Other Hobbies

[Errata]

OH MY......how can I get a Cthuperman!!!

Steadmund Brand

Well, if you know someone who crochets, it's pretty easy to get one. I'll send you the pattern URL and a supply list.

If you don't, you can go on a long list.

At the moment I am wrestling with an Avengers themed set for a soon to be new nephew, and CThor is a bloody nightmare. I might fail on this one. It happens. Like my Cthewart plaid one. Tears were shed.

[Wickerman]

Haven't read Wunderlich, but the last books involving the Minoans (among other ancient Greek and Roman civilizations) were by M. I. Finley. He was quite interesting.

Love those Penguin volumes on the ancients.

Jeff

We might not recognise Minoans even if we come across them in texts. The name came from Arthur Evans so it is a misleading modern term. What the inhabitants of Crete were called is not known, or perhaps I should say not agreed upon.

To that point, I think the only written texts that has survived which refer to the 'Minoans' are the hieroglyphics on the statue bases of Amenhotep III, at Kom el-Hetan.
Here we read names phonetically similar to Mycenae, Knossos, and Amnisos, etc. Apparently demonstrating Egyptian knowledge of those far off cities in the 14th century BCE.
The superscript along the top of the bases associated with these city glyphs identify them as "...all the countries of the Fenkhu" (earliest name known for the Phoenicians?).

Ironically, the Phoenicians are seen today as Aegeanized Canaanites and the 'Minoans' seem to be missing from the ancient literature.

[Pcdunn]

Did the Phoenicans really invent the alphabet? (Inquiring minds want to know!)

[Wickerman]

Did the Phoenicans really invent the alphabet? (Inquiring minds want to know!)

Well, it all depends on which alphabet you mean.

The Phoenicians are given the credit because they developed a script taken from Proto-Canaanite, and spread it around the Mediterranean.
Then the Greeks developed the Phoenician script into what came down to us today.
So to answer the question of who "invented" the alphabet is dependent on what alphabet is meant, and at what stage of development we accept as the point of "invention".

The writing system seems to have been invented in Egypt, and developed into a Proto-Siniatic script in the 2nd millennium. Out of this came the Proto-Canaanite script, then the Phoenician script, then from that the Greek, so the modern alphabet was developed through long stages of adaptation.

[Pcdunn]

Thanks, Jon. Very interesting.

[JadenCollins]

Yes, as long as it doesn't get out of hand.

c.d.

Pun intended

[Mayerling]

We might not recognise Minoans even if we come across them in texts. The name came from Arthur Evans so it is a misleading modern term. What the inhabitants of Crete were called is not known, or perhaps I should say not agreed upon.

To that point, I think the only written texts that has survived which refer to the 'Minoans' are the hieroglyphics on the statue bases of Amenhotep III, at Kom el-Hetan.
Here we read names phonetically similar to Mycenae, Knossos, and Amnisos, etc. Apparently demonstrating Egyptian knowledge of those far off cities in the 14th century BCE.
The superscript along the top of the bases associated with these city glyphs identify them as "...all the countries of the Fenkhu" (earliest name known for the Phoenicians?).


Hi Jon,

Ironically, the Phoenicians are seen today as Aegeanized Canaanites and the 'Minoans' seem to be missing from the ancient literature.

I always "liked" that Evans (who was independently wealthy) after finding the ruins on Crete "improved on them" to the point you might call it "Crete-world" Amusement Park. I don't think any other important figure in archeology (even Schlieman) quite did that.

Well at least he got the area started for further digging. Better digging too.

Jeff