TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 777 



light a series of stones presenting pictographic symbols of the same nature, so 

 that he was now able to put together over seventy symbols belonging to an inde- 

 pendent hieroglyphic system. More than this, he had discovered, partly on stones 

 of similar form, partly engraved on prehistoric vases and other materials, a series 

 of linear characters, a certain proportion of which seemed to grow out of the 

 pictorial forms. Both these systems of writing were represented as the diagrams 

 exhibited. It would be seen that, as in the case of the Egyptian and Hittite 

 symbols, the Cretan hieroglyphs fell into certain distinct classes, such as parts of 

 the human body, arms and implements, animal and vegetable forms, objects re- 

 lating to maritime life, astronomical and geometrical symbols. Some of them, 

 Buch as the two crossed arms with expanded palms, belonged to that interesting 

 class of pictographs which is rooted in primitive gesture language. The symbols 

 occurred in groups, and there were traces of a boustrophedon arrangement in the 

 several lines. The comparisons instituted showed some interesting afiinities to 

 Hittite forms. Among the tools represented, Mr. Evans was able to recognise 

 the ' template ' or ' templet ' of a decorative artist, and, with the assistance of a 

 model of this symbol taken in connection with a design supplied by a Mycensean 

 gem found in Crete, he was able to reconstruct a MycenEean painted ceiling 

 analogous to those of Orchomenos and the eighteenth-dynasty Egyptian tombs of 

 Thebes {circa 1600 B.C.). 



The linear and more alphabetic series of symbols was shown to fit on to 

 certain signs engraved on the walls of what was apparently a Mycenffian palace 

 at Knosos, and again to two groups of signs on vase-handles from JNIycente. It 

 was thus possible to reconstruct a Mycensean script of some twenty-four characters, 

 each probably having a syllabic value. It further appeared that a large proportion 

 of these were practically identical with the syllabic signs that survived among the 

 Greeks of Cyprus to a comparatively late date. The Cypriote system threw a 

 light on the phonetic value of the Mycenaean. 



Resuming the results arrived at, Mr. Evans said that they had now before 

 them two systems of primitive script — one pictograpbic, the other linear — both, as 

 was shown by the collateral archpeological evidence, belonging to the second 

 millennium before our era, and to the days before the Phrenician alphabet had 

 been introduced among the Greeks. Some pictorial forms, however, of the one 

 series clearly appeared in a linear form in the other ; the double axe, for instance, 

 being seen in two stages of linearisation — the simpler form identical with the 

 Cypriote character. On the whole, the pictograpbic or hieroglyphic series seemed 

 more peculiarly indigenous to Crete, and the linear forms to be Mycenaean in the 

 widest sense. The Eteocretans, or indigenous stock of the island, who preserved 

 their language and nationality in the east of the island to the borders of the 

 historic period, certainly used these hieroglyphs. Mr. Evans gave reasons, based 

 on his recent archaeological discoveries in Eastern Crete, for believing — what had 

 long been suspected on historic and linguistic grounds — that the Philistines who, 

 according to unanimous Hebrew traditions, came from the Mediterranean islands, 

 and who are often actually called Krethi in the Bible, represented in fact this 

 old indigenous Cretan stock ; and that they had here the relics and the writing of 

 ' the Phihstines at home.' On Egyptian monuments a people, who came from 

 'the islands of the sea,' are seen bearing tributary vases of forms, some of which 

 recur on a whole series of engraved gems seen or collected by Mr. Evans in 

 Eastern and Central Crete. Their dress, their peaked shoes, their long hair 

 falling under their arms, all recurred on Cretan designs, representing the in- 

 habitants of the island in Mycenaean times. 



3. Exhibition of Prehistoric Objects collected during a Journey and Uxnlora- 

 tions in Central and Eastern Crete. By Arthur J, Evans, M.A. 



