Mr Caws:
>When do you think this Semitoid language arrived in Crete? Are you talking
>about old neotlithic times, or a new arrival from the
>levant in the third millenium BCE?
Well, I'm *assuming* that they arrived in Crete (bad? I know),
although it's not a necessity within my "Semitish Hypothesis",
as it were. If they arrived in Crete, it would have to have been
in the 7th millenium BCE. In effect, they would be the first to
arrive on the island. I'd imagine another linguistic wave by about
5500 BCE, that of Tyrrhenian. After this, it would be Anatolian, Mycenaean,
yadayada...
The Linear scripts would appear to derive from the symbols found
in the Vinca culture (Tartara tablets), demonstrating in itself
that there must have been some European influence on the island of
Crete and that it wasn't all from Asia Minor.
> The reason I ask is that in third millenium, tholos tombs started
>appearing in mass quantity on Crete. These tholos tombs are rather
>reminescent of Etruscan tombs, for instance.
But it's also possible that Tyrrhenians could have been
already present on the island and that the Cretan and surrounding
Mediterranean culture continued to evolve as new influences
shaped it.
> Soome say that the Tholos tombs derive from Syrian Halaf culture. I
>think there are problems with this, but it might make >sense if it were
>brought by EBA Levantine traders.
Sounds interesting, although I admit that I'm not solid on my archaeology.
I'm looking at this through a primarily linguistic
angle.
> However, my assumption is that the builders of the Tholos tombs
>brought Linear A. Some say it is a distant cousin of Luwian.
Linear A written in "a distant cousin of Luwian" sounds like a
strange theory. Is there anything to suggest a Luwian
interpretation of Linear A? Is there anything to suggest a
Tyrrhenian interpretation of Linear A?
>I don't think I was very clear where I was going with this. What I mean is
>that neolithic Semitish folk might have made the folded arm figurines, and
>then it died out as new cultures and ideas changed art/religious
>conventions.
Are you refering to the Goddess figurines with arms bent upwards?
There are supposed to be three kinds of these figurines, labeled
phi (bent arms out in shape of "phi"), tau (bent arms out like
"tau") and psi (bent arms, forearms up like "psi").
I think that the psi figurines are typologically related to the
later double-axe/horn icons and continue on to late times.
Perhaps the tau forms were meant particularly to symbolize death
and rebirth in connection with the sun's setting and rising?
Food for thought: Do those tau forms you seem to be refering to
really die out or do they evolve into something else? Old
traditions die hard, I always say.
- gLeN
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