SEMITIC LINEAR A INSCRIPTIONS

This is a supplement to CRETO-SEMITICA

The Kaptarian logo-syllabary of Crete (Linear A)

Kaptar was a name applied to Crete in the Bronze Age; it was Kaptor in the Bible (Caphtorim were from Caphtor, Deuteronomy 2:23; Philistines came from Caphtor, Amos 9:7; ditto, Jeremiah 47:4), Kptr in Ugaritic texts, and Keftiu in Egypt.[1]

    With regard to the Aegean scripts,[2] this is how our present knowledge stands and how it may be extended: Linear B (a logo-syllabary for Mycenean Greek)[3] and Linear C (the Cyprus syllabary for Arcadian Greek)[4] offer us known sound-values for most of their glyphs; it is now common knowledge that both systems developed out of Linear A,[5] which in turn was a stylized version of the original pictophonic and acrophonic logo-syllabary of Crete.[6] Thus, most of the solutions for decipherment are patent: for example, the cross + for RO/LO is obvious in every member of this family of scripts, as also the twig |- for DA/TA, and the Y-shaped cuttlefish (sepia) for SA.

   We can identify North and South systems of writing in Crete: from Knossos in the north we have seals and inscriptions in the original pictorial script, which produced Linear A; from Phaistos in the south we have the celebrated Disc, with a different script, and apparently vestiges of it can also be found in linear form on some of the administrative clay tablets from Phaistos (for example, PH 13c has a fish, equivalent to PD33, but with no counterpart in Linear A). Ironically, the largest collection of Linear A tablets comes from Hagia Triada, adjacent to Phaistos, and they are Semitic, it will be argued here. However, it seems that the northern (Knossos) and southern (Phaistos) scripts were both constructed acrophonically on the basis of a "Danaic" (Greek, Hellenic) dialect.[7]

Inscriptions on Clay Tablets, Offering Receptacles, and Vessels

The Kaptarian documents studied here are available (with photographs and drawings) in the corpus (Recueil) of Linear A inscriptions; to locate an item, consult the concordance in the fifth volume of the set.[8] The inscriptions relating to offerings and libations are conveniently collected in a book on the subject, which includes a concordance.[9]

   For the syllabic signs and their interconnections, see the inventory of Cretan and Cyprian syllabograms:
http://cryptcracker.blogspot.com/2017/06/aegean-syllabic-signs.html

   It transpires from the dedicatory inscriptions that this is a give-and-get system of religious exchange (do ut des, I give that you may give in return). Examples of the offering formulas are presented below: 

KO Za 1, AP Za 1, IO Za 8, ZA Zb 3, TL Za 1, SY Za 2, AP Za2.

   WINE

The ideogram for wine (P156) is found eight times in the original pictophonic (“hieroglyphic”) texts and continues into Linear A and B (AB131). It represents a grapevine-stand, like the corresponding Egyptian hieroglyph (M43).

   HT 40.1 (Hagia Triada administrative document)

The first sequence on the clay tablet is:

 nudu WAIN (logogram AB131).
 We can relate this nudu to Hebrew n’od or nôd, “skin bag” or “leather bottle”, and understand it as “wineskin” or “bottle of wine”. Young David took a “skin of wine” (n’od yayin) to King Saul (1 Samuel 16:20).

   ZA 15b (Zakros administrative document)

The initial sequence (15b.1) is:

 kadi. WAIN 3.

This kadi could be the same word as Hebrew and Ugaritic kad, meaning “jar” or “jug”, a container for water, wine, oil, or flour.

The remainder (15b.2) runs:

kuro . WAIN 78  (3) RA-WAIN 17.

The term kuro is found frequently in the Hagia Triada accounting documents, and here in ZA 15b; it is acknowledged as meaning “total”; if it is a Semitic word it would be kull, Hebrew kol, “all” (the Kaptarian script does not distinguish l and r). The total for both sides of the tablet is 92; the scribe adds a RA category of wine with a sub-total 17; this combination also occurs in ZA 6b.2, and on KE Zb 5 (on a fragment of a vessel, and presumably referring to its contents); possibly the RA is equivalent to the West Semitic use of the head-sign (ra'ish, RA, R) to say "top-class" or "excellent" or "superior". A Hebrew example of totalling is the list of David’s heroes, ending thus: “total (kol) thirty-seven” (2 Samuel 23:39). Incidentally, in the Linear A texts we only see numerals not number-words; if these were written we would have an easy road to decipherment.

   HT 131ab (Hagia Triada accounting tablet)

This document is severely damaged, but lines 2-4 on side b have the symbols for FIG, OLIV, and WAIN, with accompanying numbers, and a grand total for both faces of the tablet is provided, with the word potokuro; one remote possibility is that the Greek word for “all” (pant-) has been affixed to the Semitic word; or it could be the Semitic word bat, “daughter”, hence “daughter total” as the complete sum of all the numbers.[10] This practice is clearer on HT 122ab, with a sub-total (kuro) on each side, and the complete total (potokuro) on side b.

   ARKH 2 (Arkhanes administrative document)

(1) sidate kura (2) WAIN 5 asidato(3)i 12 mo/zu?sose(4)deqidwo 6 (5) asupuwa  (6) 4 rumi[…]

   This scribe does not separate words with dots or spaces, and so “sequencing” is required for reading his account.

   sidate: possibly “fields” or “farms” (Ugaritic sdt, and Hebrew sdwt, where the S-sign  is not Shin but Sin (but all the Semitic sibilants have to be S- in the syllabograms of Kaptarian Linear A); or this may be related to the saduta  and saduda (“collection, harvest”), in the Gubla Documents A and D; and the root ’sp (“collect, harvest”) may also be present here as well as there.

   kura: perhaps not “total” (kuro) as in ZA 15b, but kor, a large unit of measurement (around 400 litres). ZA 20 is a fragment of a tablet, showing the bottom four lines; the beer-sign occurs in line 3; the last line has kura 130, and this might be a variant of kuro, “total”, not “kor”.

   qidwo: this also occurs at the beginning of ZA 5a, followed by the WAIN sign.

   asupuwa: the root ’sp (“gather in”) might be present here (used in Deuteronomy 16:13 for gathering the produce from the threshing floor and the winepress; see also Document D from Gubla). The WA might be a logogram or abbreviation for wine, and perhaps should be disconnected from asupu; in line 2 the logogram was only half of this form; it is more like WAIN (a vine stand) than WA (a loom), though it is the same as the Linear B style of WA. All the numerals would presumably refer to kor measures of wine, or juice.

   rumi[ ]: possibly “pomegranate (juice)” (Hebrew rimmôn, Aramaic and Arabic rummân); in Canticles 8:2 pomegranate (rmwn) and juice (‘asis, root ‘ss “crush”) occur together (any connection with asi in line 2 here, or sose in line 3?). In HT 64.2 ruma[ ] may be related to rumi[ ]; the Ugaritic form is lrmn (pomegranate, pomegranate juice), Akkadian has lurmû, and there is a word riruma in HT 118.4.
   GRAPE JUICE

   KH 9 (Incomplete clay tablet from Khania, a palace city)

   A SI SI PO A

Could asisi be grape juice, Hebrew ‘asis? The wine sign is in the text.

   NEW WINE

   KO Za 1 (Base from Kophinas, inscribed on four sides)

This text will serve to introduce us to the standard formulas that are used for making libations and other offerings.

A TA I SO WA YA || TU RU SA ME RYA RE . NO DA||A .

U NA KA NA SI . I||PI NA MA . SI RU TE

“I bring my offering, strong fresh wine, a bottle, and we shall indeed collect abundance.”

   If the object is an altar, it might not accept libations; and so liquids would be offered in containers.

   atai: “I bring”; the verb seems to be common Semitic ’t’ or ’ty, “come, go”; this verb is known to have a transitive force as well, and thus “bring”[11]; but it might be a causative form, “I cause to come”; the writing system can not show ’Alep (for Aramaic ’ap‘el causative) or He (for Hebrew hip‘il) or ‘Ayin in the next word, sowaya. Another possibility is that atai is from the verb ntn or ytn, “give”, with n not recorded, as happens in Linear B, and presumably also in Linear A. Notice the later Eteocretan stone fragment from Dreros, with the corresponding word ATAE, “I bring”. Furthermore, at Knossos, on one of the four faces of a bar (#61), in the pictorial script, the original pictorial signs (42 56 31) for A-TA-I appear, with what looks like the logogram for OLIVE (P159, AB122), as on a Kato Syme offering table (SY Za 2, see below) together with the sign for pu (P32, AB29) which could derive from phulia, "wild olive tree". Incidentally, a Knossos medallion (#031) reads: NE TA TI ME, which could be "I have given" (West Semitic natati, from root ntn), and ME (P34, which looks like breasts, and may be from Greek mêla, "breasts", or "apples") might here stand for mêlon, "sheep"(AB13 me is obscure, but it looks more like a sheep than breasts), and thus the statement being made is: "I have given a sheep".

   sowaya: the suffix –ya is for 1. p. sg, “my”; sowa could be related to Ugaritic t‘, “offering” (hw  t‘ nt‘y, “this is the offering we offer”, KTU 1.40.24); cp. Ethiopic sawa‘a, “make a sacrifice” (notice the w); and Hebrew say, “gift” (brought to God); the –a indicates that sowa is the object of the verb (accusative case singular); in souya (AP Za 1), the –u would be the standard Semitic marker of the nominative case (singular and plural); the vowel for the genitive case (singular and plural) is –i (also for plural accusative and genitive). 

   Additional note: Richard C. Steiner (2016:105-108) has shown that the original root underlying Hebrew say is swy (sh-w-y,  not th-`-y), and this would explain the w in sowaya here (The Lachish Ewer, Eretz-Israel, 32, 103*-112*).

   turusa: “new wine”, Hebrew tîros, Ugaritic trt; perhaps fermented, possibly not; cp.  Ugaritic text KTU 1.114:16, “El drank wine (yn) until he was sated, new wine (trt) until he was intoxicated (skr)”; the –a of turusa would be the inflection for the accusative case, as also on sowa and nodaa.

   meryare: the reading of each letter is not certain; RE could be the olive logogram; the Semitic root mrr can mean “bitter” or “strong”.

   nodaa: this could  be the “skin bag” (Hebrew no’d) that we met as nudu in HT 40 above; idaa is the customary transcription, but this is one of the few documents that allow us to distinguish the syllabograms I (an olive branch) and NO (a hand); note also noda (not ida) on the fragmentary PK Za 17 and 18.

   unakanasi, “and (u) we will gather” (n- as 1 p. pl. prefix), or “and it will be gathered” (N verbal pattern, reciprocal or passive); but a variant formula suggests that the “I bring” and “we collect” progression is normal (see ZA Zb3, wine pithos, below); the root is KNS, “gather, collect”, as in Hebrew (for example, in kneset, “congregation, assembly”).

   ipinama: the pina sequence suggests panu (“face”) and being in the presence of the deity (Exodus 23:15-17, “see my face”, regarding the festivals and appearing at the sanctuary with offerings); but compare Ugaritic apn (and ap-pu-na-ma), “and also” or “and even”; the proposed translation is “indeed”, equivalent to aya in SY Za 2.

   sirute: two Hebrew words offer themselves for consideration: sârêt, “ritual service”; or srh, “multiply” (apparently referring to oil in Isaiah 57:9), with a noun sârût, “riches” (in Ezekiel 27:25); hence “wealth” or “abundantly” as possible meanings in this context.

   AP Za 1 (Libation bowl with incomplete inscription, from Apodoulou)

YA TA I SO U YA …

   yatai souya: apparently says “My offering comes ….”; ya- indicates 3. p. sg. from the root ’t’, “come”, as a- shows 1. p. sg. in atai, the usual word in the offering formula; as stated above (Sy Za 2), the –u would mark souya as the subject of the verb yatai, whereas sowaya  is the object of atai.

   IO Za 8 (Fragment of a circular libation receptacle from Iouktas)

]A NA TI SO WA YA[

“I give my offering”

  The verb seems to be from a “give” root (ntn or ytn).

   ZA Zb 3 (Inscribed pithos)

WAIN 32 DI DI KA SE . A SA MU NE . A SE

A TA I SO DE KA . A RE PI RE NA . TI TI KU

   atai: “I bring”, according to formula, but with sodeka instead of sowaya, “my offering”.

   sodeka: possibly “your libation”, root sdy, “pour” (Ugaritic, Aramaic).

   arepirena: “for our fruit”; ‘al (preposition, “on account of”); pr, “fruit” (Ugaritic, Hebrew); -na, 1. p. pl. suffix. This shows a similar pattern to the usual formula: “I bring (atai) my offering” and “we shall collect” (unakanasi).

   ase: “gift” (Hebrew ’ws, Arabic ’ws)?

   asamune: any connection with smn, “oil”? Or the Phoenician divinity Eshmun? Or “debt” or “atonement offering” (Hebrew ’âsâm, 1 Samuel 6:3, regarding Philistines)? The a- might be a vocative participle (equivalent to ya), as in PK Za11 (ANIMAL) below; Samune is then the dedicatee.

   titiku: apparently a personal or divine name; also in HT 35 at the beginning of a list which includes wine and oil.

   PH Wc 46 (Rondelle from Phaistos)

WE NA (and possibly a part of the WAIN sign below this, as on PH Wc 43 and 44). The syllabograms are from the southern system, as exemplified on the Phaistos Disc: NA is the head with an eye and two tears on the cheek, and the WE is hypothetical, perhaps a grub (according to the decipherment of Steven Fischer); the language could be Hellenic (or Anatolic) rather than Semitic.

   KN Zb 4 (Fragment of a pithos from Knossos)

] YU? . YA NE . NE[

The NE is unusual and might be SI, but the vertical strokes on the ends of the crossbar should be oblique for SI. If this is yain, “wine”, then the West Semitic sound-shift is in evidence here (w > y). The habitual use of the WAIN logogram (examples: KN Zb 34. 36, 37, 38) conceals the wine word from us.

   THE Zb 3 (Jug from Thera, the volcano island)

 A NE

The character NE (a libation vessel) is more pictorial here than the two in KN Zb 4. If this ane is a word for “wine” (without initial w or y) the question of the identity of the language arises.

   WATER

   HT 89 (Clay tablet from Hagia Triada)

MA I MI 24

   maimi:this combination occurs in line 4; it could be the Semitic word for “water” (Hebrew mayim); other entities in the record use logograms, such as FIG and WAIN in line 6, and there is no known “water” symbol in the system; the quantity “24” is a puzzle to solve.

   BEER

The ideogram for BEER (P157, AB123) has hitherto remained unrecognized, I suggest; it is usually said to be a marker for AROMATA, spice; reference books do not explain it; the one instance of the original pictogram (P157) has mesh-lines on the top part; it is thus a tankard with a strainer, perhaps.

   There are two categories of words associated with this logogram: the skr group (sikiri, suqare), probably barley-beer; and the sb’ set (subu, sipu), presumably wheat-beer.

   HT 49a.7 (Clay tablet fron Hagia Triada)

BEER subu

The beer tankard (P157, AB123) is in evidence here;

   subu: cp. Hbr. sobe’, “intoxicating drink” (beer?).

   KH 53 (Khania administrative document fragment)

]ame BEER. ne[

   HT Zb 161(Pithos from Hagia Triada)
   sipu: presumably “beer”, Akkadian sibu, “beer”, “brew”, Hbr. sobe’, “strong drink” (beer?).

   Possibly sipiki is also a word for “beer”, in ZA 4a.6-7, 5b.2, 15a.5, all in a context with the wine sign (but not the beer sign); cp. spk, “pour out”?

   HT Zb 158b (Pithos from Hagia Triada)
su ki ri te i ya

(cp. suqare, “beer”, in TL Za 1 below; and tai BEER in HT 9ab)

      IO Za 16  (Offering table fragment from Iouktas peak sanctuary)
. . .  P157/AB123 . YA SA SA RA ME . U NA RU KA 
   AB123 BEER: this symbol seems to represent a beer mug with a strainer on top It also appears with suqare (sikr) “beer” in TL Za 1.

   unaruka:“and we shall collect” (root lqh., “take”?), a variation on unakanasi with the same meaning.

   TL Za 1 (Offering ladle from Troullos, near Arkhanes)

A TA I SO WA YA . AB123 (BEER) SU QA RE .

YA SA SA RA ME . U NA KA NA SI [. I PI ] NA MA . SI RU [TE]

“I bring my offering (atai sowaya), beer (suqare), O Deity  (yasasarame), and (u) indeed (ipinama) we shall collect (nakanasi) abundance (sirute).”

   suqare: cp. sukiri in HT Zb 158b above; connected with the Semitic “intoxication” root skr; presumably beer brewed from barley. This word is usually transcribed as osuqare, where the logogram BEER is misread as the syllabogram O (AB61, an eye).

  The dedication formula here is basically the same as KO Za 1 (WINE), above, and the details are explained there. See also SY Za 2 (OIL), AP Za2 (CHEESE), and SY Za 1 (BLOOD)

   SY Za 11 (Circular libation table from Kato Syme rural sanctuary)

]qaro (cp. suqare, “beer”, in TL Za 1).

   OIL

Two relevant logograns are: AB122 OLIVA and A302 OLEUM

   KN Zb 35 (Pithos from Knossos)

… YA … DI … PI … OIL 100  FIG 2

It is strange to find two diverse products itemised on the same container; the oil would presumably be olive oil, and not fig juice; the remaining letters might be part of a dedicatory formula.
   ZA 1 (Clay tablet from Zakros)

   Here again we have the FIG symbol (1a.1), and a large ZA (1a.2), the Egyptian ‘ankh, which might be an abbreviation of zati, “olives” (the word attested in KN Zc7, below); the quantity is 5, which seems tiny, but West Semitic zayt can also mean “olive tree”.

   TY 3 (Clay tablet from Tylissos)

   This is a record of oil of various types, and olives (once, 3a.4). using the OIL and OLIV logograms. The sign ZA appears in 3a.1,

  KN Zc7 (Small bowl from Knossos)

akanu zati = agganu zayti, “bowl of olives”; see VESSELS below.

   SY Za 2 (Square offering table from Kato Syme rural sanctuary)

A TA I SO WA YA . YA SU MA TU OLIV (AB122) .

U NA KA NA SI OIL (A302)

A YA

“I bring my offering, O Deity, olives, and we shall collect oil, indeed.”

   This example is instructive, showing how the offering formula works:

the first segment states that the person is presenting an offering (atai sowaya); the second part is addressed to the recipient deity (ya-sumatu) and declares the nature of the offering (here olives, represented by the logogram, a twig with three leaves); next the expected or desired outcome, that the product (olive oil) will be obtained (unakanasi), assuredly (aya).

   ya-sumatu, “O Deity”; this could be related to the word s-m-n, “oil”, with -n- omitted, and referring to a goddess with an oil-connection.

   aya: this might mean “any” (Ugaritic hmr yn ay, “any wine”, KTU 1.23: 6), here “any oil”; or else “we shall collect oil, each”; or this is a particle of affirmation, Arabic iy (cp. English aye), “indeed”, and this could be equated with ipinama in other versions of the offering formula. Note also I YA on KN Za 10 (libation table from Knossos).

   PK 1.7 (Clay tablet from Palaikastro)

SU MA TI ZA I TE

    sumati: this matches the sumatu of  SY Za 2 above, and could be a word for “oil”, though this feminine form is not attested elsewhere; zaite certainly corresponds to Semitic zait, “olive”, and the combination  produces “olive oil”; other occurrences of zait are presented in section 10. Unfortunately, there is apparently a vertical stroke after the SU, which would join it to the last syllable in the previous line, hence TUSU; nevertheless, a scribal error of haplography is possible.

   CHEESE

   HT 54a.2 (Fragment of a tablet from Hagia Triada)

KU MI NA QE

Is this cumin (kuminon) or cheese (Eteocretan KOMN, “cheese”, equivalent to Greek turos, in Dreros 1 bilingual inscription)?

The same sequence of signs is found on HT Wc 3914a-b with a goat ideogram (AB22), and this suggests goat-cheese; and the supposed QE might be a depiction of a round block of cheese.

   HT 47a.1-2, HT 119.3 (clay tablets from Hagia Triada)

KU BA NA TU

   kubanatu: “cheese”; Akkadian gubnatu, Aramaic gûbnâ, Hebrew gbînâ (Job 10:10).

   AP Za2 (Two fragments of a cylindrical jar for offerings, from Apodoulou)

The latter part of the formula is preserved:

[U NA KA] NA SI . I PI NA MA [ . . . ]  I KU BA NA TU NA TE [

] PI MI NA TE . I NA YA RE TA [ . . .] QA                                                                                                                                 

   ikubanatunate: enclosed in this combination is a word for “cheese” (Akkadian gubnatu, and presumably that is what the Linear A spelling KUBANATU represents); see also HT 47a.1-2  and HT 119.3 above.

    piminate: preposition bi (“in, as”), minate could correspond to Arabic and West Semitic minh.at, “gift, tribute, offering”. Note also minute (Hebrew mnh.wt, plural), possibly “offerings” (HT 106.1, 86a.5, 95ab).

   inaya: one faint possibility would be “my wealth”; Hebrew ’ôn, “power, wealth”; or Hebrew h.ên, “grace, favour”; or Hebrew ‘ayin, “eye”, Akkadian  inu.

   FISH

   HT 6b BI (Clay tablet from Hagia Triada)  

   daki (Hebrew dâgîm, “fishes”) in a kappa(qe) document, with a word sama (fish?).

   HT 34 samuku (monogram) 100

If this is the word samk, “fish”, attested in Arabic but not yet in West Semitic, then this strengthens the hypothesis that the fish-sign in the early alphabet was S (samk) rather than D (dag).[12]  The number 100 may be compared with a later catch of 153 (John 21:11). However, another possibility is Ugaritic s.mq(m), Hebrew s.immuqîm, “raisins” (2 Samuel 16:1).

   GRAINS

   HT 86 (Clay tablet from Hagia Triada)

KU NI SU GRAIN  SARU

   kunisu: “emmer wheat”, known from Akkadian and Aramaic.[13]

   saru: possibly “barley”, s‘r in Ugaritic.[14]

   SAFFRON

   IO Za 6  (Crocus shaped bowl, for saffron?)[15]

TANAI . SOUTINU . INATAIZUDISIKA . YASASARAME

We give our offering …  your (-ka?) …

   HT 110a (Clay tablet from Hagia Triada, broken)

SI? DU KRA KU MI

CYP 20  KU PA?  1?

KU RO 100

   krakumi: Hebrew karkom, saffron” (from Crocus sativus) used for flavour and colour. The unidentified sign *AB34 is here read as KRA (see the inventory of syllabograms).aegean-syllabic-signs.

   kupa: perhaps related to Hebrew koper, “henna”, another colouring agent.[16]

   BLOOD

   SY Za 1 (Circular libation table from Kato Syme)

A TA I  SO WA YA . I DA MI . YA [

“I bring my offering of blood, O…”

   idami: “blood”; this could be a plural form, as used in Hebrew (damim) for shed blood (Genesis 4:10); the Semitic root is ’dm “be red”, and “blood” is adam(m)u and adamatu in Akkadian; Hebrew has dam and ’adamat (together in Deuteronomy 32:43); cp. “blood of my sacrifice” (YHWH in Exodus 23:18); blood libations are mentioned with disapproval in Psalm 16:4.

   IO Za 2 (Miniature square libation table from Iouktas)

This has the usual offering formula (atai sowaya), without specifying the nature of the substance offered, but presumably fluid, and “blood” is apparently mentioned at the end.  After sirute it adds:

TA NA RA TE U TI NU .  I DA [

“You will fulfil our tokens” (?) “blood” (?)

   tanarute: possibly from one of the two nlh  roots in Hebrew: “finish”, “obtain”.

   utinu: perhaps Hebrew ’ôt, “sign”.

   ida[: idami, “blood”, as in SY Za1 above?

   KY Za 2 (Ladle from Kythera)

DA MA TE (the entire inscription)

   damate: “blood”, here as a feminine collective noun; or these three inscriptions may be referring to “grape-blood”, meaning the juice of grapes (as in Genesis 49:11, Deuteronomy 32:14 ), and they would thus belong under the heading WINE, above.

   ANIMAL

   IO Za 3 (Circular table fragment from Iouktas peak sanctuary)

A TA I SO WA YA . AU [

AU is a pig’s head

   IO Za 5 (Fragment of a religious object)

]iyarediya  iyapa[ “my beautiful young” (?)

  iyarediya: Hebrew yeled, Arabic walad, “boy” or “young animal”.

   iyapa[: yp refers to “beauty” in West Semitic; but this could be Ugaritic ypt, “female calf” (Arabic yafanat).

The Phoenicians were known to practice human sacrifice, of their young, but this is ambiguous.

    PK Za 11 (Square offering receptacle)

atai sowae . adikitete dupure . piteri . akoane . asasarame.

unarukanati . ipinamina . sirudu . inayapaqa.

This is a different dialect: for –ya (“my”) we see –e; for ya-(O!) we find a- (with two names of deities, apparently).

   unarukanati: “and we will receive” (perhaps lqh.)

   piteri akoane: “the firstborn of my livestock”(?); Hebrew pt.r, “firstborn”; root qny. “possess”, Hebrew miqneh, Arabic qunwat, “property”, “cattle”; the –e on akoane could be for -ya, “my”.

   inayapaqa: root pq (Ugaritic), pwq (Hebrew), “obtain”?

   KN Za 10  (Square libation receptacle)

DAWA [ ] DAWATO: the root dwy expresses “sickness” (Ugaritic, Hebrew, Arabic); hence “the unwell person” and “illness”? The word dwt (alphabetic: door, nail, cross) appears on Sinai inscription 376.[17]

   PR Za 1 (Stone box, a libation receptacle)

TA NA SU TE KRO? KE  SE TO I YA A SA SA RA ME

   tanasute: “is placed”, root syt. 
   kroke: “your (ke?) receptacle” (Hebrew kli)?

   setoiya: “my libation” (root sty).

   VESSELS

   HT 31 (Clay tablet from Hagia Triada)[18]

The tablet has a piece missing on the left side; various kinds of vessels are depicted, with superscript words.

   puko: cp. Ugaritic bk, “goblet, large cup”; Hebrew pak, which was the container for the oil that Samuel used to anoint Saul (1 Sam10:1); the pot (A410VAS) standing next to it seems to have two handles and three legs, and puko may not be a caption for it after all.

   qapa (or qaba): presumably not quppa (Akkadian, Hebrew, Arabic) “box”; the depiction (A402VAS) does not really suit that; Akkadian kappu, Hebrew kap, “bowl” (in Exodus 35:29, made of gold and for pouring).

   supu: written above  a globular vessel with a stem and a base (A415VAS); Akkadian sappu and Hebrew sap, metal bowl (Exodus 12:22 for the blood at the first Passover); cp. sapa sa zeti, “bowl of olives” (in section 10)

   karopa (or karoba): this container (A416VAS) is similar to the previous one (A415VAS); the name could correspond to Akkadian karpu, “pot” (cp, Ugaritc krpn, “goblet”).

 Next there are three cases of A402VAS; if the first had a caption, it is lost; the second and third are supara and pataqe.

    supara: Ugaritic  spl, Hebrew sépel, “bowl”, in which Yael brought a milk-dtink to Sisera (Judges. 5:25).   

   pataqe: no clear counterpart, but cp. Syriac pat.qa.

   sayama: cp. Aramaic sima, meaning “silver”, or “hidden treasure”.
   kidemapina: Gordon and Best have WI for PI, but this sign is more likely to be representing a bee (PI); WI and PI occur together in KN Zc7; the kidem part has been recognized as “gold” (Hebrew ketem); another word for “gold” (refined, fine gold) is Hebrew paz, Aramaic piz, Ugaritic pd; if the NA were the similar ZA (‘ankh symbol) or DI (net), then we would have this; but pina could lead us to corals or pearls (Proverbs 31:10).       

   KE 1 (Kea)  kasa                                                                                                                                                                  

Possibly kasu: “cup” or “beaker”. Examples: bowl from Knossos (Tekke)[19] with Phoenician inscription (ks, with the name of the owner); and kst (plural) on a document from Ugarit.

   PK Za 17, 18 (Libation table fragments)

   NODA, “bottle” (not IDA), Hebrew nod; cp. nodaa in KO Za1, and nudu in HT41 (WINE).

   KN Zc 7 (Small bowl from Knossos) AKANU ZATI “olive bowl”.[20]

AKANU ZATI DURARE AZURA YASARA ANANE WIPI [  ]

   KN Zc 6 (Small bowl from Knossos)  KRATIRI (Greek krater) “bowl”.

KRATIRI ADIDAKITI PAKU NIYANU YUKUNAPAKU ….

Taking these two objects together (and they seem to be miniature versions of the larger vessels bearing their names) we look at Exodus 24:6: “Moses took half the blood and put it in bowls” (Hebrew ’agganot, Septuagint Greek krateras). Both these texts seem to include a deity, but the identities of the gods are not being discussed in this article. The mixing-bowl (krater) may have a Greek inscription: niyanu resembles neion, “new”, and paku suggests pangkhu "entirely"; though yukuna looks like a Semitic word; and paku could take us back to puko in HT31 .

GOLD RING FROM KNOSSOS

Knossos Zf 13 Gold Ring

A RE NE SI DI SO PI KE PA YA TA RI

 I TE RI ME A YA U

If this is a Semitic inscription, we need to remind ourselves that more than two dozen consonants have to be accommodated in the Linear A inventory with one dozen consonants.
   Thus, R syllabograms cover R and L,  while S serves for a range of sibilant sounds (S S. Sh Th), and the gutturals have to be ignored in transcription; P includes B, K embraces G, and so on. Here am I trying to prove that most Linear A inscriptions are West Semitic,  and there are so many variables that my readings look illusory,  like confidence tricks. The words are not separated by spaces or marks, but here is an attempt to find some, and make a coherent statement out of them.
ARE  `al (The  `ayin guttural is ignored, the L is represented by R, and the final -e should be treated as a "dead" vowel) "upon, about, by".
NESI (Hebrew nasi') "prince, leader, ruler"
DI (WS d) "of"
SOPI (Hbr. s.aba') "host, army"
KEPAYATARI  (apparently lurking here is one of the names of Crete, that is, Kaptara, Egyptian Keftiu, Hebrew Kaptor, named in the Bible as the previous home of the Philistians, and presumably also of the Kaptorians and Keretians; the YA in the middle is disconcerting; if it were misplaced from the end of the word it would produce an adjective, Kaptarian)

"By  the leader of the army of Kaptar"

For the rest, ITE could be 'et "with" or "the". MEA might be "100".  RIME, perhaps from the root rwm, "be high". The final letter is probably U, though it may be AB34, which I transcribe as KRA, and here perhaps standing for QRA, the root  qr' "call, summon, decree". I would like to get something like "supreme command" out of all this.
   TERIME could be "offering".
   YAU If it is not YAKRA but YA-U we could be looking at the god Yahu (Yahweh of Hosts/Armies, s.ba'ot); but it was the Philistian hordes who came from Crete (Kaptor), not the Children of Israel. However, I will quote this possibly relevant passage from the Bible (Numbers 31:51-53):
"Moses and Eleazar the Priest took the gold ... and the total (kol) of the gold of the offering (teruma) that was offered up to Yahweh by the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds was 16,050 shekels; the men of the army (s.aba') had taken spoil for themselves individually".
This gives us an example of kuru/kol, "total", and teruma "offering", and s.aba' "army".

Notice, by the way,  that my reading runs spirally from the top to the centre. The Phaistos Disc has the same pattern, and some attempts at decipherment have chosen to start from the centre, while others have read it from the top. If my reading (outer to inner) is correct for the gold ring from Knossos, then the same pattern might apply for the disc from Phaistos.

---

[1] Documents relating to Kaptar and Keftiu are examined in Davis 2014: 182-188,

[2] For an overview of the scripts, with tables of signs, see Davis 2014: 143-157; the Phaistos Disc and the Arkalokhori Ax (same pictorial script as the Disc, or similar) are consigned to footnote 812.

[3] Gordon 1971: 131-141, for a concise account of the decipherment of Linear B by Michael Ventris and others.

[4] Gordon 1971:125-131, on the Cyprian syllabary.

[5] Gordon 1971: 141-171, on Linear A and his own part in its decipherment.

[6] The corpus of Cretan pictophonic (“hieroglyphic”) inscriptions is edited in Olivier and Godet 1996 (Corpus); p. 19 has a table of possible matchings for various signs in the three systems (P, A, B).

[7] Fischer (1988) makes a case for a Hellenic origin for the two Cretan scripts. His reading of the Disc has it as a call to arms (eqe kuriti deniqe, “Listen Cretans and Greeks”).

[8] Godart and Olivier 1976-1985 (Recueil) 5 volumes (photographs and drawings); Consani and Negri 1999 (transcriptions, and glossary).

[9] Davis 2014: 3i9-390.

[10] Gordon 1966: 27.

[11] Mendenhall 1985: 36

[12] Contra Hamilton 2006, 61-75, esp. 62, n. 50, where the fish Samek is denied any existence; this can be refuted by the presence of a fish in the Samek position in the abagadary on the Izbet Sartah ostracon, but this defining detail is not seen by the supporters of D as dag (Sass 1988: figures 175-177); the true D (Dalet, door) occurs together with the fish on Sinai 376 (Sass 1988: figures 91-93).

[13] This was noticed by Cyrus Gordon (1966: 26), and elaborated by Jan Best (1989: 7-11), examining varieties of grains.

[14] Best 1989: 9.

[15] Davis 2014: 111, 329.

[16] Best 1989: 10. In the same place, Best proposes that the presence of damu, “blood”, in association with grain, might refer to Digitaria sanguinalis.

[17] Sinai 376 records the sickness of ’s’ (Asa) one of the metal-workers at the turquoise mines; for a photograph see Sass 1998: Fig. 93. Colless 1990: 12.

[18] Gordon 1966: 26, Plate VII; 1975: 152-154; Best 1989: 1-7.

[19] Sass 1988: 88-91, Figures 226-230.

[20] Gordon 1966: 27 and 36; he treated this as a magic bowl, bearing an incantation against demons (one of his fields of expertise); he overlooked zati, but rightly related akanu to West Semitic ’aggan, “bowl”; rare could be layl, “night”, and so a night-demon is envisaged.

Semitic inscriptions on offering-vessels
Apodoulou
AP Za 1 Offering bowl
YA TA I SO U YA......
My offering is brought
AP ZA 2  Cylindrical jar
... NA SI . I PI NA MA . . . . . .I? KU PA NA TU NA TE
... PI MI NA TE . I NA YA RE TA . . . QA

Iouktas 
IO Za <1>  Ladle
A YE SA
IO ZA 2   Offering table
A TA I SO WA YA . YA DI KI TU . YA SA SA RA [me . u na ka na] SI  I PI NA MA .
SI RU TE . TA NA RA TE U TI NU . I DA . .  .  . . . . .
I bring my offering, O DN, and we  shal lcertainly gather abundantly
IO Za 3   Offering table fragment
A TA I SO WA YA . AU (!) . . . . . . .
(au is a pig's head, possibly the offering, or perhaps pig-blood)
IO Za 4   Offering table fragment
... SO WA .......
IO Za 5  Votive ladle or lamp fragment
... I YA RE DI YA . I YA PA . . . . . .
IO Za 6  Bowl (c. 5 cm diameter) with petaliform rim
TA NA I SO U TI NU . I NA TA I ZU DI SI KA . YA SA SA RA ME
IO Za 7  Offering table fragment
A TA I SO WA YA . YA TI MO . . . . . (dmqt?)
I bring my offering, O DN
IO Za 8   Offering table fragment
A NA TI SO WA YA . . . .
I give my offering
IO Za 9  Offering table corner
. . . YA SA SA . . . . O DN
. . . U NA KA . . . and we shall gather
IO Za 11   Offering table fragment
>. . . NA [MI?] DA DA . . . .
. . . U TI NU . I NA I DA . . . <
IO Za 12   Offering table fragment
. . . YA SA || SA RA ME . I TI . . .
IO Za 13   Offering table fragment
. . . MA I . . .
IO Za 14   Offering table fragment
. . . RU TE . I DI . . .
IO Za 15   Offering table fragment
. . . I PI NA MA . SI RU . . .
certainly abundantly
IO Za 16   Offering table fragment
. . .  PG 157/AB123 . YA SA SA RA ME . U NA RU KA  (rt lqh.)
123 AROMAT ? This symbol seems to represent a beer mug with a strainer on top (cp. Philistian examples?). Reference books do not explain it. The one PG instance has mesh-lines on the top part. Is it equivalent to osuqare (shikr) 'beer' in TL Za 1? Yes, it has the same symbol, misread as the syllabogram O (an eye).

Knossos
KN Za !0  Offering table fragments (restored)
. . .  . TA NU MU TI . YA SA SA RA MA || NA .  DA WA [MI?] DU WA MU? . I YA . . .
root n`m?
KN Za 17 Offering table fragment
 YA QE .
KN Za 18 Offering table
... YA . . . . .YA . YA WA . . . . .
KN Za 19  Bowl fragment
KE YU MI (L to R)
A118 (DWO?) MI NA

Kythera
KY Za 2  Ladle
DA MA TE Blood

Palaikastro (Petsofas)
PK Za 4  Stone cup fragment
A SA SA RA . . .
PK Za 8  Offering table
.. NU . BA E . YA DI KI TE TE .  A307 (DWO?) BU RE . TU ME I
YA SA . . . . . . . U NA KA NA SI
I PI . . .
PK Za 9  Offering table pedestal
... YA U? PA? MA I DA SO DI . . .
PK Za 10  Offering table fragment
. . SI . I PI NA MI . SI . . .
PK Za 11  Offering table
A TA I SO WA E . A DI KI TE TE . DU?
PU? RE . PI TE RI . A KO A NE . A
SA SA RA ME . U NA RU KA NA TI .
I PI NA MI NA . SI RU DU? . I NA YA PA QA
PK Za 12  Offering table
A TA I SO WA YA . A DI KI TE . . . . . .
. . . SI RU . . . . . .  RA ME
A . . . A NE . U NA RU KA NA YA SI .
A PA DU PA . . . . . . . . . . . . . YA . . . . . YA PA QA
PK ZA 14  Offering table fragment
. . . TU ME? I  YA SA SA . . . . .
PK Za 15  Offering table fragment
. . . YA . YA DI KI TE TE KE? BU RE
PK Za 16  Offering table corner
 . . .  TO? SA . BU
. . . RE YA
PK Za 17  Offering table corner
. . . I DA . . . .
PK Za 18.Offering table fragment
. . . TE  . I  DA . YA YA . . . .
PK Za 20  Offering table fragment
. . . U NA KA . . .

Prasa
PR Za 1 Stone box (offering receptacle)
TA NA SU TE [DA/RO] KE
SE TO I YA
A SA SA RA ME

Psychro
PS Za 2  Offering table fragments
. . . -RE I/NO KE
TA NA NO/1 SO TI . . . . . . YA TI . YA SA SA RA ME .

Kato Syme
SY Za 1  Offering table (circular)
A TA I SO WA YA . I DA MI . YA . . . . .
SY Za 2  Offering table
A TA I SO WA YA . YA SI MA TU  OLIV
U NA KA NA SI OLE
A YA
I bring my offering, O DN, OLIVES, and we will gather OIL, indeed
SY Za 3  Offering table fragments (circular)
A TA I? SO WA  . . . . SE? KA NA SI . TE? . . . . . SI RU TE
SY Za 4  Offering table (circular)
A TA I/NO SO WA YA . YA I NWA ZA | BA NI WI
SY Za 5  Offering table (circular)
. . . MI/RA YA . YA WA BA
SY Za 6  Offering table (circular)
DA SE/NO RA TE
SY Za 8 Offering table fragments (circular) (No 7)
. . . I SO WA YA . YA YA?   (I/NO has 4 fingers and thumb)
SY Za 9  Offering table (circular)
YA PA RA YA SE?
SY Za 10  Offering table (circular)
QA SA RA KU
SY Za 11  Offering table (circular)
. . .  QA RO/ZA  (beer?)
SY Za 12  Offering table (circular)
A (just like Cyprian I-I-I = A)

Troullos
TL Za 1 Ladle
A TA I/NO SO WA YA . BEER?/O SU QA RE .  (NO PUPIL IN THE EYE)

YA SA SA RA ME .  U NA KA NA SI
. . . NA MA . SI RU . . . .
I bring my offering, beer,  O DN, and we shall certainly gather abundantly
Vrysinas 
VR Za 1 Offering table (corner)
I PI NA MA  SI RU TE
certainly abundantly

The Minoans who produced these inscriptions were West Semites; and somehow, they became Eteocretans (though this connection may be a modern mistake); they were really Neo-Cretans, and their genetic heritage may still linger in the population.
   It seems to me that  some Linear A inscriptions are not Semitic, and an Anatolian language is present in them, and this is supported by personal names attested in documents (Margalit Finkelberg 1991, 79-84, L. Palmer 1965, Myceneans and Minoans)
    Nanno Marinatos has produced a book (2010) in which she argues that “palatial Crete” (Bronze-Age Kaptar) belonged in the Near East, comprising Anatolia, Syria, the Levant, and Egypt. She quotes Evans at the head of her Introduction: “Throughout its course Minoan civilization continued to absorb elements from the Asiatic side”. Marinatos reminds us that Kothar, the West Semitic god of arts and crafts, had his abode in Kaptar (and he was also at home in Egyptian Memphis, as Ptah, and perhaps in Mesopotamia as Heyan, if that is Ea/Enki).  Accordingly, Marinatos proposes a religious koine of the Mediterranean world, and if Minoan religion was West Semitic, like the Minoan language, then she must be right. Deities and details of the religion have been set aside here, but there is no doubt that the West Semitic pantheon can be found in the Kaptarian documents.
The possibility that one person could handle all these writing systems seems preposterous, and so the reader may justly be suspicious of what has been presented here; but this is the summation of sixty years of research on the scripts of the Mediterranean world. My desire is to give notification of all this before my time is up, and try to move the material from my websites into permanent print.

Transcription System
’(Aleph) H (Het, H., guttural) K (Kh, palatal fricative) T. (Tet) ‘(Ayin) S (Samek, Sin) Ç (Sadey, ts, ss) S (Shin) T (Th).

REFERENCE BIBLIOGRAPHY
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BEST, J. 1989. “The Language of Linear A”. In: J. BEST and F. WOUDHUIZEN. Lost Languages from the Mediterranean. Leiden, Brill, pp. 1-34.
COLLESS, B.E. 1988. “Recent Discoveries Illuminating the Origin of the Alphabet,” In: Abr- Nahrain (Ancient Near Eastern Studies) 26, pp. 30- 67.
COLLESS, B.E. 1990. “The Proto-alphabetic Inscriptions of Sinai.” In: Abr-Nahrain (Ancient Near Eastern Studies) 28, pp. 1-52.
COLLESS, B.E. 1991. “The Proto-alphabetic Inscriptions of Canaan.” In: Abr-Nahrain (Ancient Near Eastern Studies) 29, pp. 18-66.
COLLESS, B.E. 1992. “The Byblos Syllabary and the Proto-alphabet.” In: Abr-Nahrain (Ancient Near Eastern Studies) 30, pp. 15-62.
COLLESS, B.E. 1993. “The Syllabic Inscriptions of Byblos: Text D.” In: Abr-Nahrain (Ancient Near Eastern Studies) 31, pp. 1-35.
COLLESS, B.E. 1994. “The Syllabic Inscriptions of Byblos: Texts C and A.” In: Abr-Nahrain (Ancient Near Eastern Studies) 32, pp. 59-79.
COLLESS, B.E. 1995. “The Syllabic Inscriptions of Byblos: Texts B, E, F, I, K.” In: Abr-Nahrain (Ancient Near Eastern Studies) 33, pp. 17-29.
COLLESS, B.E. 1996. “The Egyptian and Mesopotamian Contributions to the Origins of the Alphabet.” In GUY BUNNENS (ed.), Cultural Interaction in The Ancient Near East, Abr-Nahrain Supplement Series 5, pp. 67-76.
COLLESS, B.E. 1997. “The Syllabic Inscriptions of Byblos: Miscellaneous Texts.” In: Abr-Nahrain (Ancient Near Eastern Studies) 34, pp. 42-57.
COLLESS, B.E. 1998. “The Canaanite Syllabary.” In: Abr-Nahrain (Ancient Near Eastern Studies) 35, pp. 28-46.
COLLESS, B.E. 2010. “Proto-alphabetic Inscriptions from the Wadi Arabah.” In: Antiguo Oriente 8, pp. 75-96. http://bibliotecadigital.uca.edu.ar/repositorio/revist as/proto-alphabetic-inscriptions-wadi-arabah.pdf
COLLESS, B.E. 2013. “The Lost Link: The Alphabet in the Hands of the Early Israelites”. In: The ASOR Blog. http://asorblog.org/the-lost-link- the-alphabet-inthe-hands-of-the-early-israelites/
COLLESS, B.E. 2014. “The Origin of the Alphabet: An Examination of the Goldwasser Hypothesis”. In: Antiguo    Oriente    12,    pp.    71–104. http://bibliotecadigital.uca.edu.ar/repositorio/revist as/origin-alphabet-goldwasser-hypothesis.pdf
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and C. MANASSA. 2005. “Two Early Alphabetic Inscriptions from the Wadi el-Hôl: New Evidence for the Origin of the Alphabet from the Western Desert of Egypt”. In: The Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research 59, pp. 67-124.
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BYBLOS BOWL INSCRIPTION

 
This essay will encompass a number of inscribed objects that have been sent to me by their owners; they all appear to have proto-alphabetic inscriptions from ancient Phoenicia.
   The antique bowl was (reportedly) discovered at Byblos (Gubla, Gebal), an important maritime city of ancient Phoenicia, on the coast of Lebanon, 32 km north of Beirut. It was in a private collection (1950s) of Jack Colheart (USA), and is now in the possession of Wayne French (Cooranbong, New South Wales).
   Information and photographs are deposited here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/j5pdoq3qfmqbn6y/AAAuJc_Xb4R0hLqhpb9u5Y6Ia?dl=0
and more photographs here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/nesl0xhxicz6tqg/AACzMWmpbiDkt0xNBSjADZ1Ra?dl=0
   It has an inscription, in a recognizable form of the Phoenician alphabet. I would date it in the Bronze Age (before 1200 BCE) rather than the Iron Age (after 1200 BCE, the Biblical Period),
   This imprecisely provenanced object is unlikely to be a forgery, in my opinion, though a replica has been made, as shown here:

   In studying the inscription we can start with Paul Maloney's useful transcription of the text.
   Click once on the image to see an enlargement, and also to gain access to other pictures of the bowl):

  For identifications of the letters of the protoalphabet, refer to this essay: Alphabet and Hieroglyphs.

  In our search for the various letters (assuming a maximum of twenty-two consonant-signs, which is typical for Byblos) we start with the rectangles (including the squares). These are both unusual forms for the letters they represent, especially as compared with the Phoenician alphabet as used at Byblos in the Iron Age.
   [H.] The double or divided rectangle (1, 6, 11, 15) is wide for the letter Het (H. or Kh), but we can safely accept this identification; its original form was a house with a courtyard.
   [B] The square (12, 14, 21, 26) must be Bet (B, Beta), showing the ground plan of a simple house, and this is very archaic.
   ['] There is at least one ox-head (8, and also possibly 23) for Alep (Alpha, ', glottal stop); this stance is surprisingly archaic; in the standard Phoenician alphabet it is on its side, and in its evolution it can appear in an inverted form, as in Alpha..
   [T] The cross (29) is Taw (the signature mark of an illiterate person).
   [M] The water-wave sign is present, with two waves (9) or three (5).
   [Sh] One example (4) of Shin (originally depicting a human breast, shad) in an oblique stance.
   [G] Gimel (originally a boomerang) is there (7).
   [N] We look for a snake, and 25 and 28 are tempting in this regard, but the simple vertical stroke (2, 3, 13, 18) is also a possibility; there may be some faint heads and tails lurking on them..
   [L] 25 and 28 could be Lamed, and they make a nice hypothetical sequence at the end: LB`LT, "to Ba`alat" ("the Lady", the title given to the chief goddess of Byblos).
   [`] `Ayin is an eye, and 27 seems round enough for that letter.
   [W] The Y-shaped character (17) would be Waw rather than Yod (which is not found in this text).
   [S.] 23 is a good candidate for Sadey, which was originally a tied bag.
   [T.] Tet is usually a circle containing a cross, and 20 is the nearest sign to that formula; it actually matches the South Arabian letter for Z. (which is not in the Phoenician alphabet, but was in the longer form of the early alphabet). In the inscription of King ShPT.B`L of Byblos, the T. in his name has (anomalously) only one stroke in the circle, but in its second appearance it has two, though the circle is not clear!
    [S] Samek is normally a spinal column (--|-|-|, samk "support") but also a fish (samk); I suspect that 19 is the tail and 20 is the body of a fish (they are joined on the bowl, not separated as on the drawing).
   The missing letters are P (possibly there, in position 24), K (a strange absence, given its relative frequency, and the expectation of the word ks, 'cup, bowl'), R (also abnormal), H, W, Z, D, Q (but these five are in the less frequent half of the table). We might wish that the inscription had been longer to see what forms the writer had for these absentees.
   Interpreting the text has been a year-long process for me. In sequencing the continuous stream of letters (no separation of words by spaces or marks) many possibilities have been tried, but I offer here what seems to be the best division of the words that I can envisage, beginning and ending at the point where Wayne French sees an oblique line, indicating the end of the sentence; and I see the inscription as a single statement about the contents and context of the bowl.

   H.NN ShMH. H.G 'M
   T.H.BN  BH.LB WN
   SB` N? S.P LB`LT /

   H.NN: the 'grace' root (as in the names Hanna and Johann).
   ShMH.: the 'joy' and 'rejoice' root (Deuteronomy 16:14, "you shall rejoice in your feast"); in Hebrew this is written with Sin rather than Shin, but Phoenician writing did not make this distinction.
   H.G: 'feast' or 'festival'. The H. is understood as serving for the final and first letter of the adjacent words: ShMH. (H.)G; or else it is an error of haplography.
   'M: 'mother', here presumably referring to a goddess.
   T.H.B: this looks like a scribal error for T.BH., the 'slaughter' word, and the noun having the meaning 'meat for a festival offering' (attested in Mishnaic Hebrew). If the following stroke is N, it could make the word plural; but -m would be expected, rather than Aramaic and Arabic -n, though this plural form is found in the Sinai inscriptions, in rb ns.bn, 'chief of the overseers'.
   BH.LB: the L sign and the B are at point where a triangular piece has been glued back into place; they are the same as the subsequent LB (25, 26) but here the L is lower; this could be H.LB 'milk', with the preposition B 'in' or 'with'; or else  'the cream/fat', meaning 'the choicest', as in 'the best of the oil, wine, wheat' (Numbers 18:12).
   WN: 'wine', and the w is an indication of the Bronze Age; wn also occurs in the Wadi el-Hol inscription (horizontal) in the phrase 'plenty of wine' (rb wn); it is found in its later form (w>y) as YN on the Beth-Shemesh ostracon (Iron Age I).
   SB': the tipple root; here a noun, 'liquor', probably 'beer'; found as 'tippling' or 'carousing' on the Beth-Shemesh ostracon.
   S.P: the reading is not certain but appropriate, meaning 'overflowing', as in 'he made the waters overflow them' (Deuteronomy 11:4).
   LB`LT: 'to/for Ba`alat', that is,  the Lady of Byblos (B`LT GBL) who is known from Byblian inscriptions of Iron Age II; 'Ba`alat' appears frequently in the inscriptions of the Sinai turquoise mines in the Bronze Age (example, Sinai 345, votive sphinx: z nqy lb`lt, "this is my offering to the Lady", identified with the Egyptian goddess Hathor).
   The leaning stroke after this marks the end and the beginning of the inscription.

Translation: "Gracious (H.NN) and joyous (ShMH.) is the Feast (H.G) of the Mother ('M): sacrifice-meat (TBH.) with (B) the finest (H.LB) wine (WN) and beer (SB') overflowing (S.P) for (L) the Lady ( B`LT)".

Notice that every word of this Phoenician text (including B`LT!) can be read with the aid of a Classical Hebrew dictionary, showing the closeness of the two West Semitic dialects or languages.

This artefact is now highlighted in the journal Damqatum 12.
http://bibliotecadigital.uca.edu.ar/repositorio/revistas/damqatum12.pdf
See pages 6-7, and footnote 13 on p. 19.

http://cryptcracker.blogspot.co.nz/2016/08/byblos-bowl-inscription.html
 
The importance of this inscription is that it supplies a rare example the proto-alphabet from Phoenicia in the Bronze Age. It is not clear whether it is a direct ancestor of the Phoenician consonantal alphabet of the Iron Age, or one of several types of the early alphabet script.
   Thus, three tablets from Phoenicia have come to my attention, which have a unique set of proto-alphabetic signs, notably:
a triangle for D (like Delta),
a human head with an eye for R,
the house with a corridor on the left and a room on the right for B,
an eye with a large pupil (not a circle with a dot) for `Ayin,
an ox-head with an eye for 'Alep,
a sun-symbol with two serpents, the disc, and three rays, for Sh,
a rearing snake with a bend in its tail for N,
X rather than + for T,
/\/\/\/\ for M.
    This collection of letters is different from the set of consonantograms on the bowl, and seems to be older, and definitely belonging in the Bronze Age; but both are not Proto-syllabic, or Proto-consonantal, but variant forms of the Neo-consonantary.

The first question that arises is which side is the top of each  tablet. The heads of the man, bull, and snake show the correct orientation.

(1) The tablet with 7 lines possibly says (reading from right to left)

LTTN | '         To TNT?

DTN | B`        our Lady

LTQ?RBT      Ba`alat (Mistress) Great One
                       OR `lt qrbt '(lp) "whole burnt offering of a bull"?

' |  ShLM        a peace-offering?

KShMR         as protection

L`BDB

`LT                for `Abd-Ba`alat (Servant of the Mistress)

The bovine head in the fourth line could be a logogram for "bull".

The K in line 5 is a hand (kap, palm of hand), a circle with three fingers pointing downwards.
The two cases of Sh are surprising, as they represent the sun (shimsh), but the letter for Sh in the later Phoenician alphabet is \/\/, a human breast (shad, or thad). This is a case where the syllabic signs for a particular consonant in the the Protosyllabary (here SHA and SHI) are used in the proto-alphabet; another example is K, either kap (hand), as above, or kipp (palm branch), in the early inscriptions at the Sinai mines.

Unfortunately, there is a great deal of ambiguity in the text! If the provenance of these artefacts was known, we would have more context to guide us. It seems that they come from a temple or a"high place" where sacrifices would be offered on an altar.

For my theory of the "Early Alphabet" as the "Quadrinity",
E  = 2M (monosyllabaries) + 2C (consonantaries) squared
[Protosyllabary > Protoconsonantary > Neoconsonantary > Neosyllabary]
refer to: https://cryptcracker.blogspot.com/2021/04/another-lakish-inscription.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

CRETO-SEMITICA

  KAPTAR REVISITED
AEGEAN SYLLABIC SIGNS

Here I set out on a quest for a Semitic language in ancient Crete
For Linear A,  I am basically using:
Carlo Consani e Mario Negri, Testi Minoici Trascritti con Interpretazione e Glossario (Roma 1999). More readily accessible for us all is John Younger's relevant website
http://people.ku.edu/~jyounger/LinearA/
For Eteocretan:
Yves Duhoux, L'Étéocrétois. Les textes, la langue (Amsterdam 1982). An amazing monograph.
For the Semitic viewpoint on the evidence:
Cyrus H. Gordon, Evidence for the Minoan Language (Ventnor 1966)
C. Gordon,  The Decipherment of Minoan and Eteocretan, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1975, 148-158.
Jan Best, The Language of Linear A, in Jan Best and Fred Woudhuizen, Lost Languages from the Mediterranean (Leiden 1989) 1-35.
Gordon and Best have numerous publications on the subject.
Of course, I am basically reliant on L. Godart and J.-P. Olivier, Recueil des inscriptions en Linéaire A (5 volumes).
The useful book that has stimulated me to look into this subject again:
Brent Davis, Minoan Stone Vessels with Linear A Inscriptions (Leuven-Liège 2014).
I have always been reluctant to use the term MINOAN, which was coined by Arthur Evans from the name of Minos, the legendary King of Crete, and is currently applied to an epoch stretching from around 3000, or else 2000, BCE, but certainly in the time when palaces were built.  What I wanted to know was whether Minos reigned in the period of Linear A (before the 15th Century BCE) or Linear B (the era when Mycenaean Greek was the official language used at Knossos, as it was in the cities of the mainland, such as Pylos). Given the tradition that Minos lived a few generations before the Trojan War, the end of the Bronze Age seemed to be the correct time for him. 
   The story of Minos and his Minotaur, in which young people from Greece were brought to Crete as a sacrificial form of tribute, suggests to me that Minos was a tyrant who had conquered Crete and was subduing Greece, and that the language and era of Linear A was his. Seeing that a Semitic language is detectable in Linear A documents, the question now becomes: was Minos Semitic or Hellenic?
Since Minos was traditionally associated with Europa and Kadmos (clearly from the Semitic East, qadm) he would not be Hellenic but Semitic.
   The terrm 'Eteocretan' (Duhoux Étéocrétois) seems to say echt-Cretan, original Cretan; Homer put the word into the mouth of Odysseus, to identify one of the ethnic groups in Crete, but it is now applied to the language of the late tablets inscribed with a Semitic language in Greek alphabetic letters (Cyrus Gordon). The implication seems to be that the original Cretans were Semitic. But I doubt this. The so-called Eteocretans may have been the dominant people of the Minoan period (17th century onwards) but they were Semitic interlopers who had invaded the island and imposed their rule. A possible reason for this invasion was the expulsion of the 'Hyksos' Semites  from northern Egypt, though Crete might have become part of this empire even earlier. (Conversely, the Philistines who settled in Palestine at the end of the Bronze Age, and who reportedly came from Kaphtor [Amos 9:7, Jer 47:4; cp. the Kaphtorim from Kaphtor in the region of Gaza, Dt 2:23] which is undoubtedly Crete [Kaptara] may have been Semitic; the Philistian language has not been clearly identified )
    In this scenario a strong but not necessarily exclusive Hellenic presence pervaded Crete before the Semitic invasion, and there was a resurgence in the Mycenean period and beyond, to the present day. My suspicion is that the two logo-syllabic (unhelpfully called 'hieroglyphic') writing systems were constructed acrophonically on the basis of Hellenic.The northern script is found at Knossos and Mallia; the southern script is represented by the Phaistos disc and a few tablets, and the disc has been read by Steven Fischer as an account of a naval invasion, written in a Hellenic dialect; and I suggest that it might well be the Semites who are attacking Phaistos. Thereafter, the official script is Linear A (which is a stylized form of the Knossos script, not the Phaistos script).
   With regard to Kadmos: he is said to have introduced writing to the Greeks, and this is usually  thought to refer to the Grecian alphabet, which emerges in the 8th Century BCE, the time of Homer. Another possibility is that the model of the acrophonic logo-syllabary, as known from Byblos and elsewhere, was what came from the East, and was the basis for the two pictophonic writing systems of Crete, specifically the Knossos and Phaistos scripts.
(1) Kingship
Evidence for kingship is hard to find in Crete, and at this point I am struggling to detect a word for it in the Linear A and Eteocretan documents that are available at present.
   When the language is West Semitic (Phoenician, Hebrew, Arabic) the word is malku/malik/melek. In East Semitic (Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian) it is sharru ($arru). In the decipherment of the Ugaritic cuneiform alphabet script, and in the cracking of the West Semitic (Phoenician) alphabet, and its predecessor the West Semitic (Byblian) syllabary, mlk was an important clue. See my summary article, which does not mention mlk!
<https://www.academia.edu/12894458/The_origin_of_the_alphabet>
<http://cryptcracker.blogspot.co.nz/2014/09/goldwasser-alphabet.html> 
My search for an instance of m-r-k (r represents l or r) in the Cretan texts has been fruitless, thus far.
Nevertheless, there may be a word for 'ruler' in Praisos 2 (Eteocretan): MOSEL, Hebrew moshel (Gordon 1966, 11).
And malik can be seen (and also sar) in Cypro-Cretan (Cypro-Minoan) documents:
Enkomi cylinder, lines 2-3
<https://sites.google.com/site/collesseum/cypriancylinder>.
Cyprian tablet from Ugarit (RS 20.25) line 19
<https://sites.google.com/site/collesseum/ccnamelist>
On the Hagia Triada tablets a term SARU occurs (86, 94, 95, 123); also SARO (9, 17, 19, 42); and  SARYA (11. 18, 28, 30, 32).
Jan Best (11-15) has studied HT 11b. one of the SARYA tablets (he transcribes SARA2 as sari, 'my king').
He notes that the two words accompanying it could be Semitic titles. My version of these would be:
RUZUNA = Hbr razon, 'dignitary, potentate' (root rzn, 'have weight'); in Proverbs 14: 28 it is in parallel with mlk, 'king').
SAQERI = Hbr sokher, 'trader'; in I Kings 10:28, it refers to 'the king's buyers' (Solomon's agents).
The tablet ends with the KURO, meaning 'total', and that seems to correspond to Semitic kullu, Hbr kol, 'all'.
(2) Numbers 

In Creto-Semitica (1) Kingship,  I struggled to find a Semitic word for 'king'. In Linear A texts, SARU was a faint possibility (East Semitic sharru 'king', or Hebrew sar  'prince, officer, leader'), but no trace of West Semitic malku. However, Eteocretan MOSEL (written in Greek alphabet letters) could be moshel 'ruler' (Hebrew).

   We now begin a quest for numbers/numerals in Linear A texts ('Eteocretan A', perhaps) and ' Eteocretan H' texts (Hellenic, in that they use the Greek alphabet, but the language is the same as in some, if not all, Linear A inscriptions). I must ask from the outset this serious question: if the language is indeed West Semitic, why did they not use the Byblos syllabary in the Bronze Age, and the Phoenician alphabet in the Iron Age, since Linear A and the Greek alphabet are not suited to a language which has so many different sounds needing to be separately recorded?
   But the Semites used a variety of foreign scripts, starting with their borrowing of the Sumerian system in Mesopotamia, for Babylonian Ccuneiform writing. This plethora of scripts (some Semitic, and some modeled on the West Semitic syllabary and consonantary, and some others, such as Egyptian scripts) is outlined here:
The Mediterranean Diet in Ancient West Semitic Inscriptions

    If we could find the words for the numbers (the names of the numerals) we could see immediately which language family we are looking at, whether Afro-Asiatic (Hamito-Semitic), 'Euro-Asiatic' (Indo-European), 'Anatolic',  'Caucasic' (Hurrian), Finno-Ugric (it has been suggested that Sumerian might belong here, although its numeral-names are entirely different from Finnish), or an unknown unique tongue. In the latter case, it has been said that what we see in the Linear A and Eteocretan documents bears no resemblance to any known language (Yves Duhoux, Brent Davis); but practitioners of the 'discredited' etymological method of decipherment will beg to differ, along several separate paths, of course, and mine will be the Via Semitica.

    We know the signs of the Cretan numerical scheme:  it is a decimal system, with digits (|) for 1 to 9, and horizontal strokes  (--)  for tens; but these ideograms conceal the names of the numbers from us.

  We accept that KURO introduces the total of the numbers in lists, particularly on Hagia Triada tablets, but there is an example from Zakros: Tablet ZA 15ab concerns wine, as the five occurrences of the VIN ideogram testify. There are ten words in its list, and as usual we wonder whether they are names of persons (anthroponyms), places (toponyms), or things (common nouns); each has an accompanying numeral.

   The first line of ZA 15ab has: *47 ku na sa VINa (and no numeral).

SA is a simple Y-shaped representation of a cuttle-fish (*sapia, sêpia).

NA is an eye with a tear-flow (nama)

KU is dog-head, with an eye and a protruding tongue (kuôn).

AB 47 is a  circle with  X, and it might be YI, or a variant of AB46 YE, representing a person walking.

  A sequence yikuna looks very Semitic, as a verbal form, from the root kwn, 'be'; but the additional SA produces a possible word from the root k-n-s or k-n-sh, 'gather, collect'. When we come to examine the formulas on offering-tables, we will encounter unakanasi, and 'collect' would fit the context of giving and gathering that a Semitic reading reaps from those inscriptions. Here the introductory word might refer to the wine that has been collected; it is a heading and therefore does not have a number.

    ZA 4ab tells a similar story about wine, but it is damaged, and the first line is lost; it shares two words with ZA 15ab: kadi and sipiki. ZA 5b also has sipiki, again with a wine connection, but much of the text is lacking on both sides. Hebrew spq denotes 'abundance' and has been used with reference to wine;  but Semitic sh-p-k has the meaning 'pour'; the universe is riddled with coincidences, and perhaps neither of these choices is valid. WS kad 'jar' or 'jug' was for liquids or grains. If these two items were containers (for pouring wine), then the rest of the words would presumably refer to vessels; but speculation is cheap. Incidentally, the -i ending could be the indicator of masculine plural (kadi, 'jugs')

  Note also that  the Zakros scribe distinguishes I and NO clearly (on ZA 6, for example): the sign for NO is an upraised hand (in my view it symbolizes kheirôn nomos, the law of force) with a prominent thumb on the right side; the I-character might be a suppliant's olive branch wound round with wool (' iketêria elaia) with the end of the thread projecting on the right. Also of importance for us is the sign AB34 (on ZA 6a.1) which, I have long maintained, stands for KRA (it represents a side-view of an eyeball with the pupil, glênê); and it is not a mere variant of AB35, KRO (klôstêr, 'thread' or 'line') which shows a cord wound on a stick, a measuring 'line'; this  same character is the origin of Q in the alphabet (qaw, a 'line'). KRA appears in a Linear A legend  on a bowl from Knossos (KN Zcb), in a word kratiri  (=kratêr).

  Turning now to the KURO in ZA 15, the sum of all the numbers (57+10+3+6+2+5+4+5+3) is 95; but the kuro total is divided into two parts: VINa 78, RA VINa 17.

HT 122b  has an interesting addition to this practice (again there are two totals): 

kuro 31 (122a 8) kuro 65 (122b 5) potokuro 97(?) (122b 6).

The potokuro must mean 'grand total', or 'sum total' of the two totals. If it is a Semitic term, perhaps it is bat (Hbr bath) kul, 'daughter total'; but this could possibly imply that the new total is less than its two parent-totals, but not necessarily; I have not found an analogy for this.

   Here is another thought: it says 'pan-total', 'all in all'. Could poto be related to pant- or pantô(s), as a Greek loan-word? My suspicion is that there was a Hellenic dialect lurking in Crete (before the Mycenians came) and it may even be recorded on the imprinted disc from Phaistos, near Hagia Triada.

   KIRO is another word on the administration tablets; it is believed to mean something like  'deficit'; at the moment I can only suggest a faintly possible connection with Hebrew kl', 'hold back, withhold')

Is there an equivalent to kuro  in the late Eteocretan H inscriptions? These are not accounting documents, so there is no counterpart for 'total'. But on Praisos 1 and 3  there is a sequence KLES  (Kappa Lambda Epsilon Sigma). Cyrus Gordon understood  kl es as West Semitic kol 'ish, 'every man'. 

  One Semitic numeral that stands out in decipherment exercises is the number three (3): t-l- t/sh-l-sh. My search in Linear A texts has not brought anything like that to light. But Gordon has highlighted three possible numerals in Praisos 2 (and Yves Duhoux did not take sufficient account of these in his critique of Gordon's Semitic hypothesis): 

SPhA[A] (Hbr sheba`) 'seven'; TSAA (Hbr tesha`) 'nine'; SAR (Hbr `eser) 'ten' (or perhaps TORSAR, 'twelve').

There is enough material here already to show that these two Cretan media of writing (Linear A, Greek alphabet) were not adequate for recording West Semitic:  S syllabograms and Sigma had to cover a batch of sibilants (s, ts, shin, sin, t, z); and 'gutturals' had no letters to accommodate them ('alep, `ayin, gh, h, h., h). This will also make it easy for the sceptical to dismiss my case.
(3) Vessels
Words for containers have already been considered in section 2, namely kadi (jars?) and sipiki ('pourers', jugs?) in ZA 4 and Za 15. we move now to HT 31 (unfortunately one-third of its text is obliterated); it has depictions of various vessels with their names written above them, and these are probably Semitic. Actually, this tablet should have been saved for the grand finale of my presentation of the evidence, so that it could function as the verifying "tripod" (a Linear B tablet with a Greek  word ti-ri-po-de, and a drawing of a three-legged vessel confirmed Michael Ventris's decipherment). By coincidence, this Linear A document (HT 31) also depicts a tripod vessel, but there is apparently no name above it. However, my climax will focus on reading sentences (see CRETAN SEMITIC TEXTS), but at this point it is a matter of identifying Semitic vocabulary.

What I am offering on my websites is a contribution to the decipherment of some intractable West Semitic and Aegean scripts: the West Semitic logo-syllabary, the logo-consonantary (proto-alphabet), and the new syllabary of early Israel; also the Kaptarian Linear A syllabary of Crete , and the Alashiyan syllabary of Cyprus; and finally some new ideas for reading Eteocretan inscriptions. The use of the Greek alphabet for the West Semitic language of the Eteocretans is surprising, given the existence of the Phoenician alphabet, which was entirely suited to their needs. The same can be said of the Semitic “Minoans” and their adoption of the Cretan syllabary (Linear A), with its scope for a mere dozen consonants, when their language had at least twenty-two, and possibly twenty-seven (as shown by the long and short Canaanian alphabets). Incidentally, this phenomenon should be kept in mind by anyone attempting to describe the phonology of the “Minoan” language.[1]


I will set down here a tentative hypothesis: The two main scripts of Crete, emanating from Knossos and Phaistos, are acrophonically based  on Hellenic language ("Danaic", if Hellas is anachronistic here). Linear B texts are certainly Greek, and Linear A tablets are West Semitic, but some inscriptions and names must be Anatolic (L.R. Palmer, Margalit Finkelberg). Were the Anatolian inhabitants the Eteocretans?

   Eteocretan should mean echt (or true) Cretan; but accepting the Semitic Eteocretans as the original Cretans or Kaptarians is questionable: possibly Hellenes preceded the Semites, but were subdued by them for a while, under West Semitic rulers such as the archetypal Minos, and then the tables were turned.[2] In this regard, Homer’s list of ethnic groups in Crete (Odyssey 19.172)[3] is either instructive or inscrutable: “Akhaians, great-hearted Eteokretans, Kudonians, Dorians, Pelasgians”.

And he mentions Knôsos as the great city where Minôs reigned; but he does not say in which group Minos belonged.

   Are Akhaians placed first, because they were there first? Strabo (around the beginning of the current era, CE) reports that the Dorians occupied the east of Crete, the Kudonians the west, and the Eteokretans the south, at Praesos where the temple of Diktian Zeus was.[4] The Akhaians and Pelasgians have disappeared. Perhaps the mysterious Pelasgians (the term is generally understood as meaning non-Greek and pre-Hellenic) were the indigenes of Crete. But the “Akhaian” newcomers introduced the syllabary to the island, under Phoenician influence.

   Traditionally, Kadmos (whose very name bewrays him as a Semite from the East, Phoenician qadmu) taught the art of writing to the Greeks. This information could be applied to the invention of the pictophonic syllabary in the Bronze Age in Crete, rather than the alphabet in the Iron Age in Greece, though it is true that in each case the Phoenicians provided the writing materials: first, the idea of a simple acrophonic syllabary with pictophonic characters (as employed in Gubla, Greek Byblos); and second, an alphabet (the Phoenician consonantary), to which the Greeks added vowel-letters, using consonant-signs that were superfluous to their purposes (Alpha the glottal stop became A, for example). But it was in Crete that the Phoenicians taught Greeks to write syllabically. It seems that the two early writing systems of Crete (emanating from Knossos in the north and from Phaistos in the south) are based on a Hellenic language[5] (and this idea has been tested in the inventory of Cretan syllabograms presented here: http://cryptcracker.blogspot.com/2017/06/aegean-syllabic-signs.html.
   Minos and his dynasty were interlopers, perhaps from the time of the Hyksos empire in Egypt, when Phoenicians were scouring the world in their ships.

   The term “Minoan” was coined by Arthur Evans; it is like “Victorian”, referring to an era and a culture, and named after a monarch; and perhaps the Semites of Crete did consider themselves to be Minoans in some sense; and somehow they became Eteocretans, but they were really Neo-Cretans, and their genetic heritage may still linger in the population.

   Nanno Marinatos has produced a book (2010) in which she argues that “palatial Crete” (Bronze-Age Kaptar) belonged in the Near East, comprising Anatolia, Syria, the Levant, and Egypt. She quotes Evans at the head of her Introduction: “Throughout its course Minoan civilization continued to absorb elements from the Asiatic side”. Marinatos reminds us that Kothar, the West Semitic god of arts and crafts, had his abode in Kaptar (and he was also at home in Egyptian Memphis, as Ptah, and perhaps in Mesopotamia as Heyan, if that is Ea/Enki).[6] Accordingly, Marinatos proposes a religious koine of the Mediterranean world, and if Minoan religion was West Semitic, like the Minoan language, then she must be right. Deities and details of the religion have been set aside here, but there is no doubt that the West Semitic pantheon can be found in the Kaptarian documents.[7]

    One very significant point about the Mediterranean koine (Marinatos, Chapter 9) is the place that the double ax holds in Cretan iconography. She presents a number of questions about this icon, and states that one answer fits them all.

The double ax rises from the cosmic mountain.

  Birds greet it as it appears between the two peaks.

 It appears between the horns of a bovine head (boukephalion).

 

A rosette between the horns is another symbol

The double ax turns into a lily

The lily is atop the ax between bovine horns. The horns would be equivalent to the peaks of the cosmic mountain.
 

 The double double ax is here seen with four rosettes (solar symbols).

Obviously the double ax symbolizes the sun in all the pictures we have seen here.

Everywhere else it was the sun disc with wings, but in Crete it was the double ax, doubled, like the parts of the wings.

 What do we say? Did the Kaptarians make a deliberate choice to put a battle-ax in place of the sun with wings, or in the stylization process was an error made, and it persisted? (Nanno Marinatos does not consider these questions, and I do not know whether she has noticed this connection.)

 ENDNOTES

[1] Davis 2014: 193-268 (Linguistic analysis of Linear A).

[2] Marinatos 2010: 1-8 for a historical reconstruction of the Kaptar period.

[3] This and other ancient pieces of evidence are assembled in Duhoux 1982:9-12.

[4] Duhoux 1982: 10.

[5] Steven Fischer (1988) takes this stance, but he calls the Minoans “Greeks” (“East Hellenes”, p. 69).

[6] Marinatos 2010: 1; Gibson 1978: 54-55, Wyatt 1998: 88-90, for the Ugaritic myth (KTU 1.3, vi, 5-20) showing Kothar as the deity connecting the various realms of the Near East, also including Gubla (Byblos), and possibly Keilah (Gibson, citing1 Samuel 23:1, which has the Philistines attacking this town in Israel) or simply “the summit” (Wyatt).

[7] Gordon 1966: 31; Best 1989: 12-24.

 

PHAISTOS DISC

This is a printed document, from around 1700 before the current era, 
long before printing was invented!

 Detailed photographs are available here (Wiki)

My account of it is posted here:
https://sites.google.com/site/collesseum/phaistosdisc 

https://sites.google.com/site/collesseum/phaistosscript 

 The 45 characters on the Phaistos Disc (after Arthur Evans)

 The Phaistos disc was discovered in 1908 in a Bronze-Age building, 
a palace, at Phaistos in SW Crete. 
   Could the Phaistos disc be a forgery? 
That would be a very elaborate hoax to perpetrate: making 45  stamps
to imprint on clay, on both sides of the object, and printing 30 clusters 
of signs (words or phrases ?) on one side and 31 on the other.
    I know personally two different scholars (out of a host of hopefuls) 
who have published confident attempts at decipherment (both read 
it as Hellenic, but produce entirely different transcriptions and 
translations).
    My observations on it, after looking at all the other scripts of Crete 
(and Cyprus) is that it does not belong to the same family as Linear B 
(used for Mycenean Greek texts).

     There is a line of development in Crete from a set of pictographs to
stylized Linear A characters (language uncertain) and even more 
stylizedLinear B; and on Cyprus a derived syllabic script from the same 
source (through Linear A), used for a Greel dialect and other languages.
My judgement is that the Cretan pictographs and the Phaistos glyphs
(in spite of similarities and apparent correspondences) do not belong 
to the same system. 
    There were two different but related writing systems on  Crete: 
(1) the Knossos script (northern), a picto-phonetic syllabary > 
Linear A and B;
(2) the Phaistos script (southern), a picto-phonetic syllabary. 
Looking at the 30 accountancy tablets from Phaistos (as distinct from 
adjacent Hagia Triada, where the Linear A script was used, a stylized 
form of the northern picto-phonetic script), most seem to be Linear A, 
but some (PH 8, 9, 13, 15, 17, 26) have signs known from the 
Phaistos Disc, and notably PH 12: 

PhD sign 14 (fetter, Greek pedé, Linear B PE), PhD 1 (striding man),

PhD 22 (cuttlefish, Greek sépia, Linear B SA), PhD 27 ( hide, talent?).
PH 13 has a fish (Phaistos Disc sign 35), which is not found in the
northern picto-syllabary or its descendant, Linear A. 
Thus the Phaistos script has its own set of signs, but some of them are
shared with the Knossos  syllabary.

 The 45 characters on the Phaistos Disc (after Arthur Evans)

 If this is a discovery I have made, it will still not help us read the Disc!
Or perhaps it will. If enough signs are common to both systems, and we
substitute the known values from Linear B, then we are on our way
with a flying start. I could argue for at least 20 correspondences out of
45 (the number of  separate signs on the Disc).  This was the approach of
Steven Fischer in his attempt at decipherment.

And the Arkalokhori Ax has 15 characters, some of them duplicates, 
with apparent connections to the Phaistos Disk set of signs, and/or to 
the Knossos inventory.

 For futher developments in my research on Aegean scripts
see the  Creto-Cyprian section of

 https://sites.google.com/site/collesseum/

and for West Semitic presence on the island of Crete 

http://cryptcracker.blogspot.co.nz/2016/05/creto-semitica.html 

PHOENICIANS IN TEXAS

 HANBY STONES

SANDERS STONE

Some interesting inscriptions on stone have been brought to light in Texas (USA). They were found in Rockwall, a town which has an ancient rectangular wall (6 x 3.2 miles); it had a hot spring and a cold spring inside the enclosed area. Situated near Dallas, it is accessible via the Trinity River, which flows down to the Gulf of Mexico. There is now no reason for denying the fact that three thousand years before Columbus and his little boats reached America, ships from the Mediterranean region were already crossing the Atlantic Ocean. The accumulation of evidence is overwhelming, although each piece is regularly dismissed as nonsense or coincidence.
   John Carr and John Lindsey have studied the archaeological evidence: they suggest that the wall has similarities to the infill walls of Canaan (Syria-Palestine) in the Bronze Age. They produced a book about it. John Cecil Carr (1917-2014) was my source of information.
   The Sanders Stone was pulled out of the wall in 1955; it was 35 feet below the surface; it has now disappeared but photographs exist. In the middle of the line of writing is a clear ox-head with horns, which we may assume to be an Aleph/Alpha. At the beginning of the text (far right) is a W-shaped sign, the original Shin/Sigma. The penultimate character (on the left side) looks like a hand with fingers, and it might be Kaph/Kappa.
    At the bottom of the Hanby Stone on the left, there is another such K. Above it there is possibly a  wavy line for the letter M. Reading from the top, the first character might be a snake, an erect cobra, and thus N; beneath it is Q (from qaw, a stick with a measuring cord wound around it); then B, a house (a simple square, showing the ground plan of the dwelling).
   These two Hanby stones were found under the Hanby house (built in the middle of the 19th Century). The one on the left has the shape of a round-topped stela, which is typical of the ancient civilization in the Mediterranean world, and is also found in the Olmec culture of Mexico; this is one of many indicators of contact between Americans and Mediterraneans in the Bronze Age (before 1200 BCE), together with pyramids and ziggurats, cylinder stamps and flat stamps, and writing systems.
   The script or scripts represented here could be West Semitic (syllabic or/and alphabetic).
   One question is: what was the attraction that brought Phoenicians to this particular place; was there a silver mine, as in Kongsberg in Norway? I am told that it was gold they were mining.
   In this regard, my tentative reading of the Hanby stela is:
         N Q B   M K  "mine tunnel"
NQB: root meaning, 'bore, pierce', Arabic naqb 'tunnel', Syriac neqba 'hole'
MK: root mkk, 'sink down'; the word mk is found on inscriptions at Sinai turquoise mines (Sinai 352, 354, 379)

A FACE FROM THE PAST

Found about 4 miles south of the wall.

14 feet below grade.

It originally had 4 radiating triangles 

 

https://planetrockwall.com/the_rock_wall_new_discoveries/ 

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1084940708224864&set=a.537857416266532

https://rockwallcountymuseum.com/rock-wall/  

The copper mines at Lake Huron were also frequented by them:

https://sites.google.com/view/collesseum/huron-stone

RUNES

Here are three views of an object that was brought to my attention in November 2000, by the Volcano Art Gallery in Auckland. I have never seen or handled the artefact, but details were supplied by Neil de Croz, the director of the gallery. Its age and origin are not known
   Dimensions are: 26" x 20" x 9". Weight: 78 lbs.
   The end bowl: 6.5" diameter, 3" deep (charred)
   The central bowl: 7" diameter. 2" deep, inscribed, black stone embedded in the centre .
   The bowl is in a six-pointed star (14" from point to point across) with 6 embedded stones.
   The star is within a circle: 16" diameter.
   An inscription runs round inside the circle, but does not intrude into the star.
   The letters are RUNES, from the Germanic Runic alphabet (futhark, th as in thing), having 24 characters..
    Runes are based on the Greco-Roman alphabet.
   Their use is attested from the 2nd century of the current era till early modern times.

What purpose did this object serve? Divination? Burning incense?
What are the messages in each inscription?
You tell me!

11/May/2016
The Germanic futhark had 24 letters; Scandinavia had 16; the Anglo-Saxon system had up to 31.  The runes in the upper circle are arranged in six sections (formed by the six points of the star) with four runes in each of the six fields. That makes 24 (6x4). So it is the Germanic futhark.

Expert opinion has come to our aid: the letters do not form words, apparently, but merely represent each of the signs.
 
James E. Knirk
Professor, Runic Archives, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo
The runes around the outside of the six-pointed star I was able to read, but it was not easy. I start on your blogspot picture with the runes to the right of due north, i.e. from 12 o'clock and on around. They read:
ozhk (or: oRhk, one uses both transliterations)
ïsjr   ebfu   wtpi   ŋmgd (the first an ng-sound)   aþnl

This is then all 24 runes in the older rune-row, but in apparently random, at any rate not linguistically understandable or linguistically motivated order. It is very difficult for me to see this as anything other than a relative recent attempt to write runes. For me, this is confirmed by the form of the r-rune. In much of the New Age runic literature about runes as means for fortelling the future and other very popular presentations and the like, the r-rune has a special form that is basically unknown in genuine runic inscriptions, be it from the oldest times or even up to "modern" times (here meaning the Reformation, early 1500s). It is like our R, but the leg going obliquely down from the pouch is truncated, usually very short -- exactly like in this inscription. There is absolutely nothing that seems genuine (i.e. "old") about this piece.

I hope you are not disappointed by the fact that this apparently is something maybe 20-40 years old, and of little or no interest to runology, and probably not to cryptology either.
It seems to me that the inscription in the bowl is meant to be the same as the one around the star.
One thing I was surprised and delighted to find about the runic system is that the characters can be used not only as simple single-sound letters, but also as syllabograms and logograms.
Thus the M-sign can represent mon 'human' (logogram), and the syllable mon ('rebogram') in Solomon.
   I have discovered that the pictograms of the proto-alphabet were used in those same three ways, as I point out in all my articles on the early alphabet in the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age. This was how the Egyptian hieroglyphs functioned, too. But how did this practice carry over into the Runes, when the Greek and Roman alphabets (derived from the Semitic alphabet) apparently did not have this idea?

   My source has been R. I. Page, Runes, British Museum, 1987