, most of the Eteocretan text had disappeared. All we have is the final -Ȣ (s)of a word, and the single complete word IJȣʌȡȝȘȡȚȘȚĮ (tuprmƝriƝia) which, if this is a bilingual inscription, will correspond to the Greek țĮșĮȡ‫ܞ‬Ȟ ȖȑȞȠȚIJȠ "may it become pure". The word IJȣʌȡȝȘȡȚȘȚĮ /tupr-meɏɏrieɏɏia/ gives us another instance of a syllabic sonorant and also shows the existence of long vowels. Indeed, there may have been other long vowels, but the archaic Cretan alphabet did not distinguish between long and short varieties of any vowels other than İ /e/ and Ș /eɏɏ/.

Source – R.A. Brown - Mlitt

z?

ȗ? o

Ƞ p

ʌ

s

ı

t

n

Ȟ

(not used)

m

ȝ

r

tau

(not used)

šƯn

l

rǀš

i

Ț

Modern Roman transliteration

qǀf

tȸȸ

ș

IJ

‫ٿ‬ƗdƝ

Ɲ

Ș

jǀd

(not used)

pƝ

z

)

‫ډ‬Ɲt

ȡ

‫ޚ‬ain

w

ȗ

,(

‫ف‬Ɲt

(not used)

semk

e

ࠝ

zai

Ȝ

nnjn

d

İ

hƝ

Standard Greek transliteration

mƝm

g

į

,

delt

(not used)

lamd

Semitic name

b

Ȗ

,

gaml

(not used)

a

Modern Roman transliteration

ȕ

bƝt

Archaic Cretan character

Į

‫ݠ‬alf

Standard Greek transliteration

Archaic Cretan character

Semitic name

wau

Robert Morritt

Table of archaic Cretan alphabet of Dreros and Praisos

282

,

u

ȣ

,

(wau)

k

ț

kaf

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•

gaml (gamma): both

and

283

are found in the early inscriptions.

; the form • delt (delta): the usual form is and may be attested on the Praisos #1 inscription.

is found at Eltynia

is found in the Greek inscriptions at Dreros, • zai (zeta):the form but does not occur in any of is found in some archaic • the extant Eteocretan texts. The form local scripts to spell Greek ȗ; this is possibly the case with Praisos #1 inscription. • ‫ډ‬Ɲt (theta): is found in the Greek inscriptions at Dreros, but does not occur in any of the extant Eteocretan texts. • jǀd (iota): both the angular found in the archaic inscriptions.

and the more rounded s-like

are

is not a local variant of , then it must denote some • semk: If Eteocretan sibilant not found in contemporary Greek (see 'Phonemic Values of Archaic Letters' below). with being slightly • (upsilon): the older form appears to be later; but both forms are found in the archaic inscriptions of the late 7th and early 6th centuries BCE.

Greek Dialects – Doric vowels Values of the vowels In the early Greek dialects and, indeed, always in Doric dialects (and Cretan Greek of the historic period was Doric), In the early Greek dialects and, indeed, always in Doric dialects (and Cretan Greek of the historic , (upsilon) had the high back rounded value /u/, period was Doric), not the high front rounded /y/ of 5th century BCE Athens and later Koine Greek.(upsilon) had the high back rounded value /u/, not the high front rounded /y/ of 5th century BCE Athens and later Koine Greek. As for long and short vowels, only /e/ could have separate symbols for the two quantities, namely for "long e" and Greek spelling it was not even as simple as that.

for "short e". In fact in

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Ancient Greek had two "long e" sounds: low-mid [䀘䀘] and high-mid [e]. denoted only the long low-mid sound; had to do duty for In Greek both the short sound and the long high-mid sound (until İȚ (ei) came to be used to denote /e / in the 5th century BCE). We see this in the Cretan Greek inscriptions from Dreros. Whether Eteocretan used similar spelling conventions or whether

was always

short, we have no way of knowing; all we can safely assume is that always long.

is

Omega was a later invention of the Ionian alphabet; no equivalent symbol was used in western Greek alphabets and certainly not in the archaic alphabets: , whose earliest Greek name appears to have been [o], had to do duty for both the long and short sounds. Thus we have no direct evidence whether Eteocretan had long and short values for /i/, /a/, /o/ and /u/. However, the 4th century BCE Praisos #3 inscription indicates some length distinctions and it would be very odd if only one vowel, namely /e/, had long and short quantities while the others did not. We may fairly safely assume, I think, that Eteocretan had the vowels /i/, /e/, /a/, /o/ and /u/ with both long and short quantities. Phonemic Values of Archaic Letters Values of consonants The consonants, for the most part, denoted the same phonemes as those denoted in the International Phonetic Alphabet by the Roman transcription shown in the table above; the only two exceptions are: zai (zeta): the sound denoted by this symbol seems to have varied in different Greek dialects. Some instances of classical ȗ derive from earlier /sd/, e.g. ۣȗȦ (hizo) "I seat" ĸ *si-sd-ǀ (cf. Latin: sƯdǀ). The majority of cases, however, derive from a earlier */dj/, */gj/ suggesting that sound denoted by 'z' in transcriptions of Mycenaean Linear B was /dj/ or an affricate such as [䁡 䁡] or [䁠 䁠]. It would seem, however, that in the archaic and classical periods, by a process of assimilation or metathesis, the sound varied in the dialects between [dd], [zd] and [zz] with the latter becoming the norm by the Hellenistic period and giving way eventually to the modern Greek [z].

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285

In Cretan Greek [dd] was the norm and the spelling įį is also found. But there appears to have been a tendency in Crete to devoice this combination as IJIJ is also found for standard Greek ȗ; indeed, we also occassionally find actual /tt/ spelled ȗ. For the above, see: M. Lejeune, Phonétique historique du Mycénien et du Grec ancien, Paris, 1972, pp112 sqq.; W.S. Allen, Vox Graeca, Cambridge UK, 1968, pp. 53 sqq.; C.D. Buck, The Greek Dialects, Chicago, 1955, p. 71 sq., and pp. 313 sqq. However, the letter does not occur in any of the extant Eteocretan texts, so it may not directly concern, we can discount the value /content to (ks). given to this symbol by the Ionians. It would be a gross write anachronism to find it used this way in a late 7th century or early 6th century inscription from Crete. There are only two credible possibilities: As in some other local scripts, it is merely used as a variant of and, therefore, presumably denotes either /dd/ or /tt/. It really is semk and is being used to represent a sibilant not known in contemporary Greek. The clear presence of ˾ı (ws) on Praisos #3 may indicate that Eteocretan possessed a labialized sibilant [sȿ ȿ].

PRAISOS Praisos is a fortified Archaic-Hellenistic City with three hills which an Italian archeologist identified as acropolises (acropolei) located near the village of Nea, the sanctuary of Zeus Diktaios. Some of the most interesting ‘finds’ have been the so-called Eteocretan epigraphs. (Three inscriptions on stone slabs) now in the Museum at Heraklion. Praisos experienced advanced development but came into violent conflict with the neighbouring Dorian cities of Ieraptyna and Itanos. The dispute of over who would control the Temple of Diktaious Zeus, Ended when Ieraptyna seized and destroyed Praisos (155 BCE). Source – Sitia-Ierapatra and WebCrete (internet).

Praisos #1 This inscription was found, according to Guarducci, by Frederico Halbherr in 1884. The stone is damaged on its right hand side. The inscription is boustrphedon in an archaic Cretan alphabet similar to that of the two Dreros inscriptions, and dates from the same period, i.e. late 7th or early 6th century BCE.

Dimensions: width 340mm; height 270mm; thickness 140mm. Source – R.A.Brown MLitt, Birmingham

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287

Praisos #1 – The Stone Slab – analysis of text Line 1 The leftmost letter is either ˾ or Ǽ Line 2 The damaged surface between the second ǹ and the following word division bar contained at least two letters. Line 3 Between the Ȁ and ǹ (reading sinistrorsely) there is one letter which I was not able to read. The penultimate letter is certainly has the shape of ȁ, whatever its value may be (see below); the final (i.e. leftmost) letter is damaged; it may be may be (see below).

(m),

(n),

(s) or

, whatever its value

Line 4 The letter before the word division is damaged, but it can clearly be read as (s). The last letter, however, is too damaged to allow any reading to be suggested. Line 5 The penultimate letter has been interpreted by some as a ligature for ǹ (ai); the , however, is much more deeply engraved then the ǹ. After examining the stone myself, I am in no doubt that the scribe originally wrote ǹ, repeating the syllable ȃǹ by mistake, and then corrected the ǹ to

.

Problems of Transcription The alphabet is clearly archaic and simlar to that of the Dreros inscriptions. The reading of most of the characters is quite clear, but there are three letters of which Guarducci says: "Incertum contra quid potissimum litterae valeant" ('It is uncertain, however, what value the letters most probably have').

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Letter This is unquestionably a version of the symbol that later became ȟ [ks]. However, ȟ = [ks] was a peculiarity of the later eastern Ionian alphabet from which the standard Greek alphabet eventually derived (the later western Greek alphabet represented the same sound with the symbol X which passed thence into the roman alphabet). Interpretation of ‘gamma’- pre-Hellenic influences Epigraphers have observed that the archaic Cretan alphabets were closest of all Greek scripts to Phoenician. The symbol here is the Phoenician semk; thus it may be following Phoenician practice and denoting a simple (Phoenician ‫ٿ‬ƗdƝ) by which the Doric sibilant which was distinct from Greeks of Crete represented /s/. In the Archaic Cretan Greek Alphabet page, R.A.Brown suggested this might be a labialized voiceless sibilant [sȿ]. But, as I also said in the same page,

is found in some of the archaic

(z) which, in the Cretan alphabets as an alternative way of writing Doric dialects was pronounced /dd/ (with a tendency toward /tt/).This may be the case here. As it has the shape of an archaic ȗ (z) with a horizontal line across the middle, I have adopted the expedient of transcribing it as ȗ (z) with a nonspacing short bar overlay, thus ȗߋ (z), with the proviso that it may be pronounced [dd], [tt] or [sȿ ȿ]. Letter This was the way Ȗ (gamma) was written in the archaic Cretan alphabets. The only problem is that it was also often written ȁ in versions of the archaic Cretan alphabets. Clearly this symbol and the one below will not be used as variants of the same symbol here; they are separate letters. The questions are: "Which is gamma?" and "What value does the 'non-gamma' symbol have?" R.S. Conway ("The Pre-Hellenic Inscription of Praesos" , Annual of the British School at Athens 8, London 1902, pages 125 & 126) took this symbol to be gamma, and I agree with him. But I disagree entirely with the value he gave to ȁ below.

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289

D. Comparetti ("Iscrizioni di varie città cretesi", Museo italiano di antichità classica 2, Florence 1888, pages 671 to 676), assuming ȁ to be gamma, took this symbol to be a peculiarly angular form of pi, which was . But, as as both Conway and Guarducci normally a more rounded thus have rightly observed, this would be the only instance of pi being written this way in Cretan texts. Indeed, the Cretans seem to have had a distinct preference for rounded forms of pi which at Gortyn, Lyttos and Eltynia is written almost like a modern upper-case C. In my opinion, the weight of evidence is against Comparetti's suggestion. R.A.Brown agreed with Conway and Guarducci in accepting this as gamma. Interpretation of variant symbols Letter R.A.Brown continues - In the archaic Cretan alphabets, this was a variant of the gamma symbol. It cannot be the familiar Ionian symbol for lambda of the later standard Greek alphabet. The Ionian alphabet was unknown in Crete at this period and, as the 2nd Praisos inscription shows us, even when the Ionian alphabet came into use by the 4th century BCE, the local form of lambda persisted for some time. Conway took this symbol to be upsilon. But there is no justication for this. The 1st Dreros inscription shows both the early form of upsilon, , and the later form . These are the only two variants namely known from archaic Cretan inscritions. There is no evidence of the symbol being inverted in any of the archaic Cretan alphabets. Comparetti, assuming the symbol above to be pi, accepts this as gamma. Indeed, if Comparetti is correct about pi, then there can be little doubt this is gamma. R.A.Brown ,agrees with Conway and Guarducci that is gamma. In the archaic alphabet used at Eltynia in Crete, we find delta writen as ȁ (see M.Guarducci Inscriptiones Creticae I, Rome 1935, page 89 and L.H. Jeffrey The Local Scripts of Archaic Greece, Oxford 1961, page 308). Both the inscription from Eltynia and this inscription from Praisos used lightly inscribed guidelines. In the Eltynian inscription the bottom stroke

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of ǻ has become confused with the guideline and simply been omitted. I suggest the same has happened here. As Guarducci notes, Conway took this symbol to be upsilon because he was convinced that a vowel was needed between Ȗ (g) and Ȟ (n) in the with the center line not last line. She herself suggests that it might be written. But she is not convinced and concludes: "Res utique in incerto habenda est." ('The matter indeed must remain uncertain'). Admittedly, Comparetti's ĮıİʌȖȞĮ- (asepgnan-) is not easily pronounced. But ĮıİȖįȞĮ- (asegdna-) is surely not an impossibility some software, logged nine errors. A vowel might make easier pronunciation, but it is by no means necessary between Ȗ (g) and Ȟ (n). Not only is į (d) pronounceable, it is supported by actual archaic Cretan epigraphical evidence. Transcription (a) In standard Greek script --ȞțĮȜȝȚIJțİҕ ȠȢ ȕĮȡȗߋİ Į-- Ƞ---Įȡț.ĮȖıİIJ ȝİį. ĮȡțȡțȠțȜİȢҕįİ.---ĮıİȖįȞĮȞ໭໭Ț໮໮IJ (b) In modern Roman Script --QNDOPLWNҽ os EDU] e a-- o---ark.agset med. DUNUNRNOHVҕde.---asegdnan໭໭i໮໮t

Comments The only complete word is ȕĮȡȗߋİ (barzߋe) and we have no indication of its meaning. We have here clear confirmation of -IJ (-t) as a possible word ending. Also in Line 1, we find the un-Greek combination -IJț- (-tk-); in Greek this

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291

was subject to metathesis, e.g. IJȓțIJİȚȞ (tiktein) ĸ *IJȓ-IJț- İȚȞ (*ti-tk-ein) "to engender, beget, bear" (cf. the 3rd singular aorist indicative ‫ۆ‬-IJİț-İ (etek-e) and perfect indicative IJȑ-IJȠț-İ (te-tok-e)) The 4th line possibly gives us another example of syllabic sonorant ȡ (r) between two kappas. But we cannot rule out the possibility of mistaken dittography, especially as, in the following line, the scribe mistakenly repeated ȞĮ (na) before correcting the second ȞĮ (na) to ȞȚ (ni).

Praisos #2 Introduction This inscription was found by R.C. Bosanquet in June, 1901, and first published by R.S. Conway ("The Pre-Hellenic Inscription of Praesos", Annual of the British School at Athens VIII, 1901-1902, pp. 125 sqq.) before being later published by Guarducci in Inscriptiones Creticae. It is much later than the two Dreros inscriptions and the 1st Praisos inscription, being written dextrorsely throughout and in the standard Ionian alphabet except for lambda which is still written in the old Cretan style. It is probably from the 4th century BCE.

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Facsimile of text

The inscription is rather more worn than either the 1st or the 3rd Praisian inscriptions; it can, however, still be read with care. The left hand side of the stone is damaged and the inscription is incomplete here. The right hand side is preserved as far as the 6th line; R .A.Brown assuned the spaces at the end of lines 2, 4 and 5 co-incide with word endings, which are otherwise unmarked.

Stones that Speak

Transcription (a) In standard Greek script 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

--ȠҕȞĮįİıȚİȝİIJİʌȚȝȚIJıijĮ --įȠ. ǿĮȡĮȜĮijҕȡĮȚıȠȚȚȞĮȚ vac. --ȡҕİıIJȞȝIJȠȡıĮȡįȠijıĮȞȠ --ıĮIJȠȚııIJİijҕ.ıĮIJҕȚҕȣȞ vac. --ĮҕȞȚȝİıIJİʌĮȜȣȞİҕȣIJĮIJ vac. --ıҕĮȞȠȝȠıİȜȠıijȡĮȚıȠȞĮҕ --IJҕıĮĮįȠijIJİȞĮҕ---ȝҕĮʌȡĮȚȞĮȚȡİȡȚҕ---ȚȡİȚȡİȡİȚİ.---ȞȡȚȡĮȞȠҕ---Įıțİı---Țҕ.IJҕ----

(b) In modern Roman script 1. 2. 3.

--ӑnadesimetepimitspȸȸa

--do.LDUDODSҕȸraisoiinai vac.

--Uҕestnmtorasardopȸȸsano

4. 5.

--VDWRLVVWHSҕȸ.VDWҕӏun vac. --ҥQLPHVWHSDOXQҽutat vac.

6.

--VҕanomoselospȸȸUDLVRQҥ

7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

--WҕsaadopȸȸWHQҥ---PҕDSUDLQDLUHUӏ---ireirereie.---QULUDQӑ---askes---ӏ.Wҕ----

293

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Robert Morritt

Analysis of damaged text We can be confident that in this Doric speaking part of the Greek world, ȣ still represented [u] and not the [y] of contemporary Athens which later became the norm in Hellenistic Greek. Line 1 The first letter has almost gone but is probably Ƞ Line 2 I was not able to read either the 3rd or the 4th letters. After ȚĮȡĮȜĮ (iarala) the actual mark on the stone is like a badly formed ȅ or ǻ above the line of writing; this is almost certainly the circle of ĭ to which the scribe has forgotten to add a downstroke. Line 3 The initial ȡ is damaged but certain. Line 4 The ij is damaged but certain; the letter after it, however, is quite illegible. The letters before the final before the final -ȣȞ (-un) are damaged but are almost certainly IJȚ (ti). Line 5 The initial Į is damaged but certain. The letter after ʌĮȜȣȞ (palun) is read by Guarducci as Ȗ (g) and by J. Sundwall as ˾ (w). It appeared to R.A.Brown rather to be İ; but it is, admittedly, very damaged. Line 6 The initial ı and final Į are damaged but certain. Line 7 The initial letter is badly damaged but is probably IJ. After the IJİȞ (ten) towards the end of the line the letter is probably Į (a) but may possibly be į (d). There is no trace of any other legible letters where the stone is damaged on the right. Line 8 The initial ȝ is damaged but certain. The last letter remaining on the right is very unclear but seemed to me most likely to be Ț.

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Line 9 The last remaing letter is unclear. A cross-bar remains, but the stone is so damaged here that the downstroke is not clear; the letter could be any one of: Ȗ, İ, ˾, or IJ (g, e, w, t). Line 10 The last remaining letter is damaged but seems to be Ƞ, though ij (pȸȸ) is possible. Line 11 The stone is so damaged that only these five letters can be read. Line 12 The first remaining letter is damaged but Ț seemed likely; the second letters was too damaged for me to hazard any reading; the third is damaged but is certainly IJ. Nothing else is legible on this line. Line 13 I found nothing legible on this line.

Lack of word dividers Comments A major difficulty in reading this inscription is the lack of word dividers. Conway, in fact claimed to have found interpuncts (dots) between certain letters; but Bosanquet considered these all to be accidental marks. That has been the opinion of others since. When I examined the stone for myself in 1976 I could detect no signs of any deliberate interpuncts. However, the gaps at the ends of lines 2, 3, and 5 suggest word division at those points; we thus have in line 5 another example of word ending in -IJ (-t). Gemination of vowels and consonants are rare in these texts, and the three examples in this one may have arisen from word junction; they are: ijҕȡĮȚıȠȚ ȚȞĮȚ (Sҕȸraisoi inai) in line 2 ıĮIJȠȚȢ ıIJİijҕ- (satois VWHSҕȸ-) in line 4 IJҕıĮ ĮįȠijIJİȞĮҕ(Wҕsa adopȸȸWHQҥ) in line 7 Thus from line 2 we have isolated the word ȚȞĮȚ (inai) which appeared on the 1st Dreros inscription where it was suggested it corresponded to the Greek ‫ࠝۆ‬ ࠝĮįİ "it was decided". Before this we have ijҕȡĮȚıȠȚ (Sҕȸraisoi ) and in line 6 we find ijȡĮȚıȠȞĮҕ (pȸȸUDLVRQҥ). It is very probable that these

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are forms of the city's name or of derived ethnica. It is, therefore, tempting to see ijҕȡĮȚıȠȚ ȚȞĮȚ (Sҕȸraisoi inai) as equivalent to Greek ȆȡĮȚıȓȠȚȢ ‫ࠝۆ‬ ࠝĮįİ "the Praisians decided" [more literally: "it was pleasing to the Praisians"]. That 4th century Eteocretan used forms with aspirated initial, i.e. ijȡĮȚıȠ- (pȸȸraiso-) while their contempoary Greeks has non-aspirated initial forms, i.e. ȆȡĮȚıȠ- (praiso-) should not really cause any surprise. After one language has borrowed a name from another, the two words will then exist independently and be subject to sound changes of each individual language; one has only to think of modern English "Cardiff" and the modern Welsh "Caerdydd", both being derived from the same middle Welsh form. The middle Welsh final [䀥v] has developed independently to [䀧f] in modern English and to [䀥䀥ð] in modern Welsh, although the two languages were, and still are, spoken side by side. The word ȚȞĮȚ (inai) may occur also in line 8, followed by the word ȡİȡ (rer) which is repeated in line 9. However some caution is called for. The repeated word may equally well be Țȡİȡ (irer); in which case line 8 would read as - ȝҕĮʌȡĮȚȞĮ Țȡİȡ Țҕ- (-Pҕapraina irer ӏ-). In line 1 we see the sequence ȝȚIJ (mit) which occurred in the first line of the Praisos #1 inscription. Since the latter inscription does indicate word division, this is not likely to be a word itself, but it may have had morphemic status. In line 3 we must have at least one example of a syllabic sonorant, otherwise ȡҕİıIJȞȝIJȠȡĮ - (Uҕestnmtora-) becomes unpronounceable. If the word break is between Ȟ (n)and ȝ (m) then both nasals must be syllabic. It is possible the break is after - İıIJ (-est), in which case the next word will begin /QP tora/. Note: The pronounciation to a non-Welsh person of ‘Caerdydd’ sounds like “ KYE-ERE-DEETHE”., t ‘CAER’ in Caerdydd denoting that it was previously a Roman fortress another example would be Caerleon a local Roman military camp. Other examples of ‘Caer’ in Wales would be – Caerwent, Caerphilly, and Caernarvon. R.D.Morritt

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Praisos #3 Introduction This inscription was found, according to Guarducci, by R.C. Bosanquet in June, 1904. It is much later than the two Dreros inscriptions and the 1st and 2nd Praisos inscriptions, being written dextrorsely throughout and in the full standard Ionian alphabet with the addition of ˾ (w). It is probably from the 3rd century BCE. Maximum dimensions: width 200mm; height 415mm; thickness 60mm. Facsimile of text

The right hand side of the stone is undamaged; but the left side as well as the bottom is badly damaged. On the right hand side there are small spaces of about one letter's width at the ends of lines 2, 3 and 4; these presumably correspond with word endings.

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Transcription In standard Greek script 1. 2. 3. 4.

--ȟҕ;.ȞҕȞȣȝȚIJ --ĮҕIJĮȡțȠȝȞ v --.ȘįȘıįİĮ v --ıҕȦʌİȚȡĮȡȚ v

5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.

--İҕȞ IJĮıİIJ˾ ˾ıİȣ --ȞȞĮıȚȡȠȣțȜİı --ȚȡİȡȝȘȚҕĮȝĮȡij --İҕȚȡİȡijȚȞıįĮȞ --ȝĮȝįİįȚțĮȡț --ȡȚıȡĮȚȡĮȡȚij --.ȞҕȞİȚțĮȡȟ --IJĮȡȚįȠȘȚ --İȞȕĮ --įҕȞĮı --.----

In modern Roman script 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

-[ҕ.Qҕnumit --ҥtarkomn v --.ƝdƝsdea v --Vҕǀpeirari v --ҽn tasetwseu --nnasiroukles

7.

--irermƝӏamarpȸȸ

8. 9.

--ҽirerpȸȸinasdan --mamdedikark

10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.

--risrairaripȸȸ --.Qҕneikarx --taridoƝi --enba --Gҕnas --.----

Note: Roman 'x' is used in the transcription strictly as a Roman 'x', i.e. = [ks]. It is not the phonetic symbol for a velar fricative. Line 1 the initial ȟ (x) and the 3rd letter Ȟ (n) are both damaged but certain; I could not, however, read the intervening letter. Line 2 The initial Į is slightly damaged but certain. Line 3 The initial letter was too damaged to for me to to hazard a guess at it. Line 4 The initial ı (s) is damaged but certain.

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Line 5 The initial letter is badly damaged but is probably İ. There is a definite space between the Ȟ (n) and first IJ (t). Line 7 The Ț (i) in ȝȘȚĮ (mƝia) is damaged but certain. Line 14 The initial į is damaged but certain. Comments Once again the major difficulty in reading this inscription is the lack of word dividers. However, the space in the line 5 must at least indicate a sentence ending; it could, indeed, be a form of paragraphing. Lines 2, 3 and 4 each have a small space at the end of the line; the space is about one letter's width. It is possible that these correspond with word endings, the scribe feeling it awkward to end a line with just the initial letter of the next word. The element -ȝȚIJ- (-mit-) occurs in Line 1, just as it also does in the Praisos #1 and Praisos #2 inscriptions. In Line 2 we find the element țȠȝȞ (komn) which also occurs in Dreros #1. The sequence -ȘȚĮ (-Ɲia) in Line 7 is reminiscent of the ending of IJȣʌȡȝȘȡȚȘȚĮ (tuprmƝriƝia) in Dreros#2 which, it was suggested, corresponds to Greek țĮșĮȡ‫ܞ‬Ȟ ȖȑȞȠȚIJȠ "may it become pure". It may be that -ȘȚĮ corresponds a Greek optative form "may it be..". In line 6 the form -ȠȣțȜİı (-oukles) is reminiscent of the termination ȠțȜİı (-okles) found in Praisos #1. Also the sequence Țȡİȡ (irer) which occurs twice in Praisos #2 also occurs twice in this inscrption, namely in Lines 7 and 8. The diphthongs ĮȚ [ai߅] and İȣ [eu߅] apparently occur here as they did in Praisos #2. Also we find in this inscription İȚ (ei) and Ƞȣ (ou), but these are probably to be understood as the standard 3rd century digraphs İȚ = /i / and Ƞȣ = /u/ and, together with the use of Ș = /e/ and Ȧ = /o/ shows a differentiation of long and short vowels in Eteocretan. The occurrence of Ș (Ɲ) in Dreros #2 suggests that this distinction had always been part of the language, but the archaic Cretan alphabet was not able to indicate this distinction except with /e/ İ and /e/ Ș. It should, perhaps, be made clear that in an inscription in the Ionian alphabet of the 3rd century BCE, there is no doubt that ȟ in the first line does denote /ks/. The considerations that applied in the case of Praisos #1 do not apply here. Surprising, perhaps, is the occurrence of ˾ in Line 5, particularly as comes between IJ and ı. I inspected the letter very carefully to see if it

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could be a damaged Ǽ; but I have no doubt this is not so and that the letter is certainly ˾. The sequence /tws/ is hardly pronounceable. I have suggested in the The Archaic Cretan Greek Alphabet page and the Praisos #1 page that ˾ı (ws) is a digraph for [sȿ ȿ], i.e. a labialized sibilant, but it may equally well be that IJ˾ ˾ı (tws) is a graphy for a labialized dental affricate [䁣 䁣ȿ] which, of course, could still be the sound denoted by in Praisos #1. Is this affricate from an earlier (Minoan?) /tw/? (It reminds one of the sound change */tw/ ĺ */ts/ ĺ /tt/ or /ss/ (according to dialect) which occurred in primitive Greek, and of the Japanese pronunciation of /tu/ as [䁣䀬 䁣䀬]) 䁣䀬 Note; Appears to have similiarities to Dreros 2 use of vowels.

Praisos 4 – Fragments Example of Archaic Cretan Alphabet c. 6th Century BCE Introduction These fragments are included among the Eteocretan inscriptions from Praisos by Margarita Guarducci and given on pages 141 & 142 of Inscriptiones Creticae, Vol. III. She gives no information about when they were found or who found them. Facsimile

Maximum dimensions: width 300mm; height 200mm; thickness 75mm.

The inscription is in two parts and appears to be damaged on all sides. All four lines are written sinistrorsely in an archaic Cretan alphabet of the 6th century BCE.

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PRAISOS 4 - ARCHAIC CRETAN TABLET Transcription (a) in standard Greek script (b) in modern Roman script 1. 2. 3. 4.

--..ȣҕȠҕ---.ȠȚIJ||ı---ij|ȡҕĮȢ|.----Țıҕ--

1. 2.

--..өӑ---.oit||s--

3. 4.

--pȸȸ|Uҕas|.----LVҕ--

Line 1 The first two letters are each either Į (a) or Ȗ (g) Line 2 The first letter is too damaged to read. Line 3 The second letter looks like ȡ (r) but it could be ȕ (b. Line 4 The line is badly damaged, but the letter after Ț (i) seems to be ı (s. Source – R.A.Brown MLitt, Birmingham

Praisos #4 If the facsimile and the transcription are correct, then we have evidence of a word ending in ij (pȸȸ) and of a complete word ȡĮȢ (ras) which would mean that the text cannot be Greek and we have another complete Eteocretan word whose meaning we cannot ascertain.

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Praisos #6 fragment

Maximum dimensions: width 140mm; height 130mm; thickness 40mm.

This inscription is also in two parts and appears to be damaged on all sides except the bottom. Both lines are written dextrorsely. But the inscription is to fragmentary to identify the variety of the alphabet or to date. Transcription (a) in standard Greek script (b) in modern Roman script 1. 2. 3.

--İҕĮ---Įȡȡ.-vacat

1. 2. 3.

--ҽa---arr.-vacat

Line 1 the first letter is probably İ (e) but it could be ȟ (x) Line 2 the last letter as shown in the facsimile appears to either a badly written Į (a) or a badly written ˾ (w), However, we have to bear in mind that the complete word could be the Greek word ȕ‫ܗ‬Ȣ (= ‫ۆ‬ȕĮȢ, Attic-Ionic ‫ۆ‬ȕȘȢ from the verb ȕĮȓȞȦ) and that the first letter of the 3rd line is not accurately recorded. In other words, the inscription may be Cretan Doric Greek. Note; Praisos # 5 - (Omitted as was an illegible text on the original tablet) Praisos #6 - This is so very fragmentary that the language cannot be determined .

MINOAN LANGUAGE

The Minoan language is a unique type of ‘Mediterranean’ language. WRITTEN Linear A Has not been deciphered WRITTEN Linear B A later script – is considered to be a very archaic form of Greek similar to Linear ‘A’ that appeared at the time of the decline of the Minoan civilization. (Following the volcanic eruption on the island of Thera around the fifteenth century BCE and the arrival of the Acheans after 1450 BCE Source; http://www.goddessmystic.com/Pathactivities/MatricentricCultures/crete_language .shtml

Sources SPOKEN Though this early Greek of the Acheans became the official language. The earlier Minoan language continued to be spoken linear B into the fifth century BCE, by the Eteocretans. The true Cretans” we know this because Eteocretan inscriptions dating from this time were discovered in East Crete where Homer acknowledged them., dating from the sixth and fifth centuries BCE. Homer was aware that the inhabitants of Crete were divided into a number of tribes and mentions five of them, the Pelasgians, the Eteocretans, the Kydonians, the Acgaeans and the Dorians.

MICHAEL VENTRIS AND JOHN CHADWICK On 1 July 1952, Michael Ventris a British architect announced on the BBC that he thought he had deciphered the Linear B syllabary and that he could read the clay tablets from the 14th-13th centuries BC that archaeologists, beginning with Sir Arthur Evans in 1900, had discovered on Crete and the Greek mainland. Ventris' achievement was pronounced, by those with enough sophistication to grasp what he had done, the Everest of decipherments. It has since been compared, without hyperbole, to the contemporary discovery of DNA. But very few classicists, Homerists, Greek archaeologists, ancient historians or linguists then had any understanding of non-alphabetic scripts. The spelling system, explained by Ventris as a catechism of rules - eg, s and n before stop consonants such as t, p and k are not written - seemed arbitrary. Some sceptics played schoolboys' games, writing lines of the Aeneid in Linear B and then "deciphering" their lines as Achaean records, proving absolutely nothing. Others stood by the rightly great Sir Arthur's long-prevailing ideas that the language in the Linear B tablets would not turn out to be Greek and denied the validity of the decipherment. When a newly found tablet confirmed Ventris' decipherment, the stupidest or vilest even claimed that Ventris had had prior knowledge of the tablet and had rigged his decipherment to make sense of its text. His knowledge of the Linear B script and texts was so advanced that he was impatient with scholars struggling to catch up. Between the summers of 1954 and 1955, he collaborated with Cambridge linguist John Chadwick in producing what we now call the bible of Linear B: Documents in Mycenaean Greek. Documents presented clear translations of and commentaries on 300 sample texts, organised by subject (eg, personnel, tribute and offerings, land use and management, metals and military equipment). Documents explained the state of the Greek language more than 400 years before our earliest alphabetic records. It listed over 50 names used by real people in the Greek Bronze Age, names that we thought had been invented by the oral poets who produced what we call Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.

LINEAR A AND B

Linear ‘B’ (Linear B tablets concealed the Greek language.) At first it did not occur to Michael Ventris that Linear B tablets concealed the Greek language. He thought it was related to Etruscan. A few years later he found the true solution. To the surprise of the scholarly world the names of the deities of the Greek Pantheon supposedly ‘created’ by Homer and Hesiod were found on the deciphered Linear B tablets. Linear ‘B’ (non-hieroglyphic script)

Filum of Linear B

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The reading of these tablets in the Greek language raised the question. How could a literate people in the fourteenth century (BCE) become illiterate for almost five centuries! Then regain literacy in the eighth century (BCE) The Homeric question instead of being solved now grew. Source: The Decipherment of Linear B – J.Chadwick –Journal of Hellenistic Studies Cambridge 1956 Linear ‘A’ – Deciphered The ‘pathfinding’ work by Hubert La Marle opened up new understandings and insights into the decipherment of the Minoan language. Hubert La Marle he gave students a more comprehensive understanding at a seminar held at Rethymnon University in Crete, April 23rd. 1999. Brief synopsis of recent discoveries in Crete At least 34 Cretan sites have revealed Linear ‘A’ inscriptions. Linear ‘A’ comprises 213 different signs 49% of the signs are related to signs of the Canaanite family of scripts (Proto Sinaitic and Proto-Canaanite) 96.8% of the signs belong to a ‘Mother language’ made of Indo-Iranian and inherited Proto-Indo-European (3.6%)

Chronology of Linear ‘A’ MASON’S MARKS from Phaistos CA- 2250-1900 BCE Isolated marks on building stone

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Mason’s Mark 1

Mason’s Mark 2 Proto-Cypro-Minoan (Vounous, Cyprus) CA 2250 – 2100 BCE Proto-Linear ‘A’ Phase 1 (Short scripts – Apodoulu, Troy – CA 2100 – 2000 BCE) Proto- Lin3ear ‘A’ Phase 2 (longer scripts – Phaistos – CA 1800 – 1700 BCE) Usual Linear ‘A’ – Phase 1 (tablets & libation tablets) CA 1700 – 1500 BCE) Usual Linear ‘A’” – Phase 2 (tablets – CA 1500 – 1450 BCE) Usual Linear ‘A’ Phase 3 (a few documents under Mycenean rule and Linear ‘B’ domination CA 1450 – 1395 BCE)

Linear ‘A’ and Minoan Agriculture According to tablets found in palatial warehouses, Minoans were keeping various kinds of farm produce. Among them two kinds of products are very important dry products and liquids. Grain and flour of cereals seem to play a major role in the inventories. The name of barley is easy to recognize through Indo-Iranian. The other cereals; wheat, rye, rank second in stocklists and in particular wheat is named for different species including hard wheat (at Arkhanes, Haghia Triada and Zakros) emmer wheat (at Haghia Triada, Knossos, Palaikastro, Phaistos, Tylissos, and Zakros), soft wheat (at Haghia Triada, Khania and Mallia.) It is an accepted fact that common and wild barley were naturally growing on Crete. in the vocabulary the word a-wo or je-wo, a-we-ja in the genitive is the accurate equivalent of Indo-Iranian “jewo” (barley), Sanskrit ‘yava’, Persian j*aw, j*au (barley).Some other words most probably mean ‘wheat’( a-dhi or a-di; ja-di) the most frequent; za-is*e,’hard wheat’, je-i ‘soft-wheat’also adya from ad, atti ‘to eat’.

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In linear ‘A’ the noun, ra-gw or r*a-wo is quite frequent and means ‘olive oil’, ‘fat’ as Persian rug*an ‘oil’.

Linear ‘B’ amd the Homeric Paradox As the Linear B texts were read the Homeric related references became more enigmatic. Since antiquity it had been believed that Homer and Hesiod were the first to compose Theogonies and give the Gods their ephitets. Michael Ventris and John Chadwick wondered if the Linear B tablets would ‘unexpectedly’ revealed the worship of gods and goddesses known from classical sources, reading the names of Greek gods and goddesses on the Linear B tablets from Knossos on Crete and Pylos on the mainland was something of a shock to Classical Scholars. Hera, Artemis and Hermes were worshipped in Pylos. Zeus and Poseidon were worshipped in Pylos and Knossos. Athene was deified in Knossos. Dionysius name was found on a Pylos tablet.

The Dark Age in Asia Minor 500 ‘Missing Years of History’ Like the Greece and the Aegean. Asia Minor has no history for a period of close to five centuries. (According to Prof. Ekrem Akurgat – University of Ankara) The huge land of Asia Minor for almost five centuries is historically and archaeologically void. The cause of the interruption in the flow of history about 1200 BCE is assumed to lie in some military conquest, but the Phrygians who are supposed to have been their conquerors, did not leave any sign of occupation from before -750 BCE. Thus the end of the Anatolian civilization about 1200 BCE due to the inclusion of the Phrygians is not supported by archeological finds. If five hundred years separate Homer from the tablets, is it not a cause for wonder that the past should know these names and titles and use them for his epics. Trying to read Linear ‘A’ The previous attempts of reading Linear ‘A’, the forerunner of Mycenean Linear ‘B’, did not convince the scientific community according to the general opinion , the main gaps consisted in;

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1/ An unproved transposition of Linear ‘B’ phonetic values to several Linear ‘A’ signs which looked like homomorphs. 2/ A too small size of the studied samples 3/ From a linguistic point of view, the absence of grammatical analysis. Based on a large epigraphic review and on the principal of phonetic autonomy of Linear ‘A’, the comparison of two different methods seems to be interesting in the case of Linear ‘A’ the Minoan script of Bronze Age Crete. Palaeography provides possible phonetic values for every syllabogram or phonogram and frequencies give them a stronger coherence (conventional phonetic values) The study of the frequencies of the signs shows that the results are parallel to those of comparative palaeography for the signs which have a significant frequency. Ratios between global frequency, initial frequency and final frequency of each sign are of high interest in order to define the type of phonemes.

STRUCTURE OF THE MINOAN LANGUAGE

“There are c.2000 Minoan inscriptions from the Second Milennium B.C., but no Rosetta Stone by which to read them.Mycenean Linear ‘B’, however was an adaptation of the Minoan Linear’A’ used by scribes to write the Hellenic language. Maybe the the child of a Minoan mother and a Mycenaean father at C15th Knossos took the script of the ‘mother’ to write the language of their father. Therefore as Linear ‘B’ can be both read and understood it is possible to some extent to read Linear ‘A’. As it is possible to read Minoan Linear ‘A’ inscriptions to an extent of c.90% and as it is not possible to understand them when read as Greek for which there are thirty five centuries of continuous recorded history on Crete, i.e., a huge diachronic linguistic database, then it was decided to see whether the Minoan language could be identified as a related language, i.e, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. This is not a new theory. Theories about Minoan Linear ‘A’ have been around at least since the decipherment of Linear ‘B’ half a century ago. What is presented here is a new approach to an old problem. The question to be raised a century after Evans and a half century after Ventris is the following – can a study of the Minoan language identify it as IndoEuropean? Attention was paid to a linguistic study of the evidence for the Minoan language, also to lexicology i.e., vocabulary items which can be identified by context in the Minoan language. Attention was also paid to the theoretical framework and linguistic pre-history that would explain the position of Minoan within the Indo-European family of languages. It is possible to see that phonologically the Minoan language can be compared to the reconstructed system for Proto-Indo-European , through transferring Linear ‘B’ sound values and there may also be evidence for the existence of laryngeals in the Minoan language of the Second Millenium B.C. It is also possible morphologically to compare the reconstructed ‘Proto-Indo-European’ system with that of Minoan particularly in respect to Minoan case and verbal endings and importantly in regard to gender. It is also possible to see that Minoan evidence for syntax and word order and evidence from EteoCretan and Egyptian sources are indicative of an Indo-European language.

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Next, a thorough study of the Lexicon of the Minoan language based upon 50 words that can be identified by context enables some interesting observations to be made. It is not possible here to discuss all 50 words. This I have done in thesis and they have been summarized in the Appendix Lexicon of the Minoan language. Here I shall mention just some of the words of the Minoan Libation Formula on dedications to the Great Minoan Mother Goddess and some administrative and agricultural words from Haghia Triada as well as some others. Two terms that started the research sixteen years ago in the University of Crete are, JA-DI-KI-TE and I-DA, found in Linear ‘A’ c.1600 B.C. These must be the two holy mountains of Crete, i.e., Dikte and Ida later connected with Zeus. These oronyms have a good Indo-European etymology which makes sense of what we know of Minoan religion. JADI-KI-TE is from DEIKNO in Greek, INDICATE, DIGIT in English and I-DA from EIDA in Greek, VIDEO in Latin, ‘to see’. Minoan religion was very visual and the epiphany showed the Great Mother Goddess who could be seen on the top of the mountain. These mountain names have good Greek etymology, but not only comparisons can be found in related Indo-Europeanlanguages and the holy mountains in question already had these Indo-European names in the Minoan period. One other term to also consider here, found with I-DA, is I-NA- / I-JA- which comes from the same root and indicates ‘holy’ IEROS in Greek and ISI-RAH is Sanskrit. We again see in Indo-European comparisons in this word which describes holy oronyms. We consider two related terms JA-TA-I-WE-WA-JA and JA-SA-SA-RA-ME

The second of these has been interpreted as Asasara/Ishassara i.e., Astarte, known as the Powerful Mistress, i.e., POTNIA of Myceneaen Greek religion. These are interesting connections with Hittite in this Minoan rendition of the Great Mother Goddess. The other term JA-TA-I-WE-WA-JA

Is an initial position, with WA-JA as the ending, indicating a feminine like Homeric-AIA whereas the root of the word may contain the Indo-European root ster– for ASTER in Greek. STAR in English,etc., and this may even be another reference to Astarte herself. Next, we can consider two terms I-PI-NA-MI-NA and SI-RU-TE

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which can be interpreted as ephithets of the Great Mother Goddess. In I-PI-NA-MI-NA it is possible to see Indo-European words for power and anger and perhaps the female passive participle. In the other word SI-RU-TE we can see –TE the nomen agentis for the Goddess. doing something ‘what is she doing?’ SI-RU – means ‘to destroy’ in Sanskrit and has interesting connections with the divinity Shiva. This word can be compared to KERAIZO in Greek for destruction with interesting connections with Zeus. It also demonstrates that Minoan is a satem Indo-European language and not a centum Indo-European language like Greek. satem – The satem language includes Indo-Iranian, Balto-Slavic and Armenian i.e., word for ‘100’ = Avestan = satem, Sanskrit = satam (in Old Church Slavonic = suto, in Lithuanian = simtas etc. centum – The centum language includes Celtic, Italic,German, Hellenic, Hittite and Tocharian. Indo-European i.e., word for ‘100’ which begin with h/or/c/-/k E.G., Latin = centum, Hellenic = hekaton Old Irish Celtic = cet, Gothic =hund Lastly in the Minoan Libation Formula we can consider what may be two Indo-European verbs; and TA-NA- etc. The first of these has the root nik ‘to conquer’, ‘win’, etc., and has been found ith the suffix. SI which probably denotes second person singular, i.e., “You, Astarte,Grant Victory,” as an invocation. On one occasion there is a suffix – TI which is probably a reference to PI-TE-RI i.e., PITARA in Sanskrit, PATERES in Greek. Holy Fathers third person plural. The other possible verb TA-NI-etc., is found in many variations, sometimes ending in-TI, ie., ‘they do something’. The root may even be related to the Sanskrit root TAN- meaning ‘stretch’ with connections with Ancient Indian religion and mathematics and even the word ‘son’ which would have interesting connections with the Great Mother Goddess and Holy Fathers. The next category of words to give us food for thought concerning the nature of The Minoan language are words of an administrative or agricultural nature from Haghia Triada near Phaistos in the Mesara in South Central Crete. We have words for ‘total’ and ‘grand total’ and nine words for agricultural products. the word for ‘total’ clear by context at the bottom of U-NA- A-NA-SI

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Minoan page tablets listing items is very interesting as it comes in three forms; KU-RO, KU-RA and KU-RAI which appear to be inflections of masculine, feminine, singular and/ or neuter, plural and feminine plural. Whether the root is Semetic or Indo-European the endings are clearly the latter and demonstrate that whoever was using these words was a speaker of an Indo-European language. We also find PO-TO-KU-RO clearly Grand Total by context again and it consists of the word for the total KU-RO and PO-TO for all with connections to PANT/PONT in Greek and Tocharian.This way of building compound words is also a feature of Indo-European languages. The most interesting word in Minoan Crete in my personal opinion is; I-DA-MA-TE – from the cave of Archalochori and DA-MA-TE - found at Kastri on the island of Kythera the nomen agentis - TE on the end of the word for ‘mother’ on inscriptions found in religious contexts/locations from the Great Mother Goddess. The word for ‘mother’ MA-TE is one of the most stable words in the Indo-European languages, with the notable exception of Hittite etc., which has ANNA, thus excludingAnatolian as the language of Minoan Crete. There has long been a discussion over the etymology and origin of Demeter. It now appears that not only is she the Mother of the Earth or of Mount Ida, but she is found in Linear ‘A’ c.1600 B.C., on Minoan Crete. Demeter is not only the Mother Goddess but also a Minoan Indo-European deity. A combination of Indo-European etymology and Minoan iconography can explain the Minoan language to us. Classical Demeter came from Minoan I-DA-MA-TE on Minoan Crete and she was the Mother Goddess who appeared on Holy Mount Ida and was responsible for crops and agricultural products, i.e., the daily bread of the Minoans. Her compound name is very Indo-European as is also that of the later King of Knossos who participated in the Trojan War, but he has a name which is clearly both Minoan and Indo-European in origin meaning ‘The Power of Ida’. There should be mentioned a point made by Chadwick. The Minoan language is not Greek.. We have comparisons with the Hellenic language due to its incomparable recorded history of thirty-five centuries on Crete and due to its close geographical proximity. It seems clear to me that Minoan is closely related to Greek probably more than to any IndoEuropean language, but research has shown that the Minoan language is not a dialect of the Hellenic language but a distinct Indo-European language, both Greek and Minoan were of course dialects of Proto-Indo European.

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We do not , however, have Minoan words that could only be interpreted as Greek, like the name Alexeus/Alexander for example found in the Mycenaean, Classical, Hellenistic, Byzantine and Modern stages of the Hellenic language but we do have words that have comparisons with not only Greek but also with other languages such as Sanskrit and Hittite and Latin and many others.It has now been possible to discuss and after an interpretation both etymologically and morphologically for fifty words that constitute the Lexicon of the Minoan language. Linear ‘A’ inscriptions when read with Linear ‘B’ sound values and when interpreted in the Minoan cultural context make sense as an IndoEuropean language of the Second Millenium BCE..,. Such a quality control can be carried out on two Minoan inscriptions. Ioktas 10 Za 2 “Astarte, Lady Asasara of Dikte, Iphinama The Destroyer, May Give Victory Holy Ida, They Supplicate Psychro Ps Za 2 “Dedicated From SETOIJA (Archanes) To JASASARAME (Astarte) The Great Mother Goddess” We are now able to read, understand and interpret fifty Minoan words and also Complete Minoan inscriptions from Crete of the second Millenium B.C. It is now necessary to consider the subject of archaeology and language and how a theoretical framework might be constructed which would explain the existence of an Indo-European language in Minoan Crete and will also illuminate the pre-historic stage of Proto-Indo- European from the Neolithic period. In searching to identify and satisfactorily explain the Indo-European nature of the Minoan language it is necessary to reconsider the clues that reading Linear ‘A’ has given us for the language of Crete c.2000 – 1400 B.C..thus the Great Island of Crete has 10,000 years of civilization, 4000 years of recorded history and 3500 years of Greek language. Crete is a valuable diachronic linguistic laboratory. Thus by using Hittite, Sanskrit and Mycenaean Greek of the second half of the Second Millenium B.C., it is possible to reconstruct ‘Proto-Indo European c.8-7000 B.C. and it is from this language that the Neolithic

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Cretan language is descended which was later recorded in the first half of the Second Millenium by Minoan inscriptions in Linear A. Minoan has been identified as a satem Indo-European language, based on words Like SI-RU-TE for ‘destroyer’ and with similarities to Sanskrit in words like PI-TE-RI as the word for ‘Fathers’. Minoan is a satem language with lexicographical characteristics which are closer to Greek and Sanskrit more than with Hittite, as shown by MATE for Mother and not Anatolian ANNA, in a position similar perhaps to that of Armenian. Minoan is an Indo-European language of the Aegean area as are Greek and Hittite and other Anatolian languages such as, Palaic, Luvian, Lycian, Lydian and most recently Carian has also been recognized. It is also interesting that of four branches of Indo-European languages around the Aegean, Two (Hittite to the East and Greek to the West) are centum. Two (Thracian –Phrygian-Armenian to the North and Minoan to the South) are satem, thus indicating that the break up of the Proto-Indo European into these languages probably happened at the same early stage which according to archaeological data would appear to be at the beginning of the Neolothic period in the Aegean 8 –7000 B.C. Within this framework it is also necessary to see the position of Greek and the old problem concerning the coming of the Greeks into Greece.The time scale must be much deeper than previously thought if Mycenaean Greek by c.1400 B.C., differs more from contemporary Hittite and Sanskrit than it does from Greek of the Classical, Hellenistic , Byzantine and Modern periods. The Greek language must have developed from being a dialect of Proto Indo-European Into a distinct language in the Neoloithic period and this very likely happened in Greece itself. The identity of Minoan as an Indo-European language in the Aegean has vastly deepened the theoretical framework of the pre-history of the Indo-European languages of the Agean including Hittite and Greek, The roots of the Minoan language are found in the language of the Neolithic Cretans who brought a dialect of Proto-Indo European to Crete c. 8-7000 B.C., and this developed in isolation into a distinct Indo-European language, influencing to some extent especially in regard to vocabulary by Greek, while still having some similarities with satem languages such as Sanskrit and Armenian.

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Synopsis In 2004 Gareth Owens gave a short talk in the Linguistics Department at the National and Kapodistrian University in Athens during the viva of his doctoral thesis. He explained how Minoan as an Indo-European language has vastly deepened the theoretical Framework of pre-history in regards to the Indo-European languages in the Aegean, which includes both Hittite and Greek. Of interest is how he explored the language of the Neolithic Cretans and found that the Minoan language brought a dialect of ProtoIndo European to Crete c.8-7000 BCE.. How it developed in isolation into a distinct Indo-European language.He emphasized that this influenced Greek vocabulary whilst retaining elements that had similarities with satem languages such as Sanskrit and Armenian. His analysis of the structure and vocabulary of the Minoan language and his careful interpretation of complete Minoan inscriptions showed that the Indo-European language in its Minoan archaeological and cultural context showed that it can be understood as an Indo-European language from both an archaeological and a cultural context. From a study of the structure of the Minoan language and of fifty words within the lexicon it supports the identification of Minoan as an Indo-European language. Owens confirmed there were now enough indications to to prove that the Minoan language Is a pre-Greek but an Indo-European language recorded up to 600 years before Mucenaean, Greek, Sanskrit and Hittite. Further he indicated that the Minoan language is a clearly an early and distinct stage of the Indo-European Language (c.2000-1400 B.C.) with strong connections with the Greek, Armenian and Sanskrit branches of the Indo-European family of languages. (R.D.Morritt)

SYLLABIC SCRIPT IN CYPRUS

Even the average Greek scholar, and presumably the average linguist too, has now heard of the Linear ‘B’ script, and of the fact that this script used on thousands of clay tablets found in Crete and continental Greece, was deciphered by a young English architect, Michael Ventris in 1952. A similar syllabic script was used in Cyprus between the 7th and 3rd centuries BC to record, in Greek epitaths, offerings, and the like, and even transactions between state and private citizens. And yet this syllabary, or signary, long played an important part in the various attempts to decipher Linear ‘B’ since the value of Cypriot signs had already been known already. The decipherment of the Cypriot syllabry was inititiated in 1871 by the great George Smith of Assyriological fame who established that the number of characters was between 50 and 60 (it is 55), that they correspondingly denoted syllables (normally consonant + vowel) and with the help of some bilingual (Cypriot-Phoenician) texts established the value of 18 signs! Having no Greek, he yet thought that the language was allied to, although not the same as the Greeks.

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By kind permission of Lawrence Lo.

Cypriot Script The island of Cyprus has been a focus of cross-cultural interaction for many millenia. Its name stems from the root as the English (as well as Latin and Greek) word 'copper'. However, Cyprus's ancient non-Greek, non-alphabetic inscriptions are of tremendous importance. While the earliest examples dating from as early as 1500 BCE cannot be read, comparisons clearly show that the Cypriot syllabary seemed to have derived from Linear A, and therefore is like a sibling to Linear B. For this reason, sometimes the script at this very early stage is called CyproMinoan, to distinguish it from the Cypriot script used for writing Greek after the 12th century BCE.

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According to tradition, Greek settlers colonized Cyprus around the 12th century BCE, and they likely adopted the Cypro-Minoan script for their own use. Not surprisingly, the first readable text in the Cypriot script appeared in the 11th century BCE to write the name of the owner of a funerary object. Analysis of this name reveals both a known Greek name and archaic Greek declension patterns. The Cypriot script continued to serve mostly for short dedicatory and funerary texts, but there are instances of longer, historical texts during the 5th century BCE. Cypriot script persisted into Classical times, and coexisted with the Greek alphabet. During this time, inscriptions with texts in both the Cypriot script and the Greek alphabet were created, and these have led modern scholars to decipher the Cypriot script. The Cypriot script was finally abandoned only after extensive Hellenization by Alexander the Great. Cypriot Syllabograms The following chart is the entire inventory of Cypriot signs. All signs are syllabograms, meaning that they represent syllables instead of individual sounds. Note that j phonetically stands for [y]. In addition to syllabic signs, a small vertical sign is used to separate groups of signs in Cypriot. However this separator does not always fall on word boundaries. Often particles and other "small" parts of speech can be lumped in with nouns, and a few times verbs and nouns are lumped into single sign groups too.

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Source; Lawrence Lo (Ancient Scripts)

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Spelling Conventions Like Linear B, Cypriot also does not have signs for all the sounds in the Greek language. For instance, the k- series of signs not only represent syllables starting with [k], but also [g] and [kh]. Similarly, p- signs stand for initial [p], [b], and [ph], and t- signs for initial [t], [d], and [th]. Once again, as in Linear B, all signs (except the vowel-only signs) in Cypriot represent syllables of the form CV, that is, consonant followed by a vowel. In order to represent syllables with initial consonant clusters (like CCV), ending consonant (CVC), or dipthongs (CVV), spelling conventions were used to override a syllabogram into either a consonant or part of a dipthong. However, whereas Linear B often omitted sounds in initial consonant clusters, ending consonants, and dipthongs, Cypriot more often than not writes out all sounds in a word. In the case of syllable-initial consonant clusters, all consonants except the one nearest to the vowel are represented with CV signs whose vowels agree with the vowel of syllable. Similarly, syllable-ending consonants are also written with CV signs that agree with the vowel of the syllable. There are two exceptions to this rule, however. The first exception is that a nasal consonant such as [-n] and [-m] preceding another consonant is usually omitted. The second exception applies to word-ending consonants. In Greek only the sounds [n], [r], and [s] can occur at the end of a word. So for these cases, the signs ne, re, and se are used to denote the word-final consonant. Dipthongs are always written out, with the vowel-only series of signs serving to represent the second part of the dipthong.

Source – Lawrence Lo.

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Cypro – Minoan – Cypro – Minoan – Syllabary Type

Syllabary

Spoken languages

unknown

Time period

ca. 1550-1050 BC

Status

Extinct

Parent systems

Linear A Cypro-Minoan

The Cypro-Minoan syllabary (abbreviated CM) is an undeciphered syllabic script used on the island of Cyprus during the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1550-1050 BC). The term “Cypro-Minoan” was coined by Sir Arthur Evans in 1909 based on its visual similarity to Linear A on Minoan Crete, which CM is thought to be derived from. Approximately 250 objects bearing Cypro-Minoan inscriptions have been found, including clay tablets, votive stands, clay cylinders and clay balls. Discoveries have been made at various sites around Cyprus, as well as the ancient city of Ugarit on the Syrian coast. The inscriptions have been classified into four closely-related groups by Emilia Masson[: archaic CM, CM1 (also known as Linear C), CM2 and CM3, although some scholars disagree with this classification. Little is known about how this script originated, or what language was used to write in CM. However, its use continued into the Early Iron Age, forming a link to the Cypriot syllabary, which reads as Greek and has been deciphered.The extant corpus of Cypro-Minoan is not large enough to allow for the isolated use of a cryptographic solution to decipherment. Currently, the total number of signs on formal Cypro-Minoan inscriptions (approx. 2500) compares unfavorably with the number known from the undeciphered Linear A documents (over 7000) and the number available in Linear B when it was deciphered (approx. 30,000). Furthermore, different languages may have been represented by the same Cypro-Minoan subsystem, and without the discovery of bilingual texts or many more texts in each subsystem, decipherment is extremely unlikely according to Thomas G. Palaima, "all past and current schemes of decipherment of Cypro-Minoan are improbable".

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Cypro – Minoan Scripts A critical historical survey of problems in research on Cypriote Bronze Age Writing Problems of Historical Context – Conclusions (Cypriote Minoan – CM within the following text) 1/ the current classification of the epigraphical data into four general subdivisions of writing Archaic CM, CM1, and CM2 CM3 is invalid as is based on faulty paleographical assumptions; unwarranted geographical clustering and contamination of inscriptions and distinct typological classes! 2/ the paleographical connection between archaic CM and Minoan Linear ‘A’, is far closer than has previously been recognized. 3/ the creation of Cypro-Minoan writing under the strong influences of Cretan linear writing is understandable in terms of the historical development of contacts with the Aegean and in terms of the relative simplicity and adaptability of Linear ‘A’ in comparison with contemporary Near Eastern cuneiform scripts. 4/ Cypro-Minoan, retains a remarkable independence and integrity throughout its five hundred year history, despite the Near Eastern mileu in which it existed. 5/ all past and current schemes of decipherment of Cypro-Minoan are improbable. 6/ there is a pressing need for a critical corpus raissone which will present the epigraphical material ( 8 clay tablets, 83 clay balls, 6 clay cylinders and numerous inscribed artefacts such as, cylinder seals, gold rings, ivory objects and especially pottery with due attention to typological classes, dates and circumstances of discovery and paleographical analysis. 7/ the number of signs now attested in formal Cypro-Minoan inscriptions (ca.2500) compares unfavorably with the number known from the undeciphered Minoan Linear ‘A’ documents (over 7000) and the number available in Mycenaean Linear ‘B’ at the time of its decipherment (ca. 30,000)

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8/ Properly analyzed ‘Cypro-Minoan’ has advantages as a script for decipherment; diversity and length of texts, discernible word-divisions. A critical historical survey of problems in research of Cypriote Bronze Age Writing The work of Oliver Masson, the first great researcher in Cypro-Minoan during the generation following the belated Michael Ventris ( killed in an automobile accident). Ventris was an excellent decipherer, his brilliant and conclusive decipherment of the Mycenean Linear ‘B’ script still holds true. We may elaborate upon it as follows; without the discovery of a bilingual-perhaps even bilinguals, since different languages may be represented by certain of the Cypro-Minoan subsystems – or many more texts in each sub system. The complex circumstances surrounding CyproMinoan are such that one is reduced to more suppositions. In fact, the unknowns connected with Cypro-Minoan are still far greater than those which were associated with Linear ‘B’ before its decipherment. On the clay cylinders from Kalavassos – Ayios Dhimitrios. E.Masson claims to be able to read vocabulary items which are parralelled in Ugaritic and other Cypro-Minoan texts from Enkomi. (tablet and clay ball) and Ras Shamra (tablet); a term for a divine title or determinative which is then followed by an emphatic or adverbial termination and a toponym, the whole structure again based on an earlier unprovable hypothesis about the formulaic structure of the Enkomi tablet. The earliest and only so-called archaic Cypro-Minoan tablet, Enkomi 1885, contains 23 total signs. The fullest CM1 text, a clay cylinder from Enkomi contains ca., 179 inscribed signs, from which one can deduce about 36 different characteristics in a standard signary. The 5 CM1 clay tablets from Kalavassos-Ayios Dhimitrios have on them ca , 112, 5, 10. 10 and 27 signs respectively. The other major source for The formal CM1 signary is the peculiarly Cypriote inscribed clay balls, 83 legible inscriptions of this kind are known these normally have 3-5 signs.all together these balls contain c.a., 370 signs four fragments of tablets now classified as CM2 have about 1310 legible signs the CM3 tablet fragments have c.a., 60 and 159 non-numerical, non–punctuational signs on their recto and Verso surfaces. From there signs a repertory of ca. 44 standard character has been identified. It is clear from such statistics that signs are frequently repeated in CM2 and 3 it is also clear that the standard sign repertoires which have been established for each sub-system are based on extremely limited and

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imbalanced groups of formal written texts: archaic = 23 signs, CM1 = 713 signs, CM2 = 1310 signs, CM3 = 219 signs, thus all the signs on formal inscriptions in all the supposed sub-systems of Cypro-Minoan add up to slightly less than 2300.Signs on all other objects listed in the next paragraph, except pottery, total ca.150 An additional 50 signs might be found in sequences of two or more characters on pottery. Thus we are dealing with a total repertory of some 2500 signs found in actual sign-sequences, i.e., about one third the total number of signs attested in the still undecipherable Linear ‘A’ script and has less than 10% on the number of signs (ca.30,000) attested on Linear ‘B’ documents at the time of the decipherment and the 318 tablets and bars now thoroughly published in Linear ‘A’. A critical historical survey of problems in research on Cypriote Bronze Age Writing Problems of Historical Context – Conclusions (Cypriote Minoan – CM within the following text) 1/ the current classification of the epigraphical data into four general subdivisions of writing Archaic CM, CM1, and CM2 CM3 is invalid as is based on faulty paleographical assumptions; unwarranted geographical clustering and contamination of inscriptions and distinct typological classes! 2/ the paleographical connection between archaic CM and Minoan Linear ‘A’, is far closer than has previously been recognized. 3/ the creation of Cypro-Minoan writing under the strong influences of Cretan linear writing is understandable in terms of the historical development of contacts with the Aegean and in terms of the relative simplicity and adaptability of Linear ‘A’ in comparison with contemporary Near Eastern cuneiform scripts. 4/ Cypro-Minoan, retains a remarkable independence and integrity throughout its five hundred year history, despite the Near Eastern mileu in which it existed. 5/ all past and current schemes of decipherment of Cypro-Minoan are improbable.

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6/ there is a pressing need for a critical corpus raissone which will present the epigraphical material ( 8 clay tablets, 83 clay balls, 6 clay cylinders and numerous inscribed artefacts such as, cylinder seals, gold rings, ivory objects and especially pottery with due attention to typological classes, dates and circumstances of discovery and paleographical analysis. 7/ the number of signs now attested in formal Cypro-Minoan inscriptions (ca.2500) compares unfavorably with the number known from the undeciphered Minoan Linear ‘A’ documents (over 7000) and the number available in Mycenaean Linear ‘B’ at the time of its decipherment (ca. 30,000) 8/ Properly analyzed ‘Cypro-Minoan’ has advantages as a script for decipherment; diversity and length of texts, discernible word-divisions. Cypriote and Minoan Scripts 1/ Cypro-Minoan,presents us with a complicated picture of its development and applications so that there were many problems suitable to the theme of the BurdickVary Symposium to discuss. 2/ Cypro-Minoan functions “in some degree and some fashion” as a bridge between the Minoan-Mycenean scripts and the later Classical Cypriote syllabary, ie., between termini which have been deciphered, or, in the case of Linear ‘A’, can be at least studied in relation to a closely related deciphered writing system. 3/ At an advanced stage of its development Cypro-Minoan also is generally thought to provide a link, in terms of certain of its purely formal elements, to the Near Eastern cuneiform systems of writing. Note; Progress in understanding Linear ‘A’ has been made chiefly by analyzing its overall structure, sign repertory and applications in comparison to Linear ‘B’. Eteocypriot was a pre-Indo-European language spoken in Iron Age Cyprus. The name means "true" or "original Cyprian" parallel to Eteocretan, both of which names are used by modern scholarship to mean the pre-Indo-European languages of those places. Eteocypriot was written in the Cypriot syllabary, a syllabic script derived from Linear A (via the Cypro-Minoan variant Linear C). The language was under pressure from

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Arcadocypriot Greek from ca. the 10th century BC and finally became extinct in ca. the 4th century BC. The language is as yet unknown except for a small vocabulary attested in bilingual inscriptions. Such topics as syntax and possible inflection or agglutination remain a mystery. Partial translations depend to a large extent on the language or language group assumed by the translator, but there is no consistency. It is conjectured by some linguists to be related to the Etruscan and Lemnian languages, and by others to be West Semitic. Those who do not advocate any of those theories often adopt the default of an unknown pre-Greek language. Due to the small number of texts found, there is currently much unproven speculation. Origin The land of Cyprus has always been known to possess its own script during the classical period. The Cypriot Syllabary however, only refers to the script used during iron age Greece. The script used during bronze age Greece is generally known as Cypro-Minoan script. Most texts using the script are in the Arcadocypriot dialect of Greek, but some bilingual (Greek and Eteocypriot) inscriptions were found in Amathus. According to classicists of the 19th century, the historical reason for the bilingual inscriptions was that Greek speakers fleeing the Trojan War brought Greek to Cyprus. Evolution It has been established that the Cypriot Syllabary is derived from the Linear A script and most probably, the Minoan writing system. The most obvious change is the disappearance of ideograms, which were frequent and represented a significant part of Linear A. The earliest inscriptions of this script is found on clay tablets. Parallel to the evolution of cuneiform, the signs soon became simple patterns of lines. There are some evidence of a semitic influence due to trade, but this pattern seemed to have evolved as the result of habitual use. Problems in Deciphering Cypro-Minoan from Linear ‘B’ Mycenean “(If) anyone seriously interested in deciphering the Cypro-Minoan script will be inattentive of paleographical details to such an extent as to mistake characters of the perfectly regular Linear ‘B’ font “Mycenae” for those belonging to the Cypro-Minoan repertories.

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This is a particularly serious fault in attacking Cypro-Minoan because as we shall see, two major problems rest primarily on epigraphicalpaleographical -typological considerations: 1/ the possible division of Cypro-Minoan into separate subsystems with discrete signaries; and 2/ the affiliation of Cypro-Minoan and its possible independent subsystems with other Aegean or Near Eastern scripts. The first problem which has two parts obviously affects our approach to decipherment: to what degree should the already limited Cypro-Minoan data be; (a) pooled together as a relatively homogenous system capable of a single decipherment or (b) separated into smaller bodies of data in self-sufficient systems representing either the same language(s) in different ways or different languages together? The second problem affects what we might call the next stage of current attempts at decipherment; how do the individual signs of the CyproMinoan signary (-ies) match up with those of deciphered scripts, which are then used to suggest tentative values for the Cypro-Minoan characters? Both these problems are also tied up with historical and archaeological contexts of the inscriptions, which will be one major focus of this paper.

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Scholarship – The Rush to Decipher There are many to whom the prospect of decipherment is like a lamp to a Moth or the name of a race-horse to an addicted gambler. This is I think another of the major problems besetting current work in Cypro-Minoan studies. I stress the word “current” because full-scale research on CyproMinoan got off to a fairly good start in the 1930’s – 50’s, continuing into the 60’s and early 70’s, although some obstacles were inadvertently laid even then by virtue of the chronological sequence in which and the scholarly ideas by which Cypro-Minoan texts were discovered, published and studied.how many of the preconditions necessary for decipherment are being overlooked, or at least given less than full consideration and attention, because of the eagerness and of the few scholars seriously working in this area to attain a decipherment here ironically it is the fullness of the few formal texts in CM1,2 and 3 that has inspired a kind of ‘cart-before-the-horse’ impulse to “read” and “decipher”, instead of properly analyzing the entire repertory of inscriptions and incised material. I would go as far as to say that it is virtually impossible given the present state of publication of the Cypro-Minoan material for any scholarperhaps even those primarily concerned with the decipherment of the script- to obtain a critical view of his epigraphical material sufficiently for evaluating independently – No – even proposing – what the general scholarly community would consider a valid decipherment. the study of Cypro-Minoan texts and the problems associated with them is fascinating and entertaining. But the current state of scholarship is such that too large a share of one’s life is required just to get a grasp of the almost inaccessible data and to understand the contexts in which they are to be interpreted. I write from experience.” Analysis of Linear ‘A’ and Cypro-Minoan Signs Observation regarding comparison technique It is absolutely wrong procedure to compare the Cypro-Minoan signs written in a specific hand to standardized Minoan character. There is a significant range of variation among the forms of separate characters in the standard Minoan signary , from site to site, period to period, material to material and even Scribal hand to hand that makes it clear that we have to keep in mind the possibility that Cypro-Minoan was patterned after a regional style of Linear ‘A’.

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(If) we know nothing about the historical circumstances in which an isolated tablet was produced. Was the inscriber an expert? i.e., was he a professional Scribe? If so was he as inexperienced and relatively unaccomplished at writing as some of the minor hands in the Linear ‘B’ administrations at Knossos and Pylos, or was he a master of a script who had been employed in Cyprus for some time? One that required special attention or one which might lead the writer To be less careful about sign shapes and overall tablet appearance? The adaptation of the alphabet was achieved in a period of Phoenician -Greek interaction marked by an outburst of Greek trade activity and even colonization. In the case of the alphabet one sees clear traces of experimentation and regional variation. Perhaps the same forces were at work in the early Late Bronze Age in Cyprus. If this was the case over a 50-75 year period it would doubtless produce significant innovations or variations in sign shapes in comparison with the signary of the motherscript, which itself was still developing. Summary of the History of Early Cypro-Minoan Script During the last quarter of the nineteenth century Scholars in general linked the latter Cypriote syllabic script (which was then the only form of Cypriote script) well attested on the island with Near Eastern writing systems it was connected with Old Persian syllabic cuneiform. By the first year of the twentieth century epigraphical and archaeological finds from the Bronze Age were to shift the focus of scholars interested in tracing the development of writing on Cyprus westward to the Aegean. In 1900, on behalf of the British Museum. Sir Arthur Evans advanced the idea ”The Mycenean factor in the unwritten history of Cyprus assues a new importance. The impress of this Aegean element is so strong that we find ourselves In the presence not of sporadic influences or isolated importation of objects but of A distant period in the insular civilization to which the name Cypro-Mycenean must henceforth be given.” Evans compared the limited corpus of inscribed Cypro-Minoan finds to the more fully understandable Cretan scripts, including :imear ‘B’.this led him to some optimistic conclusions. 10 of the 15 known Cypro-Minoan characters were definitely parallel “An absolute conformity” in either Linear ‘A’ or ‘B’. The remaining 5 could be matched with Creton hieroglyphic prototypes.two-thirds of the signs of the later classical Cypriote syllabary were also derived from Linear ‘A’ and Linear ‘B’, the matches solely of Linear’B’ and the archaeological indications of the

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influence of the mainland culture in late Bronze Age Cyprus suggested that the mainland representative of Minoan culture might have brought with them to Cyprus the model of a linear script which was already adapted to the Greek language, yet tradition seemed to indicate that the Hellenization of the island was not this early, i.e., that the Cypriote syllabry and by implication the Cyprio-Minoan script were “originally devised for a non-Hellenic language.” As a consequence of that Evans listed six perceived parellals between the classical Cypriote script and nonGreek forms in the Lycian and Carian alphabets.EVANS -1900 Note: Evans several years later was to call the Bronze Age Script of Cyprus Cypro-Minoan Methods of Identifying Cypro-Minoan Script At the early stage in the study of Cypro-Minoan scripts certain procedures were established. The comparison often extremely subjective of sign forms. First to determine the degree of relationship between scripts and then by introducing the classical Cypriote syllabry.i.e the final result of the development of writing on Cyprus to suggest values for the signs of the Cypro-Minoan script. The selective, if not arbitary, pooling of different classes of epigraphical date. 1/ Focusing on the signs themselves. 2/ The epigraphical features, including differences in materials and pupose of the inscribed objects that affected their forms. 3/ The evolution and development of individual signs and the entire sign repertory through time and at different locations. This means we must analyze the evidence from each class of inscriptions separately and systematically: Pottery (incised and painted cylinder seals, clay balls, clay cylinders, clay tablets, gold rings, etc. We must lay the paleongraphical data out chronologically and geographically and discuss any information about the find contexts or original sources of the inscriptions that may have a bearing on paleographical details. We should try to do this without any contaminating preconceptions about life of the Cypro-Minoan script from the time of its introduction into Cyprus under clear Minoan influence in the 16th. century B.C. The most remarkable feature about Cypro-Minoan which is often lost in efforts to cuneiformize it, or to rend it from its obvious Aegean roots, is how singular and distinctive it remains despite the many pressures and

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influences to which it must have been subjected until it finally transformed itself as early as the eleventh century B.C., into another equally distinctive and tenaciously independent script, the Cypriote Syllabry, which, likewise resisted the influence of foreign scripts (cuneiform and Greek and Semeticalphabets) from the 8t., to the 3rd, centuries BC. In another context, I declared that it is a mystery why the inhabitants of Cyprus adopted an Aegean script, despite strong new Eastern ties. It now seems clear that one reason for this choice is the intimidating linguistic andstructural complexity of the cuneiform script at the period when Cypro-Minoan was developed. These systems required one to acquire a knowledge of a/ Sumerian and Akkadian b/ some 300 signs with multiple syllabic values; and c/ specialized ideographic and determinative signs and conventions. at the time when Cypro-Minoan was first formed the Aegean script, Minoan Linear ‘A’, was the only script which provided a relatively easy and workable model. It has open syllabry of some 90-110 signs. Each sign has a clearly established set of values. The orthographical conventions are relatively straightforward and seem to be determined by principles similar to fundamental properties specific to any given language. Consequently the entire system can be applied efficiently to a new language (e.g., as was done with Mycenaean Greek) without requiring that one learn another language or languages in order to practice the art of writing. Such advantages would not have been forsaken lightly. Thus the Cypriote script preserved it’s independence: the Cypro Minoan signs on 13th – 12th century texts from Enkomi and Ugarit are not cuneiform or ‘cuneiformized’ and they are not Mycenaean or ‘Mycenaeanized’. they remain wholly Cypriote both in a decidedly Near Eastern environment and in a Cypriote community which experienced strong Mycenaeanization. The same is true for Cypro-Minoan pottery marks, whether they occur in Crete, mainland Greece, Cyprus or the Levant. We need a unified and standardized corpus of Cypro-Minoan inscriptions – not sub-systems of the script itself – in a clear historical content until this is done, we shall continue to be plagued by piecemeal readings, guesses and speculation. The groundwork has been laid by the careful work of dedicated scholars extending backward from E.Masson, O.Masson, V.Karageorghis, Dikajos, Ventris, Daniel, Casson, Schaeffer, Markides and Sir Arthur Evans.

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Cyprian Syllabograms - Proposed Decipherment Table of Cyprian Syllabograms The table indicates that Cretan Linear A signs (syllabograms, each representing a single syllable) were adopted and adapted for transcribing languages used in Cyprus in the Bronze Age; this Cyprian writing system developed into the Iron Age syllabary (Linear C), employed mainly for Hellenic inscriptions. Charts showing the characters are available below the printed table. LA Linear A (Cretan 'Minoan' Syllabary) LB Linear B (Mycenean Syllabary) LC Linear C (Classical Cypriot Syllabary) CC (Cypriot Cuneiform Syllabary, 'Cypro-Minoan' Script, usually said to be "undeciphered") Numeral designations for the CC characters: Emilia Masson, Cyprominoica (Göteborg 1974) 12-15, tables 1-4 A Ancient Enkomi Tablet, and a few other inscribed objects (Archaic, Masson Table 1) B Balls/Boules (small clay spherical objects) (CM 1, Masson Tables 2-4) C Enkomi Cylinder (CM 1, Masson Tables 2-4) K Kalavassos Cylinders (CM 1, Masson Tables 2-4) T Enkomi Tablets (CM 2, Masson Tables 2-4) U Ugarit Tablets (CM 3, Masson Tables 2-4) Numeral designations for the characters: LA/LB: I. Godart, J-P. Olivier, Recueil des inscriptions en Linéaire A, 5 (Paris 1985) CC: Emilia Masson, Cyprominoica (Göteborg 1974) 12-15, tables 1-4. Source- Brian Colless

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Cypro – Cretan Script - Diagram 1

By kind permission of Brian Colless.

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Diagram 2

By kind permission of Brian Colless.

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Syllabary – Abbreviation Guide LA Linear A (Cretan 'Minoan' Syllabary) LB Linear B (Mycenean Syllabary) LC Linear C (Classical Cypriot Syllabary) CC (Cypriot Cuneiform Syllabary, 'Cypro-Minoan' Script): A Ancient Enkomi Tablet, and a few other inscribed objects B Balls/Boules (small clay spherical C Enkomi Cylinder K Kalavassos Cylinders T Enkomi Tablets U Ugarit Tablets

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Cyprian Syllobograms – Chart with Characters

Uncertainties remain: notably variant forms, attributable to peculiarities in the handwriting of various scribes. By kind permission of Brian E. Colless.

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Enkomi Clay Weight -Cyprian Shekel Weight

This object was found at Enkomi, on the east coast of Cyprus, across the sea from Ugarit in Syria. It belongs to the Bronze Age, and may be dated around 1500 BCE (before the current era).The general opinion identifies it as a weight, though the hole suggests that it was on a thread and so possibly a talisman to hang around a person's neck. Nevertheless, I will argue that the word 'shekel' is written on it, confirming that it is a weight. I am looking for inscriptions to test my own system for the BronzeAge script of Cyprus (called 'Cypro-Minoan' because its signs are obviously derived from Cretan Linear A, the 'Minoan' writing system), which developed into the Linear C script of the Iron Age, used (mainly) for writing Cyprian Greek. My method was to match each Cypro-Minoan sign with its LA and LC counterparts. The results are not much different from earlier attempts (notably that of Werner Nahm in the journal Kadmos, 1981). The first sign on the right is a good example: it represents a tree, and it stands for the syllable TE. In the Linear A script the tree can have the branches as straight horizontal bars or oblique lines (as here), and the same applied in the archaic stage (CA) of the Cyprus script. The next letter on the right would be KE. No Linear A form of KE looks quite like that, but it still fits reasonably into the line of development of the Cyprian KE.The cross is LO, taken from the Linear A syllabogram for RO (including LO); in the Cyprian syllabary there were separate Rand L- signs, and RO is the last one on the left of this inscription. The body and legs of RO were usually square rather than angular (as seen here). Cyprian RO bears some resemblance to the Linear A syllabogram DE, and it may be modeled on it; T- and D- were distinguished in Cretan scripts, but not in Cyprian writing, and so D- signs could be used for other

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purposes in Cyprus. Thus Cretan DA ( 1- ) was used for TA. The small vertical stroke would be a word-separater. Shekel - The value of a shekel in Cyprus A single transaction covers the following quantities:10 talents (6 cwt.) of copper from Cyprus for 3 minas and 1/3 shekel of silver 37 minas (40 pounds) of lead for 55 ½ shekels 16 minas and 15 shekels (17 ½ lb,) of dyed wool for 2 minas and 2/3 shekels 55 minas (60 lb.) of lapis lazuli for ½ mina and 6 2/3 shekels 130 minas (1cwt.30 lb) of Cypriot iron for ½ mina and 2 ½ shekels. Source – Everyday Life in Babylon and Assyria - Commodities p91 (English translation) of La Vie Quotidienne A Babylone et en Assyrie, Georges Contenau Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd, London 1954.

The wavy line is obviously PE, fitting the pattern of Cyprian (Linear C) PE; it also helps in the search for the lost PE of Linear A, which I identify as A305, equivalent to Linear B 72. The Y-shaped letter is clearly SA (AB 31), originally representing the cuttlefish (sepia, kalamari). The inscription on this weight reads according to my system: (R -> L)

TE-KE-LO | PE-SA-RO

The first word is surely Semitic theqel/sheqel (shekel), a unit of weight (about 10 grams); Akkadian shiqlu, Arabic thiqlu, Hebrew sheqel, Aramaic t(h)iqla. I will not attempt to explain the vowels in the inscription. Notice, however, the K not Q for Semitic Q, which is not KW. The second word (pesaro) may contain a case of metathesis, with S and R exchanging positions (either a dialectal form or a scribal error), corresponding to Semitic prs, a dry measure, for grain or flour; in Hittite texts and Aramaic usage it can be a measure of size and weight, one-half of a shekel. Here we could make reference to "the writing on the wall" in Daniel 5:24-28 (Aramaic): MN' MN' TQL (U) PRS(YN) This involves an elaborate word-play, giving a message from God to King Belshassar of Babylon. The measures of weight are there: mina, shekel, peres. But the cryptic meaning is that the king has been counted

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(mnh) and weighed (tql) in the balance, and found to be wanting, and his kingdom shall be divided (prs) and taken from him by Persia (prs). The weight measures tqel and pres (shekel and half-shekel [rather than halfmina?]) may be in evidence on the Enkomi weight. I think I might have found a "tripod" to support my decipherment (like the confirmatory Linear B inscription saying 'tripod', with a three-legged cauldron depicted on the tablet; and, similarly, my reading of the Megiddo signet ring as saying in West Semitic logo-syllabic script: "Sealed [nukhu-ta-ma]: the sceptre of Megiddo") My drawing of the text is based on a photograph and other published drawings; there is no difference of opinion on the shapes of the letters. Inscribed Cylinder Seals These drawings were published by John Franklin Daniel, Prolegomena to the Cypro-Minoan Script, American Journal of Archaeology 45 (1941) (249-282) 269, Figure 12.

1] SI NA KE RO TI or TI RO KE NA SI 2] SE TA TO YA or YA TO TA SE 3] SA? LO? TI TE or TE TI LO? SA? [SA? Or MI?] 4] A 5] PA TI or TI PA 6] SA KA SA PO RA? LA? TI or TI LA? RA ? PO SA KA SA 7] SI | YA MO TI or TI MO YA | SI 8] YE ? ? or ?YE?

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9] TU KE or KE TU 10] SU? MU A or A MU SU? Cyprian Boules- Enkomi Clay Balls These are small clay balls (French: boules) bearing short inscriptions in the Cyprian script of the Bronze Age, commonly known as 'CyproMinoan' (CM); my preferred term is 'Cyprian Cuneiform' (CC). They are here transcribed according to my table of CM/CC signs (column B). The characters are not always visible or legible; many are idiosyncratic; so there are many question marks (?) in the transcriptions. The purpose of these objects is not known (could they be identification documents to be shown by the owner when arriving for work? or theatre tickets, with the seat number appearing after the name?), but the inscriptions seem to be personal names; for example, i-li-pa-li (B79/b53/), Semitic 'ili-ba`li, "My god is Ba`al". They usually have two parts: a-lisa-ri | ku (B80/b54/085); sometimes with the short part first, a | si pa ro (B2/022) The numbering is according to Emilia Masson: B1 (a1), B27 (b1), but a1-a26 are omitted as unnecessary; B1 will suffice. The numbers in square brackets refer to Jean-Pierre Olivier, Édition holistique des textes chypro-minoens (2007) p. 64 - 111: B1 [021], B27 (b1) [030]. However, the situation is complicated by Olivier, as each object has two numbers: [##o30] indicates its position in the corpus; "ENKO[MI] Abou 027" is its catalogue name [where ENKO refers to its find-spot (provenance, Enkomi), A = argile (clay), bou = boule (ball)]

Enkomi Boules A - Text B1 [021] ku mu ro | pa mo ku si lo | 110 42 (=39=55) 97 | 6 73(=77) 110 27 5 B2 [022] a | si pa ro 102(=101) | 27 6 97 B3 [023] si | nu (or: si ta nu) 27 | 103(=68) (27 4 103) B4 [024] a mo ta ro ku mo | ri 102 73 4 97 110 73(=77) | 85(=96) [cp. B48, B37] B5 [088] a la ke ro || to 102 87 107 97 48(=16=57) 4 (from Hala Sultan Tekké) [cp B42] B6 [028] ku ri ne 110 96(=85) 34(=2) B7 [025] ka sa to | ti ya po li ya 25 48(=16=57) 13 | 23 69 12(=14) 9 69

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B8 [026] ti mo ma li mo 23 77(=73) 43 9 77 B9 [029] to ta ro | a 13 4 97| 102 [cp B11] B10 [027] ra no to | ra 15 17 13 | 15 [cp B27] B11 [020] se pu ro | to ta 44 61 97 | 13 4 [cp B9 to ta; B47, B51] B12 [011] a wi na 101(=102) 37(=41) 8 B13 [012] [----] | sa pu pa ni [ ] | 16(=57=48) 61 6 99 B14 [002] i ni sa | u 104 99 16 | 19 B15 [013] mo si ma | ke si 73(=77) 27 53(=43) | 107 27 B16 [014] mo ri | pa 77(=73) 85 | 6 B17 [015] ta mi - si - 4 91 - 27 - B18 [003] sa pi li | 16 50 9 | B19 [016] a mo ta ro |- 101(=102) 73 4 97 |- [cp B48] B20 [018] wi ru ko | u 41(=37) 28 21 | 19 B21 [004] wi ru ko | ma 41(=37) 28 21 | 43(=53) B22 [005] ma ke ni 53(=43) 107 99 B23 [006] a ta na pi | ka 101 4 8 50 | 25 B24 [007] e ke li wi 38 107 9 41(=37) B25 [008] [zo?] ru ka ri 28 25 96(=85) B26 [081] sa a la/zo na? | ka 57(=16=48) 102(=101) 87/59? 8? | 25 B27(b1) [030] ra no to | pi su ne ro 15 17 13 | 50 32(=106?) 34 97 [cp B10] B28(b2) [032] a si ki ze? 102(101) 27 70 86(=88?) B29(b3) [033] la sa lu 87 16 24 B30(b4) [034] sa wa ze | ka 16 95 88 | 25 (or is 88 la?) B31(b5) [031] a ka ro? - 102(=101) 25 97? B32(b6) [035] li ya | ta i wi ma 9 69 |4 104 37 53 B33(b7) [036] sa ro 16 97 B34(b8) [037] ku su ro | ti ko/ra? 110 106? 97 | 23 21/15? B35(b9) [038] su no| se 46(=106?) 23 | 44 B36(b10) [039] su ko ri ze 106 21 85(=96; or 15 ra?) 88 (or is 88 la?) B37(b11) [040] ku mo ri 110 73(=77) 85(=96) B38(b12) [041] sa nu ni ti | ta 57(=16=48) 103 99 23 | 4 B39(b13) [042] we ri la ze? 1 85(=96) 88 112 B40(b14) [043] ne ti ya ri | lo 1 23 72 85(=96) | 5 [cp. B64, B66] B41(b15) [044] si pi po | pi 27 50 14(=12) | 50 B42(b16) [045] a la i?/ke? ro | ze 102 87 104? 97 | 112 [cp. B5 45 60 69] B43(b17) [046] ku nu ke li si | ze 110 68(=103) 99 64? 9 27 | 112 B44(b18) [054] a li sa ri ra 102 9 48(=16=57=82) 85(=96) 15 B45(b19) [055] a la ke ro | mu 102 87 107 97 | 39 B46(b20) [056] si na ki | sa 27 8 70 | 16(=48=57)

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B47(b21) [047] se pu ro |\|sa? ku 45 61 97 | 48? 110 [cp. B11, B51] B48(b22) [048] a mo ta ro | ti 102 73 4 97 | 23 [cp. B4] B49(b23) [049] i ya na so | to 104 72 8 67 | 13 B50(b24) [050] ku ne mo pi 110 34(=2) 73 50 B51(b25) [051] se pu ro | ra 45 61 97 | 15 [cp. B11, B47] B52(b26) [052] a nu ku so | ti 102 68(=103) 110 67 | 23 B53 (b27) [053] ke ku ti 107 110 23 B54(b28) [057] ka sa ro | pa 25 82 97 | 6 [cp. B55] B55(b29) [058] pa ka sa ro | su 6 25 82 97 | 46(=106, 109) [cp. B54]

Enkomi Boules B - Text B56(b30) [059] to to ro | pi 81? 81? 97 | 50 [cp. B76] B57(b31) [060] a pa so mi ya 102 6 67 91 72 B58(b32) [061] a | pa 102 | 6 B59(b33) [062] [ka? to? | ne? ] B60(b34) [063] a la i?/ke? ro 102 87 104? 97 [cp. B42, 45, 69; and B5] B61(b35) [064] si o? po | i? la to? 27 84 12 | 104 87 78? B62(b36) [065] ku ti zo 110 23 59 B63(b37) [066] o? la| o? to mi ze 84(=64) 9? | 84 13 91 88 B64(b38) [067] ne ti ya ri? | o 2 28 72 85 | 64 [cp B40, B66] B65(b39) [068] a ? | to ya ta 102 ? | 13 72 4 B66(b40) [069] ne ti ya ri | ze? 1 23 72 85 | 112 [cp B40, B64] B67(b41) [070] o lo lu | pi? to li ya 64 5 24 | 50? 13 9 72 [cp. B72, B83] B68(b42) [071] pu? ri ze? | o? 83 85 88 | 84 B69(b43) [072] a la i?/ke? ro | si 102 87 104? 97 | 27 B70(b44) [074] [ ] B71(b45) [075] ta ye po ya | lo 4 36 12 69 | 5 B72(b46) [076] o lo lu | su 64 5 24 | 46 [cp. o-lo-lu, B67] B73(b47) [077] su ki no | mo 46 70 17 | 73? B74(b48) [078] ka to 25 13 B75(b49) [079] a pa ti ? ? 101 6 23 ? ? B76(b50) [080] to to ro? | ke? mu ? 50/81? ? | 84 39 ? [cp. B56] B77(b51) [082] ru? lu ku ro | ku 28 24 110 97? | 110 B78(b52) [083] ze? [ ] ze? 112 [ ] 112 B79(b53) [084] i li pa li 104 9 6 9 [Semitic 'lb`l] B80(b54) [085] a li sa ri | ku 102 9 48 114 | 110 [cp. B44] B81(b55) [086] pa pa ta ni su 6 6 4 99 46 B82 [087] [zo no li se] B83 [089] o lo lu | mo 64 5 24 | 73 (Hala) [cp. B67, B72] B84 [090] sa ta nu? ze? 48 4 68? 86 (Kition, Laranaca)

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B85 [091] ta to? ri? [

Robert Morritt

] 4 13 [

] (Kition)

Source - Brian Colless, from (Emilia Masson 1971, SIMA 31:1, 11-18)

CLAY BALL – with text

NOTES: B5 says a la ke ro sa to. B42 has the third sign damaged, possibly i or ke: a la i?/ke? ro | 112 (=ke? z- ?) B45 runs a la ke? ro | mu. B60 (damaged) seems to have a la i? ro. B69 has a la i? ro | si. If the rare sign 112 (in B42) were a variant of KE (with four or more dots instead of two vertical strokes; perhaps ZE) it would indicate that the name is a-la-i-ro; but by comparing B39 (042) and B43 (046) we see KE together with 112, which would thus be ZE (originally depicting a saw with teeth); and incidentally, 88 (with one tooth) could be another form of ZE (also 88, with two teeth), not a variant of 87 LA. So ALAKERO seems to be established, but ALAIRO may have also been a name in use. Source - Brian Colless; Enkomi Boules B (1-55) (Emilia Masson 1971, Alasia 1, 479-499)

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CLAY BALL – Index Vowels first A E I O U; consonants K L M N P R S T W Y Z a | pa 102 | 6 B58(b32) [061] a | si pa ro 102(=101) | 27 6 97 B2 [022] a ? | to ya ta 102 ? | 13 72 4 B65(b39) [068] a ka ro? 102(=101) 25 97? B31(b5) [031 a la ke ro sa to 102 87 107 97 48(=16=57) 4 B5 [088] [cp B42] a la ke ro | ze 102 87 104? 97 | 112 B42 (b16) [045] a la i?/ke? ro 102 87 104? 97 B60(b34) [063] [cp. B42, 45, 69; and B5] a la i?/ke? ro | si 102 87 104? 97 | 27 B69 (b43) [072] a la ke ro | mu 102 87 107 97 | 39 B45(b19) [055] a li sa ri | ku 102 9 48 114 | 110 B80(b54) [085] [cp. B44] a li sa ri ra 102 9 48(=16=57=82) 85(=96) 15 B44(b18) [054] a mo ta ro | ti 102 73 4 97 | 23 B48(b22) [o48] [cp. B4] (Ugarit: Amutara) a mo ta ro ku mo | ri 102 73 4 97 110 73(=77) | 85(=96) B4 [024][cp. B48, B37] a nu ku so | ti 102 68(=103) 110 67 | 23 B52(b26) [052] a pa so mi ya 102 6 67 91 72 B57(b31) [060] a pa ti ? ? 101 6 23 ? ? B75(b49) [079] a si ki ze? 102(101) 27 70 86(=88?) B28(b2) [032] a ta na pi | ka 101 4 8 50 | 25 B23 [006] a wi na 101(=102) 37(=41) 8 B12 [011] a ya - ta i |- 101(=102) 69 - 4 104 |- B19 [016] e ke li wi 38 107 9 41(=37) B24 [007] i li pa li 104 9 6 9 [Semitic 'lb`l] B79(b53) [084] i ni sa | u 104 99 16 | 19 B14 [002] i ya na so | to 104 72 8 67 | 13 B49(b23) [049] o? la | o? to mi ze 84(=64) 9? | 84 13 91 88 B63(b37) [066] o lo lu | mo 64 5 24 | 73 B83 [089] [cp. B67, B72] o lo lu | su 64 5 24 | 46 B72(b46) [076] [cp. o-lo-lu, B67, B83] o lo lu | pi? to li ya 64 5 24 | 50? 13 9 72 B67(b41) [070] [cp. B72, B83] ka sa ro | pa 25 82 97 | 6 B54(b28) [057] [cp. B55] ka to 25 13 B74(b48) [078] ke ku ti 107 110 23 B53(b27) [053] ko no to | pi su ne ro 21 17 13 | 50 32(=106?) 34 97 B27(b1) [030] ku mo ri 110 73(=77) 85(=96) B37(b11) [040]

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ku mu ro | pa mo ku si lo | 110 42 (=39=55) 97 | 6 73(=77) 110 27 5 B1 [021] ku ne mo pi 110 34(=2) 73 50 B50(b24) [050] ku nu ke li si | ze? 110 68(=103) 99 64? 9 27 | 112 B43(b17) [046] ku ri ne 110 96(=85) 34(=2) B6 [028] ku su ro | ti ko/ra? 110 106? 97 | 23 21/15? B34(b8) [037] ku ti zo 110 23 59 B62(b36) [065] la sa lu 87 16 24 B29(b3) [033] li ya | ta i wi ma 9 69 |4 104 37 53 B32(b6) [035] ma ke ni 53(=43) 107 99 B22 [005] mo ri | pa 77(=73) 85 | 6 B16 [014] mo si ma | ke si 73(=77) 27 53(=43) | 107 27 B15 [013] ne ti ya ri? | o 2 28 72 85 | 64 B64(b38) [067] [cp. B40, B66] ne ti ya ri | ze 1 23 72 85 | 112 B66(b40) [069] [cp. B40, B64] ne ti ya ri | lo 1 23 72 85(=96) | 5 B40(b14) [043] [cp. B64, B66] pa ka sa ro | su 6 25 82 97 | 46(=106, 109) B55(b29) [058] [cp. B54] pa pa ta ni su 6 6 4 99 46 B81(b55) [086] pu? ri ze? | o? 83 85 88 | 84 B68(b42) [071] ra no to | ra 15 17 13 | 15 B10 [027] [?] ru ka ri 28 25 96(=85) B25 [008] ru? lu ku ro | ku 28 24 110 97? | 110 B77(b51) [082] sa a la/zo na? | ka 57(=16=48) 102(=101) 87/59? 8? | 25 B26 [081] sa nu ni ti | ta 57(=16=48) 103 99 23 | 4 B38(b12) [041] sa pi li | 16 50 9 | B18 [003] [ ] | sa pu pa ni 101? - | 16(=57=48) 61 6 99 B13 [012] sa ro 16 97 B33(b7) [036] sa ta nu? ze? 48 4 68? 86 B84 [090] sa wa la? | ka 16 95 88 | 25 B30(b4) [034] se pu ro |\|sa? ku 45 61 97 | 48? 110 B47(b21) [047] [cp. B11, B51] se pu ro | ra 45 61 97 | 15 B51(b25) [051] [cp. B11, B47] se pu ro | to ta 44 61 97 | 13? 4 B11 [020] [cp. B47, B51; B9] si | nu (or: si ta nu) 27 | 103(=68) (27 4 103) B3 [023] si na ki | sa 27 8 70 | 16(=48=57) B46(b20) [056] si o? po | i? la to? 27 84 12 | 104 87 78? B61(b35) [064] [ cp. B41 si pi po] a | si pa ro 102(=101) | 27 6 97 B2 [022] si pi po | pi 27 50 14(=12) | 50 B41(b15) [044] si sa to | ti ya po li ya 27 48(=16=57) 13 | 23 69 12(=14) 9 69 B7 [025] su ki no | mo 46 70 17 | 73? B73(b47) [077] su ko ri la 106 21 85(=96) 88 B36(b10) [039] su ti | se 46(=106?) 23 | 44 B35(b9) [038]

Stones that Speak

ta mi - si - 4 91 - 27 - - B17 [015] ta to? ri? [ ] 4 13 [ ] B85 [091] ta ye po ya | lo 4 36 12 69 | 5 B71(b45) [075] ti mo ma li mo 23 77(=73) 43 9 77 B8 [026] to ta ro | a 13 4 97| 102 [cp. B11] B9 [029] to to ro | pi 81? 81? 97 | 50 B56(b30) [059] [cp. B76] to to ro? | ke? mu ? 81? 81? ? | 84 39 ? B76(b50) [080] [cp. B56] a ? | to ya ta 102 ? | 13 72 4 B65(b39) [068] we ri la ze 1 85(=96) 88 112 B39(b13) [042] wi ru ko | u 41(=37) 28 21 | 19 B20 [018] wi ru ko | ma 41(=37) 28 50? | 43(=53) B21 [004] ze? [ ] ze? 112 [ ] 112 B78(b52) [083] [zo no li se] B82 [087]

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IN SEARCH OF THE PAST - THE HITTITES OF ANATOLIA

Turkey's soil is rich in ruins: Ottoman, Roman, Seljuk, Byzantine, Greek.but far older than any of those cultures—and forgotten almost entirely for 3000 years—are the remains of the first Indo-European power in the Mediterranean area: the Hittites. Their arrival in Anatolia—the Asian part of Turkey, known also as Asia Minor changed the political map of the Middle East, at that time dominated by the civilizations born in the valleys of the Nile, the Tigris and the Euphrates. The Hittites ruled in Anatolia and beyond for almost 1000 years thereafter they vanished from human memory, to be rediscovered only at the beginning of the 20th century. Only the Bible carried some short references to the Hittites, presenting them as one of the tribes of Palestine in the first millennium BC. It was a "son of Heth, a Hittite who sold the Prophet Abraham the land to bury his beloved wife Sarah. Who were the Hittites? Their discovery is still one of the most fascinating stories of the early archaeological and philological explorations of the Middle East. The ruins of their once monumental palaces and temples, their rock-reliefs in the middle of the wilderness of the Anatolian steppes, and their stone inscriptions in the least expected places were known by local people but overlooked, or ignored, by Europeans. In 1812, for example, a Hittite hieroglyphic inscription was discovered carved on a stone built into the corner of a house in Hama, in modern Syria, by the Swiss traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhard. But this find—like others in the area—was ignored until it was rediscovered in the 1870's by William Wright tried to get official permission to copy some inscriptions that he had seen at Hama and elsewhere and carry them off to Istanbul. He succeeded in one of his goals, He received permission but the local population was not very friendly toward him and did not like his plans for the inscribed stones, either. The stones, they believed, could cure diseases such as rheumatism if the sufferer touched them or rubbed against them.

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Some citizens of Aleppo thought that taking the inscriptions out of their original places might bring bad luck, and preferred to destroy them rather than let them be profaned by foreigners. Nonetheless, the copies were finally made. In the 1870's the inscriptions were independently attributed by Wright and Oxford University linguist A. H. Sayce to the "sons of Heth" mentioned in the Bible. In 1874, another researcher, William Hayes Ward, decided that the hieroglyphics on these stones—unrelated to the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt—were not decorations or magic signs, but a writing system which should be read "boustrophedon," that is, "as the ox plows": the first line from left to right, the second from right to left, the third from left to right again, and so on. But after years of study only a very few hieroglyphic signs could be identified and assigned their proper meaning. In fact, it took scholars almost a whole century to achieve a degree of certainty in reading this hieroglyphic Hittite-Luvian script, as it was called. And it would not have happened at all but for the 1945 discovery, in Karatepe in southern Turkey, of inscriptions that presented the same text in hieroglyphic Hittite-Luvian and in the Phoenician alphabetic script. Working between the known script and the unknown one, the HittiteLuvian hieroglyphics were deciphered. About 1894, another discovery was made in Anatolia. At Bo÷azköy in central Anatolia, cuneiform clay tablets were found by the French archeologist Ernest Chantre. He brought them to Europe, where they became the center of attention for many scholars. The cuneiform writing system was familiar, thanks to earlier work on tablets discovered during numerous excavations in Iraq. But the language of the Bo÷azköy texts, as well as the identity of the people who wrote it, were a mystery. In assigning these texts to their "owners," the so-called Amarna tablets, found in Egypt two decades earlier, were of great help. The royal archives of Tell el-Amarna, a city occupied between 1375 and 1360 BC, comprised the official letters of two Egyptian pharaohs, Amenhotep III and Akhenaton, and included some 400 cuneiform tablets, mostly in the Akkadian language,the lingua franca of the Middle East in the second millennium BC. Among them, however, there were also some tablets written in the same language as those from Bo÷azköy. Since both the Bible and Egyptian written sources referred occasionally to the Hittites as a power comparable to Egypt itself, scholars concluded that something like a Hittite empire must have existed in Anatolia some time in the second millennium BC.

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Early in this century, University of Vienna professor BedĜich Hrozný realized that Hittite was the oldest known Indo-European language. His discovery was based on this short sentence written in cuneiform: NU NINDA-AN EZZATENI WATAR-MA EKUTENI . Since many Babylonian words were included in Hittite texts, the clue was provided by the Babylonian word ninda, which means "food" or "bread." Hrozný asked himself a very simple question: What does one do with food or bread? The answer, of course, was, one eats it. So the word ezzateni must be related to eating. Then the -an suffix on ninda must be a marker for a direct object in the Hittite language, added to the Babylonian word for "food" or "bread." With these two propositions in hand, Hrozný looked at both the vocabulary and the grammar of Indo-European languages. He noted that the verb to eat is similar to Hittite ezza- not only in English, but also in Greek (edein), Latin (edere) and German (essen), and especially in medieval German (ezzan). Suspecting strongly that the Hittite language was of Indo-European origin, Hrozný identified the suffix -an as the accusative-case marker still preserved in Greek as -n. If that was true, the second line of the inscription was not much of a problem, since it began with the word watar, which could easily be translated as English water or German Wasser. Hrozný proposed the reading of the whole sentence as; NOW BREAD YOU EAT, THEN WATER YOU DRINK. He turned out to be right. Hittite was an Indo-European language! The texts uncovered at Bo÷azköy and elsewhere in Anatolia opened up a new chapter in the history of ancient civilizations, written by the Hittites and other Indo-European peoples—Luvians and Palaians—who arrived in Asia Minor at the end of the third millennium BC or a little later. The land they came from and the route they took in their search for a new homeland are still among the unsolved mysteries of the past. Might they have come from the vast steppes of Russia, as Turkic tribes did some 30 centuries later? Or were they from the once dense forests of Europe? The search for those answers is still on, wherever they came from, it seems that the Indo-Europeans' infiltration into Asia Minor was rather peaceful, in spite of some violent local conflicts described in the archives of Bo÷azköy. The Hittites settled down mostly in central Anatolia, while the Luvians established themselves in the southwest, and the Palaians spread out to the north. Not much is known about either the Luvians or the Palaians, because not many texts by them or about them have been found, but the Hittites left behind rich archives that are fascinating in their content.

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Anatolia was not empty when the Hittites arrived. The Anatolian cultures of the time were relatively rich but small communities whose royal tombs have been discovered in such places as Alaca Hüyük and Horoztepe. Gold, silver and bronze objects from these tombs are considered to be of equal or higher quality than the treasures found in ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia. These people spoke Hattic, a language of different structure than Indo-European or other languages known from the area. We have few texts or other clues.this language, and the identity of its speakers, are still a matter of speculation, but we do know that the Hattic people, and the land of Hatti, became part of a new political entity known as the Hittite Old Kingdom in about 1650 BC. The kingdom's founder, Hattusilis1, rebuilt the city of Hattusas— destroyed and cursed by the pre-Hittite ruler of the area—and proclaimed it his capital. Here, in Hattusas, now known as Bogazköy, the cuneiform texts of the ancient Hittite kings spoke again some 35 centuries later. Hattusilis I set up the rules and directions for the future development of his kingdom. The Hittites would rule in a flexible way, accepting the customs, traditions and deities of any land which became part of their growing empire. Hence, the Hittite kingdom is often called the "kingdom of thousands of gods." All the deities, those of the conquerors and those of the conquered, were to be worshiped in their own languages and according to their own customs. They were left as rulers of their lands,lthough their earthly representatives had to recognize Hittite suzerainty. The originally small Hittite kingdom of Central Anatolia soon grew beyond Asia Minor. The Hittites looked with interest to Syro-Palestine and even to the famous civilizations of Mesopotamia. In 1595 BC the grandson and successor of Hattusilis I, Mursilis I, took northern Syria and the city of Aleppo. In the same campaign he conquered Babylon, putting an end to the first Babylonian dynasty of Hammurabi. But though his military success was very impressive, its effects did not last. Mursilis was murdered on his return to Hattusas, and shortly thereafter the kingdom of the Hittites was once again limited to central Anatolia.The Hittites organized themselves again to conquer the world. The New Hittite Empire is usually dated to the period between 1450 and 1180 BC. Suppiluliumas I of the 14th century bc made Anatolia and Northern Syria his dominion. He did not repeat Mursilis's mistake of moving into an area which he could not directly control. Instead, through the most immediate conquests and a whole system of alliances, he founded a kingdom whose strength and wealth surpassed that of any other nation of the period.

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An Egyptian queen, alone after the death of her husband, asked Suppiluliumas to send one of his sons for her to marry, since she did not want to marry any of her courtiers. Suppiluliumas, apparently incredulous that his son could become a pharaoh, took his time in checking the legitimacy of the queen's letter. Offended, the queen sent another letter, whose genuineness was confirmed by Suppiluliumas's secret service, and he sent his son to Egypt for a wedding that could have had considerable consequences, had it happened. Instead, the prince was murdered by enemies of the queen before he reached Egypt, and she disappears from Egyptian records shortly after this event. Another ruler of the Hittite Empire, Muwatallis, had a less than friendly brush with Pharaoh Ramses II. Both the Hittites and the Egyptians were so interested in the political and economic importance of the SyroPalestine area between them that conflict was inevitable. Their two armies met in one of the most famous battles of history, at Kadesh on the Orontes River in about 1286 BC. Historian O. R. Gurney describedthe battle as follows. “The Hittite army based on Kadesh succeeded in completely concealing its position from the Egyptian scouts; and as the unsuspecting Egyptians advanced in marching order towards the city and started to pitch their camp, a strong detachment of Hittite chariotry passed round unnoticed behind the city, crossed the river Orontes and fell upon the Egyptian column with shattering force. The Egyptian army would have been annihilated, had not a detached Egyptian regiment arrived most opportunely from another direction and caught the Hittites unaware as they were pillaging the camp. This lucky chance enabled the Egyptian king to save the remainder of his forces and to represent the battle as a great victory.” The results of the battle, which confirmed the status quo in the Middle East—the division of influence in Syro-Palestine between Egypt and Anatolia—were sealed some 16 years later by an international treaty signed by Hattusilis in and Ramses II. The treaty also represents one of the last attempts to keep the growing power of the Assyrians of what is now northern Iraq out of the area controlled by the Hittites and the Egyptians. However, it was not Assyria which caused the fall of the Hittite Empire. The blow was delivered by the so-called "Sea People," a group of possibly Indo-European tribes of disputed origin who attacked much of the Middle East by land and sea around 1200 BC. Eventually these people were stopped by Pharaoh Ramses III just at the borders of his own kingdom, but the damage was done. The Hittite kingdom was destroyed, along with many famous cities of the Anatolian

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and Syro-Palestinian coast. However, Hittite cultural traditions were kept alive for the next few hundred years in the so-called Neo-Hittite states of southern Turkey and northern Syria. And the ruins of many of their constructions can be admired all over Anatolia. Source: Ewa Wasilewska PhD. University of Utah.

Bedrich Hrozný Linguist – Decipherer of the Hittite Language Professor Bedrich Hrozný grew up in the old Hapsburg, AustrianHungarian Empire. He was born in Lysá nad Labem, Bohemia, AustriaHungary. In the town of Kolín, Bohemia now part of the Czech Republic on May 6.1879.he died in Prague,December 18 1952. Hrozný was a person of academic fortitude. He became in his lifetime an Archaeologist, an Orientalist and a Linguist. He became renowned as a language scholar studying Hebrew and Arabic, at the University of Vienna Akkadian, Aramaic, Ethiopian, Sumerian and Sanskrit, as well as the cuneiform used in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia and Persia he also studied orientalism at Humboldt University of Berlin. In 1904 he took part in excavations in northern Palestine (1904), He became Professor at the University of Vienna (1905) In 1906, at Hattusa (modern Bo÷azköy, about 200 km east from Ankara) a German expedition found the archives of the Hittite kings in cuneiform, but in an unknown language. whilst investigating inscriptions at the Hittite royal archives discovered at Boߩazköy, Tur, he postulated that Hittite belonged to the Indo-European family of languages and was related to (100 of 494 words) this laid the groundwork for the development of Hittitology.. Published in German or French. Hrozný was an outstanding student,well-learned in ten languages, Semitic and European. He gained much experience from his archaeological expeditions in Turkey and Palestine, he found , translated and published some 5000-year-old recipes for brewing Sumerian beer. His accomplishments led to his greatest achievement. The decipherment of the Hittite language in 1915. He travelled to Istanbul to retrieve copies of the Hittite tablets. On his return he was conscripted into the wartime Austrian Army where his posting as a clerk allowed him ample time for decoding the writing. While on active duty in the Austro-Hungarian army in 1917 he published a description of the language and its grammar showing that it was an Indo-European language.

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In 1925 Hrozný discovered 1000 cuneiform tablets containing contracts and letters of Assyrian merchants. .Working with texts from a Semitic region, Hrozný had hardly considered that the impenetrable language could have been of any other origin, until he began working with a particular set of rhymed line. “NU NINDA-AN EZZATENI WATAR-MA EKUTENI” At this point Hrozný was inspired to follow a new train of thought. Recognising the Babylonian sign for bread, “ninda”, he considered the probability of the next word, “ezza”, to mean “eat” and thus its potential as a cognate of the Greek “edein”, Latin “edere” and German “essen”. Then seen like this, the other words leapt out – “nu”: now, “watar”: water – leaving Hrozný with his first successfully deciphered sentence: “Now you will eat bread and drink water”. He noticed a couple of critical passages where some of the context was known because the words were expressive of sense rather than being phonetic signs . For example the word for bread the word for god and so on were given and he found a couple of contexts in which he was able to surmise what the surrounding context meant and he added values into the words which proved to be correct, thus showing Hittite was a member of the Indo-European language. A language older than Sanskrit and Greek. “Hrozny believed that Cretan was an Indo-European language of the centum (sentum) type from Asia Minor and that it occupies a position somewhat between the cuneiform and the hieroglyphic Hittite. (Monografie Archivu Orientaniho 0 Vol.X11 – Praha (Prague), 1949) Note; the indication of a ‘centum- language’ he found in the two forms, kue and Kuiea. The Hittite code of laws was first published in 1922 by Hrozný. These were the one of mankind’s earliest sets of written law. The code regulated all aspects of life. His translation of the Hittite legal code gave A concise illustration of life of a society that had not been heard of for more than three millennia. An example of this code of law states; If someone kills a person in a quarrel, the killer shall produce the body and give four people from his household in recompense whether the slain person is a man or a woman. - If a free man kills a snake whilst speaking another's name, he shall pay forty shekels of silver. If the offender is a slave, however, he shall die.

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If someone injures a person and makes him ill, he shall care for him in his illness. In his place, he shall provide a person to work his estate while he recovers. When he recovers, the assailant will give him six shekels of silver, and he will also pay the doctor's fee himself.”

The thousands of Hittite tablets contain details of personal and religious life, they depicted in depth instructions for religious ceremonies, trade contracts and early inter-cultural treaties. One tablet c. 1283 BCE details a peace accord between the Hittites and the Egyptians under Ramesses II. During the 1930’s he tried to decipher the hieroglyphic script used in ancient India and Crete but failed in his effort. In 1939, he was appointed rector of Charles University prior to the German occupation. The universities were closed that same year. Hrozný continued to teach privately throughout the occupation. He had a major stroke in 1944. In 1949 he produced a monograph, a lengthy detail of inscriptions including some from Pylos It appears that he compared Minoan signs with Cyprriot, Egyptian, Hieroglyphic, Indus Valley (ProtoIndian script), cuneiform and Phoenician. He was one of the first to suggest that the ancient Minoans may have been ruled by women. Very little evidence of a male-ruler exists. The occupants of Minoan thrones may have been Queens. The World of the Past- Jacquetta Hawkes – Alfred A .Knopf- NY, 1963. His last academic Post was as Professor of cuneiform research and ancient Oriental history at Charles University, Prague (1919–52) Bedrich Hrozný will be remembered as the individual who deciphered Hittite, cuneiform which opened up the path to the ancient history of the Near - East. Attempts to Decipher Linear B Until the year 1939 Liner B tablets were only known from one site, (Knossos in Crete). Some vases are found on mainland Greece with inscriptions which depicted the appearance of Linear B. Carl Blegen of the University of Cincinnati explored the Messenian area near Pylos. Blegen found a probable site at Epano Englianos and together with the Greek Dr. Kourouniotis, a joint American-Greek expedition was organized in 1939. On their first ‘trial trench’, Blegen was astonished to find that the trench ran through what is now known as the archive room. The first season’s work produced no fewer than 600 clay tablets similar to the ones found at Knossos and were identical with inscriptions in Linear B Script.

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World War 11, intervened, delaying any further activity until 1952 when further tablets were found. Blegen then gave their editing in charge of Professor Emmett L.Bennett, Jr., a world’s expert on the reading of Mycenaean texts. The publication of ‘The Pylos Tablets’ in 1951 set the scene for decipherment. Dr. Alice E.Kober (who died at the age of 43 in 1950) made a Valuable contribution. She died prior to the decipherment by Ventris it was her studies that made this possible. Kober had posed various questions; 1/ Was it an inflected language? Using different endings to express grammatical forms? 2/ Was there a consistent means of denoting a plural? 3/ Did it distinguish genders? She was then able to demonstrate that the totaling formula, clearly shown as summations on a number of tablets had two forms; one was used for MEN and one for a class of animals and also for swords , etc. This led to the identification of sex of animals (depicted by adding marks to the appropriate ideograms.) She demonstrated that certain words had two variant forms, which were longer than the simple form by one sign. These became known as “Kober’s triplets”. She interpreted them as further evidence of inflexion; but they became destined to play an important role in the final decipherment. Her discoveries were the key for Ventris to solve the problem, followed by his death in a car accident in 1956.

Emmett L.Bennett The Decipherment of Linear B Dr. Emmett L. Bennett was born in Minnesota in 1918. His earlier years were spent in Ohio. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Classics from McMicken College of Arts and Sciences and at the University of Cincinnati in 1939, followed by his Master’s degree in 1941 while earning his Ph.D, at McMicken College. He worked with noted American archaeologist Carl Blegen (18871971) whose discovery of hundreds of Linear B tablets at Pylos, Greece became the focus of his life’s work.

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From 1942 to 1945 he served as a cryptanalyst for the War Department in Washington, D.C. Upon completion of his service, he returned to the University of Cincinnati to complete his Ph.D., which he earned in 1947. That same year he obtained a teaching position at Yale, which was later followed by a position at the University of Texas in 1958. In 1959 he joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin, where he remained after his retirement In 1988. Bennett is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Classics of the University of Wisconsin and until 1988 held the Moses Slaughter Professorship. Even after his retirement he remained active in the field, serving as a visiting scholar to many schools and programs including Bryn Mawr, The University of Cincinnatti , the University of Texas at Austin’s Program of Aegean Scripts and Pre-history and institutions in Rome and Athens. His studies of Linear B were seminal; his work founded a new subfield of classical studies, the study of Mycenaean scripts. Although he spent just three weeks in the archaeological field, his work on the Pylos tablets proved to be invaluable. His first publication on the Minoan fractional system was published in the American Journal of Archaeology in 1950 encouraged the studies of Michael Ventris and continues to be considered an authoritative work to this day. Bennett’s analysis and classification system of Linear B script greatly influenced Ventris’ progress who soon deciphered the script in 1952. After the decipherment,only minor changes to Bennett’s original classification needed to be made. Subsequent works of note include his 1959 publication of the Pylos texts in standardized and textual transcriptions. Bennett was first and foremost a passionate scholar. His extraordinary precision and attention to detail are well illustrated by the numerous grids, graphs and statistical calculations he completed in his work on Linear B. He was committed to research and accuracy, preferring to wait to endorse theories until close to irrefutable evidence had been presented. Prior to the decipherment (of Linear B), Bennett corresponded with Alice Elizabeth Kober. During the same period and in the two years preceeding the decipherment of Linear B, he collaborated closely with Michael Ventris. For years afterwards he remained a close to scholars like John Chadwick and Carl Blegen on both a professional and social level. Bennett was well-liked and greatly respected by his students, as attested by his continued close relationship with many of these individuals such as Thomas G. Palaima as they advanced into their own professional fields.

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Bennett’s remarkable career includes authorship of over sixty publications, including ten books. His biography published in 1988 in ‘Texts, Tablets and Scribes’, a volume edited in his honour. He founded the publication Nestor in 1957, an international bibliography of Aegean studies, Homeric society, Indo-European linguistics and related fields that he operated on his own for twenty years. Incidentaly ‘Nestor’ is still published today and also distributed in thirty countries, worldwide. He also served for several years on the editorial board of Kadmos, a journal devoted to the study of pre-Greek also early Greek epigraphy. He has been the recipient of many honors and awards which include numerous scholarships, two Fulbright Fellowships and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is an honorary member and honoray councilor of the Archaeological Society of Athens, Greece’s most distinguished archaeological organization and he remains one of only a dozen foreign scholars to have received this honor. In 1991, Bennett received the Gold Cross of the Order of Honor, the highest award that the Greek government could present to a foreigner. The Papers of the Program of Aegean Scripts and Prehistory, of Dr. Emmett L. Bennett Jr.13 The University of Texas at Austin Archive (P.A.P.) Dr. Bennett donated his Papers of the Program of Aegean Scripts and Prehistory to the care and custody of Dr.Thomas G. Palaima. they are contained in the P.A.P., archive at the University of Texas, at Austin. The collection contains much of Dr. Bennett’s research material, their archive states their acquisition includes the following material. Collection Summary Research material, publications, manuscripts, lecture notes, correspondence and photographic material. The bulk of the material consists of items related to the study of Linear B and Bennett’s correspondence with other scholars and colleagues in the Classical Studies field. Of the 4,042 items donated, the bulk of the material (3,772 items) are comprised of Research notes which include notations about Pylos and Knossos, images and reproductions.(Maps, diagrams and drawings.) 13

This is a condensed summary only the archive itself is much more substantial in size and quality of materials).

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The Linear B research material contains a large amount of photographic material includes tablet photographs (825 items) from Pylos, Knossos, Mycenaea, Khania and Tiryns. There are 365 excavation photographs from Pylos and Mycenae, of which, many were aken by Carl Blegen whilst excavating at Pylos. A significant portion of Linear B research material is comprised of material from his colleagues and other scholars in the Classical Studies field. These include items sent to Benett for review also over 1190 items of his correspondence with notable persons such as (Sir) Arthur Evans, Carl Blegen, John Chadwick, John Franklin Daniel, John-Pierre Olivier and Michael Ventris. also research notes by Alice Kober. The archive contains Bennett’s published, scholarly works, ‘The Pylos Tablets’ 1950 and the‘The Mycenae Tablets 11’ also a number of other publications associated with ‘Nestor’ the international bibliography of Aegean Studies and his 1947 Ph.d dissertation . ‘The Minoan Linear Script from Pylos’, Class lecture notes, much material from Bennett’s teaching career at the University of Cincinnati, Texas and Wisconsin.

Alice Kober Alice Kober's work was her life. What remains of that all-too-brief life (1906-50) is preserved in papers and notes and letters in the archives of the Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory (PASP) at the University of Texas at Austin.’She was undeniably the top scholar in her field of research. Still, in her final three years, while critically ill, she chose to do editorial and secretarial work for an aging British scholar, Sir John Myres. She put aside her work and any thoughts of personal glory, because she saw what was needed to correct past mistakes in her field. Background One of her professors declared that Alice Elizabeth Kober declared at her graduation from Hunter College in 1928 that she “would decipher, the Minoan linear scripts.” She had learned about the scripts in an undergraduate course entiltled, ‘Ancient Greek Life.” Throughout her career as a professor at Brooklyn College, she taught standard courses on Greek and latin authors and on general subjects in classical culture. She never taught a single course in linguistics or epigraphy, or the Aegean Bronze Age.

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The discovery of additional Linear B tablets at Pylos in 1939 seems to have induced Kober to focus her scholarly interests seriously upon the undeciphered scripts of the Aegean. She set herself to acquiring the linguistic tools necessary to work on the decipherment. In her non-teaching time, between 1940 and 1945, she learned many ancient and ‘Old World’ languages and scripts-from the scientific and logic method acquired in her undergraduate days, to lay out a program of systematic study of the known texts designed to ferret out patterns of morphology and syntax. Through Kober’s work, most serious scholars actually learned to shy away from arbitary comparisons between characters in the Aegean linear scripts and those of contemporary or later Cypriote and Near Eastern writing systems. Sir John L. Myers an eminent Greek historian had taken part in Arthur Evans’ excavation at Knossos and had written a superlative assessment of the origins of the Greek culture in ‘Who Were The Greeks?” (1930) in 1941 it ‘fell to him’ to manage the intellectual inheritance of Sir Arthur Evans and in particular to realize the publication of Sir Arthur’s manuscript -in-progress, the definitive edition of the Linear B tablets from Knossos, known as Scripta Minoa 11.Myres enlisted the help of Michael Ventris, Alice Elizabeth Kober and Emmett L.Bennett, Jr. And they brought it to press in 1952. In a long exchanges Myres explained to Ventris his own notions of which sign group in the Linear B texts were likely to be place names and personal names. Myres correctly deduced that the personal names must conform to the well-known Greek pattern of compound formation but cautiously explained that such a pattern also had parallels in Semetic. Through his editorial work on Scripta Minoa 11, Myres provided one of the main tools by which scholars could begin to answer better his own personal question posed twenty years earlier “Who Were The Greeks?” In July 1952, British architect Michael Ventris announced that he had deciphered the complex prehistoric writing system known as Linear B (1600-1200 BCE). The formal publication of his findings coincided with Sir Edmund Hillary's conquest of Mount Everest and the analysis of DNA by Francis Crick and James Watson. Ventris was honored with an Order of the British Empire award but there is good reason now to view Kober's contribution to Linear B studies as even more vital -- and more unsung -- than that of Franklin's to DNA research. In the past year,for the first time ever, Kober's assorted study materials have been professionally archived, and a pilot-test for scanning and digitizing her material is under way.

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Classics graduate students Amanda Krauss and David Hill have finished editing an unsurpassed technical linguistic monograph that Kober left in typescript stage when she began assisting Myres. Stephie Nikoloudis of Classics, Uri Kolodney and Aaron Choate of the Digital Library Services Division, and Mark McFarland, Assistant Director of the General Libraries, have put together the design to bring Kober's materials into the electronic age. Kober had no computers, so she invented the equivalent, using her mind and her note cards to compile meticulous and beautifully presented statistics. She manipulated these entirely in the scant spare time she had away from her duties as a poorly paid, low-ranking professor at Brooklyn College. Kober painstakingly cut more than 186,000 2" x 3" note cards from salvaged exam books, greeting cards, envelopes, church flyers and any other scrap of paper she could find, recycling paper which World War II rationing made scarce. Each card is packed with technical information about the occurrences of the 90 phonetic characters in the undeciphered Linear B script.

She was the first to detect inflectional patterns in Linear B. These occurred in threes and became known, in humourous tribute to the maiden scholar who found them, as “Kober’s Triplets” Kober was also the prime mover in editing the Linear B tablets from Knossos for Scripta Minoa 11.although she was frustrated by the inaccesibilty of the original tablets in the post-war Heraklion Museum. The poor quality of Evans photographs, and Sir John Myres’ own understandable desire to preserve much of the outdated contents of the manuscript he inherited from Evans. Kober preserved her awe-inspiring cigarette carton files containing miniscule but precise drawings of all the available texts, analyses of all sign occurrences by word-position and comparative data from other contemporary scripts.

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She was the first to stress the need to improve upon the existing competing signaries for her script, so that no one could be sure which signs were which, before proposing values. She was also the first to propose that the undeciphered tablets be classified according to their ideographic characters and other elements of textual context and layout. Her excellent system has now been replaced by the independently devised system of Emmett L. Bennett, Jr. Just prior to her death, she was working with Sir John Myres on a substantaial typescript of an undated corpus of Linear A and Cretan Hieroglyphic inscriptions known as Scripta Minoa 111, it was never published. If Kober were alive today, she would have little time for us. As a scientist, statistician, detective, linguist, teacher, author, calligrapher and finally editorial factotum, she was devoted to her research. She suffered no fools. She demanded precision of herself and others. She spoke and wrote in no-frills, spin-free English, direct and blunt, prickly and undiplomatic. The PASP archives reveal a gentler side to Alice Kober. She took extra care in cutting a greeting card used as a tabbed divider, perfectly centering a fawn lying in a bed of flowers. She showed great concern for her colleagues in England during World War II, sending them care packages and inquiring after their well-being. She lived with her mother and had a comfortable relationship with a brother who supported her efforts. Her human-ness is startlingly confirmed when an errant strand of her hair is found tucked into a Brooklyn College spiral notebook replete with tabulations. It is heartbreaking to read her letters to Myres as she confronts her terminal illness. She is befuddled by her lack of energy, insistent that she is on the mend, and convinced that the "cure is worse than the cause." She held this belief up to her final letter to Myres written just days before her death. Kober's story consists of a powerful mind, a gripping puzzle and a huge personal sacrifice. Her life lies buried, and is now slowly being revealed, in an archives. NOTE; – Alice Kober’s notes, letters and papers are preserved in the archives of the Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory (PASP) at the University of Texas at Austin.

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Alice Kober’s Review of the publication ‘edition princeps’ publ., G.Puggliesse Carratelli HAGHIA TRIADA Organization of material found at Haghia Triada Alice Kober took much interest in the work of Dr.Sundwall. She noted the practical and analytical interest in how he organized the tablet symbols for at Haghia Triada. (Morritt) “Before 1945 almost all our information about the Haghia Triada inscriptions come from Dr. Johannes Sundwall (Kober).” His books are; Minoische Kultverzeichnisse Aus Haghia Triada Uber Schilf – und Baumkult In Den Haghia Triada Weitere Bemerkungen 1 (1944) Weitere Bemerkungen 2 (1944) Weitere Bemerkungen 3 (1945) Dr. Sundwell first made it clear through his normalized re-arrangement of these tablets that the apparently chotic mixture of signs and numbers could be reduced to an orderly arrangement consisting of an introductory statement, a list of items (words and/or ideograms) followed by numerals and signs with fractional or quantitive meaning, and a summation, preceded by the “flying bird, cross” sign group which seems to mean “total”108 tablets are transcribed. The important features of each inscription are discussed with reference to similar words, ideograms and signs elsewhere. The publication of G.Pugliesse Carratelli’s publication,’editio princeps’ of all the Haghia Triada material has enhanced the importance of Sundwell’s contribution. In afew cases, Carratelli has been able to join fragments and enlarge an inscription.The result of long and intensive work and must be read in their original context by any scholar interested in the problem. Brooklyn College Alice E.Kober

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Success with Linear B Cryptology is the science of deduction and controlled experiment, hypothesis are formed, tested and often discarded until the cryptologist feels the cohesion of hypothesis and commonsense merge and the enigmatic code is finally unraveled allowing a final comprehension of what the script “says”. HAGIA TRIADA - HAGHIA TRIADA The Italian Archeological Team The hill of Hagia Triada, about two miles to the north-west of Phæstos, proved sufficiently fruitful to compensate the Italian explorers for the incomprehensible barrenness of Phæstos. Here stand the ruins of the Venetian church of St. George, itself built of stone which was hewn originally by Minoan masons. The retaining wall of the raised ground in front of the church had given way, exposing a section of archæological relics, Minoan potsherds, and fragments of alabaster, to a depth of more than six feet; and this accidental exposure led to the discovery of the Royal Villa, which the lords of Phæstos had erected as a dependency of the great palace, or as a country seat. Hagia Triada proved to be as rich in objects of artistic interest as Phæstos had been poor. Some of the fresco work discovered, in particular a scene with a cat hunting a red pheasant, reminiscent of the hunting-cat scene on the Mycenæ dagger-blade, is of extraordinary merit. The cat scene is judged by Professor Burrows to be superior in vivacity to the famous Egyptian Eighteenth Dynasty tomb-picture of the marsh-fowler with the trained cat, though to those familiar with the wonderful dash of the Egyptian work in question this will seem a hard saying.

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The Italian Archeological Team There can be nothing but admiration, however, for the three astonishing vases of black soapstone which were discovered at the villa. They remain a most convincing evidence of the maturity of Minoan art, and the mastery to which it had attained over the expression of the human form in low relief. It has been already noticed that the fine Minoan pottery is largely an imitation of earlier work in metal, and this is true also of these stone vases. What the Minoan craftsman was capable of when he was allowed to deal with the precious metals we can see from the few specimens which have survived to the present time. The Vaphio gold cups, with their bull-trapping scenes, are generally admitted now to be of Cretan workmanship, though found in the Peloponnese. Little of such gold-work has survived, for obvious reasons. The metal was too precious to escape the plunderer in the evil days which fell upon the Minoan Empire; and the artistic value of the vases and bowls would seem trifling to the conquerors in comparison with the worth of the metal. But the artists of the time worked not only in the precious metals, but also in stone, trying to reproduce there the forms with which they had decorated the vessels wrought in the costlier medium. Probably, when the steatite was worked to its finished shape, it was covered with a thin coating of gold-leaf, at least this suggestion, originally made by Evans, has been confirmed in one instance, where part of the gold-leaf was found still adhering to a vase discovered at Palaikastro by Mr. Currelly. In the case of the Hagia Triada vases the gold-coated steatite had no charms for the plunderer, who merely stripped off the gold-leaf and left its foundation to testify to us of the skill of these ancient craftsmen.

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THREE VASES – Described in detail The First Vase The largest of the three stands 18 inches in height. It is divided by horizontal bands into four zones. Three of these show boxers in all attitudes of the prize-ring—striking, guarding, falling; while the second zone rom the top exhibits one of the bull-grappling scenes so common in Minoan art, with two charging bulls, one of them tossing on his horns a gymnast who appears to have missed his leap and paid the penalty. The figures are admirably modelled and true to nature, save for the convention of the exaggeratedly slender Minoan waist, which seems to create an impression of unusual height and length of limb. The Second Vase The second vase is much smaller, and represents a procession which has been variously interpreted as a band of soldiers or marines returning in triumph from a victory, or as a body of harvesters marching in some sort of harvest thanksgiving festival. This interpretation seems, on the whole, the more probable of the two. In the middle of the procession is a figure, interesting from the fact that he is so different from his companions. He has not the usual pinched-in waist of the Cretans, but is quite normally developed, and he bears in his hand the sistrum, or metal rattle, which was one of the regular sacred musical instruments of the Egyptians. In all probability he is meant to represent an Egyptian priest, though what he is doing in a Cretan festival it is hard to tell. The three figures, possibly of women, who are following him, have their mouths wide open, and are evidently singing lustily. One of the figures, that of an elderly man, who appears to be the chief of the party, is clad in a curious, copelike garment, which may be either a ceremonial robe or a wadded cuirass. Apart from all questions of what kind of incident the artist meant to represent, the artistic value of his work is unquestionable. It has been said of this little vase that 'not until the fifth century B. C. should we find a sculptor capable of representing, with such absolute truth, a party of men in motion. The Third Vase The smallest of the three vases, only 4 inches in height, bears the representation of a body of soldiers with heads and feet showing above and below their great shields, which are locked together into a wall. The shields are evidently covered with hide, as the bulls' tails still show upon

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them. But the interest centres in two figures which stand apart from the others. One seems to be a chieftain or general; he has long, flowing hair, a golden collar round his neck, and bracelets on his arms, while in his outstretched right hand he holds a long staff, which may be the shaft of a lance, or, more probably, an emblem of authority, like the staves carried by Egyptian nobles and officials. His legs are covered halfway up to the knee by a genuine pair of puttees, five turns of the bandage being clearly marked. He appears to be giving orders to the other figure, perhaps that of a captain or under-officer, who stands before him in an attitude of respectful attention. The captain is slightly lower in stature than his chief, though this may be due to the fact that room has had to be found for the tall curving plume of the low helmet which he wears. His neck is adorned with a single torque, and he carries a long heavy sword sloped over his right shoulder. Instead of wearing puttees, like his commander, he wears half-boots, like those on the figurine discovered by Dawkins at Petsofa. Neither the chieftain nor his officer appears to wear any defensive armour; their only clothing is a scalloped loin-cloth, slightly more heavily bordered in the case of the chief than in that of the soldier; and the modelling of the bodies, with the indications of muscular development, particularly in the legs of the chieftain, is exceedingly fine, and of an accuracy marvellous when the diminutive scale of the figures is considered. The little vase is a valuable document for the appearance and equipment of the warriors of those far-off times, but it is also a treasure of art. 'The ideal grace and dignity of these two figures,' says Professor Burrows, 'the pose with which they throw head and body back, is beyond any representation of the human figure hitherto known before the best period of Archaic Hellenic art.' The interest of another Hagia Triada find arises from the fact that it appears to represent a religious ceremony in honour of the dead. The object in question is a limestone sarcophagus covered with plaster, on which various funerary ceremonies are painted. The artistic merit of the work is small, for the figures are badly drawn and carelessly painted, and in all likelihood represent the decaying art of the Third Late Minoan period; but the subjects and their arrangement are of importance. On one side of the sarcophagus a figure stands against the door of a tomb. He is closely swathed, the arms being within his wrappings, and his attitude is so immobile as to suggest that he is dead. Towards him advance three figures, one bearing something which, by a stretch of charity, may be described as the model of a boat, the others bearing calves, which,

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curiously enough, are represented, like the great bulls of the frescoes, as in full gallop. At the other end of the panel a priestess pours a libation into an urn standing between two Double Axes, with birds perched upon them. Behind the priestess is a woman carrying over her shoulders a yoke, from which hang two vessels, while behind her, again, appears a man dressed in a long robe, and playing upon a seven-stringed lyre. On the opposite side of the sarcophagus, the painting, much defaced, shows another priestess before an altar, with a Double Axe standing beside it, a man playing on a flute, and five women moving in procession. On the ends of the sarcophagus are pictures, in one case a chariot drawn by two horses, and driven by two women; in the other, of a chariot drawn by griffins and driven by a woman, who has beside her a swathed figure, perhaps again representing a dead person. The figures of the lyre and flute players are interesting as affording very early information concerning the forms of European musical instruments. The double flute employed shows eight perforations, and probably the full number, allowing for those covered by the player's hands, was fourteen. The lyre approximates to the familiar classic form, and the number of its strings shows that Terpander can no longer claim credit as being the inventor of the seven-stringed lyre, which was in use in Crete at least eight centuries before the date at which his instrument was mutilated by the unsympathetic judges at Sparta to put him on a level with his fourstringed competitors. More important, however, is the suggestion of Egyptian influence in the grouping of the figures. No one familiar with the details of the ceremony of 'opening the mouth' of the deceased, so continually represented in Egyptian funerary scenes, can fail to recognize the original inspiration of the scene on the Hagia Triada sarcophagus. The tomb in the background, the stiff swathed figure propped like a log in front of it, the leafy branch before the dead man, taking the place of the bunches of lotusblooms, the offerings of meat, and the sacrifice of the bull—this is an Egyptian funeral with the mourners dressed in Cretan clothes. We have already seen a priest from the banks of the Nile brandishing his sistrum in the Harvest Procession; and the sarcophagus suggests that Egyptian religious influence was telling, if not on the actual views of the Cretans as to the state of man after death, at all events upon the ceremonial by means of which these views were expressed. Phæstos and Hagia Triada, we must remember, owing to their position, would be more exposed to Egyptian influence than even Knossos, where traces of it are not lacking.

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The villa at Hagia Triada showed the same attentive care for sanitary arrangements which has been already noticed at Knossos. Mosso has noted an illustration of the honesty with which the work had been executed 'One day, after a heavy downpour of rain, I was interested to find that all the drains acted perfectly, and I saw the water flow from sewers through which a man could walk upright. I doubt if there is any other instance of a drainage system acting after 4,000 years. The excavations at Knossos, Phæstos, and Hagia Triada have yielded, in the main, evidence of the splendour of the Minoan Kings; but other sites in the island, while presenting perhaps nothing so striking, have added largely to our knowledge of the common life of the Minoan race. HAGHIA TRIADA The Findings of Professor ILSE SCHOEP Archaeologist, Leuven, Belgium Her decipherment and archive of ‘finds’ at the Site HAGHIA TRIADA LM IB context Schoep 2002, 179: according to Caratelli, tablets 1-50 and 58-84 are thought to come from the Villa and 85-154A from the Casa del Lebete (from the way they were found, probably stored in a wooden box). The joins 23+150 and 70+151 cast some doubt on the accuracy of these findspots, however. According to Militello, HT 85-113 come from Casa room 7 (excavated in 1904) and 114-121 and 129-131 (1912 excavations) come from Casa room 9. In the Villa, tablets come from at least 5 locations: HT 24 was found in the South-West Quarter, on the threshold between corridor 9 and vestibule 26, along with 45 noduli; 11 tablets (including HT 1-5) were discovered in the North-West Quarter, in the area of portico 11 and room 13, also 1000+ nodules (inscribed and uninscribed); some very fragmentary tablets were found in room 72; thus the majority of well preserved tablets come from magazine 59 where they were found in and between 2 pithoi placed against the south wall (magazine 59 is part of a large storage area consisting of different units destined for the storage of different commodities: liquids in rooms 8, 61, 17), dry commodities (in rooms 58, 59, 5), and more valuable commodities such as metals (ingots, fragments of gold) (in rooms 57, 7, access to which was more restricted). Room 57a produced a bronze double ax and a steatite cup; room 7 contained five

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stacks of nineteen bronze ingots; and room 7a yielded bronze statuettes and gold foil. HT 1, page tablet (HM 3) (GORILA I: 2-3), effaced graffito on the reverse Schoep 2002, type IV (people?) HT Scribe 21 line statement logogram number fraction .1-2 QE-RA2-U • KI-RO 197 .2 ZU-SU 70 .2-3 DI-DI-ZA-KE 52 .3-4 KU-PA3-NU 109 .4 A-RA-NA-RE 105 .5 vacat  HT 6, page tablet (HM 8) (GORILA I: 12-13) Schoep 2002, type III (single commodity) HT Scribes 16 (for HT 6a, b.1-3) & 17 (for HT 6b.4-6) side.line statement logogram number a.1 KA-PA • a.1-2 DA-TA-RA • TE • FIC 15 a.2-3 PI-TA-JA 24 a.3 JA+RU a.3-4 MA-*321 10 a.4 O-RA2-DI-NE 2 a.4-5 KA-PA-QE 5 a.6 DA-QE-RA • a.6-7 QE-PI-TA 22 a.7 FIC 15 b.1-2 b.2 b.2-3 b.4 b.5

WA-DU-NI-MI RA-TI-SE MA-RI-[•]-I DU-DA-MA DA-KI

3 1 3 66 3

"fraction"

DD

JE JE J H

E

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b.5-6 b.6

SA-MA PA3-NI-NA

35 17

HT 24, page tablet (HM 33) (GORILA I: 42-43) Schoep 2002, type Ic (mixed commodities) side.line statement logogram KI *560[ a.1 KU-PA3-RI-JA • {MA+RU[} a.2 *561 a.2 {MA+RU ME} a.3 *561 a.3 {MA+RU ME} *561[ a.4 PA-SA-RI-JA • {MA+RU ME[} *560[ a.5 ]RU-I-KO • {MA+RU[} b.1

b.2

J

number fraction

]6 10 ]9

J

6

]*118 1 *531 {RU+MU KI} 1 *118 *539 1 {JA+KA} *118

b.1-2

b.3-5

371

J

JE JE

vacant

Diagram by kind permission of Professor Ilse Schoep14

14

The Diagrams represented here are but a miniscule overview of the items deciphered and catalogued by Professor Ilse Schoep.

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Diagram HT 24 The tablet was found on the threshold between corridor 9 and vestubule 25, along with 45 noduli; the total of wool mentioned here is more than 36.5 units, so it is possible that the noduli refer to the units mentioned in the tablet (Schoep 2002, p. 196). side a deals with wool; KU-PA3-RI-JA looks like an adjective derived from KU-PA-RI, perhaps a place near Petras (PE 1); PA-SA-RI-JA looks like another adjective, derived from a hypothetical *PA-SA-RI (cf. PASE-JA [HT Wc 3001, 3002], I-PA-SA-JA [KH 10.3]) side b deals with commodities apparently measured by *118 HT 39, page tablet (HM 39) (GORILA I: 74-75), written by the same hand as wrote HT 31 (which also contains vase logograms) HT Scribe 12 side.line statement .1 TA-I-*123 .2 ]KU-RE-JU .2 KU[ .3 ]SA-MA-TI .3 KU-RE[ .4 vacat [ .5 ]KU-RO .6 .6 infra mutila

logogram

number fraction 10[ 8 10

*407VAS+A •]+KU •]+DU

100 2[ ]

.1: *123 may be the same as Linear B AROM (herbs, condiments, spices); for TAI-*123, see HT 9a.4-5, b.4. .3: for ]SA-MA-TI, cf. SA-JA-MA (HT 31.3, written by the same hand) and SA*323-MI on HT 29.4) *407VAS+A may imply that the name of the vase begins with .5: Perna 2003: "A" (cf. Linear B's vase ideograms with a [a-pi-po-re-we / amphora], ka [ka-ra-were, stirrup jar], or di [di-pa, depas]) Diagram by kind permission of Professor Ilse Schoep

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Michael Ventris The Decipherment of Linear B On 1st. June 1952 Michael Ventris asked a question of vital importance for the history of the Hellenic language; “Are the Knossos and Pylos tablets written in Greek?” Ventris was a highly gifted linguist, within the space of two years he had succeeded in traving and uncovering the writing system and phonetic value of most of the signs constituting the Linear B script on the tablets of Knossos and Pylos. His successful decipherment of the script led to the language of the tablets being recognized as Mycenaean Greek, a language spoken in Greece 50 to 700 years before the age of Homer. Ventris joined forces with the English philologist John Chadwick to promote a systematic investigation of Linear B. The two scholars presented the early stage of the Hellenic language in their article, “ “Evidence for Greek Dialect in the Mycenaean Archives.” (Journal of Hellenic Studies 73 (1953):84-103. Their results were accepted by most researchers, both archaeologists and philologists.the tablets proved to be a rich source of information mainly concerning Mycenaean administration, civilization and language. Tragically, Ventris was killed in a car crash in 1956. Ventris’ rare gift for languages was extended to sound mastery of modern Greek, the decipherment of Linear B stands as one of the greatest intellectual feats of the 20th, century. Shortly after his death a detailed study of three hundred tablets from Knossos and Pylos was published. Following the loss of Ventris, a whole generation of scholars led by John Chadwick continued to study the Linear B tablets from Sir Arthur Evans’ excavations at Knossos. Further tablets from Pylos, Mycenae, Tiryns, Thebes and Hania have since been studied and published. The results of all such studies over the past fifty years are impressive. Indeed the fact that the Mycenaean civilization and Its language have become well known and accessible to anyone interested in this field is enough for us to speak with enthusiasm. Work continues unabated. Linear B researchers meet up every five years to discuss and evaluate developments and new finds. In Crete the international team of Linear B scholars continues to study the Knossos Archive, which was further enriched by the discovery in 1984 of 3000 tablet fragments in a storeroom at Heraklion Museum. These new fragments are being systematically studied, in a research programme that aims to join these pieces together where possible and

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further integrate them into the other tablets in the archive to date more than 1500 ‘joins’ have been successfully accomplished. The decipherment of Linear B by Ventris, study of the Archive continues with the same rhythm and enthusiasm. It is the duty of today’s researchers to the memory of Ventris to continue our knowledge about Linear B, while also facing the ever greater challenge of Aegean Philology, Minoan Limear A. Ventris, M.”work note 20 (1-6-1952) Work notes on Minoan Language Research and other Inedited Papers, Sacconi, A(ed) 1988 Source: Dr.Gareth Owens – Book reviews of Michael Ventris (also of Ventris and Chadwick) Michael Ventris ‘Unlocking the Secrets of Ancient Writing’  Michael George Francis Ventris was the only child of Edward Francis Vereker Ventris. His Father was a career soldier, a Colonel who served for years in India. His Mother, Anna Dorothea Janasz . (Janaszowa) As a young schoolboy attended boarding school in England at the age of 6, most of his first 8 years in Switzerland with lessons conducted entirely in German or French. In those same years he taught himself Polish. He founded a school club called ‘La Kaboule’ at the age of 8 he purchased a copy of ‘Die Hieroglyphen’ by Dr.Erman then he studied Classical languages at Stowe. In 1935, the British School at Athens was celebrating its fiftieth anniversary with an exhibition at Burlington House, London. Among the speakers was Sir Arthur Evans, then in his eightyfourth year and the teenager Michael Ventris was present in the audience. Michael’s Classics Master recalled on that trip Michael asked “Did you say they’ve never been deciphered, Sir?” In 1939 because of hardships caused by the German invasion of Poland and confiscation of the property of his mother’s family , Michael left Stowe School. His mother Dorothea upon the death of her Father, committed suicide in 1940 at the age of 51. Michael was ‘adopted’ by close family friends, the Russian sculptor Naum Gabo and his American wife. They became, according to his wife Lois, “The nearest thing to a family Michael ever had.” He began his professional studies at the Architectural Association School in 1940, in this choice of Schools Michael was following advice his mother Dorothea had solicited from Marcel Breus in 1939. During what must have been a disturbing period for a solitary young man in his late teens, Michael concentrated his energies on writing his first serious scholarly article published in the American Journal of Archaeology

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in 1940. He sent a draft of this piece to the aged Sir Arthur Evans, then nearly ninety. When Sir John Myres came upon it sorting through Evans’s papers after his death, he contacted Ventris, who by then had married a fellow architecture student, Lois Knox-Niven. In a letter to Myres, Ventris expressed reservations about having proposed his ideas so incautiously in print, but he clung fast, as he would until shortly after his own correct decipherment, to his notion that Etruscan-related Pelasgian was written in the Linear A and B tablets. By this point Ventris was serving in the R.A.F., which he had joined in August 1942. He trained for six weeks in Winnipeg, Canada, where, according to a local high-society lady who entertained “Michael and the boys”, during musical weekends at her house, he spent the first week learning the material for the whole course and the next five improving his Russian. From November 1944 to April 1945 Ventris flew many missions over Germany. Because of his command of German he was assigned briefly to service in post-war Germany. Ventris never served in encoding or decoding. His wife Lois explained how the widespread belief that he had been involved in cryptoanalysis took hold. Those who took part in the British intelligence service during the war were sworn to secrecy for fifty years afterwards. When asked if he had performed wartime service in decoding, Michael truthfully denied being part of it. People interpreted his denial as his obeying his oath of secrecy. In 1946, Michael Ventris returned to Lois and their two children and to study at the Architectural Association School. While in Germany he had met one of his fellow architectural students Graeme Shankland who had also gone to Stowe School. Shankland, Oliver Cox and Michael and Lois Ventris formed a tightknit group,.they worked together on projects and shared common ideas about architecture and social philosophy. They became active contributors to the student association’s journal Plan and therin outlined clearly their own views of the theory of ‘group working in architecture’. In the Summer of 1947, Oliver Cox, Graeme Shankland and Michael Ventris went off to work in Sweden. During these ten weeks, Michael and his partners put into practice the techniques of ‘group working’. He also kept up intermittent correspondence with Sir John L.Myres about ongoing work on Linear A and B. In 1948 he became interested once again more intensively in matters of script and especially the editing and writing of Scripta Minoa 11, in which Sir John and the American Professor Alice Kober were principally engaged.

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From 1948 until his decipherment in June 1952, he carried on correspondence withScholars worldwide. Most of then had never been in contact with one another. Ventris drew them together into something like a ‘working group’ for the decipherment of the Minoan linear scripts. He pressed them for information, shared freely of his own ideas and circulated multiple copies of work notes containing his own thoughts and those of others. Following the announcement of his decipherment, Ventris collaborated with John Chadwick of Cambridge University, presenting the first resukts of the decipherment in a superb joint article in Journal of Hellenic Studies, for 1953. He then wrote what is still regarded as ‘the bible of Linear B texts’, ‘Documents in Mycenaean Greek’published in 1956. In 1954 the University of Uppsala in Sweden conferred an honorary doctorate upon Michael Ventris and in 1956 the Architects’ Journal research board awarded him a fellowship. He died in an automobile accident in the early morning hours of September 6.1956.

John Chadwick Whenever an important figure in scholarship. Science or the arts dies, it is an established procedure for obituaries to be published by people who knew him or her, thus honouring the deceased and making his or her work known to a wider public. Most times however words are not enough and what is of more diachronic and greater value if the work left behind that becomes a guide for their younger successors. This is actually the best way of paying honour to the dearly departed. On the 24th., November 1998, the heart of the philologist and interpreter of the tablets of the Linear B Knossos archive, John Chadwick stopped beating at the age of 78. John Chadwick graduated from the University of Cambridge. During the Second World War he served in the Royal Navy in the branch decoding messages from the Far East. When the war finished he was involved in the publication of the Oxford Dictionary of Latin, at the same time began research into the Greek dialects. In 1952, while listening to BBC Radio, he first heard the voice of a young man named Michael Ventris who was explainibg how he had deciphered Linear B. John Chadwick was the first person to congratulate Ventris om his scholarly achievement, he than keenly offered his services as a “mere philologist”, since he was an expert both in the early stage of the Hellenic languages and in the techniques of code breaking.Thus began

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a close and constructive collaboration and friendship which lasted 4 years and Was only ended by the tragically early death of Ventris at the age of 34. Ventris and Chadwick published a scientific article on the decipherment Journal of Hellenic Studies 73 (1953) 84-103, followed in 1956 by an academic book entitled ‘Documents in Mycenaean Greek’ in which they discuss 300 Linear B tablets from Knossos, Pylos and Mycenae thus establishing Linear B as a new field of study. To this day, specialists regard the book as the “Linear B Bible.” After the untimely death of Ventris, his collaborator John Chadwick dedicated more than 40 years to studying Linear B script and Mycenaean Greek. It must be also be stressed that like Ventris, his Wide knowledge of languages included Modern Greek while particularly noteworthy are his first works on “Hippocrates of Kos”. Chadwick’s skill and experience mainly focused on Greek dialects and most especially on Mycenaean, as admirably demonstrated in over 150 books, articles and reviews on the subject of Linear B. His most representative works on this subject are the three books which have been translated into Modern Greek ; “The Decipherment of Linear B” (1960) “The Mycenaean World” (1976) and “Linear B and Related Scripts”. (1987) It was a source of great pleasure for Chadwick when his book appeared in the language he loved so much. Based on Kober's work, and after making some inspired assumptions, Ventris was able to deduce the pronunciation of the syllables. To the amazement of Ventris himself, the deciphering of Linear B proved that it was a written form of Greek, in direct contradiction to the general scientific views of the times. Chadwick, an expert in historical Greek, helped Ventris decipher the text and rebuild the vocabulary and grammar of Mycenaean Greek. Ventris' discovery was of immense significance, because it demonstrated a Greek-speaking Minoan-Mycenaean culture on Crete, and presented Greek in writing some 600 years earlier than what was thought at the time. JOHN CHADWICK A Tribute by Dr.Gareth Owens “I regard myself as lucky in having the honour to meet John Chadwick a few times in Athens, London and Cambridge. In 1990 I met him at the 9th Mycenaean Congress in Athens and wasImpressed I must confess by his simplicity and politeness, and by the encouragement he showed towards us young students.

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The last time I met him was in Cambridge, one one of those cold winter’s days so typical of the area. I remember how he arrived on his bike, and how before I even realized it he offered me a hot cup of tea and then spread out his photographic archive of the Linear B tablets in front of me. John Chadwick has little if any need of an obituary. He will always remain in our memory for his outstanding academic work and his reputation as both a scholar and a gentleman. His name will always be connected with that of Michael Ventris, with whom he wrote a new chapter in thehistory of the Greek language.”

APPENDIX 100TH ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE PHAISTOS DISC

Held in the Rooms of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, 2008.

Top - N. Reed, Gareth Owens, Mark Merrony (Minerva), I. Timm, Dieter Rumpel, Tom Palaima, Richard Sproat, Nana and Nino Shengelaka. Bottom – Holding the Phaistos Disc – Left – Gia Kvashilava – Right. Jerome Eisenbeg (Minerva). Photograph supplied by Gia Kvashilava. Permission courtesy of Jerome Eisenberg – MINERVA

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Photograph courtesy of Dr. Gia Kvashilava

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Courtesy; Minerva

The Phaistos Disc – Origin – Real or a Forgery Introduction to the presentation of Papers at the 100th.Anniversary of the Phaistos Disc Conference, London, 2008.

Abstracts15 The Two Sides of the Phaistos Disk The Phaistos disc counts as one of the unsoved mysteries of the Aegean civilizations. There is a broad consensus that the text is too short for a decoding and that more iiscriptions using the same type of script are needed to make any progress. Despitethe brevity of the text a comparison of the two sides of the Phaistos Disk reveals interesting regularities. A structural analysis based on these regularities will be presented and discussed in this paper. A starting point for these considerations is a special feature of the Phaistos Disc. On the first view, the impression can arise that both sides appear different from each other. The reason for this is the frequency of some signs varies for each side. For instance, sign no.7,’breast’ or ‘helmet’, appears 15 times on side B just three times on side A. As a result of the structural analysis, a connection to Linear A and linguistic patterns can be revealed. —Torsten Timm – Dresden, Germany 15

Source: MINERVA (Kind permission of Jerome M. Eisenberg, Ph.D.

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Facts and Probabilities Regarding the Phaistos Disk and the Axe of Arkalokhon For the Disk a Minoan provenance an open syllable script are accepted by the vast majority of researchers and can practically be accepted as facts. Extrapolating the number of its character types and comparing them to the phonemic structure of Linear A, it can be shown that the text with high probability is written in a pure open syllable script without homophones and ideograms. Assigning a neutral open syllable code to the characters allows an easy representation on a computer, and a broad survey of the text. This can be used to analyse possible grammatical structures, which are much more obvious in right-bound reading than inverse. Transferring these results to the Arkalokhori Axe shows some provisory results. Practical experiments in producing Disk-like punches and a clay-disk demonstrate, that the punches were, with high probability, not produced for printing on clay, but for printing on a flat surface, e.g. papyrus (?) printing on, and firing the clay roundel can be done in a relatively straightforward way. —Dieter A. Rumpel, Dr. Ing, Dusseldorf, Germany

The Phaistos Disk: The Oldest Portable Calendar in Use by the Minoan Navy The Minoan Calendar had 10 months x 36 days = 360 days a year. Switching over from the original length of the year, 360 days, to a 365.25day year was creating a difference of a correctional addition of 5.25 induced days per year, which for purely practical and functional reasons was decided to be inserted every 4 years, when it corresponded to 21 induced days. A common festival with the participation of all Priesthoods, Kings and initiated Greeks took place in order to celebrate the start of the new Quadrennial at the Holy Place of the Olympian Zeus, in Elis of Peloponnese. This celebration is known to us as the Olympic Games. The Minoan Calendrical Abacus was the item to keep time. For the function of the abacus we need two 20 minute water clocks and 14 pawns, but it was impossible for it to work in the ships due to the water clocks and 14 pawns. For this reason the Minoan Priesthood had constructed a very clever portable calendar (242 pieces x 1.5 days duration each) in a spiral array known as the Phaistos Disk, according to all the specifications on it and the rest of the data, is a portable annual calendar compatible with the Minoan Calendrical Abacus, working without any movable parts, and it is composed of 61 weeks (60 weeks x 6days/week = 360 days + 1 week for 5.25 Epagomenal days. The total length of the years: 365.25 days. —Panagiotes D.Gregoriades, Athens, Greece

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Epigraphic Continuity of the Phaistos Disk Signary with Cretan Hieroglyphic and Linear Scripts Unless material analysis of the Phaistos Disk proves it to be of modern manufacture, we rely on evidence such as its textual properties to evaluate it. Many scholars have noted similarities between its signs and Linear A, though the enumeration of formal similarities alone is insufficient and generally unreliable. However, the relationships between Linear A and Cretan hieroglyphics have been studied with scholarly care)e.g., Brice 1990 a.b., Olivier and Godart CHIC) (Owens 1996) includes some disk signs, Pictographic correlates of many disk signs are evident in Cretan hieroglyphic and ‘monumental’ Linear A unavailable to Pernier (e.g. louktas libation tables). Some of the doubts raised by Eisenberg (2008) are easily dismissed; e.g. Linear AB78 sometimes has 7 dots, like disk sign 12; AB13, though usually abstract, has pictographic exemplars more like sign 30; and AB30 typically has two branches in Linear A, like sign 36. Texts from three axes from Arkalochori (Heraklion Museum no.2416, partial parallel text on AR Zf 1 and 2) establishes that AB28; I, derives from a sign like 02. The frequency of 02’s occurrence initially is consistent with AB28’s function as a prefix ,cf *79-ri-ni-ma (KN Zb 52) vs, i-*79-ri-ni-ta (PH 6.2); ru-ja (KN Wc 2) vs, i-ru-ja (HT 7 a.2), etc. The epigraphic continuity with Cretan hieroglyphs and Linear A/B seems secure for twelve disc signs, including 02 and 33, and is likely or possible for a further ten. —John Coleman, D.Phil., Oxford, UK

The Phaistos Disk: The Enigma of the Minoan Script The oldest example of writing from Europe is on a seal-stone found at Archanes, 10km from Knossos. The signs of this first script have been found from the Pre-Palatial period, mainly on seal-stones. The idea for the ‘Cretan Hieroglyphic’ Script probably came from the neighbouring literate civilization of Egypt, although the script like Mycenaean Linear A, was also syllabic in nature. Such inscriptions are found on clay tablets, seal-stones and various other objects. The’ Cretan Hieroglyphic Script’ (c. 2000-1600 BCE) was an invention of the First Palaces and is found in inscriptions in both an administrative and religious context/nature. The best known Minoan inscription is the Phaistos Disk. It is commonly accepted that the Disk can be read spirally (probably from the edge /rim inwards). It has a diameter of 16cm with signs on both sides, which are 242 in total and which can be divided into 61 sign-groups (31 and 30 respectively on its two sides) There are 45 different signs on the disk, too many for them to constitute an alphabet and too few for them to constitute a truly ideographic script, as is the case with Chinese. This

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Robert Morritt observation enables us to deduce that it is also a syllabic script, as is also the case with both Linear B and Linear A. It is obvious that the language of the Disk is so far unknown, and thus at present, the text is beyond our reach. This has not however deterred many potential decipherers from offering their own interpretation. A lot has been written about this Cretan inscription, indeed more than about any other. Most of it is the product of fantasy concerning the (in) famous Phaistos Disk. It is, however, feasible to ‘Read’ the Phaistos Disk, at least to some extent as a working hypothesis, using the phonetic sound values of Linear B and Linear A even though it is not yet possible to ‘Understand the Disk’. There follows a Tentative interpretation of two words on the Phaistos Sisk (23-19-35 A XXV11 and 2-12-31-26 A XV1; A X1X; A XX11) For a century now the Phaistos Disk has been hiding its secrets. Epigraphically, The Phaistos Disk is a Minoan inscription. Linguistically, the Minoan Language has been recognized As Indo-European. Therefore and theoretically, it should be possible to both “Read” and “Understand” the Phaistos Disk as an Indo-European Minoan inscription. “If you add only a little to a little and do this often, soon that little will become great” —Hesiod, Works and Days, ll, 352-369). These immortal words, written in the 8th or 7th century BC, are a fitting metaphor for the creation of the Phaistos Disk. In the last issue of Minerva (The Phaistos Disk: A 100-Year-Old Hoax, pp. 9-24) Dr Eisenberg persuasively argued that Luigi Pernier almost certainly did this when he created the Phaistos Disk 100 years ago: in an echo of Hesiod, the little are its pictograms; its greatness is celebrated by many as the most iconic Artifact of Minoan civilization. Now that great has become even greater: the publicity generated by the Minerva article made rapid headlines in The Times on 12 July in an article by Arts Correspondent Dalya Alberge - ‘Phaistos Disc Declared Fake by Scholar’, p. 35. This led directly to an astonishing 35,000 hits on TimesOnline, and was within the top 50 most read articles in The Times for July. Comments posted on the TimesOnline site attest to an equally swift olorisation of international opinions. Ismene Tromsø from Norway, for instance, takes a critical point of view: ‘This seems like defamation of the dead to me. Is there any evidence at all to support the claim that Luigi Pernier was a dishonest archaeologist who created a fake artefact in order to enhance his prestige?’ Others are considerably less circumspect. Sven Buchholz from Agios Nikolaos in Crete comments: ‘I have worked with Linear A as well as the Phaistos disc for many years. I have read the entire article! It is on 16 pages supported with illustrations. Eisenberg’s argumentation is very convincing to me who knows all the little details that he is referring to! His chain of evidence is sufficient!’

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A range of other opinions, for and against a modern provenance for the Phaistos Disk, may be found in Dr Eisenberg’s sequel article in the present issue (‘The Phaistos Disk: A 100-Year-Old Hoax? Addenda, Corrigenda, and Comments’ pp. 15-16). The public and scholars alike are welcome to express their opinions in the forthcoming Minerva-sponsored International Phaistos Disk Conference (on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of its discovery) to be held at the Society of Antiquaries of London, Burlington House, Piccadilly (Friday, 31 October – Saturday, 1 November 2008). This will be attended by the most distinguished scholars on the subject: the Keynote Speaker is in fact Louis Godart, Professor of Mycenaean Philology, University of Naples; Director, Archaeological Mission in Crete, University of Naples; author of The Phaistos Disc – the enigma of an Aegean script (1995); and Cultural Advisor to the President of the Italian Republic. Amid the overwhelming international publicity that the Phaistos Disk is currently generating, a broad cross section of those who have entered the debate are calling for the authorities of the Herakleion Museum in Crete to allow the Disk to be TL (thermoluminescence) tested. This is a relatively destructive-free dating technique that measures radiation levels relative to the modern era - and thus the age - of non- organic artefacts (like the Disk). The time is now ripe for this test to be implemented on the Phaistos Disk and allow scientific ‘truth’ to end this debate once and for all. (For a comprehensive technical explanation of TI dating see: www.ciram-art.com.) —Dr Mark Merrony- MINERVA – Oct.31-Nov.1.2008) (Permission – Jerome M. Eisenberg)

Dr.Merrony emphasizes well the conjecture of the validity of the Disc expounded by Dr.Eisenberg. the . Pernier’s experience was related mainly to archaic legal texts not in a mythological/religious context. Conveniently on the same site at the time of the ‘discovery’ was, Senior Archaeologist, Federico Halbherr he did have the background to have let Pernier (without his knowledge) ‘find’ the disc (amazingly unscathed surrounded by ash). I cite the investigation in 1885 by Halbherr at the Voskopoulas Cave on Rethymnos island where he ‘revealed the sacredness of the Cave’ which had the remnants of a Zeus, Rhea sacred site, perhaps from there the idea of a ‘Disc’ evolved. Pernier had no major discoveries it would add to the Italian team’s accolades.

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Phonetic Values of the Signs on the Phaistos Disc in Relation to the Cypriot Syllabary (poster presentation) By joining forces scientists will soon be able, I believe, to decode the inscription of the Phaistos Disc. In order to achieve this aim, first of all, the phonetic values of individual pictures have to be established, since it has been generally assumed that those 45 distinctly different signs constitute a script. Here is a proposal for reading most of them. Such an undertaking involves, of course, a lot of queries for debate. Many details need to be discussed, so it would be natural if my ideas inspired experts to criticism, hopefully constructive. In accordance with the common opinions of scholars, I have accepted three following principles: (1) Acrophonic principle: The writing of the Phaistos Disc is syllabic of the acrophonic type. (2) Linguistic principle: Greek is a very probable language of the inscription. (3) Comparative principle: Linear symbols, and especially those? of the classical Cypriot script, correspond to the Disc pictures.

(4) The Cypriot syllabary has turned out to be the continuation of that of the Phaistos Disc. The signs of the former seem to have developed from those of the latter. The Cypriot scribes seem to have simplified and adapted them for their aims. —Jan Bigaj,Ph.D., Ustrzyki, Dolne, Poland

The Phaistos Disk from a Trading Perspective (poster presentation) The Cretans were great merchants and traders, so it might be revealing to consider the disk as a business document of some sort, but quite possibly not in a textual form. As an island whose prosperity was built on trade Crete, at the time of the Phaistos Disk, must have had many similarities with the UK in the 18th and 19th centuries AD. The symbols can be interpreted as objects that relate to trade in some form that would be instantly recognisable to anybody in the trading fraternity. Many of them correspond to items which are known to have been widely traded in ancient times. In fact it is a reasonably exhaustive list of the trades and merchandise that would have been current at the time. Side B, with a spread of ‘word’ lengths of 3, 4 and 5 symbols, is statistically unlikely to be a written text but could well be a schedule of some sort. My suggestion is that it is a duty roster, possibly for market supervision, or days on which products were traded, with each impression representing the presence of the trader whose symbol it was.

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Side A has a wider spread of group lengths, and seems to have served a different purpose, possibly with a more military flavour. Some suggestions for the identity of the majority of the symbols is proposed here. This interpretation fits with many of the features that have been pointed out over the years, and it may cast light on trade at the time of its manufacture. —William H. Considine, B.Sc.,UK

The Phaistos Disc: An Ancient Enigma Solved: Two Corroborative Old Elamite Scripts can be Deciphered Using the Greek Syllabic Values Obtained for the Phaistos Disc Genuine or fake? This important issue was raised about the Phaistos Disk by Jerome M. Eisenberg, Ph.D., editor of Minerva. How can anyone prove, without any other probative evidence, that a virtually isolated artefact, one of a kind, is the real thing, and, similarly, how can one establish the correctness of an alleged decipherment of an isolated script without the presence of any corroborative texts? Eisenberg had hit the nail on the head. The Phaistos Disk presented the scholarly world with a vexing problem. This problem led Andis Kaulins, author of an alleged decipherment of the Phaistos Disk in the years 1977-1980, to look for a potentially corroborative script from the Ancient World that might have surfaced in the intervening 30 years. To the author’s own great surprise, two allegedly corroborative scripts were found, Old Elamite scripts from the distant culture of Elam, which the author has deciphered to be Ancient Greek text via his deciphered Greek syllabic values for symbols found on the Phaistos Disk as applied to the nearest similar pictographs found in Old Elamite, a script also not yet fully deciphered. The Old Elamite scripts are shown to be funerary dedications, one to the ancient ‘Babylonian’ king Labynetus, by his wife and companion Nitokris, and the other to Nitokris herself, identified as a Mycenaean, far from home. Perhaps Nitokris was the true ‘Helen’ of Troy of ancient Greek legend. —Andis Kaulins, J.D., Traben-Trarbach, Germany

The Phaistos Disk: The Enigma of the Minoan Script The oldest example of writing from Europe is on a seal-stone found at Archanes, 10km from Knossos. The signs of this first script have been found from the Pre-Palatial period, mainly on seal-stones. The idea for the ‘Cretan Hieroglyphic’ Script probably came from the neighbouring literate civilisation of Egypt, although the script, like Mycenaean Linear A, was also syllabic in nature. Such inscriptions are found on clay tablets, sealstones and various other objects.

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Robert Morritt The ‘Cretan Hieroglyphic’ Script (c. 2000-1600 BC) was an invention of the First Palaces and is found in inscriptions in both an administrative and religious context/nature. The best known Minoan inscription is the Phaistos Disk. It is commonly accepted that the Disk can be read spirally (probably from the edge/rim inwards). It has a diameter of 16cm with signs on both sides, which are 242 in total and which can be divided into 61 sign-groups (31 and 30 respectively on its two sides). There 45 different signs on the Disk, too many for them to constitute an alphabet and too few for them to constitute a truly ideographic script, as is the case with Chinese. This observation enables us to deduce that it is also a syllabic script, as is also the case with both Linear B and Linear A. It is obvious that the language of the Disk is so far unknown, and thus at present, the text is beyond our reach. This has not however deterred many potential decipherers from offering their own interpretation. A lot has been written about this Cretan inscription, indeed more than about any other, most of it however is the product of fantasy concerning the (in)famous Phaistos Disk. It is, however, feasible to ‘Read’ the Phaistos Disk, at least to some extent as a working hypothesis, using the phonetic sound values of Linear B and Linear A, even though it is not yet possible to ‘Understand’ the Disk. There follows a tentative interpretation of two words on the Phaistos Disk (23-19-35 A XXVII and 2-12-31-26 A XVI; A XIX; A XXII). For a century now the Phaistos Disk has been hiding its secrets. Epigraphically, the Phaistos Disk is a Minoan Inscription. Linguistically, the Minoan Language has been recognised as Indo-European. Therefore, and theoretically, it should now be possible to both ‘Read’ and ‘Understand’ the Phaistos Disk as an Indo-European Minoan inscription. —Gareth Owens, Ph.D., Heraklion, Crete, Greece

Emmett L. Bennett, Jr., Cryptanalysis, Decipherment and the Phaistos Disc There is a long and rich tradition of proposed decipherments or explanations of the Phaistos Disc. The purpose of this paper is to trace the common features that approaches to decipherment and interpretation of the PD have in common with ongoing attempts to decipher Minoan Linear A and even to re-decipher Mycenaean Linear B. The emphasis will be on the epistemology and practice of decipherment. For the purposes of this paper it does not matter whether the PD is genuine or a forgery. I incline to the latter view. For the purposes of attaining a solution, of course, there is a big difference. If the PD is genuine, then we are looking for what was in the mind of a forger in the early part of the 20th century with whatever knowledge she/he might have had of Aegean prehistoric cultures and languages. Examples will be drawn from the archives of Emmett L. Bennet, Jr., and Alice E. Kober at the

Stones that Speak Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory (PASP) at the University of Texas at Austin. —Nicholas Reed, M.A., M Phil., Folkestone, Kent, UK

Why the Phaistos Disc is Unlikely to be a Forgery Although Dr Eisenberg’s arguments for a forgery are well marshalled, there is a counter-argument for each of them. But the theory of forgery has to explain why, on 16 occasions, the faker carefully obliterated the sign he had first stamped, and then replaced it with another sign (see Godart, pp. 98-107). Surely a forger normally tries to create a ‘perfect’ version of their forgery. If they fail the first time, they would then make a better version, and destroy the imperfect one. Secondly, there is no reason why a forger would make ‘corrections’. He did not have a particular message in mind, and, according to Dr Eisenberg, the signs were being impressed ‘at the whim of the creator’ to make a nonsense message. Why then carefully correct the nonsense? Alternatively, to explain the existence of so many corrections, one would have to suppose that the forger did have in mind a secret message behind the signs, and then made 16 corrections to a text that he knew noone would ever be able to read. It is much easier to believe that, in these very earliest days of printing, the printer was almost bound to make mistakes that needed correcting. In the final part, it is argued that the content differs between Sides A and B. This would occur if, for example, one god was being invoked or praised on Side A, and a different god invoked on Side B. —Thomas G. Palaima, Ph.D., Austin, Texas, USA

How to Forge the Phaistos Disk Text Forging the Disk (Eisenberg, 2008) would present a challenge beyond the normal ones posed by forgery. The work must seem physically genuine but, additionally, the text cannot be a random-looking jumble of symbols as in the Michigan forgeries (Kelsey, 1908). There are several ways this could be achieved. Here we focus on the idea of generating the text using a simple algorithm requiring a few rules, a coin, a die, and a bag of glyphs. Several points suggest such an algorithm. The plumed head (02) is always initial, suggesting a categorical rule. On Side A it occurs in roughly 1/2 of the ‘words’, on Side B in 1/6. On A, 02 is not followed by the ‘shield’ (12) in about 1/6 of the cases. (On B, the 02-12 combination occurs but once, in the first segment, suggesting a change of rule, perhaps for variety.) These proportions - 1/2, 1/6 - are suggestive.

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Robert Morritt Other symbols are selected randomly from the bag, which contains multiple instances of some symbols and one of others. Even before Zipf (1935), people knew that linguistic tokens varied in their frequency: for the resulting text to look plausible, the forger must have been willing to make stamps destined to be used once. We assume the lengths of ‘words’ are predetermined and one simply selects symbols to fill the spaces. The algorithm can be seen in action at http://catarina.ai.uiuc.edu/disk. Many generated texts look ‘plausible’: to bolster this claim, we will present a ‘decipherment’ of one ‘text’. —Richard Sproat, Ph.D., Urbana, Illinois, USA

SOURCES

Ancient Economies Ancient Economies – Nature of the Golden Fleece Ancient Economies – Purple Dyed Cloth Ancient Economies – Kolchis – Trade or War? Ancient Economies – The return journey from Kolchis Ancient Economies – Did the Kolchians have Gold? Ancient Economies – Excavations at Volos / Purple Dyed Fleece Ancient Economies - Purple Dyeing of Wool Apollonius Rhodius - APOLLONIUS OF RHODES - Source - Attalus (Andrew Smith) THE HISTORY OF HERODOTUS - By Herodotus -Translated into English by G. C. Macaulay MacMillan, New York, 1890 - Source (Project Gutenburg) Arkalochori (sic) Axe – reading the signs on the. (Illustration) (Source – Dr.Kvashilava Bennett , Dr. Emmett L.Bennett – The Decipherment of Linear B (3pp) Dr. Emmett L. Bennett – continued and Dr. Emmett L. Bennett (The Papers of) Source –.Thomas G.Palaima - Program of Aegean Scripts and Pre-history (PAPS) at the University of Texas at Austin Catastrophe Evident in the second Middle Minoan Period - . THE SEAKINGS OF CRETE, by Rev. James Baikie, F.R.A.S. 2nd.Edition) Adam and Charles Black, London 1913- Edited and Abridged by R.D.Morritt - (Project Gutenberg) Caucasian Roots – Iberians – Proto-Iberian >> Source – Spiritual Mission of Georgia - Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the Idriart Festival held at Tbilisi, May 1990 John Chadwick – Source - Book reviews of Michael Ventris (also of Ventris and Chadwick) Dr.Gareth Owens – TEC-Crete Ventris ,M., and J.Chadwick – Documents in Mycenaean Greek, 1956 Ventris ,M., and J.Chadwick ‘Evidence for Greek Dialect in the Mycenean Archives’. Journal of Hellenic Studies 73 (1953); 84-103 John Chadwick – A Tribute – Source - Dr.Gareth Owens

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Colchian and Corybantes – mentioned in antiquity>> Source: Greek Mythology Link, Carlos Parada, Colchian Goldscript – The Colchian langiage – Source Dr.Gia Kvashilava Colchian Roots – The Classical Grail (The Golden Fleece) Source – Spiritual Mission of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the Idriart Festival, Tbilisi, May 1990 Colchis – Greek Colonization>> Source: (GERODOT (http://godot.ru) Catastrophe Evident in the Second Middle Minoan Period and late Minoan 11 by Rev. James Baikie, F.R.A.S. 2nd Edition) Adam and Charles Black, London 1913 - Edited and Abridged by R.D.Morritt - (Project Gutenberg) Colchis – Anabasis – Xenophon>> Source - Translation by Henry G.Dakins - Dedicated to Rev. B. Jowett, M.A. Master of Balliol College Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Oxford , Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation Colchis – Anabasis – Xenophon concluded>> Source - Translation by Henry G.Dakins - Dedicated to Rev. B. Jowett, M.A. Master of Balliol College Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Oxford , Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation Colchis - An EnglishTraveller in the year 1672 described Colchis “Sir John Chardin -Through Mingrelia and Georgia into Persia” by William Fordyce Mavor – 1798 Colchis and Iberia (Early Georgian States) (Map of) by Andrew Andersen Colchis Early History/Tribes- Source – Colchian Empire – Mel Copeland (http://www.maravot.com/ Phrygian.html) Colchis – Greek Colonization>> Source: (GERODOT (http://godot.ru) Colchis – mentioned in antiquity>> Source - an Analysis of Antient Mythology. Volume II. Jacob Bryant, London 1807 Colchis – Mingrelia (Illustr.Jason with Fleece)> Source - THE HISTORY OF HERODOTUS – Translated by G. C. Macaulay MacMillan, New York, 1890 - Source (Project Gutenburg) Colchis – Jason and the Argonauts (Golden Fleece) Book II, Book III Colchis – Jason and the Argonauts (Golden Fleece) Book III extracts continued Colchis – Jason and the Argonauts (Golden Fleece) Book IV Source Colchis pages ‘Jason and the Argonauts’ from THE ARGONAUTA Apollonius Rhodius – 3rd.Century BC -Translated from Ancient Greek by R.C. Seaton (1912) (Project Gutenberg) Extracts –Edited and abridged R.D.Morritt Colchis – The Classical Age > Source - New System; or, an Analysis of Antient Mythology Volume II. ) Jacob Bryant, London 1807

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Communication with Egypt – Middle Minoan III Period by Rev. James Baikie, F.R.A.S. 2nd.Edition) Adam and Charles Black, London 1913Edited and Abridged by R.D.Morritt - (Project Gutenberg) Corybantes, Cyrbeis and a little Etymology. – Source- Dr .Kvashilava The Corybantes – The Cabiroi - Source – A New System; or, an Analysis of Antient Mythology. Jacob Bryant ,London - Volume 11 (1807) Cybele(Kybele) –Oracle Cult Source; http://www.maravot.com/Phrygian.html (Mel Copeland by permission). Also Cybele cult origin- Source; Carlos Parada Cretan Communication with Egypt – The Keftians - by Rev. James Baikie, F.R.A.S. 2nd.Edition) Adam and Charles Black, London 1913- Edited and Abridged by R.D.Morritt - (Project Gutenberg) Cretan Kings, The First - First Cretan Kings, The / Throne Succession – Mythic Source by Rev. James Baikie, F.R.A.S. 2nd.Edition) Adam and Charles Black, London 1913- Edited and Abridged by R.D.Morritt (Project Gutenberg) Cretan Kings, The First – Carlos Parada - Department of Classics, (former lecturer - Lund University Sweden) Cretan Linear A – Comparisons –Diagram - Source- Lawrence Lo – Ancient Scripts Cretan - Archaic Cretan Greek Alphabet (Semetic influences)- SourceR.A.Brown, M Litt Cretan - Archaic Cretan Greek Alphabet (Glottal and Pharyngeal consonants) - R.A.Brown- M.Litt Cretan - Archaic Cretan Greek Alphabet – concluded – Source R.A.Brown , M Litt Cretan - Table of Archaic Cretan Alphabet – Source – R.A.Brown – M Litt Crete – Chronological Summary (with Diagram) by Rev. James Baikie, F.R.A.S. 2nd.Edition) Adam and Charles Black, London 1913- Edited and Abridged by R.D.Morritt - (Project Gutenberg) Crete – Classical Sources – Plutarch (The Life of Theseus)> Source; Plutarch, Plutarch's Lives, John Dryden, trans., (London: J.M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., 1910)+ same page lower> Source: Herodotos: The History, VII.170-171, Dutton & Co. New York 1862) George Rawlinson>re Minos (I paragraph only same p 42) Crete - Early Archaeological Excavations – Heinrich Schliemann Source - THE SEA -KINGS OF CRETE, by Rev. James Baikie, F.R.A.S. 2nd.Edition) Adam and Charles Black, London 1913- Edited and Abridged by R.D.Morritt - (Project Gutenberg)

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Crete – Early Archaeological Excavations – GOURNIA (1901) Harriet (Boyd) Hawkins Source - THE SEA -KINGS OF CRETE, by Rev. James Baikie, F.R.A.S. 2nd.Edition) Adam and Charles Black, London 1913- Edited and Abridged by R.D.Morritt - (Project Gutenberg) Crete – Early Archaeological Excavations – PALAIKASTRO (1903-1904) Prof. J.L.Myers - Source - THE SEA -KINGS OF CRETE, by Rev. James Baikie, F.R.A.S. 2nd.Edition) Adam and Charles Black, London 1913- Edited and Abridged by R.D.Morritt - (Project Gutenberg) Crete – Crete – The Minoan Period – Overview by Rev. James Baikie, F.R.A.S. 2nd.Edition) Adam and Charles Black, London 1913- Edited and Abridged by R.D.Morritt - (Project Gutenberg) Curetes, The - Source – Translation of Phrygian Myths – www.melcopeland Cyprus – Syllabic Script - Syllabic Script of Cyprus, Source; Thomas G.Palaima Cyprus, Studies in the Signaries of South-Western. - University of London: Inst.of Clasical Studies 1961 Source; Thomas G.Palaima Cypriot Script (Source-Ancient Scripts – Lawrence Lo) Cypriot Script – continued (Source-Ancient Scripts – Lawrence Lo) & Thomas G.Palaima Cypriot Script – continued (Source-Ancient Scripts – Lawrence Lo) & Thomas G.Palaima Cypro – Minoan Syllabary Cypro – Minoan Scripts Cypro – Minoan Scripts – Deciphering Cypro – Minoan Scripts - Deciphering Cypriote and Minoan Scripts - Deciphering Problems in deciphering Cypro-Minoan from Linear B to Mycenaean Scholarship – The Rush to Decipher Summary of the History of Early Cypro- Minoan Script Methods of Identifying Cypro – Minoan Script Methods of Identifying Cypro – Minoan Script – continued Cyprian Syllabograms Cypro – Cretan Script Diagram 1 Cypro – Cretan Script – Diagram 2 Syllabary – Abbreviation Guide Source: (Above) Cypro-Minoan Scripts – Courtesy of Thomas G.Palaima. (Program in Aegean Scripts and PreHistory University of Texas at Austin Cyprian Shekel Weight – Enkomi Clay Weight – Cyprian Shekel Weight Diagram of Shekel - Source - -B.Colless The value of a shekel in Cyprus Source – Everyday Life in Babylon and Assyria - Commodities p91 -

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(English translation) of La Vie Quotidienne A Babylone et en Assyrie, Georges Contenau - Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd, London 1954 – R.D.Morritt Library Cyprian Syllabograms - Chart with characters – Source- Brian Colless Cyprian Enkomi Clay Balls - Enkomi Clay Weight – continued Inscribed Cylinder Seals Cyprian Boules – Enkomi Clay Balls B1 – B85 Enkomi Clay Balls – Index (Vowels and consonants) Enkomi Clay Balls – concluded SOURCE (Above) Cylinder Seals, Enkomi Clay Balls)– Brian Colless Demeter - Dr.Gareth Owens Demeter – Goddess of Harvest (Illustr.) -Source - Jacob Bryant, A New System; or, an Analysis of Antient Mythology. Volume II. London (1807) Demeter – Mother Goddess – Colchian Origin> Source: Greek Mythology Link, Carlos Parada(same page re Goddess..other same page Demeter(Colchian Origin of)- Source – Spiritual Mission of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia –May 1990- the Idriart Festival held at Tbilisi Dreros 1/2/3 – R.A. Brown – M.Litt Dreros and Praisos, Table of Archaic Cretan Alphabet of - Source – R.A.Brown- M Litt Egyptian Building Similar to the Cretan Labyrinth / Egyptian Cultural Trade with Crete, Rev. James Baikie, F.R.A.S. 2nd.Edition) Adam and Charles Black, London 1913- Edited and Abridged by R.D.Morritt (Project Gutenberg) Elam , History of – Source and Elamites, The Origins Source - Tim Elam http://www.elamhistory.com Elam, Importance of Elam – Andis Kaulins Elamite Culture, Old - -Script T.G.Palaima-University of Texas at Austin Elamite Script and Text Illustrations by ( Tablet and script) Lawrence Lo Elamite Text- Andis Kaulins Elamites, The Origins Source - Tim Elam http://www.elamhistory.com Etruscan Texts – (Indo-European and Classical sources – Etruscan Texts)– Source – R.A.Brown – M Litt Greek – Archaic, (Achaeans – Pelasgians ) ( The Kydones – Early Settlers)- Source; R.A.Brown, M. Litt Greek Dialects – Dorian Vowels – Source- R.A.Brown – M Litt Greek penetration of the Black Sea Source - G. R. Tsetskhladze (Ed.), Colloquenda Pontica, Bradford, Loid Publishing), Bradford, 1994. Haghia Triada – Cataloguing and Decipherment Source - by kind permission of Professor Ilse Schoep

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Helen of Memphis ? / Helen of Sidon? Source; THE HISTORY OF HERODOTUS - By Herodotus -Translated into English by G. C. Macaulay - MacMillan, New York, 1890 - Source (Project Gutenburg) Helen of Troy and Paris ( in Cyprus, Tyre and Sais, Egypt)- Andis Kaulins Hittites of Anatolia - In Search of the Past – Four pages Source - Ewa Wasilewska PhD. University of Utah Saudi Aramco World,Sept./Oct.1994 Hrozny, Bedrich - The Decipherer of Hittite>> RADIO PRAHA 13-052009 ‘Czechs in History’ Christian Falvey - Reviewed and abridged extracts R.D.Morritt Hrozný, Bedrich - Les Inscriptions cretoises: Essai de deciffrement”(2pp) by Madelaine David (Monografie Archivu Orientalniho – Vol X11 Praha, 1949) Isopata - Arthur Evans at, (The Dictaean Cave) / Kephala – Early Excavations (1895) The Nine Week Season at KEPHALIA by Rev. James Baikie, F.R.A.S. 2nd.Edition) Adam and Charles Black, London 1913Edited and Abridged by R.D.Morritt - (Project Gutenberg) Knossos, After the Fall of / Knossos – Destruction of the Central Power by Rev. James Baikie, F.R.A.S. 2nd.Edition) Adam and Charles Black, London 1913- Edited and Abridged by R.D.Morritt - (Project Gutenberg) Knossos, Disaster at. / The Palace at/ (The Throne Room) Arthur Evans by Rev. James Baikie, F.R.A.S. 2nd.Edition) Adam and Charles Black, London 1913- Edited and Abridged by R.D.Morritt - (Project Gutenberg) Kober, Alice - Her review of material – Haghia Triada (3pp) Source: ‘’Unlocking the Secrets of Ancient Writing’ – Thomas G.Palaima 2000 Lemnian and Etruscan (Tyrrhenian Grouping) – Source – R.A.Brown, M Litt Lemnos Stele (Illustration of)- Source R.A.Brown, M Litt/ Text & Transcription , Steinbauer Lemnos Stele – R.A. Brown, M.Litt, Birmingham Linear A and Minoan Agriculture, also Linear B /The Homeric Paradox SOURCE: Hubert La Marle – abstract of a seminar held at Rethymnon, University of Crete, April 23.1999 / Homeric Paradox - Source; Documents in Mycenean Greek- Cambridge University Press p275 (1956) Linear B Non-Hieroglyphic Script (Diagram of) Source; “What is Linear ‘A’” http://premiumorange.com/crete-minos-Linear.a/text1/html

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Linear B - Attempts to Decipher- Jacquetta Hawkes - ‘The World of the Past’ Edited and abridged by R.D.Morritt Linear B Signs Linear B Signs Linear B Signs Linear B Syllabry(Chart)> Source- Lawrence Lo – Ancient Scripts Malia Stone Block , The – Reading the signs on the, (Illustration) (Source – Dr.Kvashilava) Mason’s Marks - 243 Chronology of Linear A ( Diagram of ‘Mason’s Marks) Sources : The Dating of the Linear ‘A’ Inscriptions from Thera. “Kadmos’ 38-39 Simon M. Bennett, Gareth A.Owens Minoan Culture, The Periods of Rev. James Baikie, F.R.A.S. 2nd.Edition) Adam and Charles Black, London 1913- Edited and Abridged by R.D.Morritt - (Project Gutenberg) Minoan Earliest language – Linear A - Source- Lawrence Lo – Ancient Scripts Minoan Inscriptions – Mycenaean Greece (HAGHIOS STEPHANOS and OLYMPIA –KAPHKANIA - Source: Dr. Gareth Owens Minoan Inscriptions – Mycenaean Greece (THERA – MILOS –KEA)> Source: Dr. Gareth Owens with Simon Bennett Minoan Inscriptions – Mycenaean Greece (TIRYNS – MYCENAE – KYTHERA) (Source) Mel Copeland ‘Translation of Phrygian Language Minoan and Mycenaean Crete, Introduction to the Scripts and Languages of (Diagram) Dr.Gareth Owens Mother Goddess, The - Cybele (Kybele – Rhea) -– Mel Copeland (http://www.maravot.com/ Phrygian.html) Old Elamite Language (Illustr.Tablet Text) – Andis Kaulins Pelasgian or ‘Colchian Refugees’ - www.melcopeland

The Phaistos Disc Phaistos Disc, The - An overview of the attempts to decipher , - Source‘The World of the Past’ by Jacquetta Hawkes , Edited and abridged by R.D.Morritt Phaistos Disc , controversial, The. – ( Introduction) R.D.Morritt Phaistos Disc – Corrections to the disc (Illustration)> Source: Etudes Cretoises XX1 tome 1V Paris 1982 Louis Godart Phaistos Disc - 151 Corrections to the disc (Illustration) – concluded Source: Etudes Cretoises XX1 tome 1V Paris 1982 Louis Godart Phaistos Disc – analysis of (Source – Dr.Kvashilava) Phaistos Disc ‘Hymn’ - Transcription of the Hymn “Nenana” (Printed on the Phaistos Disc in Colchian) (Source – Dr.Kvashilava)

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Phaistos Disc – identification of reading direction – continued - (Source – Dr.Kvashilava) Phaistos Disc – Text – Side A ( A1 – A31)tion) (Source – Dr.Kvashilava) Phaistos Disc – Text – Side A ( B1 –B30) (Illustration) (Source – Dr.Kvashilava) Phaistos Vessel, The (Illustration of) (Source – Dr.Kvashilava) Dr. Gia Kvashilava ( Georgian Republic researcher of the Phaistos Disc) (Source – Dr.Kvashilava) Phaistos Disc, History of, also illustration of the Vladikavkaz D (Source – Dr.Kvashilava) Phaistos Disc - Text – Greek origin? Source - Ossetia and around No. 9, Paris, 2001, by VA Kuznetsovtranslated from Russian by Yaroslav Lebedynsky. Phaistos Disc – The Italian Archaeological Mission - Source - THE SEA KINGS OF CRETE, by Rev. James Baikie, F.R.A.S. 2nd.Edition) Adam and Charles Black, London 1913- Edited and Abridged by R.D.Morritt - (Project Gutenberg) Phaistos Disc - Luigi Pernier – the ‘discoverer’ of the - Source - THE SEA KINGS OF CRETE, by Rev. James Baikie, F.R.A.S. 2nd.Edition) Adam and Charles Black, London 1913- Edited and Abridged by R.D.Morritt - (Project Gutenberg) Phaistos Disc – Earliest mention/ early attempts to translate (1911) Source - THE SEA KINGS OF CRETE, by Rev. James Baikie, F.R.A.S. 2nd.Edition) Adam and Charles Black, London 1913- Edited and Abridged by R.D.Morritt - (Project Gutenberg) Phaistos Disc on display at Heraklion - The Phaistos Disc” Dr.Gareth Owens TEC Crete Phaistos Disc – Side A and B (Illust., Kaulins) Andis Kaulins Phaistos DiscThe, an Ancient Enigma - The Key (Old Elamite Script) Andis Kaulins Phaistos Disc – Distribution & Frequency Syllables (Diagram 1) Andis Kaulins Phaistos Disc = Distribution & Frequency Syllables (Diagram 2) Andis Kaulins Phaistos Disc – Possible Greek Roots (Diagram 1 & 2) – Andis Kaulins Phaistos Syllabic Grid (Illustr.Kaulins) – Andis Kaulins Phaistos Disc, The - Text Side A and B (Diagram) Andis Kaulins Phaistos –Transcription of Text> Sources> Anstoriton Journal Vol.10 (2006 – revised 2007) D.Rumpel Phaistos Disc – Diagram (Arthur Evans ) Side A & B- Phaistos Disc” Source - 1909: Arthur J. Evans' Scripta Minoa I., Oxford, 1909

Stones that Speak

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Phaistos Disc – Study of the symbols on the Phaistos Disc (Arthur Evans 1909) Source Source: Etudes Cretoises XX1 tome 1V Paris 1982 Louis Godart Phoenicia to Greece/ Phonemic Values – R.A. Brown, M Litt Praisos 1 & 2 – inscription/text analysis – R.A.Brown, M.Litt Praisos 3 &4 &6 inscriptions, text analysis, diagrams- R.A. Brown, M.Litt. Praisos 6 (Fragment with tablet and inscription) Praisos – Source – R.A.Brown – M Litt Prometheus, The Myth of (Pelasgian Origin of the Myth) ˜ž›ŒŽȱȮ A New System; or, an Analysis of Antient(sic) Mythology. Volume II. Jacob Bryant 1807(Project Gutenberg) Proto-Iberian (Relationship, Basque to Georgian)>> Source – Spiritual Mission of Georgia - Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the Idriart Festival held at Tbilisi, May 1990 Sea Kings, Life under the, (by Rev. James Baikie, F.R.A.S. 2nd.Edition) Adam and Charles Black, London 1913- Edited and Abridged by R.D.Morritt - (Project Gutenberg) Troy, Geographic Placement of Troy toward Persia – Andis Kaulins / Mycenaean Connection – T.G.Palaima Troy – Pelasgian origin>> Source – Spiritual Mission of Georgia - Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the Idriart Festival held at Tbilisi, May 1990 Troy - Why Did the Greeks have trouble finding Troy? - Andis Kaulins Ventris Michael and John Chadwick, Source; Thomas G. Palaima – Professor of Classics, University of Texas at Austin. Ventris. Michael – Unlocking the Secerts of Ancient Writing – continued Source: Thomas G. Palaima, University of Texas at Austin Ventris. Michael – Source - Book Reviews of both Michael Ventris and John Chadwick – Dr.Gareth Owens – TEC- Crete Ventris ,M., and J.Chadwick – Documents in Mycenaean Greek, 1956 Source: Dr.Gareth Owens Ventris ,M., and J.Chadwick ‘Evidence for Greek Dialect in the Mycenean Archives’. Journal of Hellenic Studies 73 (1953); 84-103