from Mycenae.[1] The linear signs show a striking similarity to those found by Flinders Petrie on the fragments from Kahun and Gurob, in Egypt.[2] Twenty out of thirty-two are exactly similar; about fifteen resemble the signs of the Cypriote syllabary. While the linear style of writing belongs to Mycenaean times, the pictographic signs are of much older origin, and are assigned by Evans to a date as early as the third millennium before Christ. With the introduction of the later style of writing the older did not disappear, but the two systems overlapped each other.
In the excavations of Schliemann in the year 1890 there was unearthed in the VI City a brown terracotta whorl,[3] on which was an inscription that Professor Sayce pronounced to be "a splendid instance of Cypriote epigraphy." And even in the early period of the II City[4] there are numerous seals and whorls (fig 36), with symbols which bear close resemblance to those found by Evans in Crete.
39. Who Were the Authors?[5]The question now arises: "Who were the bearers of this civilization?" The Iliad shows such a high development in language and verse that its composition must have been going on for a long period. It indicates that the Greeks,
- ↑ Cf. Πρακτικὰ τῆς Ἀρχαιολ Ἐταιρίας, 1889, p. 9.
- ↑ Cf. Petrie, Ten Years' Digging in Egypt.
- ↑ Cf. Schliemann, Bericht über die Ausgrabungen in Troja im Jahre 1890, p. 25.
- ↑ Cf. Schliemann, Ilios, p. 691.
- ↑ Heinrich, Troja bei Homer und in der Wirklichkeit, pp. 17–22. Cf. Ridgeway, Early Age in Greece, Vol. I, pp. 80–393; Tsountas and Manatt, The Mycenaean Age, pp. 316–346; Frazer, Pausanias, Vol. III, pp. 148–158; Gardner, New Chapters in Greek History, pp. 70 ff.
