Labyrinths

Hello,

this is for Rex and all those interested in the subject. I believe everybody
seriously researching into historical linguistics in the field of early
developments and migration-theories ought to have a look at the time-range
and spread of labyrinths as artifacts and as linguistic reality.

There is a wonderful book on the art-historical subject by Hermann Kern,
Labyrinthe, München 1982 (sorry folks for those who don't understand
German - and it's written in beautiful but not easy German, too... but look
at the figures, if you can!) Most of the following information is from this
book (for convenience and laziness on my part I'm going to give no exact
ref.'s, I'll have to translate anyway.)

A very interesting article in the IE (and possibly Anatolian, which I would
like to translate here as Pelasgian, which I believe early Cretan must have
been, too) origins of the word is by M. Guidi, Greco LABURINTHOS : Note di
Linguistica Mediterranea. In: Minos XV-XVI, 1990/91 (in Italian).

Now to the labyrinths.
The Etruscan vase: It has been found in 1877 in an Etruscan grave near
ancient Caere, dated to around 620 bc. made of local (Etruscan) clay after
Protokorinthian (don't ask me what that is exactly, I've no idea :-))
prototypes (?? who knows if there were older, Etruscan stories, too to go
with it) and bears also a little more Etruscan text (owner, maker). So there
can be no doubt (archaeologically) of its actual Etruscan origin. OK, Rex??

Next: Age and origin of the Labyrinth

most known depictions of labyrinths strictu sensu (cave, a maze is not
necessarily a labyrinth, this connection was made only later!) are from the
Mediterranean (Spain, islands, around the 10th century), but there have also
been examples from as far as England, Ireland and in the Caucasus
(Mach^cesk, northern Ossetia - is that the English word for the region?-
dated to the end of the second millenium BC. and interpreted as proof for
trading connections to the Mediterranean).
The oldest written proof is from Knossos (Kn Gg 702, Kn X 140, mentioning
gifts of honey to the 'Potnia of labyrinth'), where Mycenologists interpret
the signs 'da-pu-ri-to' as early form of 'labyrinth' (for the cognates and
linguistic development cf. the article by Guidi). Important parts of the
meaning - after Guidi and not going into linguistic detail here - lead to a
general meaning of 'hewn by human or natural cave (winding)' in connection
with ritual purposes, so we might well one time have to go down into Middle
Minoan and earlier layers for the cave-beginnings of the cult (although it
seems purely natural caves are excluded, there has to be the element of
'building', cf. the Cretan myth attributing the construction of the
labyrinth to Daidalos).

The oldest known depictions of a labyrinth (Cretan-style, as on later
Knossian coins) are one on the back side of a Linear B tablet from Pylos
dated around the 12th cent. As the front side is an administrative list
concerning the giving or taking of goats by several men (here you see the
female goats -albeit probably tame, not wild - again, Christos!) the
labyrinth on the back is understood to be an old case of 'doodling' without
deeper meaning but still proving the design must have been well known at
that time.
And there is also an amazing sherd from Tell Rifa'at, Syria, found in a
layer right below the destruction-layer of sea-peoples' times in 1200 BC.
(sorry, unfortunately the ref. doesn't mention the possible origin of the
sherd as local or imported, which would certainly be interesting to know
(it's in Damaskus, National Museum, Inv. no. of the excavation - 1960 by V.
Seton Williams - P 343/B1 (4)/L.III - could you find out more about that,
John??).

Kern sees the possible origin of the labyrinth as Bronze Age pattern only
for Crete (3rd to 2nd millenium), proving the wide-spread influence of
Cretan trade. He believes the original feature may have been the figure of
an initiation-dance, possibly in connection with cranes - there are the
waterfowl - symbolizing Theseus' mastering of the difficult way to ritual
understanding and Ariadne's role in helping him (Christos: this might be the
design for the 'one to be sacrificed': roughly a circle inscribed by other
lines to be traced by inscribing a double axe first!)

As for the Etruscan context there are some more mentioned in classical
literature that might be interesting even though the actual building doesn't
seem to have existed (Plinius Book 36). Very interesting: near that ref.
Plinius also mentions a (as building non-existent, as far a we know until
now) Lemnian labyrinth !!

So are we to look in Minoan Crete for Pelasgian origins, after all (Lykos,
what do you say)??

Best wishes from the Pelasgian 'Urheimat' ;-)))

Sabine