Pelasgian-Cretan-Philistines

��<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META content="text/html; charset=unicode" http-equiv=Content-Type> <META content="MSHTML 5.00.2014.210" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV>Hello,</DIV> <DIV>it seems we need some more archaeological facts to discuss this subject!</DIV> <DIV>Let me give you some material:</DIV> <DIV> Proto-Canaanite, also known as Proto-Sinaitic, was the first consonantal alphabet. Even a quick and cursory glance at its inventory of signs makes it very apparent of this script's Egyptian origin. It is thought that at round 1700 BC, Sinai was conquered by Egypt (for its turquoise mines and trade routes). Egyptian influence must have poured into the local West-Semitic speaking population, who, among other things, adopted a small number of hieroglyphic signs (probably no more than 22) to write down their language. from: <A href="http://alumni.eecs.berkeley.edu/~lorentz/Ancient_Scripts">http://alumni.eecs.berkeley.edu/~lorentz/Ancient_Scripts</A> where you'll find more( information, scipts, figures) Now as for other languages in this region, think about the following: the oldest inscriptions in ancient Greek(alphabetic) are from the 8th century, as far as I know. Before that were the Linear B writings in Mycenean Greek that stopped around the middle of the 13th century all over (Greek mainland, Crete, wherever). Until recently scholars believed that Lin.B had developed in Crete from the writing system of the Minoans, Lin.A (writing system not yet deciphered, but probably phonetically roughly similar with Lin. B, language unknown - best chances it is somehow related with later Luwian and - closer - with even later Lycian). Some years now it looks as though Lin. B may have developed - still on the basis of Lin. A, may be even by Minoan scribes - not in Crete but in the 'Eastern Aegean': one Lin. B (!) inscription dating back to the Middle Helladic period (17th cent., Kafkania, Northern Peloponnese), together with some findings of inscriptions in the Levant (Tel Haror, Tel Lachish) first thought to be Lin. A (because of their age) with closer inspection may turn out to be an 'extra-Cretan' form of Lin. B, possibly used for 'General Understanding' in the eastern Aegean (?). There may have been something like a 'Cretan Koine', too, but that wouldn't explain the differences in spelling (all these 'non-Cretan' and 'non-Mycenaean' inscriptions consist unfortunately only of a few signs...) But: There are other Lin. A inscriptions outside Crete (few), one of them in Miletus, dating to LM I B, made of local clay - that means: not imported from Crete. So in the Cretan dominated Miletus (talking about architecture and pottery) of the 14th cent. someone also spoke (or at least wrote) the Cretan language. The Lachish inscription goes back to the time of LM III B (Ramses III reigned at that time in Egypt, ring a bell?). There was only LM III C and the Minoans vanished, leaving some desperate sites far up on mountain peaks with very basic pottery and figurines and no writing any more. Next we know there are early Archaic Cretan bilinguals (from Dreros, an originally Doric city state), originally supposed to be Greek and 'Eteocretan' (a language supposed to be Phoenician by Herodotus) that turned out to be Greek and some kind of late West-Semitic. Strange, they reminded me of modern Cretan street signs Greek/English! (meaning: cave, a second language doesn't necessarily mean a second people inhabiting the region!) So to me it seems the Cretans may have influenced Canaan artistically, may be even mythically (lots of parallels between Minoan and early Judaic motives, as far as I can see), but the more powerful language in the Eastern Aegean, may be even from the beginning of the Iron Age, seems to have been Semitic (cf. also the early Semitic language of Ugarit before). So if the Cretans were among the sea peoples, they were not on the winning side!(same for the Mycenaeans who vanished from Greek maps about that time and left the country without writing for centuries... This is about as much as I can say to the subject. For more information on the above mentioned, see: M. Finkelberg: Bronze Age Writing, Contacts between East and West, in: Aegeum 18/1998 (The Aegean and the Orient in the Second Millenium). Best wishes from Crete, where everybody speaks Cretan (a kind of Greek :-)) at the moment.. Sabine. . </DIV></BODY></HTML>