The Origins of Writing, the Alphabet and the Syllable PO - LEXILINE JOURNAL 566

[In amended form later published as a book under the title Ancient Signs] 

This is the 14th posting in this series (later updated for Luvian), and presents the Syllable PO in the Syllabic Grid. Each syllable is presented in its own posting.

There is first a scan of a "syllabic" table excerpt from the original Microsoft Word manuscript -- the links there are not clickable because it is one image.

That image is followed by the original text -- the links there are clickable -- but you can not see the Aegean Fonts or images embedded in Microsoft Word, as these do not resolve in Blogger, so you will see "a ? ? filler".

The Syllable PO in the Minoan Aegean Sign Concordance (by Andis Kaulins)

Syllabic Value of the Sign (Symbol) (there was no universally established AEIOU vowel system yet in this era, and there were dipthongs, so that a strict AEIOU system here is a bit misleading)	Cypriot Syllabary signs from the BabelMap (Unicode Character Map for Windows)	Linear B (Ventris & followers) (standard Bennet numbers in parentheses) Aegean Font	Phaistos Disk (Kaulins) (first deciphered by him in the years 1978- 1980)	Axe of Arkalochori (Kaulins) (these same basic signs are also on the Phaistos Disk). This column also provides explanatory photo images for various Minoan symbols	Elamite Script (Kaulins) (same basic signs as the Phaistos Disk -  see also here)	Sumerian Pictographs and/or Egyptian Hieroglyphs and/or sign commentary on individual symbols
PO ποιέω “to make” This is a companion sign to Linear B TE τέκτων viz. τέχνη "craftsman, master of an art". The one identifies the craftsman maker  and the other the making.	Cypriot syllabary No comparable sign known to this author, but there may be one I do not know of.	Linear B ��(39) PO In Linear B scholarship this is PI in error and the axe is in error as PO.	Phaistos Disk No Comparable  sign.	No similar sign on Axe Comment: This sign in Linear B appears to be a creation limited to Crete and formed from the Linear B sign for TE	No Elamite sign yet.	No Sumerian comparable.

The Origins of Writing, the Alphabet and the Syllable PI - LexiLine Journal 565

[In amended form later published as a book under the title Ancient Signs]

This is the 13th posting in this series (later updated for Luvian), and presents the Syllable PI in the Syllabic Grid. Each syllable is presented in its own posting.

There is first a scan of a "syllabic" table excerpt from the original Microsoft Word manuscript -- the links there are not clickable because it is one image.

That image is followed by the original text -- the links there are clickable -- but you can not see the Aegean Fonts or images embedded in Microsoft Word, as these do not resolve in Blogger, so you will see "a ? ? filler".

The Syllable PI in the Minoan Aegean Sign Concordance (by Andis Kaulins)

PI (pé) Classical Greek πέλεκυς “pelekus”, a "double-sided" axe, later applied to all axes, also single/sided ones i.e. hemipelekus. Some... late neolithic, wanderwörter have been suggested, e.g. Sumerian balag, Akkadian pilakku- (spindle whorl), or PIE pelek'u- 'axe'. Sumerian balag means hour-glass shaped drum. The shape is the word root. (cont.)

Cypriot syllabary (reshuffle PE, PI, PO labels ?) 𐠡 PO (cont.) Pelekus will have the same root as pierogi (Latvian pīrags, “*bi-horned, *two horned”).

Linear B 𐀡(11) PI πέλεκυς an axe See the perplexed Oxford Introduction to proto-Indo- European on pelekus.

Phaistos Disk 𐇞 PI πέλεκυς an axe later as the symbol PHI

Axe of Arkalochori PELEKUS is the bottom word on the axe middle column. Found at icobase.com a Sumerian balag (hour- glass drum) right bottom

Elamite PI jar, cask πίθος Sumerian balag "drum" (Jaritz #649)

Sumerian PO (Jaritz #893) Thumb of hour-glass pithos image at Mathilda’s  Anthro- pology Blog

The Origins of Writing, the Alphabet and the Syllable PE - LexiLine Journal 564

[In amended form later published as a book under the title Ancient Signs]


This is the 12th posting in this series (later updated for Luvian), and presents the Syllable PE in the Syllabic Grid. Each syllable is presented in its own posting.

There is first a scan of a "syllabic" table excerpt from the original Microsoft Word manuscript -- the links there are not clickable because it is one image.

That image is followed by the original text -- the links there are clickable -- but you can not see the Aegean Fonts or images embedded in Microsoft Word, as these do not resolve in Blogger, so you will see "a ? ? filler".

The Syllable PE in the Minoan Aegean Sign Concordance (by Andis Kaulins)

PE πῦρ (pyr). The hypothetical proto- Indo-European root is *peh₂ur "fire". The Phaistos Disk sign could be an ancient torch while the other signs are braziers. An Ancient Greek casserole and brazier. Image from Wikipedia, Ancient Agora Museum in Athens, Photo by Giovanni Dall'Orto, November, 2009.

Cypriot syllabary �� PI Casserole in a Brazier, see image at left. An old Indo European root. FIRE, PYRE, e.g Latvian UPUR "offering" (and KUR "stoke a fire, burn" hence Egyptian hieroglyph KH.)

Linear B ��(72) PE An ancient brazier, cooking utensil, or hearth of some kind. Greek πῦρ "fire"

Phaistos Disk �� PE Perhaps a torch. Greek πῦρ "fire" Hittite ������ (paḫḫur) Old English fȳr (“fire”) Some think it is an ox foot. πεζός

No similar sign on the Axe of Arkalochori Photo of an ancient 4- legged brazier found online at http://www.tcnj.edu/ ~anchouse/kitchen.html

Elamite PE 4-legged brazier Egyptian KH καίω brazier 4-legs and flame

Sumerian PIR heat, (clearly a brazier) (Jaritz #684) BAR4 oil vessel on a brazier (Jaritz #453)

The Origins of Writing, the Alphabet and the Syllable PA - LEXILINE JOURNAL 563

This is the 11th posting in this series [updated for Luvian in a later posting, and in further amended form subsequently published as a book under the title Ancient Signs]. It begins the syllabic grid with the Syllable PA. Each syllable will be presented in its own posting.

First there is a scan of the page, followed by the text with clickable links, a format necessitated by Blogger not resolving online the Aegean Font and Microsoft Word images.

TABLE I

TABLE OF CYPRIOT SYLLABARY, MINOAN LINEAR B, PHAISTOS DISK, AXE OF ARKALOCHORI, OLD ELAMITE and SUMERIAN SIGN CONCORDANCE
A Table of the Sign Concordance of: 1) The Cypriot Syllabary, 2) Linear B -- Michael Ventris and John Chadwick, 3) the Phaistos Disk -- Andis Kaulins, 4) the Axe of Arkalochori -- Andis Kaulins, 5) Old Elamite Script -- Andis Kaulins, 6) Sumerian Pictographs and Egyptian Hieroglyphs

Syllabic Value of the Sign (Symbol) (there was no universally established AEIOU vowel system yet in this era, and there were dipthongs, so that a strict AEIOU system here is a bit misleading)	Cypriot Syllabary signs from the BabelMap (Unicode Character Map for Windows)	Linear B (Ventris & followers) (standard Bennet numbers in parentheses) Aegean Font	Phaistos Disk (Kaulins) (first deciphered by him in the years 1978- 1980)	Axe of Arkalochori (Kaulins) (these same basic signs are also on the Phaistos Disk). This column also provides explanatory photo images for various Minoan symbols	Elamite Script (Kaulins) (same basic signs as the Phaistos Disk -  see also here)	Sumerian Pictographs and/or Egyptian Hieroglyphs and/or sign commentary on individual symbols
PA (and BA ?) In Linear B, sign B03 has been assigned a value of PA and sign B16 was originally assigned a value of PA2, correctly BA, but later changed in error to QA. The first word on the Axe of Arkalochori is βασιλεύς, thus negating in Linear B the transcription qa si-re-u which is correctly ba-si-leu-s. In Linear B signs, the meaning is often not the vertical line but usually the other sign elements. In B16 it is an abstract head with ears placed at the top of the vertical.	Cypriot syllabary: 𐠞 PA Cypriot syllabary: 𐠢 PU "scraping tool" scraper above line as earth viz. the ground	Linear B 𐀞(03) PA 𐀣(16) Sign B16 once read as PA2, now read in error as QA. Correct is BA	Phaistos Disk 𐇑 PA Some think this to be the Peleset,[1] people of Keftiu, Crete. More likely is "warrior" πολεμιστής πολεμίζω Thracian "peltast" πελταστής later Greek ὁπ[o]λίτης hoplitēs	The Axe of Arkalochori. (2 drawing variants) 󿼉or󿼃 PA Warrior image found at William H. Stiebing, Jr., Invasions of the Sea Peoples, Bibl. Arch. Review The warrior image suggests a warrior sign	Old Elamite PA The abstracted sign in Old Elamite shows the head and neck in profile view.	Sumerian PAR2 BAR "sharp tool, pick, head?" (Jaritz #118) PA2 BA "division, scraping tool" (Jaritz #005)

---

[1] The Peleset are listed in the hieroglyphs of Egypt among the so-called Sea Peoples. These hieroglyphs are reproduced below from the Wikipedia. The erroneous mainstream scholarship reading of those Egyptian hieroglyphs is n3 ḫ3t.w n p3 ym (try pronouncing that artificial notation !), allegedly meaning "Sea Peoples" or "People of Foreign Lands". The hieroglyphs are followed by a list of ethnic names. My reading of those same hieroglyphs shows the corrected reading to result in terms strikingly similar to Greek. Ponder what the following hieroglyphic readings tell us about Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs in terms of Ancient Greek connections generally.

n3 ḫ3t.w n p3 ym

An- thro- po- n- y- my     hydro (or) naiya    peir-aikos (peir-as)

ἀνθρω [ἀνθρώπων]...ἐπωνυμιa... (Ναιά, νᾶμα, ὕδωρ)...πειραικός (πεῖρας)

= Names of peoples of the border countries beyond the limit (mouth) of the Nile.

Note: The Nile: in Ancient Egyptian iteru or Ḥ'pī [Latvian upe "river], Coptic piaro (Sahidic) or phiaro (Bohairic).

The Egyptian hieroglyph for the Mediterranean is  (in my reading ἀέξω (αὔξω) εὐρεῖα naiya peiras viz. ἀέξω εὐρεῖα nama/hydro peiras meaning "great wide river limit" viz. "mouth of the Nile") and for the Nile is [ (hydro) which is the same as Greek ὕδωρ "udro-, hydro, water" viz. νᾶμα "nama" or naiya (Ναιάς). Nama in Greek means anything flowing, running water, stream, spring, and could have the same N-root as Greek Νεῖλος for "Nile" as in ὕδος τὸ Νείλου, to which compare Arabic: النيل‎, an-nīl. The N- root is retained in English in naval, nautical and nymph (Ναιάς), Finnish nevo "sea", Swedish ny "new river", and Russian Neva.

One can see clearly from the "Sea Peoples" hieroglyph that the term anthro- derived from *ana-terra, in Greek *ana- *xer- i.e. χέρσος.