[Footnote *: Perrot et Chipiez, 'La Grece primitive: l'Art mycenien,'
p. 985.]
The earliest form of Minoan writing that can be traced consists of
rude pictographic symbols engraved upon bead-seals and gems. This
primitive pictographic writing is characteristic of the Early Minoan
period, and throughout the succeeding period of Middle Minoan it was
gradually developed into a hieroglyphic system which is believed
to present some analogies to the Hittite form of writing. But in
the latest phases of the Third Middle Minoan period there begins
to appear, at Knossos and elsewhere, a series of inscriptions in a
very different style. The characters are no longer hieroglyphic,
but have become definitely linear, and are arranged very much as
in ordinary writing. In general they are incised upon the clay
tablets of which so many hundreds have been found, but there are
several instances in which they have been written with ink, apparently
with a reed pen, as in the case of the two Middle Minoan III. cups
found at Knossos, which bear linear inscriptions executed before the
clay was fired. While in the case of the hieroglyphic inscriptions
the characters run indifferently from left to right, or from right
to left, in this linear script their fixed direction is the usual
one, from left to right. Suffixes were apparently used to indicate
gender, and pictorial signs indicating the contents of the document
are also in use, though more sparingly than they came to be in
the later form of script.
Pages:
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260