Re: Linear A tablet Hagia Triada 95

From: Franz Gnaedinger (frgn_at_bluemail.ch)
Date: 07/29/04 

Date: 29 Jul 2004 00:02:27 -0700

frgn@bluemail.ch (Franz Gnaedinger) wrote in message news:<2bf25455.0407262256.211503e8@posting.google.com>...

o8TY: can you also locate Prometheus in the Greek area?
His whereabouts may hint at the origin of Minos.

Agriculture started 9,000 years ago in the Harran plain
in northern Syria, not far from Aleppo and Ebla. The stone
pillar sanctuary Goebekli Tepe north of the Harran plain
in southeast Anatolia was in use for two millennia, from
11,500 till 9,500 BP (no typo here); the T-shaped pillars
are up to eight meters tall; the largest but unfinished
pillar in a nearby quary would weigh fifty tons if freed
from the rock; reliefs on the pillars show various animals;
on the phallic pillar 2 in the snake pillar building are
seen a stork, above it a fox, above it a bull. Late Neolithic
miniature stone horned pieces from Hallan Cemi, Upper Tigris
drainage, anticipate the Minoan sacral horns. The sealing
of a jug from Ebla shows a bull attacked by a lion but
supported by men and demi-gods, while a kneeling Minotaur
holds a symbol of two human heads and two lion heads.

Odysseus, returning home, is not recognized by his wife
Penelope and tells her he is a Cretan, a son of Deucalion,
who is a son of Minos, who is a son of Zeus. However,
Deucalion was not a son of Minos but of Prometheus.

One never knows with Homer, who was no less wily and ruseful
than his hero, whose lie might perhaps reveal a connection
of some kind between Prometheus and Minos.

Prometheus was punished for bringing fire to the humans.
That can hardly have been the fire needed for cooking,
it must have been the fire for melting metals and casting
arms. Anatolia and the Caucasus have been the pioneers in
early metallurgy. Maroding nomads equipped with bronze
weapons have been a constant tread for settlements and early
kingdoms. This may have been the origin of Minos and the
Minotaur in Ebla. While the bull on a pillar of Goebekli Tepe
symbolizes male potency, the Minos bull protects a settlement,
a town, a kingdom, just like a bull protects a herd of
peaceful cows against attacking lions.

Crete would have been a good choice for emigrees from Ebla:
sea-girt, mountains enclosing the fertile plains, no real
danger coming from the Late Neolithic dwellers and from the
fugitives from Greece and Libya, and so the Young God on
a seal from Knidea easily grasps a pair of lions and lifts
them up as if they were just a pair of puppies, while the
Goddess on a seal impression from Knossos is accompanied
by a tame lion.

In my books at home I find many Mycenaean lions attacking
bulls, but no such a scene in Minoan art. This might be
a significant iconographic difference.

A Mycenaean king was not a bull but a lion, and the symbol
of his kingship was the griffin with the head of an eagle
for Zeus, and the body of a lion for himself who is acting
in the name of Zeus, along his will and word.

Regards Franz Gnaedinger www.seshat.ch

> The hieroglyphic medaillon HM 1278 from Knossos forms roughly
> an oval topped by a triangle. Left of the perforation is
> a cross, below the cross a double axe followed by a bull's
> head and an S-rune evoking a bull leaper similar to the ivory
> figurine from Knossos, although much simpler. Bull and leaper
> yield MI-NU, as in the case of the Linear A tablet Hagia Triada
> 95, and may be an abbreviation of mi-nu-te or minuthe or minuth
> or Minos. The Linear B version of a double axe is shown on
> a pole and has the phonetic value A. If also the hieroglyphic
> precursor of the double axe meant A, it could be an abbreviation
> of ADU or Haddu or Baal. The blades are down, the handle points
> upward, going parallel with the bull's front. A double axe in
> such a position (and this combination is frequent on hieroglyphic
> tablets and medaillons) evokes a sacrifice and makes me think of
> Baal who died every seventh year, and when he was born again
> a joyous festival was held. The cross may be a dedication,
> meaning: for Baal, ruler of the four heavenly directions;
> or, as an oblique cross: for Baal who makes the weather in the
> four heavenly quadrants N-E E-S S-W W-N. All four signs may now
> be read as follows:
>
> x (for) A(DU of New) MINU(th in Crete)
>
> for Addu Haddu Baal of New mu-nu-ti-um mnt Minnith
>
> mi-nu-te minuthe minuth Minos in Crete
>
> The small medaillon might have been put on a bag of wheat from
> mu-nu-ti-um or Ebla in Syria and been destined for a meal in honor
> of reborn Baal.
>
> The hieroglyphic script, mainly from Knossos and Mallia,
> is older than Linear A, mainly from Hagia Triada in southern
> Crete and Kato Zakros on eastern Crete, so the first hypothetical
> Syrian "colonizers" who might have arrived in around 3000 BC
> would have settled on the northern shore, in the region of
> Knossos and Mallia.
>
> Walther Hinz called Linear A "a miserable botched-up script."
> I find the first signs in Linear A and its hieroglyphic
> precursor that I believe to fully understand elegant, witty
> and meaningful, on a par with the Minoan genius in the fine
> arts and in palace building.

 
> > > Ladies and Gentlemen, here you are with the name of Minos
> > > in Linear A, as appearing on both sides of the tablet Hagia
> > > Triada 95, and, with a slight modification of the first sign,
> > > on another tablet, and perhaps on several more of the some
> > > 300 surviving Linear A tablets:
> > >
> > > o
> > > o o ooooooo
> > > o o o o
> > > o o o o ooooooo
> > > o o o o o o o
> > > o o o o o ooooooo
> > > o o o o o o o
> > > o o o o o
> > > o o o o o o
> > > o o o
> > >
> > >
> > > Cyrus H. Gordon, Jan Best, Richard Stieglitz and Walther Hinz
> > > believed in a northwestern Asian Minor origin of Linear A.
> > > Walther Hinz read the above signs as mi-nu-te, meaning Ebla
> > > in Syria, Tell Mardikh 40 kilometers south of Aleppo or Halab
> > > or perhaps Khalab. Ebla was known as mu-nu-ti-um in Eblaite
> > > around 2300 BC, as mnt in Ugaritic, and as Minnith in the
> > > Bible, Ezekiel 27 17. If minute was pronounced something like
> > > minuthe or minuth, it would be close to Minos. The first sign
> > > evokes the head of a bull, also in the modified version on
> > > the other tablet mentioned above. May there also be a Minoan
> > > correspondence for the second sign? Yes, the acrobat jumping
> > > over the bull. You see him standing on his feet, rising his
> > > arms high above the head, next time you see him standing on
> > > his hands, legs and feet raised high, then again on his feet.
> > > So this would be a witty sign, making use of the mind's
> > > ability of swiftly switching between to interpretations of
> > > the same graph. Now for the third sign. It reminds of the
> > > Tree of Life, widespread in Asia Minor and in Crete as well,
> > > see for example the Middle Minoan seal from the Idean cave,
> > > where Cretan Zeus was born.
> > >
> > > May the Minoans have come from Ebla munutium mnt Minnith
> > > minute minuthe minuth and founded a New Minos in the fertile
> > > Mesara plain in southern Crete? as the pilgrims from York
> > > in England founded a New York in America?