A message on the topic of the unsolved mystery of Aegean writing. The Unsolved Mystery of Aegean Writing

There are many mysteries and secrets associated with world archeology. And these mysteries are not always on the surface and as huge as the Egyptian pyramids. Sometimes they easily fit into the hands of a person, but for many centuries and millennia they are hidden in the ground. Until archaeologists bring them into the light of day.

The next working day on July 3, 1908 of the Italian expedition excavating the ruins of the royal palace in Festos, on the island of Crete, was coming to an end when archaeologist L. Pernier, who was clearing one of the utility rooms of the palace, discovered a small disk of well-fired clay.

According to archaeological data, the Phaistos Disc should be dated to approximately 1600 BC. e. - the period of formation of the Cretan-Minoan civilization. For a long time, the question remained open about the place of manufacture of the ceramic disk - whether it was made on the island of Crete itself or whether it was brought here by someone. But during excavations in the thirties of the last century of a cave sanctuary in Arkochora (Central Crete), a cult copper ax with an engraved inscription was found, on which signs from the Phaistos Disc were found.

In addition, as the study of other archaeological finds has shown, Cretan ceramics masters, long before the production of the Phaistos Disc, knew the technique of applying images stamped with specially made matrices to the surface of a clay object before firing it.

HOW VENTRIS READ WHAT EVANS FOUND

Note that the first examples of such so-called linear writing were discovered by the famous English archaeologist Arthur Evans in 1900 during excavations of another large Cretan city of Knossos. In total, Evans found there samples of three, clearly related types of Minoan writing. The first of them included signs that, like ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, were pictorial in nature and depicted various specific objects. Evans called it Cretan hieroglyphics. Two other types of writing of the ancient Cretans with signs of generalized outlines, for the most part clearly losing direct resemblance to their pictorial prototypes, received the names Linear A and Linear B.

Attempts to decipher the Cretan writings began with their discovery, but for a long time were unsuccessful. Just before World War II, a very young British researcher, Michael Ventris (1922-1956), began work on deciphering Linear B, and was destined to solve this most difficult task. The path to its success was largely paved by the works of American scientists - Alice Kober and Emett Bonett.

Success came to Ventris in 1952, when, using the results of a formal analysis of inscriptions carried out by Kober, he was able to develop much more deeply her observations about the presence of grammatical endings in the language under study and was able to create a special coordinate grid reflecting their alternation. Now it remained to find out which of the ancient languages ​​could fit into the grid he had obtained.

For many years, Ventris thought that the language of the Linear B tablets should be Etruscan, since the language of the Etruscans, the ancient inhabitants of Italy, judging by many sources, is associated with its origins in the Aegean world. In any case, he did not allow the idea that it could be Greek. At one time, following the theory of his compatriot Evans, Ventris even wrote: “The hypothesis that the Minoan language could be Greek is, of course, based on a clear disregard for historical probability.”

ATTEMPT BY ATTEMPT

Thanks to the achievements of Ventris, it was indeed possible to read the vast majority of inscriptions made in Linear A, many of the characters of which coincide with the characters of Linear B. With the writing of the Phaistos Disc, everything is much more complicated. The successes can be called only partial. Moreover, not only professional linguists, but also numerous amateurs and enthusiasts are struggling to decipher it.

Thus, linguist A. Molchanov, with the care and thoroughness of a true professional, carried out his analysis of the text and came to the conclusion that the so-called sign 02 - a human head with a cock's comb - conveys a mixed image of a man and a rooster - an animal that has been revered since ancient times on the island of Crete as an attribute supreme solar deity.

According to the ancient mythological and historical tradition, the ancient Cretan rulers, descendants of King Minos, traced their family to the sun god and the rooster served as their family emblem. The fact that the prototype for sign 02 was a sacred dynastic symbol allowed Molchanov to consider it a determinative, in other words, a determinant of the names of the Minoan rulers. In the text this sign is accompanied by 19 words. Consequently, it gives the names of 19 Minoan rulers.

Journalist Vladimir Mikhailov, after many years of work on decrypting the disk, has found, as he believes, the key to the secret. In his opinion, the disc reproduces the prayers that Cretan grain growers sang while cultivating the fields and harvesting crops. On the front side of the disc there is supposedly a prayer for the “revival of the grain spirit.”

However, the most original interpretation of the text of the Phaistos Disc was proposed by the well-known Gennady Grinevich, a geologist by profession. Considering the inscriptions of the Phaistos disc to be similar to the Slavic writing of the “devils and cuts” type, he deciphers the front side of the disc as follows:

“The sorrows of the past cannot be counted, but the sorrows of the present are more bitter. In a new place you will feel them. Together. What else has God sent us? Place in God's world. Don't count the feuds as past. Surround the place that God wished for you in close rows. Protect it day and night. Not a place - a will. Her children are still alive, knowing whose they are in this world.” Text on the back: “We will live again, there will be worship of God, everything will be in the past - we will forget who we are. There are children - there are ties - let's forget who we are. What to count, God. Rysiyuniya enchants the eyes. There is no escape from it, no cure for it. More than once we will hear: whose will you be, lynxes, what honors do you have, helmets in curls, talk about you? If we don’t eat it yet, we’ll eat it.”

Signs of the Phaistos Disc and their phonetic meanings according to Grinevich

Text of the Phaistos Disc in line layout

So, despite some successes, the mystery of the writing of the Phaistos Disc remains almost as insoluble as it was a century ago. How sad it is to realize this.

Victor BUMAGIN
"Secrets and Riddles. Steps" December 2013

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Tatiana's Aegean letter, Onegin's Aegean letter
- a group of related scripts of original origin. Originated on about. Crete during the Minoan civilization of the late 3rd - early. 2 thousand BC e. Later, the related writings of Cyprus also evolved from the Cretan writings, which lost a number of characteristics (ideograms and numbers), but retained the syllabic character of the writing.

• 1 History of the study
  • 1.1 Opening and decryption
  • 1.2 Second half of the 20th century.
  • 1.3 Modern stage
• 2 Composition
  • 2.1 Cretan scripts
  • 2.2 "Hieratic syllabary"
  • 2.3 Scripts of Cyprus and Levant
  • 2.4 Controversial and erroneous identification
  • 2.5 Later monuments and disappearance
• 3 Characteristics
• 4 Language
• 5 Researchers
  • 5.1 Early stage
  • 5.2 Second half of the 20th century
  • 5.3 Modern research
• 6 See also
• 7 Links
• 8 Notes
• 9 Literature

History of the study

Discovery and decryption

The Cypriot script has been known since the mid-19th century. The main decryption work was done by George Smith.

The writings of Crete were unknown until the end of the 19th century, when they were discovered by A. Evans. During his lifetime, Evans published only a small part of the inscriptions, hoping to decipher them himself.

Linear B was deciphered by M. Ventris and J. Chadwick in 1950. Its inscriptions are in Greek (see Mycenaean civilization) using numerous ideograms, as well as abbreviations in the Minoan language. With their help, it was possible to partially read the inscriptions made by earlier types of writing, but not to understand them - the language of the linear A inscriptions and “hieroglyphic” inscriptions (see Eteocritan language) has not been deciphered to this day. The Cypro-Minoan script and Cretan hieroglyphs have been studied even less well, where we can speak with relative confidence about reading no more than 20-30 characters for each type of script.

Second half of the 20th century

Modern stage

Compound

Cretan scripts

• Cretan hieroglyphs:
  • - “Hieroglyphs A” (appearance - purely pictorial signs)
  • - “Hieroglyphs B” (simplified drawings, developed into Linear A)
• - Linear A (the characters have mostly lost their resemblance to the original drawings)
• - Linear B (further development of Linear A) - in addition to Crete, it was widespread in most cultural centers of the Mycenaean civilization

Although the form of the signs has changed greatly over the specified period, the composition of the signs and their meanings have not undergone fundamental changes, therefore the indicated writings can be considered as chronological variants of the same writing - the Cretan script.

Inscriptions in “hieroglyphs” represent administrative seals, while in linear writing - accounting and economic texts, markings of personal belongings and, probably, dedicatory inscriptions on objects. Linear B was used to write Greek, with the inclusion of isolated abbreviations and words in the Minoan language (usually as ideogram notes), the language of the other Cretan scripts is unknown and is conventionally designated as "Minoan" (presumably identical to the "Kefti" language, fragments of which are attested in Egyptian texts, and/or the “Eteocritan” language of some Greek inscriptions from antiquity).

"Hieratic Syllabary"

In Crete, several inscriptions were found in a special script, not similar to any of the above - the Phaistos disk and the ax from Arkalochori. Some researchers consider them as a special graphic version of the Cretan letter, others consider them as a completely original or even non-Cretan letter in origin. A. A. Molchanov proposed the term “hieratic syllabary” (that is, syllabic writing for religious, rather than economic and administrative purposes).

Scripts of Cyprus and the Levant

From Linear A also comes the so-called Cypro-Minoan letter (not deciphered), from which the Cypriot letter later came (deciphered at the end of the 19th century thanks to a bilingual inscription, used to write texts in a dialect of Greek, as well as in the local eteo-Cypriot language) .

A number of inscriptions from the 12th to 11th centuries have been discovered in Israel. BC e., conventionally called “Philistine”, which in style also resembles the Cypro-Minoan letter.

Controversial and Misidentification

Trojan script is externally indistinguishable from Linear A; the term was coined due to the erroneous dating of inscriptions, which (due to the mixing of archaeological layers during excavations) were attributed to the period before the emergence of writing in Crete.

H. J. Franken discovered in 1964 and attributed several tablets from Deir Alla (Levant) to the writings of the Minoan circle (his opinion was repeated by a number of other researchers, in particular, Trude Dotan and Margalit Finkelberg). Most researchers, however, classify these inscriptions as examples of Proto-Canaanite writing. Later, several mutually exclusive attempts were made to interpret the inscriptions in Semitic languages.

Later monuments and disappearance

Monuments of Cretan writing for the period of the XV-III centuries. BC e. have not reached us, probably due to the fact that they were made on short-lived materials, primarily leather (indirect evidence is the form of the Linear characters A and B, adapted for writing with ink rather than on stone or clay; there are inscriptions in ink on vessels ). However, in an Eteocritan inscription in the Greek alphabet from Psychro III (?) century. BC e. the word επιθι is duplicated in Cretan Linear A characters as i-pi-ti.

A tablet with an inscription in Cypro-Minoan script.

Characteristic

Mixed character:

• about 80-90 syllabic marks such as “vowel” or “consonant+vowel”
• several hundred ideograms (not attested in any of the scripts of Cyprus)
• original Aegean numerals (not attested in Cypriot script)

Language

Inscriptions in hieroglyphs and Linear A are only legible in fragments, so it is currently impossible to determine how much their language changed as the writing system changed. The Trojan script appears to be an imported Linear A text rather than a native script.

The Phaistos disc has not been deciphered, but according to its structural characteristics, according to G. Neumann, its language could be the same as the language of Linear A. At first glance, the text of the ax from Arkalochori has the same characteristics.

The Linear B inscriptions are written in Greek, but this writing system is characterized by a number of features that are completely alien to the Greek language, but apparently reflect the morphological phenomena of the language for which the Cretan letter was originally created:

• voiced and voiceless consonants were not distinguished (perhaps in the Eteocritan language they alternated during inflection)
• the consonants l, m, n, r, s at the end of closed syllables were not displayed in writing; to other consonants at the end of closed syllables, the “empty” vowel of the subsequent syllable was added (for example, Ko-no-so = Knossos).

The language of the Cypro-Minoan letter, apparently, has nothing in common with the languages ​​of Crete, since the letter was borrowed by speakers of a completely different, unrelated culture.

The Cypriot script was mainly used for the Greek language, but the few inscriptions in the south of the island are in the Eteocypriot language, the ancestry of which is unknown.

Researchers

Early stage

• Arthur Evans - discoverer of Cretan writing
• Bedřich the Terrible - proposed the first (unsuccessful) decipherment of the Cretan script based on a comparison of sign shapes with other scripts
• Johannes Sundvall and Axel Persson - authors of early works on the analysis of Cretan inscriptions
• John Franklin Daniel - the rationale for the relationship between the scripts of Cyprus and Crete
• Ernst Sittig - an unsuccessful attempt at decryption based on a statistical method
• Vladimir Georgiev - substantiated the Greek nature of the inscriptions with Linear B, but an attempt at decipherment based on the comparative method was unsuccessful
• Alice Kober - archaeologist, long before the decipherment of the letter, managed to identify a system of nominal declensions in inscriptions written in Linear B
• Michael Ventris - based on Kober's results, as well as the logical-mathematical method, roughly deciphered Linear B
• John Chadwick - completed the decipherment of Linear B, reconstructed the grammar of the Mycenaean dialect
• Solomon Lurie - thanks to his efforts, Mycenology became widespread in the USSR; noted and supported the decryption of Ventris

Second half of the 20th century

• Günter Neumann, Giovanni Pugliese Carratelli, Emilia Masson, Fritz Schachermayr, Emilio Peruzzi, Alfred Heubeck - the first analytical works on Linear A inscriptions
• Maurice Pope - systematized and published a corpus of Linear A inscriptions, established various forms of writing signs
• Cyrus Gordon, Ian Best - failed attempts to interpret Minoan inscriptions based on comparisons with Semitic languages
• Alexander Kondratov - machine processing of inscriptions in Cretan script
• Arkady Molchanov - analytical works on the Minoan language and linear B inscriptions, translated a number of words from ancient inscriptions in Cretan hieroglyphs
• David Woodley Packard - conducted a computer analysis of texts by Linear A, which made it possible to identify morphology and other patterns of language

Modern research

• John Younger - continually updates an online database of Linear A and Cretan hieroglyphs with grammatical commentary
• András Zeke - wrote a blog about the study of Linear A texts
• Margalit Finkelberg - explores Aegean scripts in the context of the history of the ancient Mediterranean
• Jörg Weilgartner
• Oksana Levitsky (France)

At the beginning of the 21st century. Most research on Aegean scripts is concentrated in Oxford, where seminars and conferences on these topics regularly take place (see, for example,).

A number of magazines dedicated to texts in the Aegean script are published. The earliest are Minos (since the 1960s, mainly devoted to the problems of Linear B), Kadmos (mainly pre-Greek inscriptions), Do-so-mo (began publishing in the 21st century).

see also

• Eteocritan language
• Linear A
• Linear B
• Cypro-Minoan letter
• Cretan hieroglyphs
• Trojan letter
• Aegean numbers

Links

• Cretan writings of the 2nd millennium BC. e.
• Neumann G. About the language of Cretan Linear A
• Pope M. Linear A and the problem of Aegean writing
• Linear A (in English)
• Linear B (in English)

Notes

1. Aegean Linear Scripts: perspectives and retrospectives Union académique internationale. Quatre-vingt-cinquième session annuelle du Comité. Compte rendu (Brussels 2011) 29-44. ...
2. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1516435?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
3. https://faculty.gordon.edu/hu/bi/ted_hildebrandt/otesources/02-exodus/text/articles/shea-tabletdeiralla1-auss.pdf
4. http://www.auss.info/auss_publication_file.php?pub_id=791
5. The Wadi el-Hol Translation: The Deir Alla Corpus

Literature

• Bartonek A. Gold-abundant Mycenae. M. 1991.
• Gelb I. E. Experience in studying writing. M. 1984.
• Kondratov A. M., Shevoroshkin V. V. When writing is silent. Mysteries of the ancient Aegean. M. 1970.
• Molchanov A. A. Mysterious writings of the first Europeans. M. 1980.
• Molchanov A. A., Neroznak V. P., Sharypkin S. Ya. Monuments of ancient Greek writing. Introduction to Mycenology. M., 1988
• Secrets of ancient letters. Decryption problems. M. 1975.

Aegean letter to grandfather, Aegean letter to a friend, Aegean letter from Onegin, Aegean letter from Tatiana

Aegean Letter Information About

Aegean script is a group of related scripts of original origin. Originated on about. Crete during the end of the Minoan civilization
3 - beginning 2 thousand BC e. Later from
Cretan writings originated
also related scripts of Cyprus,
have lost a number of characteristics
(ideograms and numbers), but retained
syllabic character of the letter.

Cretan hieroglyphs - central and eastern parts of Crete: “Archanesian letter” (the most ancient stage, the final pre-palace

Discovery and decipherment The Cyprus letter has been known since the mid-19th century. The main decryption work was done by George Smith.

Language. The inscriptions in hieroglyphs and Linear A are readable only in fragments, so it is currently impossible to determine

Later monuments and disappearance In the Eteocritan inscription in the Greek alphabet from Psychro III, the word επιθι is duplicated in Cretan

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The Origin of Writing in the Aegean Culture

Ancient Eastern civilizations gave humanity the first examples of schools. The further development of the school was carried out at the next stage of historical development - in the era of antiquity. Achievements in the field of content, methods and organization of education for the younger generation in Ancient Greece and the Hellenistic states and their understanding by ancient rhetoricians and philosophers were an important stage in the subsequent evolution of the school and pedagogical thought.

The territory and time boundaries of the ancient world are enormous: from the 3rd millennium BC. e., when ancient Greek culture was just emerging in the Aegean Sea basin, on the islands and the mainland, and until the 5th century. n. e., when the Greco-Roman world collapsed, mixed with the barbarian world, Christianity, and gave birth to the Middle Ages. Geographically, the ancient world at different stages of its development covered the lands of three continents from the Atlantic Ocean to Egypt, Central Asia and India.

On the islands of the Aegean Sea, primarily on Crete and on the mainland coast of Greece, in the 3rd-2nd millennia BC. e. A special type of culture has developed, in many ways similar to ancient eastern civilizations, with many threads, both economic and cultural, associated with Egypt, Asia Minor, Phenicia, and Mesopotamia. In the conditions of this original culture, already in the 3rd millennium BC. e. A specific type of writing arose in Crete, dating back to the pictographic signs of the ancient Balkan script and to the proto-Sumerian cuneiform script. Writing originated here along with the emergence and development of temples, priestly and palace households.

In the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. In this region, the syllabary (Cretan) letter became widespread, which was owned not only by priests, but also by servants of the royal palaces and even rich townspeople. It is worth noting that the Cretan letter had signs for conveying both consonants and vowels, and a number of other signs of a gradual transition to alphabetic writing.

Like ancient Eastern civilizations, centers of learning were initially created here at temples and royal palaces. Thus, at the palace of the Cretan king there was a special room for servant-scribes and their students. Cretan scribes established firm rules for writing: the direction of writing is from left to right, the arrangement of lines is from top to bottom; they began to highlight capital letters and a red line. All this became, to one degree or another, the property of European written culture in subsequent centuries.

It is lost in the mists of time and, apparently, is associated with signs that were used from time to time for the purpose of identifying and registering a wide variety of objects. One of the varieties of such signs were, for example, the so-called pottery signs, attested already at the end of the Neolithic not only on Crete and other islands of the Aegean Sea, but also in mainland Greece, in particular in Lerna, another - the so-called stonemasons' marks dating back to the beginning II millennium BC e. and later, mainly in Crete, the third and most important variety is pictographic (i.e., picture) signs on seals and their impressions. The latter are found on Crete already in the early period of the Bronze Age and increase in number around the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. Since the time of A. Evans they have been commonly called Cretan hieroglyphs or, more precisely, pictography. Moreover, here, as a rule, it is impossible to establish the degree of relationship not only between images cut out on different sides of the print, but even between images located on the same side (or on the same print). A number of combinations are particularly common; according to A. Evans, they convey widespread proper names with titles. There are also inscriptions on objects with holes. In this case, we are apparently talking about stable formulas for talismans or amulets that were worn suspended around the neck.

A further stage in the development of images that give the impression of a coherent text is noted on Cretan seals (so far only as an exception, and on one oblong seal). As for signs of this type, here, of course, a decisive step has been taken from a simple image of an object to written symbolism, within the framework of which its image becomes a symbol of the word as a carrier of a definitely phonetic, i.e., sound quality. Without a doubt, these functions were already performed by combinations of signs inscribed side by side on a wide variety of clay objects that appeared around the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e., and above all on clay tablets, which are among the most significant monuments of Aegean writing of the Bronze Age.

On Cretan seals, pictographic signs are presented in their traditional, still fully pictorial appearance and later - throughout the 2nd millennium BC. e., while on clay figured images are conveyed only by simple contours consisting of straight and curved lines, either drawn with a brush dipped in ink paint, or drawn on wet clay with a cutter. This method of writing indicates that it was also widely used when writing on soft materials - mainly papyrus, dried palm leaves or tanned animal skins. However, samples of recordings on such material have not survived to this day due to its fragility.

Scripts of the Aegean and Cyprus on the time axis

In Aegean epigraphy, for the mentioned contour writing style, since the time of A. Evans, the name “linear writing” proposed by him has been used, the earliest examples of which, due to the close relationship of its signs with pictographic signs on seals, Evans attributed to hieroglyphics. Today, when the number of discovered early linear texts has increased, it is preferable to talk about hieroglyphic or pictographic italic or simply about the so-called Cretan proto-linear writing. However, the question of whether in some cases we are already dealing with examples of a later writing system, the so-called Linear A, is often a subject of debate.

Among the most significant examples of pictographic protolinear italics is a small group of very early clay tablets from Festus, some of which probably date back to the 19th century. BC e., as well as several inscriptions on vessels from Knossos in the first centuries of the 2nd millennium BC. e. These texts are mostly short, but on the tablets it is sometimes possible to distinguish words written phonetically using syllabic signs (about 60 in total) from concepts expressed through symbols (ideographically) and often accompanied by special numerical or metric designations. The direction of the letter has also not yet been strictly fixed. The texts show signs of inflection, but the written language continues to remain unknown.

The number of surviving Cretan hieroglyphic texts (including protolinear ones) is quite small. In addition to seals and their impressions with very brief inscriptions, totaling about 200, we have about 30 more clay tablets and 60 inscriptions on other clay objects containing from two to 30 characters in the text, i.e. in total about 300 samples of the period from 2200 to 1470 BC e.

In the 17th century BC e. pictographic protolinear italic disappears in Crete, and is replaced by Linear A. However, the pictorial valley version of Cretan pictograms was preserved on seals until the beginning of the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. e.

2. Second Cretan writing, the so-called Linear A, represents a further stage in the development of pictographic protolinear italics. Essentially, it is syllabic in nature. The number of phonetic signs has increased, and some of them have been replaced by new ones, so that only a third of the phonetic signs of Linear A coincide with the signs of pictographic writing. The ideograms complementing the syllabic text are stabilized, and the system of numerical and metric notations is streamlined and simplified. Writing is now almost always read from left to right. Individual words are (primarily on tablets) separated from each other by dots or vertical lines. The currently known samples of Linear A represent a whole complex of variant written subsystems, differing from each other in individual details depending on the time and place of distribution of a particular subsystem. There are currently about a hundred precisely established and reliably decipherable syllabic signs of Linear A.

The total number of examples of Linear A is approximately 2000 copies, including about 320 clay tablets, 1500 very brief inscriptions on clay labels, pendants and the like, and about 100 linear texts on other materials (metal, stone, wall paintings, ceramics) . However, of this entire number, only a little more than 600 inscriptions have epigraphic significance. If we do not take into account the already mentioned very early tablets from Festus, the signs of which for the most part should be considered as proto-linear pictographic italics, then the oldest examples of Linear A writing can be considered inscriptions made in ink paint on two clay cups from Knossos, dating from approximately the middle of the 17th century . BC e.

To date, examples of Linear A have been found in thirty sites on Crete and at least five other Aegean islands, indicating a significant spread of this script among the Cretan population between 1650 and 1470. BC BC: clay tablets alone were found in eleven different areas of Crete. Recently, special attention has been attracted to the recently opened archives of tablets in Zakro in the eastern part of Crete (about 30 copies) and in Chania in the west of the island (about 85 fragments of tablets), but the most significant collection of samples of this writing continues to be the archive of tablets today. discovered during excavations in Agia Triada in southern Crete and dating back to the beginning of the 15th century. BC e. In this place, closely connected with the nearby palace at Phaistos, over 150 clay tablets were found with records of obvious economic content. Along with them were discovered hundreds of small clay tags and pendants with seal impressions with just one or no more than a few Linear A signs, undoubtedly indicating the name of the item or the name of the owner.

The tablets from Agia Triada represent the most developed and at the same time the most studied repertoire of Linear A characters. As a rule, these tablets have the shape of a rectangle, the height of which ranges from four to nine lines of text. Linear signs were drawn on the still wet clay, after which the tablets were dried in the sun. The archive tablets from Agia Triada are among the latest Linear A monuments and date, like some isolated examples from other Cretan sites, to approximately 1470 BC. e., when all of Crete suffered the terrible catastrophe mentioned above. The only very important evidence for the use of Linear A on Crete at a later time is an inscription of three characters on a vessel discovered in the 14th century layer. BC e. in Knossos.

There are known cases of finds of individual samples of Linear A outside of Crete, especially on those islands of the Aegean Sea, which, as can be judged on the basis of the monuments of material culture found here, around the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. were under Cretan influence or were even directly part of the Cretan maritime power (Thera, Melos, Rhodes, Keos, Kythera). Some researchers consider certain written monuments from the mainland to be the same. Thus, the opinion is sometimes expressed that at least some of the signs inscribed on Mycenaean vases dating from the 13th century. BC e. and found in mainland Greece, belongs more likely to Linear A rather than Linear B. However, only two Cretan signs from Mycenaean folos in Peristeria in the western Peloponnese (XV century BC) have any significant significance, to one of which there is a later analogue in the “treasury of Atreus” in Mycenae (XIII century BC), and, in addition, a sign on a small copper cauldron found by Schliemann in Mycenae during excavations of shaft tombs of the 16th century. BC e. As for the more isolated finds, which continue rather the traditions of the ancient Cretan signs of potters and masons, their external form and chronological dating speak more likely of the existence of some other epigraphic source than of the sign repertoire of Linear A.

Let us point out that in Emalia (region of Lycia in Asia Minor) a written monument was found with four imprinted linear signs, one of which is certainly a numerical designation, and the other three, in all likelihood, indicate the name of the owner. In addition, an inscription of three characters inscribed on a votive silver dish from the Syrian city of Ugarit is sometimes classified as Linear A texts.

Despite intensive research, all efforts to unravel the Linear A language are still only halfway there. In essence, here we are talking about solving two problems: first of all, to decipher the writing itself, that is, to determine the syllabic meanings of individual characters, and then to interpret the language of the texts, that is, to establish their content based on a detailed grammatical analysis. The first stage was completed quite successfully. Significant help here was provided by the external similarity of Linear A with the later Linear B, deciphered in 1952. The latter was, in essence, a special version of Linear A, which arose around the 15th century. BC e. (if not earlier) based on a modification of an older writing system. Having compared individual characters of both writing systems, the Swedish researcher A. Furumark in 1976 came to the conclusion that of the approximately 75 characters of Linear A contained on monuments from Agia Triada, 33 are completely identical and 31 characters are very similar to the characters of the linear syllabary letter B. And since the latter has already been deciphered and the syllabic meaning of its signs is known, we are able to phonetically read the graphic signs of the texts of linear letter A with the same degree of reliability with which a modern Greek can read a text written in Cyrillic, without having any idea about the basics of Russian writing and not knowing Russian. In itself, reading the text written in Cyrillic would have been only partially difficult for him. For example, he would read the word “cancer” correctly, while, for example, in the word “wife” he would not be able to identify the first letter at all. But he also would not be able to read the word “window” correctly, since he does not know that the Russian pronunciation of this word is “akno”. A similar situation finds researchers today who are trying to read texts written in Linear A. They read some things correctly, but some of the Linear A characters remain incomprehensible. However, those signs whose graphic representation is identical in both writing systems do not necessarily have the same phonetic meaning. And a completely insurmountable obstacle is the fact that the Linear A language was definitely not similar to any of the currently known languages ​​of antiquity. This means that even if it were possible to read the texts correctly, their content would become no more understandable than it is currently known thanks to the accompanying ideograms. All attempts to connect Linear A with one of the ancient languages ​​known to us to date are based on single and random analogies that are alien to the language system as a whole. Thus, the American researcher J. Gordon, apparently, successfully identified (in 1966) a number of Semitic words in the texts of Linear A, but his conclusion about the Semitic nature of the language is not convincing, since here we are talking about concepts that are undoubtedly entered the language of the ancient Cretans as borrowings of cultural vocabulary denoting certain objects of eastern origin. If the Czech language has the word hřrbitov (“cemetery”), this does not mean at all that the Czech language belongs to the Germanic group, since in this case we are talking about just one of the words that the Czech language once borrowed from German (cf. German Friedhof).

It is very likely that the pre-Greek population of Crete belonged to the oldest Mediterranean ethnic community, the language of which was very significantly different from the languages ​​of the Indo-European family, characterized by the presence of inflections, or endings (for example, Mr., -a, -u, etc.), including and from Hittite, which is sometimes considered a Linear A language. Obviously, we are talking about one of the languages ​​of the agglutinating type, which are attested among the pre-Indo-European languages ​​of ancient Anatolia, i.e., present-day Asia Minor (in particular, Proto-Hattian and Hurrian). Therefore, the attempts to decipher Linear A that have taken place so far seem premature.

A number of Cretan epigraphic monuments, standing aside from the main direction of development of the written language of Crete, date back to the time of the greatest spread of Linear A. This includes, in particular, the Theetic Disk (circa 1600 BC - a round clay plate inscribed [more precisely, imprinted] on both sides with 241 impressions of 45 pictographic figured matrices). The text of the Phaistos Disc is resolutely indecipherable, despite repeated attempts by dozens of serious and less serious decipherers. Some consider it an object imported from Asia Minor, although without providing serious evidence in favor of this assumption. Some other monuments also stand out, including the inscription on a bronze ax from Arkalochori and on a sacrificial stone from Mallia (also around 1600 BC).

In Bronze Age Cyprus, over 400 Cypro-Minoan inscriptions are attested, representing a wide time range (ca. 1525-1050 BC) and not forming any coherent written system. Their entire set can be divided into the following four groups:

a) The archaic stage of the development of writing is represented by an inscription on a fragment of a tablet from Enkomi at the end of the 16th century. BC e., further - an inscription on a fragment of a burnt clay tablet, also from Enkomi, dating back to approximately 1500 BC. e., and two other fragments of tablets. It is the texts on the tablets that reveal significant similarities with similar monuments of Linear A.

b) The evolutionary line, the beginning of which is represented by these tablets, reaches its apogee in a number of inscriptions of the 14th-12th centuries. BC BC, contained on a wide variety of objects, and in particular on fragments of vessels, on stone and metal objects, and above all on a special kind of clay disks of unknown purpose, found mainly in Enkomi (a total of more than 80 copies). However, the most extensive monument of this type is a large burnt clay roller, presumably dating back to the 14th century. BC e. The plate contains 27 lines of easily readable text and resembles similar Babylonian objects, although the latter have inscriptions in cuneiform. This monument allows us to characterize today this evolutionary line of Cypriot writing (abbreviated as KM 1) as a complex of more or less variant writing systems containing several dozen syllabic signs and, unlike the Aegean systems, essentially without ideograms (however, numerical designations are sometimes found here). Monuments of this letter, the latest of which date back to the middle of the 11th century. BC e., record, in all likelihood, one or more “eteo-Cypriot” (i.e., pre-Cypriot) languages ​​spoken by the pre-Greek population of Cyprus, about whose ethnicity, as well as about the Minoan Cretans, it is impossible to say anything definite.

c) Around the middle of the 13th century. BC e. in ancient Ugarit on the opposite coast of Syria, type KM 1 develops from type KM 3, attested by four more or less fragmentary tablets and several inscriptions on fragments of clay and metal vessels.

d) A completely independent group of Cypro-Minoan writing (group KM 2) is represented by signs on four fragments of tablets from Enkomi, found in layers of the late 13th - early 12th centuries. BC e. Two of these texts are quite extensive. There are a total of more than 1,300 images on all four tablets, consisting of 58 different characters. This system is associated with the main evolutionary line of the Cypriot script, however, it deviates from the line of KM 1 not only by a number of epigraphic features (compared to KM 3 it has a different style, closer to cuneiform, and a number of new characters), but also reveals some differences in the internal structure of individual words. The latter circumstance, in all likelihood, should mean that the language of the KM 2 variant differed from the language of other Cypriot texts. First of all, there are undoubted signs of linguistic inflection. Plates like KM 2/3 deserve attention for a number of other reasons. So does the archaic Cypriot tablet, dating from about 1500 BC. BC, these tablets, unlike the unfired clay tablets from the Aegean, were fired immediately after the records were compiled. Therefore, there is reason to believe that they were intended for records whose content retained their meaning for a longer time. These tablets are characterized by a complete absence of ideographic signs.

Examples of various types of Cypro-Minoan writing: 1 - KM 1: clay roller from Enkomi (XIV century BC);
2 - KM 2: large clay tablet from Enkomi (circa 1200 BC);
3 - KM 3: clay tablet from Ugarit (circa 1250 BC)

The fact that the KM 2 tablets date from the period of the migration of the bulk of the Greek-speaking Mycenaean Achaeans to Cyprus (after 1230 BC) means that we could be talking about records compiled in Greek. However, it has still not been possible to decipher the tablets. Therefore, this hypothesis, quite acceptable in historical terms, remains so far devoid of any linguistic justification. The end of the XIII and the entire XII century BC. e. in the Eastern Mediterranean is characterized by such complex movements of various peoples (Dorians in Greece, Phrygians in Asia Minor, the so-called “peoples of the sea” throughout this region) that the mentioned group of tablets from Enkomi can equally well record any non-Indo-European language of one of the Asia Minor or Western Asian peoples, for example the so-called Hurrian. This hypothesis can be confirmed, first of all, by the fact that the so-called classical Cypriot letter, which emerged as a result of the further development of the Cypro-Minoan writing, resembles a linear version of the main evolutionary line of Cypro-Minoan writing - KM 1, but in no case the “cuneiform” form of KM 2 the mentioned four tablets from Enkomi.

5. Classic Cypriot script attested in Cyprus from the 8th to the end of the 3rd century. BC e. a total of more than 700 written monuments of the most varied nature, often very extensive. This letter was used both by the bulk of the population of Cyprus at that time and by the remnants of the native pre-Greek population (however, few non-Greek inscriptions have survived). In 1871, the Englishman J. Smith laid the foundation for the decipherment of writing, and an analysis of classical Cypriot texts written in Greek soon showed that behind them was a Greek dialect close to the Arcadian dialect of the Peloponnese. Currently, there are two main variants of the classical Cypriot script - eastern, or common Cypriot (55 syllabic characters), and western, or pathos (less than 50 characters have been defined today). This letter does not contain ideograms, its direction in the Paphos area is usually from left to right, and in other areas, as a rule, from right to left.

During the 3rd century. BC e. the classical Cypriot script - the last relic of the Aegean-Cypriot syllabic writing systems of the Bronze Age - was finally supplanted by the Greek alphabet.

There is indisputable evidence of the spread of Aegean writing systems as a result of cultural exchange further to the east. The oldest of them is considered to be the Cretan sign inscribed above the cuneiform text of a vessel from Gazer in Palestine (XVII century BC). Somewhat later, an inscription was compiled on a bronze dagger from Tel ed-Duwer (Lachish, around 1600 BC), containing four characters, of which at least the last has an exact analogue in all Aegean and Cypriot writing systems. Indisputable evidence of the familiarity of the local population with writing of the Aegean-Cypriot type is the above-mentioned group of four inscriptions on clay tablets from Ras Shamra (Ugarit) in Syria, made with signs of a special variant of the Cypriot-Minoan script KM 3, similar in its “cuneiform” style to the four later tablets from Enkomi. These Ugaritic samples do not lose their cultural and historical significance even if we are talking only about fragments of inscriptions compiled in Cyprus and brought to Ugarit. These documents were compiled approximately in the middle of the 13th century. BC e., because shortly before Ugarit was destroyed as a result of the invasion of the "peoples of the sea" around 1190 BC. e.

Also of interest are the “linear” marks on bricks from Beth Shaan (west of the middle Jordan River), which were discovered there along with marks on Mycenaean vessels of the 12th century. BC BC, and especially three longer texts on clay tablets from the area of ​​Tel Deir Allah in Jordan. They date back to approximately 1200 BC. e., and the writing presented on them gives the impression of a simplified version of Linear A without ideograms and at first glance resembles classical Cypriot writing. However, a closer connection with the Aegean writing systems cannot be traced here.

There is also a number of other, less certain evidence of the spread of Aegean writing as a result of cultural exchange in both the east and west of the Mediterranean. The author of this book (co-authored with I. Vladar) dwells on this question, as well as on the question of the penetration of early Mediterranean writing systems into the depths of South-Eastern and Central Europe, in an article published in the journal “Slovenská archeológia” (1977, no. 25, pp. 391 et seq.). The reader can glean more detailed information from the above article, but here we will mention only two extremely interesting monuments discovered on the territory of Yugoslavia (in Vatin, northeast of Belgrade), the possible connections of which with the Aegean were pointed out to us in his time by I. Vladar , thereby giving impetus to their epigraphic interpretation in the mentioned article.

The first of these finds is a disc-shaped ceramic object, flat on the back side, the thickness of which increases on the front side towards the center, where a small round edge protrudes. On both sides the disk is bordered by a number of rounded lines (28 on the back side and 26 on the front). On the reverse side, an ornament is drawn inside the double circle, and on the edge in the middle there are several asymmetrical images formed by horizontal and vertical lines and giving the impression of written characters.

The second find has the shape of a spindle, along the circumference of which on one plane there is a series of images, also formed by horizontal and vertical lines. Both items belong to the Vatina-Vršac culture, so named due to its discovery in the localities of the same name in north-eastern Yugoslavia. The archaeological culture to which these finds belong is certainly associated with the Mycenaean culture of the time of the greatest development of shaft tombs.

In the 16th century BC e. the strong influence of Mycenaean culture, emanating from the Helladic region, can be traced far to the north at the Danube and from there through southwestern Romania and adjacent areas of northwestern Bulgaria to northern Yugoslavia (classical phase of the Vatina-Vršac culture) and on to the Carpathian Basin. On the territory of Czechoslovakia, this influence is represented by the classical phase of the “Otomani” (Barca 1) and “Magyar” (Nitriansky Hradok) cultures, as well as the early Vetezhov culture (in Moravia), with which subsequent phases of these cultures are associated (“Otomani”: Spišský -Štvrtok, Streda nad Bodrog; Magyarovskaya: Nitra, Vráble, Vesele; Vetezhovskaya: Blucina, Hradisko u Kroměříže, Olomouc). In these cultures, the influence of the geographically distant Mycenaean Greece is most pronounced around 1500 BC. e., then over the next few decades its traces quickly disappear and appear again - but in a different form - only in the 13th century. BC e.

A careful analysis of the objects from Vatin led us to the conclusion that the images on them definitely give the impression not of a simple ornament, but rather of a chain of written characters. Coincidences with the repertoire of Linear A and B signs indicate a clear similarity of Vatin images with the signs of both systems; however, taking into account that the finds from Vatin date back to the 16th century. BC e., the source of their origin should be seen rather in Linear A. The latter is known in the Aegean primarily as a written reality of Cretan culture, although there are some indirect indications of familiarity with it in the circle of Mycenaean culture. The positive results of comparing the Vatin images with the signs of the Aegean linear writing systems do not mean, however, that the totality of images on the Vatin disk or spindle can literally be read using linear signs. In both cases, we are undoubtedly talking about highly stylized “written” signs, the appearance of which became possible thanks to only a rather superficial acquaintance with the Aegean writing systems. From time to time, the signs of these systems penetrated into the depths of Europe, where they easily became a decorative element, especially if the object decorated with them was similar to some Aegean product. This applies in particular to the batting disc. If it was an imitation of the pommel of a Mycenaean sword or dagger, as J. Mackay believes, then the use of linear writing motifs in its decoration is quite understandable. And although until now linear signs directly on the hilts of Mycenaean swords have not been attested, it is quite possible to assume that they could have been used there to indicate the name of the owner and one of such specimens could have served as a model for the Vatin master. The latter could use the Mycenaean model simultaneously to achieve two goals: on the one hand, to imitate the very pommel of the sword in a material alien to it, i.e., in clay, on the other hand, to imitate a linear inscription on the protruding edge of this top made with quasi-linear images, devoid of their communicative functions.

In both cases we are, in all likelihood, dealing with a curious consequence of the intense influence of the Aegean written culture. True, this is just a highly stylized artistic phenomenon, devoid of any specific communicative meaning. But, despite the latter circumstance, both objects are for us valuable evidence of the intense influence of Aegean culture on other areas around the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e.

See for example: Vladár J., Bartoněk A., 1977, p. 391 et seq.; Bartoněk A., 1981; 1969; Grumach E., 1969; Buchholz H.-G., 1969; Hiller St., 1978; Heubeck A., 1979. A systematic review of the bibliography is provided by the special periodicals “Nestor” (USA) and “Studies in Mycenaean Dialect and Inscriptions” (Great Britain). (For Aegean scripts, see also: Friedrich I. Deciphering forgotten scripts and languages. M., 1961; aka. History of writing. M., 1979; Secrets of ancient writings. Decryption problems. M., 1976; Gelb I. E. Experience in learning writing; When the letters are silent. M., 1970; Molchanov A. A. Mysterious writings... - Note trans.)

A complete edition of the texts composed in pictographic writing is still missing. The fundamental work here continues to be the work of A. Evans, published in 1909 (see list of references).

Different researchers give different numbers of characters in Linear A (maximum - 120). Cm.: Heubeck A., 1979, p. 14.

Currently, there is an excellent edition of linear texts A: GORILA, 1976. Compare: Brice W. S., 1961.

Cm.: Grumach E., 1969, p. 254. So far we are talking only about isolated finds.

An example of an agglutinating type of language is Hungarian. (Grammatical relations and word formation in languages ​​of the agglutinating type are realized through internal affixes. - Note trans.)

Previously, there have been numerous attempts to interpret Linear A as Greek, Hittite, Luwian, Northwestern Semitic and others, but all of them turned out to be unconvincing. See for example: Bartoněk A., 1964b p. 201 et seq.; 1969, p. 140 et seq.; Vladar J; Bartoněk A., 1977, p. 399 et seq.; Heubeck A. 1979, p. 20 et seq. (From works published in Russian, see articles by A.F. Deyanov, M. Pope and G. Neumann in the collection “Secrets of Ancient Writings”. For a popular presentation of the subject, see: Kondratov A. M., Shevoroshkin V. V. When the writing is silent, p. 51-73. For information on the ancient languages ​​of Asia Minor and Asia Minor, see: Dyakonov I. M. Languages ​​of ancient Western Asia. M., 1967; Ancient languages ​​of Asia Minor. M., 1980; Gamkrelidze T. V., Ivanov V. V. Indo-European language and Indo-Europeans. T. 1-2. Tb., 1984. - Note lane).

The latest critical edition of the text of the Phaistos Disc was prepared by J.-P. Olivie. Cm.: Olivier J.-P., 1975.

Editions of texts and studies on this issue are given in the notes to Chapter 6.

Initially, there were, naturally, much more individual fragments. The publication of A. Heubeck counts 6000 of them for Knossos, and 1445 units for Pylos, many of which were subsequently connected to each other. Cm.: Heubeck A., 1979, p. 24 et seq.

Popham M. R. - Kadmos. 1966, p. 17 et seq.; A.J.A. 1975, No. 79, p. 372 et seq. (about 1375); Hood M.S.F.- Kadmos. 1965, No. 4, p. 16 et seq.: SMEA. 1967, No. 2, p. 63 et seq. (about 1350); Smith S. N. 1961.

Smith G., 1872, p. 129 et seq.; Thumb A., Scherer A., 1959, p. 141 et seq.

Recently, an inscription from the 11th century was found in Paphos. BC e., composed in Greek using syllabary signs, which undoubtedly represents a transitional stage from the Cypriot-Minoan to the classical Cypriot writing. Cm.: Soesbergen R. G.,- Glotta. 1981, No. 20, p. 486.

Masson E., 1974b; Buchholz H.-G., 1969, pp. 128 et seq.

Makkay J., 1968, p. 96.