145 



Graeco-Cypriote islanders of the eighth century before our era 

 had more- than one source to draw from when compiling their 

 syllabary, and one of these sources must have been Assyria, 

 in certain aspects of its culture, as no inscription in the Later 

 Cypriote script can be dated, I suppose, earlier than about the 

 commencement of the period of Assyrian influence. I do not 

 mean to, postulate, however, that some of the new signs actually 

 were taken from the cuneiform characters, but that the later 

 script was pictorial in origin ; certain of the older Cypro-Minoan 

 signs' (such as the building-sign, No. 1, pi. xviii.) being identi- 

 fied and written in their original hieroglyphical forms, and 

 others (such as the pointed helmet-sign, No. 37, pi. xxi.) being- 

 made under Assyrian influence. This is, I believe, the way in 

 which the new script, of which that on our Disk is a typical 

 copy, came to be evolved ; but it evidently very quickly fell 

 into the debased style, which we know so well from the remains 

 of the later periods of the history of Cyprus, mainly, I suppose, 

 as a result of the more simple linear systems of writing which 

 were spreading over the Mediterranean basin at the time. We 

 may perhaps gather from the peculiarity that the Disk text 

 was "printed" by means of specially engraved stamps, that 

 the use of the new hieroglyphical script was confined to objects 

 of clay. 



From what Professor Myres states we learn that, although 

 the majority of the inscriptions written in the Later Cypriote 

 script can be read with the aid of Greek, not all of them can, 

 and it is just possible that the ones we cannot decipher contain 

 the speech of the indigenous inhabitants of the island. 



The chances are that if the Phaestos Disk had never left 

 Cyprus it would have vanished long ago, for according to 

 Professor Sayce/ 6 ) the fact that "no written tablets have been 

 found by excavators in Cyprus is not surprising. In an 

 island climate where heavy rains occur the unbaked tablet soon 

 becomes hardly distinguishable from the earth in which it is 

 embedded." 



Particular attention is directed to the following Disk 

 signs, the characteristics of some of which show an evident 

 connection with those of certain objects of admitted Cypriote 

 origin : — 



Building. — (1) This is undoubtedly the equivalent of the 

 Cypriote linear sign, "Si." Professor H. Darnley Naylor, of 

 the Adelaide University, has suggested to me that the pictorial 

 character represents either a dwelling of the terra-mare type 

 or perhaps a treasure-house. The Greek language shows the 



(6) "Archaeology ~" of the Cuneiform Inscriptions," London, 

 1908, p. 183. 



