IN the following list I have included all the above signs that have any claim to be regarded as of hieroglyphic value, excluding the small obviously ornamental devices that are occasionally found filling in the space between the symbols, but including one or two like the S-shaped figures that may after all belong to the same decorative or supplemental category. It will be seen from the arrangement adopted that the symbols, where it is possible to recognize their meaning, fall into regular classes like the Hittite or the Egyptian.

THE HUMAN BODY AND ITS PARTS.

1. Fig. 36b. ldeograph of a man standing alone, with his arms held downwards, perhaps denoting ownership. It is followed by linear characters on another facet of the stone. Human figures in this position are frequent on Cypriote cylinders. A similar figure also occurs on a cone from Ramleh, near Jaffa, in the Ashmolean Collection.

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2. Figs. 29a, 32d, 34b and c, 35b and c, and 38. The eye appears twice in conjunction with No. 16. As an indication of meaning we may compare Egyptian an ;also determinative of 'sight,' 'watching,' &c. On the Hittite monuments the eye docs not seem to be separately portrayed. On the inscriptions of Hamath and Jerabis (Wright, Emp. of the Hittites, P1. I. H. 1, line 1, and P1. VIII. A., line 1) the upper part of a figure of a man is represented, with his finger apparently pointing to his eye.

In the delineation of this symbol on the Cretan seal-stones, four distinct stages are perceptible : (1) the whole eye with the lashes all round; (2) the whole eye ~vith the lashes fully drawn on two diagonal sides of the eye only, elsewhere only faintly indicated; (3) what appears to be an abbreviated form of the latter type; (4) the pupil and iris only, indicated by concentric circles. In one case (Fig. 35) this latter type occurs on the same stone as the complete eye in a place where it would have been impossible to insert the full symbol.

It is, however, difficult to distinguish this latter simplified form, consisting of concentric circles with or without a central dot, from what appears to be a solar symbol. (See below, No. 62.)

3. Fig. 31b. Another ideograph taken from gesture-language. The sign may have indicated 'ten' or any multiple of ten: thus any great number. So far as the crossing of the arms goes, the symbol may be compared with the two confronted figures that occur twice on a Jerabis monument (Wright, op. cit. Pl. IX.).

4. Fig. 35d. Also a gesture-sign. The Egyptian open hand indicates a palm measure. The forepart of the arm with open hand is seen on one of the Jerabis inscriptions (Wright, op. cit. P1. VIII. B. 1. 2). Compare, too, the hand and forearm sculptured on a rock at Itanos above an archaic Greek inscription (Cornparetti, Leggi di Gorlyna, &c., p. 442, No. 206).

5. Figs. 22b, 25a, 34b. The bent leg , in Egyptian = pat, ret, men, &c., as a determinative, is applied to actions of the leg, as 'marching' and 'approaching' and to agrarian measurements, as arura, 'an acre.' Among Hittite symbols only the lower part of the leg is found, apparently

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booted. Cp. Kolitolu Yaila. So far as style is concerned, the greatest resemblance is presented by a bent human leg seen in the field of a gem from the lower city of Mycenae (Tomb 10, 1888, P1. X. 9).

6. Fig. 32d. Possibly = a rump.

ARMS, IMPLEMENTS, AND INSTRUMENTS.

7. Fig. 32b and cf. 41. Resembles an arm holding a curved instrument. As such it may be compared with the Egyptian determinative a hand holding a club (neXt), applied to forcible action. The forepart of the arm holding weapons or implements is common among Hittite symbols.

8. Fig. 24b. The single axe occurs on early seal-stones in the Ashmolean Collection, from Smyrna and N. Syria. It is perhaps represented by a symbol on the Hittite monument at Bulgar Maden (Ramsay and Hogarth, Pre- hellenic Monuments of Cappadocia, P1. II. line 2, near middle). On an inscription from Jerabis (Wright, op. cit. P1. II. C. line 1, and A. 1. 4) the axe seems to occur in combination with another object. In Egypt the single axe is a sign of divinity. The present type of axe, however, is altogether non-Egyptian.

9. Fig. 37b. Perhaps an early form of double axe-head.

10. Figs. 23b, 39. The double axe is a form altogether foreign to Egypt. As a Hittite hieroglyph it has been recently detected on an inscription, and it is seen repeated in pairs on a Cypriote cylinder (Cesnola, Salaminia, Fig. 118, p. 128). It occurs as a symbol in the field of a Mycenaean gold ring (Schliemann, Mycenae, Fig. 530, p. 354), where it has been connected with the cult of Zeus Labrandeus. It also forms the principal type of some Mycenaean gems found in Crete—one from near Girapetra, the other from Goulàs. Bronze axes of the above form are common in the votive deposits of the Cretan caves like that of the Idaean Zeus and of Psychro on Mount Lasethe (see above, Fig. 6).

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11. Fig. 33d. The dagger symbol appears in two forms among Egyptian hieroglyphs, bakasu and Xaa. When it occurs among Hittite signs it is grasped by a hand (Hamath Wright, op. cit. P1, III. H. iv. line 1, and Jerabis, op. cit. Pl. XII. Fig. 1,1. 2). The roundness of the pommel of the hilt on the Cretan sign is probably simply due to the early gem-engraver's technique, which relies greatly on the drill.

12. Fig. 21b. Arrow-head. The form b occurs on a triangular stone of a somewhat earlier class (see below, p. 344, Fig. 68), but is here inserted for comparison. Compare, too, the sign on the Mycenaean vase-handle (Fig. 1).

13. Figs. 34c, 23b, 24c, 30b, 32a, 33b, 35a. The 'arrow' with a short shaft is frequent on these stones, one variety (13a) showing the feather- shaft. Similar figures are occasionally seen in the field of Mycenaean gems found in the island, where they represent arrows of the chase about to strike wild goats or other animals. The Hittite hieroglyphic series presents some close parallels.

Jerabis (op. cit. P1. VIII. D. 1. 4,	Gurun and Bulgar Maden (R. and H.
and P1. X.. 1. 4).	P1. II. and P1. IV. Fig. 2).

14. Figs. 23b, 35c. This symbol must be taken in connexion with the next, in which a palmette with curving base is inserted into its arch. Reasons will be given below (p. 319) for identifying this with the 'template' used in constructing a design formed of palmettes and returning spirals, which on other evidence seems to have been employed in Crete in Mycenaean days. It may therefore be a badge of a decorative artist.

15. Fig. 23a.

16. Figs. 21b, 22a, 23a, 23c, 25c, 32a, 33b, 34c, 35a, 35b, 38. This symbol, which is the most frequent of all, occurring no less than eleven times in the present series, may represent an instrument—like an arbelon—for cutting leather. Or it may possibly be compared with a tool such as the Egyptians used for hollowing out vessels, and which seems to be represented by the Egyptian character Ub (See De Rougi, Chrestomathie Egyptienne, p. 75.) Compare also Shen = a chisel. The projecting shoulders recall a form of bronze celt.

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17. Figs. 34a and 23b. Apparently another instrument of the same class as the above.

18. Fig. 32d. This form may be compared with the Egyptian = a mallet, determinative of 'to fabricate' or 'build.' The Hittite from Gurun (R. and H. Pl. IV. 2, line 2) affords a close parallel to this and the above.

19. Figs. 31b, 31c. This highly interesting symbol represents a primitive form of musical instrument which, though it at first sight rather recalls a lyre from its horn-shaped sides, is essentially a harp, its opposite sides being connected by three strings and not by a solid cross-piece. Regarded as a harp, however, it presents an entirely new type, apparently standing in the same relation to the Asiatic horn-bow as the simple forms of African and other harps do to the wooden how. It was, however, played with a plectrum which, as in the case of primitive lyres among savages at the present day, is here seen attached to the framework of the instrument. Although this symbol must be classified as a harp, and not as a lyre, we may well ask ourselves whether an instrument of this form, derived from the two-horned Asiatic bow, may not have influenced—contaminated, as mythologists would say—the form of the Greek lyre, the horn-shaped sides of which are not essential to that form of instrument.

20. Figs. 23b, 35b, 35d. Perhaps a p1ectrum as above.

21. Fig. 25a. A club or sceptre. Compare the Egyptian = club, = mace, symbol of 'brilliancy' and 'whiteness.'

22. Fig. 23c. There can be little doubt that this symbol represents an adze or some similar tool with a wooden handle. The handle shows affinities with the Egyptian a kind of adze or plane, which = stp 'to judge' or 'approve.' It may also be compared with the Hittite (Jerabis, Wright, op. cit. Pl. 1X. lines 7, 8). Long adzes are among the most typical forms of bronze implements found in Crete. They are found in Mycenaean deposits, and one in my possession from the Cave of Psychro is 11.35 inches in length. It is probable that the end of the wooden handle of the Cretan implement represented above was sbaped like the hind leg and hoof of an animal, as in the case of many Egyptian tools.

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23.Fig. 34d. Saw, shaped like the jaw of an animal, probably formed of wood set with flint flakes. Compare the Egyptian = saw. For a somewhat similar saw of wood set with flint teeth from Kahun, see Petrie, Illahun, Kakum, and Gurob, P1. VII. Fig. 27.

24. Figs. 22b, 24a, 25a, 29b. Gate, door, or part of a fence. No. 2 in connexion with a pig.

25. Figs. 30a, 32c, 36d. Perhaps variant of above, but cf. the Egyptian symbol for 'shutter'

26. Fig. 34b. Gate or shutter.

27. Fig. 32c. Fence.

28. Fig. 39. This vase evidently represents a metal original closely resembling the Oriental ibrik, which serves an ewer for pouring and sprinkling water. Vessels of this shape form the principal type of a class of Mycenaean gems specially common in Eastern Crete (see below, p. 370), sometimes fitted with a conical cover like Persian ewers of the same kind. The curving spout recalls that of an Egyptian libation-vase Kabh = 'libation,' 'sweet water '—but a simpler parallel is found in the ordinary water-vessel num ='water.' It is probable that the Cretan sign also stands for 'water'; indeed, on the lentoid gems referred to, this vase and others closely akin, with high beaked spouts, arc seen beside a plant or spray. ^19b All this clearly indicates the purpose of watering.

29. Figs. 32c, 31c. This form of vessel is of ceramic character, and the seal on which it occurs belongs to an early class. corresponds with a primitive type of high-beaked vases very wide distribution, extending from Cyprus and the

^19b In the case of a closely allied form of vase with two handles the spray is seen inserted in the mouth of the vessel. On a gem from Goulàs a vase of this kind is seen beside a plant, above which is a rayed disc indicating the midday sun.

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Troad to the Aegean Islands and the mainland of Greece. They occur at Hissarlik, and in the early cist-graves of Amorgos of prae-Mycenaean date, and I found part of the beaked spout of one of equally early fabric on the site of Praesos. Vases of this form are seen on the most primitive class of Cretan engraved gems, going back to the third millennium B.C. (see . p. 332), and continue--taking at times a more metallic form--into the Mycenaean period. On two Vaphio gems (1890, P1. X. 35 36) a closely allied prochous is seen in tbe hands of the mysterious beast-headed daemons of Mycenaean art, who in one case are engaged in watering nurseling palm-trees. Another representation of the same form of vase occurs above two bulls in the field of a gem from Tomb 27 of the lower town of Mycenae (1888, P1. X. 24).

30. Fig. 40. This symbol belongs to the same class as the above.

31. Fig. 40. Possibly some kind of vessel.

32. Figs. 34a, 28a. The first of these vessels is accompanied with two crescents, one on either side of the mast—perhaps a sign of time as applied to the duration of a voyage (see below, No. 65). One ship has seven oars visible, the other six. In form these vessels show a great resemblance to those which appear as the principal type on a class of Mycenaean lentoid gems, specimens of which are found in Crete. One of these in my possession shows fifteen oars and a double rudder, and perhaps an upper row of oars. The double end of the first example—like an open beak—may recall the swan-headed ships of the confederate invaders of Egypt 'from the middle of the sea' in Rameses III.'s time as seen on the frescoes of Medinet Habou. In the present ease, however, no yards are visible.

33. Fig. 33a Apparently a tunny-fish: the hatched-work behind may indicate a net. Fish as hieroglyphic symbols are common to Egypt and Chaldaea. It looks as if tunny-fisheries had existed off the Cretan coast in Mycenaean times. The well-known gem with a fisherman in the British Museum (Gem Catalogue, 80, Pl. A) may refer to the same industry; and tunny-fish occur on two more Cretan gems of Mycenaean date in the same collection. A fish of the same type occurs as a symbol on Cypriote cylinders (cf. Salaminia, P1. XIV. 48).

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34. Fig. 39. Also apparently a fish. The head is more rounded than No. 83, but this may be due to rudeness of design. Fish of the same rude form are seen on Cypriote cylinders (cf. Cesnola, Salaminia, P1. XIV. 48).

35. Fig. 33c. Head of he-goat. This symbol presents a remarkable similarity to the Hittite hieroglyph of the same object, the value of which from its occurrence on the bi-lingual seal of Tarkutimme (Tarkondêmos) in Hittite and cuneiform characters is known to represent the syllables Tarrik or Tarku (Sayce, Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arch. Vol. VII. Pt. II. (1881), p. 297, and Emp. of Hittites, p. 182; Theo. Pinches, ib. p. 220, and Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arc/i. March 3,1885; and cf. Halevy Rev. Sém. 1893, p. 55 seqq.). The element 'Tarrik,' again, in the name of this prince, seems to refer to the god Tark (cf. Ramsay and Hogarth, Pre-hellenic Monuments of Cappadocia, p. 9 seqq.). The Egyptian goat's-head sign is of a different character. The neck is given as well as the head, and there is no beard.

36. Fig. 37a. Bull or Ox. The seal on which it occurs is of primitive type.

37. Fig. 24b. A doe or kid.

38. Figs. 28b, 32b. Apparently intended for deer-horns.

39. Fig. 26a. Horned head of an uncertain animal, apparently an ox.

40. Fig. 21a. This appears to be rather a bucranium or skull of a bull or ox, than the actual head of the animal. As an ornament of the reliefs of altars the bucranium occurs already in Mycenaean art. This appears from a lentoid gem in the British

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Museum, on which is seen an animal of the goat kind freshly slaughtered, with a dagger thrust into its shoulder, lying on an altar or sacrificial bench, the front of which is adorned with four bucrania much resembling the above. In this ease, to complete the parallel with later classical reliefs, fillets attached to the extremities of the horns are seen hanging down between the skulls. 41. Fig. 34d. This symbol must be regarded as uncertain. It is placed here, however, as showing a great resemblance to the Hittite sign which has been interpreted as an elongated form of the ass's head. (Palanga.)

42. Fig. 37b. Perhaps a variant of the above.

43. Fig. 24a. Pig. A similar ideograph occurs on a three-sided stone of the earlier Cretan type presented to the Ashmolean Museum by Mr. J. L. Myres.

44. Figs. 23a, 32b. Wolf's head with the tongue hanging out. This symbol shows a remarkable likeness to the Hittite (Jerabis, op. . cit. Pl. VIII. D. 1. 3, P1.IX. 1. 3), where again we find the same protruding tongue.

45. Fig. 31a. Dove pluming its wing.

46. Fig. 40. Perhaps variant form of above.

47. Fig. 39. Bird standing. Birds in a somewhat similar position occur among the Hittite symbols at Jerabis and Bulgar Maden, and are frequent in Egyptian hieroglyphics.

48. Fig. 26a. Apparently a bird's bead. Heads of various kinds of birds are common among Egyptian hieroglyphics.

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49. Fig. 32c. This symbol apparently consists of two birds heads turned in opposite directions.

50. Figs. 28c, 30a. Perhaps a conventionalized sea-horse. The uppermost symbol on Fig. 18b (No. 76 below) may be a simplification of this. Compare on a 'Hittite' seal-stone from Smyrna. A very similar form occurs on an early truncated cone from Tartus.

51. On the steatite relief (Fig. 18b). Apparently a tortoise.

52. Fig 34b.

53. Fig. 25b.

54. Figs. 23b, 33d, 35a, 35c. This may perhaps be regarded as an abbreviated form of one of the above, with possibly a differentiated meaning. The form is common to the Hittite monuments, occurring at Jerabis, (Wright, op.cit. P1. VIII. B 1. 5) in a more floral, and also (op. cit. P1. XIX.6) in a geometrical form; while at Bulgar Maden (Ramsay and Hogarth, Prehellenic Monuments of Cappadocia, P1. II. 1. 3, beginning) it forms a purely linear sign. The same, or a closely allied symbol, is also seen on the lion of Marash (Wright, op. cit. P1. XXVII. 111, 1. 1).

55. Fig. 25b.

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56. Fig. 31c. Perhaps a lily. This form is more pictorial than the others. Compare the Hittite Hamath (Wright, op. cit. P1. IV. 11. 2 and 3).

57. Fig. 32d. I have placed this symbol, as completed, amongst floral forms from its apparent analogy to the Hittite as seen on the monument at Ivriz (Ramsay and Hogarth, Pre-hellenic Monuments of Cappadocia, P1. III.). The dot which occurs above both symbols may be reasonably interpreted as representing the head of a stamen or pistil, as those of the lily, No. 56.

58. Figs. 37b, 40. Tree symbol. On a Mycenaean lentoid gem, now in the Museum of the Syllogos at Candia, a votary is seen blowing a conch-shell before an altar, behind which is a sacred grove with trees in the same conventional style. A similar degeneration of the sacred tree occurs on Cypriote cylinders.

59. Fig. 28b, repeated. Spray or branch, and the same is seen duplicated on Fig. 29c.

61. Fig. 27a. (the rays more revolving). Day-star, or sun, with twelve rays. Star-like symbols occur on Syrian and Asianic seal-stones.

62. Fig. 35b. This symbol, with the tangential offshoots suggesting revolution, seems to fit on to No. 60 and to be of solar import. For the concentric circles as a solar emblem compare the Egyptian Sep = times (vices), and the circle with a central dot is also the Chinese symbol for sun. The eye symbol, No. 4, approaches this very closely.

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63. Fig. 35d. This form suggests a combination of solar and lunar symbols.

64. Fig. 32b. and cf. 39. Star of four rays. This symbol is frequent on Cypriote cylinders.

65. Two small crescent-moons are seen on either side of the mast of the vessel on Fig. 34a. They perhaps indicate duration of time—months—as applied to the length of a voyage.

The Egyptian men = mountain is applied in the same way as a determinative for 'districts' and 'countries.' As smut = granary, it reappears, with one or two heaps of corn in the middle, in the simple sense of a 'plot of ground.' The Accadian symbol, again, signifying a plot of ground, exhibits a form closely parallel to the above.

And in this connexion a truly remarkable coincidence is observable between the pictographic symbolism of old Chaldaea and that of the Cretans of the Mycenaean period. The linear form of the Accadian Ut-tu shows a sun above the symbol of the ground with a plant growing out of it. But on specimens of Mycenaean gems observed by me in Eastern Crete, side by side with the vase for watering already referred to, are seen symbolic or conventional representations of the plant growing out of the ground, recalling the Accadian version almost totidem lineis on amygdaloid cornelian; Zero (near Praesos). on amygdaloid cornelian; Goulàs. In another case the ewer divides the two symbols on an almond-shaped stone of the same character; Girapetra,

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67. Figs. 23b, 23c, 25a, 25c, 33d, 34b, 38. This sign may be simply a supplementary figure. On Fig. 38 it is thrice repeated with the sign No. 16, and might, like the similar Egyptian sign , indicate multiplication.

68. Figs. 34a., 34d. This may be an intercalated sign, perhaps of the nature of a break between words.

69. Figs. 21a, 23c. Repeated in two directions on Fig. 23c. This, too, is possibly an ornamental insertion, but it may however be compared with the Egyptian , a coil of thread, signifying 'to reel.'

70. Fig. 24c. This may be the same as No. 69 with an additional ornamental flourish.

71. Figs. 31b, 35c. The late Hittite sign occurs at Gurun (R. and H. op. cit. P1. IV. 2, 1. 2), and perhaps in the inscription near Bulgar Maden (op. cit. P1. II. 1. 3).

72. Fig. 27a.

73. Fig. 25c.

74. Fig. 25c. Somewhat fractured below.

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75. Fig. 34d. A certain analogy is presented by the Hittite sign Hamath (Wright, op . cit. Pl. I.H. II. 1. 2), Jerabis (op. cit.iPl. VIII. B. 1. 5), and on the 'Niobe' (Ed. Gollob. in op. cit. P1. XXII.).

76. Fig. 18b. On the steatite relief (Fig. 18b); possibly a conventionalized form of No. 50.

77. Fig. 26a.

78. Fig. 25a. Perhaps a variant of No. 69.

79. Fig. 33c. This symbol presents a certain resemblance to the Hittite forms Hamath (Wright, op. cit. P1. I. 1. 1, P1. II. H. III. 1. 1, P1. IV. H. V. 1. 1); Jerabis (op. cit. P1. VIII. J. I. A. 1. 3, B. 1. 2); Bulgar Maden (R. and H. op. cit. P1. II. 1. 3); Gurun (op. cit. P1. IV. I).

80. Fig. 22a. This recalls the Egyptian 'skein of thread,' the determinative for 'linen,' 'binding,' &c. Compare, too, the twisted cord sen =" to turn back,' and kes, the tied up bundle = 'to bury.' On the Hittite silver seal procured at Bor, near Tyana (Ramsay and Hogarth, Prehellenic Monumcnts of Coppadoeia, p. 17, Fig. 2), occurs the sign identical with the Cretan

81. Figs. 35c, 35d.

82. Fig. 32c. This symbol, if rightly completed, recalls the Egyptian = Net, which serves especially to write the name of Keith the Goddess of Sais; also = at, and its abbreviated form, sometimes described as a 'twisted cord.'

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It will be seen from the above list that there are some eighty-two symbols classified under the following heads:

The human body and its parts...6
Arms, implements and instruments... 17
Parts of houses and household utensils...8
Marine subjects...3
Animals and birds...17
Vegetable forms...8
Heavenly bodies and derivatives ...6
Geographical or topographical signs...1
Geometrical figures...4
Uncertain symbols...12

The numerous comparisons made with Egyptian hieroglyphs in the course of the above analysis do not by any means involve the conclusion that we have in the Cretan signs merely their blundered imitation. Where such occur, as in the case of a well-known class of Phoenician and of some Cypriote Greek objects, we are confronted with very different results. Had there been any attempt to copy Egyptian cartouches or inscriptions, we should infallibly have found, as in the above cases, travesties or imperfect renderings of Egyptian forms. But imitative figures of this kind do not make their appearance, and no attempt has been made to copy even the commonest of the Egyptian characters. Such parallelism as does appear is at most the parallelism of an independent system drawn from a common source. Nor are affinities of this kind by any means confined to Egypt.

Among the closer parallels with the signs of other hieroglyphic systems that it has been possible to indicate, about sixteen (or 20 per cent.) approach Egyptian and an equal number Hittite forms: mere general resemblances, such as those presented by certain figures of fish, birds, &c., being excluded from this rough calculation. Considering that the choice of comparisons is in the case of the Egyptian hieroglyphs very much larger than that of the Hittite, it will be seen that the proportion of affinities distinctly inclines to the Asianic side. Certain signs, such as the wolf s head with the tongue hanging out (No. 44), the he-goat's head (No. 35), the arrow (No. 13), the three-balled spray (No. 54), and Nos. 41, 57, 79 and 80, clearly point to a fundamental relationship between the Hittite and Cretan systems. The double axe moreover is characteristically Asianic, but as certainly not Egyptian. The single axe of the form represented in No. 8 is also nonEgyptian. We are struck too by the absence of the distinctively religious symbols which in Egyptian hieroglyphics are of such constant recurrence. In the Hittite series, on the other hand, as in the Cretan, this hieratic clement, though it no doubt exists, does not certainly take up so conspicuous a position.

The somewhat promiscuous way in which the signs are disposed in some of the spaces, notably on Fig. 23b, is strikingly suggestive of the Hittite

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monuments. When the impressions of the three or four sides of one of the Cretan stones are placed in a row one above the other, as on the analogy of the Babylonian cylinders they would have been in clay impressions, we obtain a columnar arrangement of symbols in relief which curiously recalls the sculptured stones of Hamath or the site of Carchemish. So far moreover as can be gathered from an examination of the Cretan stones, the same boustrophédon arrangement seems to have been here adopted as on most of the Hittite monuments.^19c

Yet we have not here, any more than in the Egyptian case, to do with the mere servile imitation of foreign symbols. The common elements that are shared with the Hittite characters are in some respects more striking, and there is greater general sympathy in form and arrangement. The coincidences, indeed, are at times of such a kind as to suggest a real affinity. But this relationship is at most of a collateral kind. Some Cretan types present a surprising analogy with the Asianic; on the other hand, many of the most usual of the Hittite symbols are conspicuous by their absence. The parallelism, as it seems to me, can best be explained by supposing that both systems had grown up in a more or less conterminous area out of still more primitive pictographie elements. The Cypriote parallels may be accounted for on the same hypothesis.

In the early picture-writing of a region geographically continuous there may well have been originally many common elements, such as we find among the American Indians at the present day; and when, later, on the banks of the Orontes and the highlands of Cappadocia on the one side, or on the Aegean shores on the other, a more formalized 'hieroglyphic' script began independently to develop itself out of these simpler elements, what more natural than that certain features common to both should survive in each? Later intercommunication may have also contributed to preserve this common element. But the symbolic script with which we have here to deal is essentially in situ. As will be demonstrated in the succeeding section the Cretan svstem of picture—writing is inseparable from the area dominated by the Mycenaean form of culture. Geographically speaking it belongs to Greece.

^19c. See p. 301.