In both places the divine spirit
is believed to associate itself with sacred pillars, such as the
Double Axe pillars at Knossos; in both it is personified as a Woman
Goddess, the mother of all life, to whom is added a son, who is also
a consort; while the emblems of the ancient cults--the guardian
lions of the goddess on the hill, the Double Axe, and the triple
pillars with perching doves--are property common to both Crete
and Asia. This may not point, however, to a continued intercourse,
but only to community at some early point of the history of both
races.
Of actual traces of Mesopotamian influence singularly few are to
be found in Crete. Dr. Evans has shown the correspondence of a
purple gypsum weight found during the second season's excavations
at Knossos, with the light Babylonian talent, while the ingots of
bronze from Hagia Triada represent the same standard of weight.
It may be that the drainage system so highly developed at Knossos
and Hagia Triada found its first suggestion in the terra-cotta
drain-pipes discovered at Niffur by Hilprecht, though it is by no
means obvious that copying should be necessary in such a matter.
The clay tablets engraved with hieroglyphic and linear script suggest
at once the corresponding and universal use of the clay tablet for
the cuneiform script of Babylonia; and that is practically all
that can be said of any connection between the cultures of Crete
and Mesopotamia.
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