Book Title: Alphabet Key To History Of Mankind
Author(s): David Diringer
Publisher: Hutchinsons Scientific and Technical Publications
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168
THE ALPHABET
engraved with a sharp tool after baking, appear to have some connection with the vessels' contents or ownership." (Dikaios.)
The inscriptions in the Cypro-Minoan or Cypro-Mycenaean script belong to the Bronze Age, and mainly to the period called Late Cypriote II C, which is dated by the Swedisch scholar Erik Sjæqvist 1275-1200 B.C. On the other hand, according to Dikaios, the Cypro-Mycenæan or Cypro-Minoan script was in use in Cyprus from 1400 B.C. to the end of the Late Bronze Age (middle of the eleventh century B.C.). "It coincides with the arrival of Mycenaean settlers in Cyprus and was probably introduced by them."
The signs of the undeciphered Cypro-Mycenaean writing have been classified and analysed by various scholars, and particularly by A. W. Persson and S. Casson. This latter English scholar, after careful search, recognized in the Cypro-Minoan inscriptions found on the island of Cyprus, on the Greek mainland, on the Aegean islands and in Palestine, a total of seventy-six Cypro-Minoan characters and five numerals, out of which about ten to twelve characters are identical with the classical Cypriote and eight may possibly be identified.
Thus, on the whole, although we have not a sufficient basis for transliterations of Cypro-Minoan inscriptions using the classic Cypriote syllabary, modern scholars are agreed that the two scripts were connected. It is generally accepted that the Cypro-Minoan script formed the link between the Cretan linear scripts (see Part I, Chapter III) and the Cypriote syllabary. The problem of the identification of the single signs, however, cannot be solved so long as both the Cretan linear scripts and the CyproMinoan writing remain undeciphered. Vague comparisons are dangerous and conclusions based on such comparisons must be provisional.
The famous Asine inscription of the end of the Mycenaean age (about 1200 B.C.) seems to be written in a script similar to the Cypro-Minoan writing.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
L. P. di Cesnola, Cyprus, London, 1877.
J. L. Myres and M. Ohnefalsch-Richter, The Cyprus Museum, Oxford, 1899. A. S. Murray, A. H. Smith and H. B. Walters, Excavations in Cyprus, London,
1900.
E. Oberhumer, Die Insel Cypern, etc., Munich, 1903.
C. D. Cobham, An Attempt at a Bibliography of Cyprus, Cambridge, 1908. J. L. Myres, Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus, New York, 1914.
F. Bork, Die Sprache von Alasija, Leipsic, 1930.
S. Casson, Ancient Cyprus, London, 1937: The Cypriote Script of the Bronze Age, "IRAQ," London, 1939.
G. Hill, A History of Cyprus, Vol. I, Cambridge, 1940.
J. F. Daniel, Prolegomena to the Cypro-Minoan Script, "AMERIC. JOURN. OF ARCHAEOLOGY," 1941. (See also under Cretan Scripts.)
P. Dikaios, A Guide to the Cyprus Museum, Nicosia, 1947
