Of Dr. Month Tsikritsi
Aegean Scriptures Researcher
The reason for this article is my recent discovery that in the archive of inscriptions of Knossos, the name (Kotis) of a shepherd (see Fig. 5), which is identical to that which appears on a Minoan inscription engraved on a rock in the Kongsberg region of Norway. The subject of the transcription and interpretation of the inscription was presented at a conference in Androgeo, Heraklion Municipality and in the media in May 2014.
This inscription was found by the Norwegian Johan Jarnes and was engraved with
pointed stone at the entrance to a silver mining pit (Fig. 1) in Kongsberg. To the right of the inscription is a Minoan ship carved and twelve circular pits, which have a diameter of 4 to 8 centimeters. Also near the inscription, an image of a tied sack or bag was found carved on the rock.
In 1999 Jarnæs published a book (Jarnæs, J. 1999: Før Kongsberg ble til. Kronos media, Kongsberg), which he sent me in 2014. In this book he tells the story of the
silver mines and the city from antiquity to 1623 and from 1623 to 1957, where modern mining of pure silver began. The photographic material presented in this article has been drawn from this book and from articles on the internet.
The questions that arise are, did the Minoans travel to the Kongsberg area to mine silver, which was then twice as valuable as gold, 3500 years ago? If so, how did they know about it? Mattias Jakobsson1 from Uppsala University, reports that research conducted on the DNA of skeletal remains of people from 3000-2700 BC in a region of Sweden indicates that some people had eaten wheat and came from the Mediterranean, unlike the natives who were food gatherers in Sweden.
Finally, does the knowledge of mines and minerals in Scandinavia begin from the era of the Aegean Civilization? In the Cycladic Tiganoschima of the 3rd millennium BC, sea-going ships with 21-5 oars on each side appear. Did the Aegeans of the 3rd millennium BC have the ability to travel? And did the Minoans of the 2nd millennium BC follow in their footsteps and manage to travel to Hyperborea and the Kronian Sea (Baltic)? This may explain the existence of the inscription in Minoan Linear A in Norway 60 km west of Oslo in Kongsberg.
Linear A script
The symbols that Jarnæs found on the rock in 1987 were not interpretable, but in 1994 Kjell Aarthun, a Norwegian theologian and linguist, an expert in Semitic languages, especially Hungarian, went to Kongsberg. When Aarthun saw the symbols, he claimed that the inscription on the rock was clearly Linear A, the ancient script of Minoan Crete. He transcribed the inscription into syllables and found the following two words:: we-tu yu-pi-ti, which in Semitic means "This makes it a perfect choice for people with diabetes and for those who want to lose weight or follow a balanced diet. soft pure"That is, it means that Silver is soft and clean, indicating something related to the silver of the region. The problem with this interpretation is that it did not take into account the other symbols to the right of the inscription, the Minoan ship (Fig. 2a, 3) and the sack (Fig. 4).
In Fig.2 we observe the 5 symbols and at the bottom the transcription of Ortun with the syllabic values he gave. While in the 1st and 2nd and 5th symbol he gave the correct values of the symbols which are the same as
Linear B, in the 3rd and 4th he arbitrarily gives the values yu and pi because he believed that the Minoan civilization has a Semitic origin and that this script was Semitic.
However, if the values of the 3rd and 4th symbols are replaced with the correct values of Linear B, see transcription by M. Tsikritsis in Fig. 2a, that is, with the na and ko then the text appears we-tu-na ko-ti which is rendered as Fentyna Kotis or Endhair2 Kotis
which means that: Endynas > built (engrave)>Decorate Kotis3 and possibly refers to the ship to the right of the text and the bag. The ship as we observe in (Fig. 3) and which is depicted in Fig. 3a resembles corresponding Minoan ships (Fig. 3b and c) as they appear on Minoan seal stones.
Another find depicted on the rock at a short distance from the inscription and the ship is a sack or bag (Fig. 4) tied to the upper rim and in its cavity 3 wavy lines are observed indicating that its contents are liquid, possibly water or wine. The element that confirms that the contents are wine is the Minoan syllabogram in the shape of a V that is observed at the top of the bag. This symbol appears above/next to/inside the 3 Linear A wine symbols, which appear in Fig. 4a. In these wine symbols the Minoan syllabogram in the shape of a V also appears. V ή Υ sometimes at the top of them and sometimes in them. This syllabogram has a phonetic value sa and probably determined the type of wine.
About the name KotiAs for the Minoan who left his mark, on the Kongsberg inscription in Norway, Hesychius's dictionary states that this name was probably a description of a person indicating a nervous, irritable or chatty person. Interestingly, this name Kotis we find it 200 years later in an inscription from Knossos (Fig. 5) which mentions Voskos Koti to graze in the area kutato 80 castrated lambs and 20 ewes.
The coincidences observed in the Linear A inscription, the Minoan ship and the identifying symbol of wine on the rock bag are additional elements, leading to a possible interpretation that a Minoan named Kotis signed his creation, which for a Bronze Age sailor would have been a ship, the wineskin and perhaps the twelve cavities would have been useful as receptacles for wine libations for a good return voyage with the silver they would have collected.
References
1 Mattias Jakobsson, Stone Age farmers in Sweden came from Mediterranean(with additional information in Nature Communications. in 2014) of University Uppsala, Science This makes it a perfect choice for people with diabetes and for those who want to lose weight or follow a balanced diet. 2012
2 Hesychius Dictionary: prepares; prepares; hurries / to fabricate; to construct / *dress; prepare, be ready (I 203) /*dressed; dressed (O 124) AS /Endynas; you will construct
3 Hesychius Dictionary: [kotis] kotos; *anger, enemies ASn, hatred, obstinate hatred, and the wrathful anger
photos – source
Nea Kriti.gr, https://www.neakriti.gr/apopseis/2156965_ena-minoiko-minyma-haraxe-se-braho-sti-norbigia-o-kotis-diakosmise
