Re: Linear A tablet Hagia Triada 95

From: Franz Gnaedinger (frgn_at_bluemail.ch)
Date: 07/30/04 

Date: 30 Jul 2004 06:01:51 -0700

frgn@bluemail.ch (Franz Gnaedinger) wrote in message news:<2bf25455.0407282302.7e33fc27@posting.google.com>...

o8TY: Anatolia is a blank in sci.archaeology. Close your eyes
and the world is gone. Ignore Asia Minor and all the glory
belongs to Greece. Only that the self-appointed philhellenes
are painting a dull, pale and lifeless picture of their heroes.
And turn them into zeroes. I remember a specimen of an English
philhellene who told me many times that Homer was just an
entertainer who got nothing much to say and had a rather poor
notion of the past, which he wrapped in a foliage of fancy
fables in order to make a little something of his mere nothing.
Needless to say that I take no stock in that view.

I have no time for delving any further into Linear A and its
hieroglyphic precursor, but I showed you folks how one might
proceed. If anyone of you wishes to take over, please go ahead.

Just an addendum.

Once established, ideas and "memes" in culture have a long life.
Much as in biology, where short periods of punctuation (macro-
evolutionary changes) are followed by aeons of stasis (micro-
evolutionary changes only). One of those long living ideas was
the identification of a tribe and its leader with a powerful
or otherwise gifted animal. The reliefs on pillar 2 of the snake
pillar building at Goebekli Tepe shows a bull above a fox above
a stork and may speak for a bull tribe sharing his territory
with a fox tribe and a stork tribe, perhaps in the Harran plain
or elsewehere in northern Syria. There is also a lion pillar,
speaking for a lion tribe. Later on, the bull chieftain would
have become the Minotaurus of Ebla and Minoan Crete, and he
would have survived in Crete until around 1450 BC, when the
lion-eagle kings of Mycenae took over. I was wrong in saying
that there are no Minoan scenes of a lion attacking a bull in
my books at home. There is a seal from Knossos showing a lioness
attacking a bull, however, dating from the Mycenaean period of
Knossos, that was the end of Minos and of the Minotaurus.
However, he sprang to life again when Arthur Evans unearthed
Knossos, in a time when academe considered Minos a mere fable
king spun of Homer's yarn, and when Picasso adopted him for
himself, and the bull of Minos for the Republicans in Spain,
while the enemy was no longer a lion but a wounded horse that
symbolizes the humiliated masses joining the fascist party,
as in "Guernica," where you may discern a distorted swastika
between the hind legs of the horse.

If you wish to go on with Linear A and Hieroglyphic Minoan
and need my advice, you can always ask me online, or via e-mail
(but please use an e-mail address on my website www.seshat.ch)

Regards Franz Gnaedinger

(For your convenience I repeat several messages, so you can
print out all the relevant stuff at once)

> 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?