Aegean writing systems

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Aegean writing systems are a group of hieroglyphic and linear (syllable / stroke) scripts that were used in the eastern Mediterranean and the adjacent Anatolian and Syrian regions during the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age . They are largely related, only partially deciphered, and retain their archaic written form even after the development of the Phoenician consonant alphabet (cf. Phoenician script ) and the Greek alphabet . Their range is limited by the areas in which Egyptian hieroglyphics and cuneiform were written.

Cretan-Minoan system

Cretan hieroglyphs

Cretan hieroglyphs are the oldest Minoan script. It was mainly spread on Crete and the islands of Kythera and Samothrace . They were made between 1900 and 1700 BC. Used. There are around 100 different syllables on around 330 writing media. They have not been deciphered, but are considered to be the forerunners of Linear A, which was developed in the same places.

Linear A

Linear A was mainly used in Crete (in Knossos , Phaistos , Chania etc.), but also spread to mainland Greece (e.g. Tiryns ). Individual finds come from Palestine ( Lachish and Tel Haror ), the Egyptian Auaris (15th or 16th Dynasty), from Kythera , from the Cyclades , from Miletus , from Troy and from Samothrace . It was built between 1635 and 1450 BC. Used. There are around 1400 texts, 7300 characters, 70 syllable characters and 200 logograms . The oldest evidence seems to come from Phaistos. The writing is only partially deciphered. The language appears to be the unknown Minoan , the forerunner of Eteocetan .

Linear B

Linear B was first written only in the places on the Greek mainland and follows linear A there chronologically. It is almost completely deciphered and reproduces the oldest recorded form of Greek , Mycenaean . It later spread to Crete, where it also replaced Linear A. With the fall of the Mycenaean culture, this script disappeared. It was no longer known to the later Greeks.

Phaistos Disc (schematic representation)

Cypro-Minoan script or Linear C.

The Cypro-Minoan script actually comprises three different scripts. The distribution area connects to the northeast of Linear A with Cyprus in the center and foothills on the Levantine coast in Ugarit and Byblos . They are closely related to the Linear A and were used even after the fall of the Mycenaean culture until the 6th century. The early forms, which were probably used for the Cypro-Minoan language , the forerunner of the Eeteokyprian language , have not been deciphered, but the later ones, which were used for the Greek dialect in Cyprus, have been, cf. Cypriot script .

CI

This form was used in Cyprus from the 16th to the 11th century BC. In use. It is very close to Linear A.

C II

This form was used in the Cypriot town of Enkomi from the 13th to the 12th century BC. Used.

C III

This form was used in Ugarit during the 13th century BC. Used, not to be confused with the cuneiform alphabet, which was also used in Ugarit (cf. Ugaritic script ).

Cypriot script

This form is an adaptation to the Greek dialect spoken in Cyprus. It was used until the 5th century BC. Used (cf. Cypriot script ).

Luwian system

Luwian hieroglyphs

Luwian hieroglyphs were used for the Luwian language in western Anatolia , Cilicia, and northern Syria . They also survived the collapse of the late Bronze Age. They are completely legible. Despite the acquaintance with cuneiform writing , these hieroglyphs continued to be used for a long time. Their relationship with the Cretan hieroglyphs has not been fully clarified.

Urartean hieroglyphs

Urartian hieroglyphs were used during the 8th and 7th centuries by the Urartians who previously knew the cuneiform script. They seem to go back to the Luwian hieroglyphs. Besides them, cuneiform script was still used.

The Phaistos Disc

The Phaistos disc has not yet been deciphered, apart from some imaginative attempts. Although it comes from the Cretan town of Phaistos, it does not seem to be related to the other scriptures mentioned here. There is also a suspicion of a forgery.

The Byblos script

Reconstruction of the evolution of writing. Based on the hypothesis that Sumerian cuneiform is the origin of many writing systems .

literature

Lexicon article

  • Hieroglyphic scripts , in: Der Neue Pauly 5, column 538-540.
  • Linear A , in: Der Neue Pauly 7, columns 243-244.
  • Kypro-Minoan writings , in: Der Neue Pauly 6.

Essays

  • Jon C. Billigmeier: An Inquiry into the non-Greek Names on the Linear B Tablets from Knossos and their Relationship to Languages ​​of Asia Minor . In: Minos: Revista de filología egea . No. 10 . Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 1970, ISSN  0544-3733 , p. 177-183 ( online [accessed February 14, 2014]).
  • WC Brice: Notes on Linear A. In: Kadmos 22 (1983), pp. 81-106; 27: 155-165 (1988); 30: 42-48 (1991).
  • WC Brice: Notes on the Cretan Hieroglyphic Script: I. The Corpus. II. The Clay Bar from Malia. H20, Kadmos 29 (1990) pp. 1-10.
  • WC Brice: Cretan Hieroglyphs & Linear A. Kadmos 29 (1990) p. 171 f.
  • WC Brice: Notes on the Cretan Hieroglyphic Script: III. The Inscriptions from Mallia Quarteir Mu. IV. The Clay Bar from Knossos. P116, Kadmos 30 (1991) pp. 93-104.
  • WC Brice: Notes on the Cretan Hieroglyphic Script. Kadmos, 31 (1992), pp. 21-24.
  • JF Daniel: Prolegomena. In: AJA 45 (1941), pp. 249-283.
  • Sigrid Deger-Jalkotzy and Oswald Panagl (eds.): The new Linear B texts from Thebes. Your illuminating value for the Mycenaean language and culture. Files of the international research colloquium at the Austrian Academy of Sciences on December 5th and 6th, 2002 (publications of the Mycenaean Commission Volume 23) , Vienna 2006.
  • Ch. Henke: The Mathematics of the Phaistos Disc. In: Forum Archaeologiae 48 / IX / 2008 ( http://homepage.univie.ac.at/elisabeth.trinkl/forum/forum0908/48phaistos.htm ).
  • Stefan Hiller : Old Aegean writing systems (except Linear B). In: AAHG 31 (1978), pp. 53-60.
  • Stefan Hiller: The Cypro-Minoan writing systems. In: Archive for Orient Research. Supplement 20. (1985).
  • Olivier Masson : Repertoire des inscriptions chypro-minoennes. In: Minos 5 (1957), pp. 9-27
  • Olivier Masson: Les Inscriptions chypriotes syllabiques. Recueil critique et commenté (Études Chypriotes I), Paris 1961
  • Emilia Masson: Étude de vingt-six boules d'argile inscrites trouvées a Enkomi et Hala Sultan Tekke (Chypre). Studies in Mediterranean Archeology. Vol. 31.1. Studies in the Cypro-Minoan Scripts 1. Åström, Göteborg 1971.
  • E. Masson: Speaking of you grand cylindre inscrit d'Enkomi. In: Kadmos. de Gruyter, Berlin 12.1973, pp. 79-80.
  • Emilia Masson: Cyprominoica - Repertoires, Documents de Ras Shamra, Essais d'Interpretation. Studies in Mediterranean Archeology. Vol. 31.2. Studies in the Cypro-Minoan Scripts 2. Åström, Göteborg 1974.
  • Piero Meriggi : I nuovi testi Ciprominoici. In: Minos. Salamanca 13. 1973, p. 197 ff.
  • Werner Nahm: Studies on the Cypro-Minoan script. Part 1. In: Kadmos 20, Berlin (1981), pp. 52-63.
  • Werner Nahm: Studies on the Cypro-Minoan script. II. In: Kadmos 23, Berlin (1984), pp. 164-179.
  • GA Owens, The Common Origin of Cretan Hieroglyphs and Linear A. Kadmos 35: 2 (1996), pp. 105-110.
  • GA Owens, An Introduction to "Cretan Hieroglyphs". A Study of “Cretan Hieroglyphic” Inscriptions in English Museums (excluding the Ashmolean Museum Oxford), Cretan Studies VIII (2002), pp. 179–184.
  • I. Schoep: A New Cretan Hieroglyphic Inscription from Malia. (MA / V Yb 03), Kadmos 34 (1995), pp 78-80.
  • Johannes Sundwall : The Cretan linear script . In: Yearbook of the Imperial German Archaeological Institute . tape XXX . Georg Reimer, Berlin 1915, p. 41 ( online [accessed January 16, 2013]).
  • JG Younger: The Cretan Hieroglyphic Script. A Review Article, Minos 31-32 (1996-1997) pp. 379-400.

Books

Corpora

  • CHIC (Corpus of Cretan Hieroglyphs): Jean-Pierre Olivier and Louis Godart, in collaboration with J.-C. Poursat, Corpus Hieroglyphicarum Inscriptionum Cretae. Études Crétoises 31, Paris 1996. ISBN 2-86958-082-7
  • GORILA (Linear A Corpus): Jean-Pierre Olivier and Louis Godart: Recueil des inscriptions en Linéaire A. (Études Crétoises 21) 5 vols., Paris 1976–1985.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Margalit Finkelberg, Alexander Uchitel, David Ussishkin: A Linear A Inscription from Tel Lachish (LACH ZA 1), with an Appendix by Yoram Eshet, in: Tel Aviv 23 (1996), pp. 195-207.
  2. ^ Eliezer Oren, Jean-Pierre Olivier, Yuval Goren , Philip P. Betancourt, GH Myer, J. Yellin: A Minoan Graffito from Tel Haror (Negev, Israel), in: Cretan Studies 5 (1996), pp. 91-118 . However, this could also be Cretan hieroglyphs, cf. Artemis Karnava: The Tel Haror Inscription and Crete: A Further Link, in: Robert Laffineur, Emanuele Greco (Eds.): Emporia: Aegeans in Central and Eastern Mediterranean. Proceedings of the 10th International Aegean Conference / 10 e Rencontre égéenne internationale. Athens, Italian School of Archeology, April 14-18, 2004 (= Aegaeum 25). Liège, Austin 2005, pp. 837-843, plate CXCVIII.
  3. ^ Geoffrey Barraclough, Norman Stone: The Times Atlas of World History. Hammond Incorporated, Maplewood, New Jersey 1989, ISBN 978-0-7230-0304-5 , p. 53. ( [1] on archive.org)