150 



Sheep's Head. — (19) This is remarkably like the porcelain 

 rhyton in the form of a ram's head depicted on p. 33 and 

 pi. iii. of 'Excavations in Cyprus." 



Lotus. — (26) This plant was quite commonly painted on 

 Cypriote objects, and seems to have had a religions signi- 

 ficance. Compare the sacred lotus tree shown on p. 95 of 

 "Handbook of Cesnola Collection." 



Cypress Tree. — (29) Professor Macalister's identification 

 of this sign as the picture of a cypress tree is a 

 very good one, for conventional trees of this descrip- 

 tion were a special feature of ancient Cypriote art, 

 and in certain mould-pressed terracottas they are de- 

 picted in the centre of a ring dance in which votaries, both 

 male and female, take part. It would appear, therefore, that 

 the cypress was a sacred tree ; in some terracottas it is degener- 

 ated into a mere club-shaped column ( 16 ) very much like the 

 sign on the Disk. In words 1, 26, 30, 38, and 39 on the Disk 

 it is associated with the "man" sign. 



Pointed Helmet. — (37) In this sign we have another 

 striking proof of the Cypriote origin of the Disk. Professor 

 Myres ("Handbook," pp. 143 and 195) shows us two figures of 

 the period of Assyrian influence, both wearing helmets of this 

 description ; the first figure is a votary, and the other a bearded 

 male, evidently a warrior. Myres mentions that this par- 

 ticular head-dress is peculiar to Cyprus, and has not been 

 found elsewhere. 



Virama Mark (see pi. xxi.). — In words 1, 3, 15, 16, 19, 21, 

 22, 27, 34, 37, 49, 51, 52, 55, and 57 there will be observed 

 a scratch or mark placed against the last sign ; this scratch, 

 according to Hempl (op. cit.J, is in form and position identical 

 with the virama mark of Sanskrit, Venetic, and early Runic 

 writing. It was used, in the three latter scripts, to eliminate 

 the vowel sound from the last syllable in a word, thus 

 reducing the syllable to a simple consonantal character. 



So far, with some few exceptions, I have made no real 

 attempt to decipher any of the words printed in the inscription 

 on the Disk; but if we can regard the signs in words 15 and 21 

 as pure ideographs they may be read "horse-man," i.e. (pro- 

 bably), "charioteer." Similarly, in word 30, the first sign on 

 account of the compact nature of the tree it represents, i.e., a 



(16) "Cyprus Mus. Cat.," p. 151 (Nos. 5305-5314). See also 

 reference on p. 86 (No. 1656) to the bearded man with long hair 

 dancing in front of a cypress or large thyrsos, represented on an 

 Attic red-figured lekythos of the Hellenic period of Cyprus. 



