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

Cretan hieroglyphs - central and eastern parts of Crete: "Arkhanesian script" (most ancient stage, the final pre-palace period) “Hieroglyphs A” (appearance - purely pictorial signs) “Hieroglyphs B” (simplified drawings, developed into linear writing A) Linear writing A (signs basically lost their resemblance to the pictorial original) - arose in the south of the island and gradually occupied most of Crete, except for the southwest, and also spread to the Cyclades Linear B (a further development of Linear A) - in addition to Crete, it was common in most cultural centers The Mycenaean Civilization Although the form of signs has changed a lot during this period, the composition of the signs and their meanings have not undergone fundamental changes, therefore these scripts can be considered as chronological variants of the same script - the Cretan script.

Discovery and decipherment The Cypriot script has been known since the middle of the 19th century. The main deciphering work was done by George Smith. The writing of Crete was 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. The inscriptions on it are made 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 Eteocretan language) has not been deciphered to date. Cypro-Minoan writing and Cretan hieroglyphs are even worse studied, where one can speak with relative certainty about reading no more than 20-30 characters for each type of writing.

Language. The inscriptions in hieroglyphs and Linear A are read only in fragments, so it is currently impossible to establish how much their language changed as the writing system changed. The Trojan appears to be an imported Linear A text, not a local script. The Phaistos disk has not been deciphered, however, according to the 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 Arkalohori has the same characteristics. The inscriptions in Linear B are written in Greek, but this writing system has a number of features that are completely alien to the Greek language, but, apparently, reflecting the morphological phenomena of the language for which Cretan writing was originally created: voiced and voiceless consonants did not differ (perhaps in the Eteocretan 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, an "empty" vowel of the subsequent syllable was added (for example, Ko-no-so = Knossos). The inscriptions in the Philistine Linear script have not been interpreted in any way due to their exceptional brevity. The language of the Cypriot-Minoan writing, apparently, has nothing to do with the languages ​​of Crete, since the writing was borrowed by carriers of a completely different, unrelated culture. The Cypriot script was mainly used for the Greek language, however, a few inscriptions in the south of the island are in Eteocypriot, family ties which are unknown.

Late Monuments and Disappearance In the Eteocretan inscription in the Greek alphabet from Psychro III, the word επιθι is duplicated in Linear A Cretan characters as i-pi-ti. Currently, most researchers consider the inscription to be a fake; other evidence of the existence of the Aegean script in Crete and mainland Greece after the "bronze collapse" is absent. Tablet with an inscription in Cryptominoan script.

2. How the mystery of Egyptian hieroglyphs was solved. On July 15, 1799, a group of French soldiers under the command of Captain Pierre-Francois Bouchard, during the construction of Fort Saint-Julien near the city of Rosetta, discovered a stone slab with three identical texts engraved on it (two texts in ancient Egyptian and one in ancient Greek. Rosetta stone. Since 1802 it has been kept in british museum Many scientists struggled with their solution. Who managed to do this?

Jean-Francois Champollion on September 14, 1822 made a breakthrough in science, making sure that he could read and translate any ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic texts. Thanks to him, scientists today can read ancient Egyptian texts and solve more and more riddles.

3. The school prepared scribes and priests. in the ancient Egyptian school. Relief from the tomb Education at school was paid, and only wealthy Egyptians could afford the education of their children. Only boys attended the school. The term of study was long (from 5 to 17 years). The main purpose of the training was: to prepare officials who knew writing and mathematical calculations.

Learning to write What can you say about the methods of teaching in the Egyptian school? The motto of the Egyptian school was the words written in one of the ancient papyri: "A child carries an ear on his back, you need to beat him so that he hears." At first, the students wrote on shards of broken dishes. And only older students who already knew the art of writing were trusted with papyrus.

Areas of knowledge of the ancient Egyptians: Mathematics: They created their own simple number system, knew how to multiply and divide, calculate the area of ​​\u200b\u200bfigures. Chemistry: They made embalming compositions, used various mineral and organic additives to color raw materials, and learned how to melt glass. Astronomy: They created a map of the starry sky visible in Egypt, compiled a calendar, were able to determine when the Nile would flood. A water clock was used to measure time. Medicine: The Egyptians knew large organs: the heart, blood vessels, kidneys, intestines, muscles, etc. The first description of the brain belongs to them. We knew several hundred medicinal plants. In the treatment of fractures, Egyptian healers used wooden splints or bandaged the injured limb with linen cloth soaked in hardening resin.

It is lost in the mists of time and, apparently, is associated with signs used from time to time to identify and register a wide variety of objects. One of the varieties of such signs were, for example, the so-called pottery marks, already attested at the end of the Neolithic not only in Crete and other islands of the Aegean Sea, but also in mainland Greece, in particular in Lerna, the other - the so-called marks of stonemasons, related to the beginning II millennium BC. e. and later, mainly in Crete, the third and most important variety - pictographic (i.e., pictorial) signs on seals and their impressions. The latter are found in Crete already in early period Bronze Age and increase in numbers around the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. Since the time of A. Evans, they have been called Cretan hieroglyphics or, more precisely, pictography. At the same time, as a rule, it is impossible to establish the degree of relationship not only between images cut on different sides print, but even between images that are 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, apparently, we are talking about stable formulas of talismans or amulets that were worn hanging 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, moreover, 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 a 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 the Aegean writing of the Bronze Age.

On Cretan seals, pictographic signs are presented in their traditional, still fully pictorial appearance and later - throughout the entire 2nd millennium BC. e., while on clay figured images are already transmitted 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 chisel. This method of writing records indicates that it was also widely used when writing in soft material- mainly papyrus, dried palm leaves or dressed animal skins. However, samples of recordings on such material have not survived to our time due to its fragility.

Aegean and Cypriot scripts on the time axis

In the Aegean epigraphy for the mentioned contour writing style, since the time of A. Evans, the name proposed by him “linear writing” 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 found early linear texts has increased, it is preferable to speak of hieroglyphic or pictographic cursive or simply about the so-called Cretan protolinear writing. However, the question of whether in some cases we are already dealing with samples of a later writing system, the so-called Linear A, is often the subject of discussion.

Among the most significant examples of pictographic protolinear cursive is a small group of very early clay tablets from Phaistos, some of which should probably be dated back to the 19th century. BC e., as well as several inscriptions on vessels from Knossos of the first centuries of the 2nd millennium BC. e. These texts are mostly short, but on the tablets it is sometimes already possible to distinguish words written according to the phonetic principle 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 is also not yet strictly fixed. The texts show signs of inflection, but the language of writing remains unknown.

The number of surviving Cretan hieroglyphic texts (including protolinear ones) is rather 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. a total of approximately 300 samples of the period from 2200 to 1470 BC e.

In the 17th century BC e. the pictographic proto-linear cursive disappears in Crete, and the linear letter A comes to replace it. e.

2. The second Cretan script, the so-called linear A, represents a further stage in the development of pictographic protolinear cursive. 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. There is a stabilization of the ideograms that complement the syllabic text, and the system of numerical and metric notation is streamlined, undergoing simplification. Writing is now read almost always from left to right. Separate words are (primarily on tablets) separated from each other by dots or vertical lines. The samples of Linear A known to date represent a whole complex of variant written subsystems that differ from each other in individual details depending on the time and place of distribution of one or another subsystem. Accurately established and amenable to reliable deciphering of Linear A syllabics, there are currently about a hundred.

The total number of Linear A samples is approximately 2,000, including about 320 clay tablets, 1,500 very short inscriptions on clay labels, pendants and the like, and about 100 linear texts on other materials (metal, stone, wall paintings, ceramics) . However, of this total, only a little over 600 inscriptions have epigraphic significance. If we do not take into account the already mentioned very early tablets from Phaistos, the signs of which for the most part should be considered as protolinear pictographic cursive, then the oldest examples of Linear A can be considered inscriptions made in ink on two clay goblets from Knossos, dating from approximately the middle of the 17th century. . BC e.

To date, examples of Linear A have been found in thirty places on Crete and at least five other islands in the Aegean, indicating a significant spread of this script among the Cretan population between 1650 and 1470. BC AD: Clay tablets alone have been found in eleven different areas of Crete. Recently Special attention attract 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), however, the archive of tablets, discovered during excavations in Agia Triada in the south of Crete and dating from the beginning of the 15th century. BC e. In this place, closely connected with the nearby palace in Phaistos, over 150 clay tablets with records of clearly economic content were found. Along with them were found hundreds of small clay labels and seal-imprinted pendants with only one or no more than a few Linear A characters, undoubtedly denoting the name of the product 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 varies from four to nine lines of text. Linear signs were drawn on still wet clay, after which the tablets were dried in the sun. The archive tablets from Agia Triada are among the latest monuments of Linear A and are dated, like some single samples from other Cretan areas, around 1470 BC. e., when the whole of Crete suffered the terrible catastrophe mentioned above. The only very important evidence of the use of Linear A in Crete at a later time is an inscription of three characters on a vessel found in a layer of the 14th century. BC e. in Knossos.

There are known cases of finds of individual samples of Linear A writing outside 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 even directly part of the Cretan maritime power (Thera, Melos, Rhodes, Keos, Cythera). Some researchers consider certain written monuments from the mainland to be the same. Thus, the opinion is sometimes expressed that at least part of the signs inscribed on Mycenaean vases dating back to the 13th century. BC e. and found in mainland Greece, belongs to Linear A rather than Linear B. However, only two Cretan signs from the Mycenaean tholos in Peristeria in the western Peloponnese (15th century BC) are of any significant importance, 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 rather continue the traditions of the ancient Cretan signs of potters and masons, their external form and chronological dating indicate the existence of some other epigraphic source rather than the sign repertoire of Linear A.

At the same time, we point out that in Emali (a region of Lycia in Asia Minor) a written monument was found with four imprinted linear signs, one of which, of course, is a numerical designation, and the other three, in all likelihood, designate 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 referred to as a Linear A text.

Despite intensive searches, all efforts to unravel the language of Linear A are still 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 give an interpretation of the language of the texts, that is, to establish their content on the basis of 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 variant of Linear A, which arose around the 15th century. BC e. (if not earlier) based on a modification of an older writing system. After comparing the 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 the monuments from Agia Triada, 33 are completely identical and 31 characters are very similar to the characters of the Linear syllabary letters 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 writing A with the same degree of certainty with which a modern Greek can read a text written in Cyrillic, having no idea about the basics of Russian writing and not knowing Russian. By itself, reading a text written in Cyrillic would have been only partly 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”. Researchers today are in a similar situation trying to read texts written in Linear A characters. They read some of them correctly, but some of the Linear A characters remain incomprehensible. However, those signs graphic image which are identical in both writing systems do not necessarily have the same phonetic meaning. And a completely insurmountable obstacle is the fact that the language of Linear A was definitely not similar to any of the currently known languages ​​of antiquity. This means that even if one were to read the texts correctly, their content would be no more intelligible from this than it is known at present thanks to the accompanying ideograms. All attempts to date to link Linear A with one of the ancient languages ​​known to us 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 character of the language is not convincing, since here we are talking about concepts that, undoubtedly, entered the language of the ancient Cretans as a borrowing of cultural vocabulary denoting certain objects of oriental 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 just one of the words once borrowed Czech language in 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 different from the languages ​​of the Indo-European family, characterized by the presence of inflections or endings (for example, lord, -a, -u, etc.), including and from Hittite, which is sometimes regarded as the language of Linear A. Obviously, we are talking about one of the languages ​​​​of the agglutinating type that are attested among the pre-Indo-European languages ​​\u200b\u200bof ancient Anatolia, i.e., present-day Asia Minor (in particular, Proto-Hattian and Hurrian). Therefore, attempts to decipher Linear A that have taken place so far seem premature.

By the time of the greatest distribution of Linear A, a number of Cretan epigraphic monuments, standing aside from the main direction of the development of the writing of Crete, also belong. This includes, in particular, the Feetsky disk (circa 1600 BC - a round clay plate, inscribed [more precisely, imprinted] on both sides with 241 prints of 45 pictographic figure matrices). The text of the Phaistos Disc is decidedly indecipherable, despite repeated attempts by dozens of serious and less serious decipherers. Some consider it to be an object brought from Asia Minor, however, without giving serious evidence in favor of this assumption. Some other monuments also stand apart, including the inscription on a bronze ax from Arkalohori and on a sacrificial stone from Mallia (also around 1600 BC).

Over 400 Cypriot-Minoan inscriptions are attested in Cyprus during the Bronze Age, representing a wide time range (about 1525-1050 BC) and not forming any coherent writing system. All of them can be divided into four following groups:

a) The archaic stage in 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 tablet made of baked clay, also from Enkomi, dating from about 1500 BC. e., and two other fragments of tablets. It is the texts on the tablets that show a significant similarity with similar monuments of Linear A.

b) The evolutionary line, the beginning of which is represented by these tablets, reaches its climax in a number of inscriptions of the XIV-XII centuries. BC e., contained on a variety of objects, and in particular on fragments of vessels, on stone and metal objects, and above all on a special kind of clay discs 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 roll of baked clay, presumably dated to the 14th century. BC e. The roller contains 27 lines of a well-read text and resembles similar Babylonian objects, although the latter are inscribed 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 having no 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., fix, in all likelihood, one or more "Eteocypriot" (i.e., Proto-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 thirteenth century. BC e. in ancient Ugarit on the opposite coast of Syria, a variant of KM 3 develops from type KM 1, 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. On all four tablets, there are a total of more than 1300 images, consisting of 58 different signs. This system is connected with the main evolutionary line of Cypriot writing, however, it deviates from the KM 1 line not only by a number of epigraphic features (compared to KM 3, it has a different, closer to cuneiform inscription and a number of new signs), but also reveals some differences. in the internal structure of individual words. The latter circumstance, in all likelihood, must mean that the language of the KM 2 version differed from the language of other Cypriot texts. First of all, there are undoubted signs of linguistic inflection. Type plates KM 2/3 deserve attention for a number of other reasons. As well as the archaic Cypriot tablet, dating from about 1500 BC. BC, these tablets, unlike the unfired clay tablets from the Aegean, were fired immediately after writing. Therefore, there is reason to believe that they were intended for records, the content of which retained its significance for a longer time. These tablets are characterized by the complete absence of ideographic signs.

Samples 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 refer to the period of the migration to Cyprus of the bulk of the Greek-speaking Mycenaean Achaeans (after 1230 BC) means that we could talk about records compiled in Greek. However, the tablets have not yet been deciphered. 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 various peoples(Dorians in Greece, Phrygians in Asia Minor, the so-called "peoples of the sea" in the entire indicated 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 Asia Minor peoples, for example, the so-called Hurrian. This hypothesis can be confirmed, first of all, by the fact that the so-called classical Cypriot script that appeared as a result of the further development of Cypriot-Minoan writing resembles a linear version of the main evolutionary line of Cypriot-Minoan writing - KM 1, but by no means the “cuneiform” form of KM 2 the mentioned four tablets from Enkomi.

5. Classical Cypriot writing 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 diverse 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 the classical Cypriot texts written in Greek soon showed that they were based on 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 Paphos (less than 50 characters have been identified to date). 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 III 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.

Indisputable evidence of the spread of the Aegean writing systems as a result of cultural exchange exists further to the east. The oldest of these is considered to be the Cretan sign inscribed over the cuneiform text of a vessel from Gazer in Palestine (XVII century BC). Somewhat later, an inscription was made on a bronze dagger from Tel ed-Duver (Lachish, circa 1600 BC), containing four characters, of which at least the last has an exact analogue in all Aegean and Cypriot writing systems. Indisputable proof of the familiarity of the local population with the 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 writing KM 3, close in its "cuneiform" style to four later tablets from Enkomi. These Ugaritic samples do not lose their cultural and historical significance even if they are only fragments of inscriptions composed in Cyprus and brought to Ugarit. These documents were compiled around 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 "linear" signs on bricks from Bet Shaan (west of the middle course of the Jordan River), which were found there along with signs on Mycenaean vessels of the 12th century. BC e., and especially three longer texts on clay tablets from the area of ​​Tel Deir Alla in Jordan. They date back to around 1200 BC. e., and the script presented on them gives the impression of a simplified version of Linear A without ideograms and at first glance resembles the classical Cypriot script. However, a closer connection with the Aegean writing systems cannot be traced here.

There is also a number of other, less certain, evidence for the spread of Aegean writing through cultural exchange both in the east and in the west of the Mediterranean. On this issue, as well as on the issue of the penetration of the early Mediterranean writing systems into the depths of Southeastern and Central Europe, the author of this book dwells (in collaboration with I. Vladar) in an article published in the journal Slovenská archeológia (1977, no. 25, pp. 391 et seq.). The reader can get more detailed information from this article, but here we will only mention 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 at one time by I. Vladar , thus giving a stimulus to their epigraphic interpretation in the mentioned article.

The first of these finds is a disk-shaped ceramic object, flat on the reverse side, the thickness of which increases on the obverse side towards the center, where a small round face protrudes. On both sides, the disk is bordered by a series of rounded dashes (28 on the reverse side and 26 on the front). On the reverse side, inside a double circle, an ornament is drawn, 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 there are a number of images on one plane, also formed by horizontal and vertical lines. Both items belong to the Vatina-Vršac culture, named after its discovery in the eponymous locality in northeastern Yugoslavia. The archaeological culture to which these finds belong is undoubtedly connected with the Mycenaean culture of the time. greatest development mine tombs.

In the XVI century. BC e. the strong influence of the Mycenaean culture, emanating from the Helladic region, can be traced far north near the Danube and from there through southwestern Romania and adjacent regions of northwestern Bulgaria to northern Yugoslavia (the classical phase of the Vatin-Vrsac culture) and further to the Carpathian basin. On the territory of Czechoslovakia, this influence is represented by the classical phase of the "Otomani" (Barca 1) and "Magyarovskoy" (Nitrianski Hradok) cultures, as well as the early Vetezh culture (in Moravia), with which the subsequent phases of these cultures are associated ("Otomani": Spisski -Shtvrtok, Streda nad Bodrogom; Magyarovskaya: Nitra, Vrable, Vesele; Vetezhovskaya: Bluchina, Hradisko-u-Kromerizhe, 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 reappear - but in a different form - only in the XIII century. BC e.

A careful analysis of the items from Batting led us to the conclusion that the images on them definitely give the impression of not a simple ornament, but rather a chain of written characters. Coincidences with the repertoire of signs of Linear A and B indicate a clear similarity between the Vata images and 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 rather be seen 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 acquaintance with it in the circle of Mycenaean culture. The positive results of comparison of the Vata images with the signs of the Aegean linear writing systems do not mean, however, that the totality of images on the Vata disk or spindle can be literally read with the help of linear signs. In both cases, we are undoubtedly talking about highly stylized "written" signs, the appearance of which became possible due to only a rather superficial acquaintance with the Aegean writing systems. The signs of these systems from time to time penetrated into the depths of Europe, where they easily became a decorative element, especially if the object they decorated itself resembled some Aegean product. This applies in particular to the watin disc. If it was an imitation of the pommel of a Mycenaean sword or dagger, as J. McKay believes, then the use of linear writing motifs in its decoration is quite understandable. And although so far the linear signs directly on the hilts of Mycenaean swords have not been attested, it is quite possible to assume that they could be used there to indicate the name of the owner and one of such specimens could serve 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 face of this top, made by quasi-linear images, devoid of their communicative functions.

In both cases, we are probably 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 impact Aegean culture to other areas around the middle of the II millennium BC. e.

See for example: Vladar J., Bartonek A., 1977, p. 391 et seq.; Bartonek A., 1981; 1969; Grumach E., 1969; Buchholz H.-G., 1969; hiller st., 1978; Heubeck A., 1979. A systematic review of the bibliography is given by the special periodicals "Nestor" (USA) and "Studies in Mycenaean Dialect and Inscriptions" (UK). (For Aegean scripts, see also: Friedrich I. Deciphering forgotten scripts and languages. M., 1961; he is. History of writing. M., 1979; Secrets of ancient writings. Decryption problems. M., 1976; Gelb I. E. Experience in writing; When the letters are silent. M., 1970; Molchanov A. A. Mysterious letters... - Note. trans.)

There is still no complete edition of the texts composed by pictographic characters. The work of A. Evans, published in 1909, continues to be fundamental here (see references).

Various researchers cite different number signs of linear writing A (maximum - 120). Cm.: Heubeck A., 1979, p. fourteen.

There is now an excellent edition of the Linear A texts: GORILA, 1976. Cf.: Brice W. C., 1961.

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

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

There have already been repeated attempts to interpret Linear A as Greek, Hittite, Luvian, Northwestern Semitic, and others, but they have all been unconvincing. See for example: Bartonek A., 1964b p. 201 et seq.; 1969, p. 140 et seq.; Vladar J; Bartonek A., 1977, p. 399 et seq.; Heubeck A. 1979, p. 20 ff. (From works published in Russian, see the 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 Letters Are Silent, p. 51-73. For the ancient languages ​​of Western Asia 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. per.).

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

Editions of texts and studies on this problem are given in the notes to chapter 6.

Initially, there were naturally much more individual fragments. The edition of A. Hoybek 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 ff.

Popham M. R. - Kadmos. 1966, p. 17 et seq.; AJA. 1975, no. 79, p. 372 et seq. (about 1375); Hood M.S.F.- Kadmos. 1965, no. 4, p. 16ff.: SMEA. 1967, no. 2, p. 63 et seq. (about 1350); Smith C. H. 1961.

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

Recently, an inscription from the 11th century has been found in Paphos. BC e., composed in Greek with syllabic characters, which undoubtedly represents a transitional stage from Cypriot-Minoan to classical Cypriot writing. Cm.: Soesbergen R. G.,- Glotta. 1981, no. 20, p. 486.

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

Makkay J., 1968, p. 96.

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

Inscription on the inside
surfaces
Minoan bowl.
A plate with an inscription.

Cretan hieroglyphs - the central and eastern parts of Crete: "Arkhanesian writing" (the most ancient stage, the final pre-palace

period)
"Hieroglyphs A" (appearance - purely pictorial signs)
"Hieroglyphs B" (simplified drawings, developed into a linear
letter a)
Linear A (signs mostly lost their resemblance to
pictorial original) - arose in the south of the island and
gradually occupied most of Crete, except for the southwest, and
also extended to the Cyclades
Linear B (further development of Linear A)
- in addition to Crete, it was common in most
cultural centers of the Mycenaean civilization
Although the shape of the signs has changed a lot during this period,
the composition of signs and their meanings do not fundamentally change
have undergone, so these writings can be
considered as chronological variants of the same
writing - Cretan writing.

Discovery and decipherment The Cypriot script has been known since the middle of the 19th century. The main deciphering work was done by George Smith.

The scripts of Crete were unknown until the end of the 19th century, when they
opened by A. Evans. During his lifetime, Evans published only a small part of
inscriptions, hoping to decipher them yourself.
Linear B deciphered by M. Ventris and J. Chadwick in 1950
The inscriptions on it are made in Greek (see Mycenaean
civilization) using numerous ideograms, as well as
abbreviations in Minoan. With their help, it was partially possible
read the inscriptions made by earlier types of writing, but not
understand them - the language of Linear A and "hieroglyphic" inscriptions
(see Eteocretan language) has not been deciphered to date. More
the Cypriot-Minoan script and Cretan hieroglyphs, where
one can speak with relative certainty about reading no more than 2030 characters for each of the types of writing.

Language. The inscriptions in hieroglyphs and Linear A are read only in fragments, so at the moment it is impossible to establish

How has their language changed?
as the writing system changed. The Trojan letter appears to be
imported text in Linear A, not local script.
The Phaistos disk has not been deciphered, however, according to its structural characteristics, according to
according to G. Neumann, his language could be the same as the language of the Linear script by A. Temi
At first glance, the text of the ax from Arkalohori has the same characteristics.
The inscriptions in Linear B are in Greek, but this
the writing system is characterized by a number of features that are completely alien to Greek
language, but, apparently, reflecting the morphological phenomena of the language, for which
the Cretan letter was originally created:
voiced and voiceless consonants did not differ (perhaps in the Eteocretan language they
alternated during inflection)
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 were added an "empty" vowel
subsequent syllable (e.g. Ko-no-so = Knossos).
The inscriptions in Philistine Linear script are not interpreted in any way due to
exceptional brevity.
The language of Cypro-Minoan writing seems to have nothing to do with the languages
Crete, since the letter was borrowed by carriers of a completely different,
unrelated culture.
The Cypriot script was mainly used for the Greek language, however
a few inscriptions in the south of the island are in Eteocypriot,
whose family ties are unknown.

Late Monuments and Disappearance

Linear A characters as i-pi-ti. AT
Currently, most researchers consider the inscription
fake; other evidence of the existence of the Aegean script on
Crete and mainland Greece after the "bronze collapse" are absent.
Plate with the inscription
cryptominoan script.

|
Aegean letter of Tatyana, Aegean letter of Onegin
- 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, related writings of Cyprus also originated from the Cretan scripts, which lost a number of characteristics (ideograms and numbers), but retained the syllabic character of the letter.

• 1 Study history
  • 1.1 Discovery 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 the Levant
  • 2.4 Controversial and misidentification
  • 2.5 Late monuments and extinction
• 3 Characteristic
• 4 Language
• 5 Explorers
  • 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 study

Opening and decryption

The Cypriot script has been known since the middle of the 19th century. The main deciphering work was done by George Smith.

The writing of Crete was 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. The inscriptions on it are made 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 Eteocretan language) has not been deciphered to date. Cypro-Minoan writing and Cretan hieroglyphs have been studied even worse, where one can speak with relative certainty about reading no more than 20-30 characters for each type of writing.

Second half of the 20th century

Modern stage

Compound

Cretan scripts

Tablet with the inscription in Linear B (Archaeological Museum of Heraklion, Crete)

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

Although the shape of the signs has changed a lot during the indicated period, the composition of the signs and their meanings have not undergone fundamental changes, therefore these scripts can be considered as chronological variants of the same script - the Cretan script.

The inscriptions in "hieroglyphs" are administrative seals, while in linear writing - accounting and economic texts, marking of personal belonging and, probably, dedicatory inscriptions on objects. Linear B was used to write in Greek, with the inclusion of individual abbreviations and words in the Minoan language (usually as marks for ideograms), the language of other Cretan scripts is unknown and conventionally designated as "Minoan" (presumably identical to the "Keftian" language, fragments of which are attested in Egyptian texts, and/or the "Eteocretan" language of some inscriptions in Greek script from the era of 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 Arkalohori. Some researchers consider them as a special graphic variant of Cretan writing, others consider them as completely original or even non-Cretan writing. A. A. Molchanov proposed the term "hieratic syllabary" (that is, a syllabary for religious, and not economic and administrative purposes).

Scripts of Cyprus and the Levant

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

A number of inscriptions from the 12th-11th centuries have been found in Israel. BC e., conventionally called "Philistine", which also resemble the Cypro-Minoan letter in outline.

Controversial and misidentification

Trojan is outwardly indistinguishable from Linear A; the term was introduced into circulation 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, attribute these inscriptions to examples of proto-Canaanite writing. Later, several mutually exclusive attempts were made to interpret inscriptions in Semitic languages.

Late monuments and disappearance

Monuments of Cretan writing for the period of the 15th-3rd centuries. BC e. have not come down to us, probably due to the fact that they were made on short-lived materials, primarily leather (indirect evidence is the shape of the signs of linear writing A and B, adapted more for writing with ink than on stone or clay; there are inscriptions on vessels ). However, in an Eteocretan inscription in the Greek alphabet from Psychro III (?) c. BC e. the word επιθι is duplicated by the Cretan signs of Linear A as i-pi-ti.

Tablet with an inscription in Cypriot-Minoan script.

Characteristic

Character mixed:

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

Language

Main article: Eteocretan language

The inscriptions in hieroglyphs and Linear A are read only in fragments, so it is currently impossible to establish how much their language changed as the writing system changed. The Trojan appears to be an imported Linear A text, not a local script.

The Phaistos disk is not deciphered, however, according to the 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 Arkalohori has the same characteristics.

Linear B inscriptions are made in Greek, but this writing system has a number of features that are completely alien to the Greek language, but, apparently, reflecting the morphological phenomena of the language for which Cretan writing was originally created:

• voiced and deaf consonants did not differ (perhaps in the Eteocretan language they alternated during inflection)
• 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, an "empty" vowel of the subsequent syllable was added (for example, Ko-no-so = Knossos).

The language of the Cypriot-Minoan writing, apparently, has nothing to do with the languages ​​of Crete, since the writing was borrowed by carriers of a completely different, unrelated culture.

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

Researchers

early stage

• Arthur Evans - discoverer of Cretan writing
• Bedrich the Terrible - proposed the first (unsuccessful) decipherment of the Cretan script based on a comparison of character forms with other scripts
• Johannes Sundvall and Axel Persson - early analyzes of Cretan inscriptions
• John Franklin Daniel - substantiation of the relationship between the scripts of Cyprus and Crete
• Ernst Sittig - unsuccessful attempt at decryption based on the statistical method
• Vladimir Georgiev - substantiated the Greek character of the inscriptions in Linear B, however, an attempt to decipher on the basis of the comparative method was unsuccessful
• Alisa Kober - archaeologist, long before the decipherment of the letter, she managed to identify the system of nominal declensions in the inscriptions in Linear B
• Michael Ventris - based on the results of Kober, as well as the logical-mathematical method, deciphered linear B in general terms
• 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 deciphering Ventris

Second half of the 20th century

• Günther Neumann, Giovanni Pugliese Carratelli, Emilia Masson, Fritz Schachermayr, Emilio Peruzzi, Alfred Heubeck - the first analytical work on Linear A inscriptions
• Maurice Pope - systematized and published a corpus of inscriptions in Linear A, established various forms of writing signs
• Cyrus Gordon, Jan Best - Unsuccessful Attempts to Interpret Minoan Inscriptions Based on Comparison with Semitic Languages
• Alexander Kondratov - machine processing of inscriptions in Cretan script
• Arkady Molchanov - analytical work 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 reveal the morphology and other patterns of the language

Modern research

• John Younger - constantly updates the Internet database of texts in Linear A and Cretan hieroglyphs with grammatical commentary
• András Szeke - blogged with the study of Linear A texts
• Margalit Finkelberg - explores the Aegean scripts in the context of the history of the ancient Mediterranean
• Jörg Weilgartner
• Oksana Levitsky (France)

At the beginning of the XXI century. most of the research on the Aegean scripts is concentrated in Oxford, where seminars and conferences on this topic regularly take place (see, for example,).

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

see also

• Eteocretan language
• Linear A
• Linear B
• Cypro-Minoan script
• Cretan hieroglyphs
• Trojan letter
• Aegean numerals

Links

• Cretan writing II millennium BC. e.
• Neumann G. On the Cretan Linear A language
• Pope M. Linear A and the problem of the Aegean script
• 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 Comite. 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-rich Mycenae. M. 1991.
• Gelb I. E. Experience in the study of writing. M. 1984.
• Kondratov A. M., Shevoroshkin V. V. When the 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 to Onegin, Aegean letter to Tatyana

Aegean Letter Information About