Monday, February 28, 2011

Luvian (Luwian viz. Hieroglyphic Hittite) Syllabograms (also some Logograms) Added to Minoan Aegean Sign Concordance (MinAegCon)

I have now added 
the Luvian (also spelled Luwian, formerly called Hieroglyphic Hittite) syllabograms (plus a few logograms)
to the syllabic grid of the Minoan Aegean Sign Concordance (MinAegCon)
which I recently published in a series of postings for Mycenaean Greek Linear B Script, the Cypriot Syllabary, the Phaistos Disk, two Old Elamite Scripts, the Inscription on the Axe of Arkalochori, and comparable signs in Sumerian pictographs & Egyptian hieroglyphs.

The revised syllabic grid will be forthcoming in the coming days, although I will try to reduce the number of posts by making scans of entire consonants and their respective vowels per posting.

Luvian is a convincing additional piece of evidence for the general correctness of the MinAegCon syllabic grid.

For a nice Hieroglyphic Luvian inscription see e.g. Mnamon.

Below is an image from Crystal Links:






Hieroglyphic Luvian Stele from Carchemish
(Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)

Luvian is said to be an Indo-European language and the ease with which many of its syllabic signs can be included in the MinAegCon syllabic grid adds substantial linguistic power to the overall analysis which led to the creation of that grid in the first place, showing that all of these different syllabic sign systems had a common origin and that many of the signs in the various systems not only had common syllabic values to begin with, but also retained these or similar syllabic values in later evolvement, either in their original or related sign forms.

The symbols and values that I use for Luvian come from several sources and not all of them agree either in the depiction of the symbols nor in the syllabic values assigned, but there is general agreement for most signs.

By my analysis, current syllabic values for Luvian contain possibly more errors than those already acknowledged by the scholars for previous phases of Luvian scholarship, but it is not my intent here to discuss my theories about that. I can only suggest to scholars of Luvian and Hittite that they take a close look at the MinAegCon grid for assistance and especially to Sumerian signs and syllabic values for general guidance.

The sources for the Luvian glyphs and the values assigned to them (or other related information) are:

1) Gunter Anders, the LUHWITTA and LUHWITTB ttf fonts, Luwisch-Hethitische Hieroglyphen Fonts für Macintosh und Windows, together with a list of the fonts and accompanying text, all found at the website of Hethitologie Portal Mainz (The Hittite Portal Mainz). These are the fonts used for the most part to represent Luvian glyphs on the syllabic grid.

2) The syllabic grid for Hieroglyphic Hittite found at page 238 of Harald Haarmann, Universalgeschichte der Schrift, Campus Verlag, Frankfurt/New York, 2nd ed. 1991, Sonderausgabe 1998 Parkland Verlag, Köln (Cologne).

3) Luwian Hieroglyphics at http://indoeuro.bizland.com/project/script/luwia2.html, apparently from the Nostratic website at Nostratic.ru

4) Ancient Scripts : Luwian from ancientscripts.com, by Lawrence Lo

5) Generally, The Luwians, H. Craig Melchert (Paul Debreczeny Distinguished Professor of Linguistics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Brill, Leiden/Boston, 2003, and specifically, H. Craig Melchert, Cuneiform Luvian Lexicon, at LUVLEX.pdf, Lexica Anatolica, Volume 2, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1993.

6) John David Hawkins (author) and Halet Cambel (editor), Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions: Inscriptions of the Iron Age, Volume 1 (Untersuchungen zur Indogermanischen Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft), Berlin & New York, Walter de Gruyter, 1999.

7) Halet Cambel (Author), Corpus of Hieroglyphic Luwian Inscriptions: Karatepe-Aslantas, Volume 2 (Untersuchungen zur Indogermanischen Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft),  Berlin & New York, Walter de Gruyter, 1999.

8) Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI), UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA, Objects in the Collections of the Department of Antiquities, Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford, Oxford, England, UK.

Most Popular Posts of All Time

Sky Earth Native America


Sky Earth Native America 1:
American Indian Rock Art Petroglyphs Pictographs
Cave Paintings Earthworks & Mounds as Land Survey & Astronomy
,
Volume 1, Edition 2, 266 pages, by Andis Kaulins.

  • Sky Earth Native America 2:
    American Indian Rock Art Petroglyphs Pictographs
    Cave Paintings Earthworks & Mounds as Land Survey & Astronomy
    ,
    Volume 2, Edition 2, 262 pages, by Andis Kaulins.

  • Both volumes have the same cover except for the labels "Volume 1" viz. "Volume 2".
    The image on the cover was created using public domain space photos of Earth from NASA.

    -----

    Both book volumes contain the following basic book description:
    "Alice Cunningham Fletcher observed in her 1902 publication in the American Anthropologist
    that there is ample evidence that some ancient cultures in Native America, e.g. the Pawnee in Nebraska,
    geographically located their villages according to patterns seen in stars of the heavens.
    See Alice C. Fletcher, Star Cult Among the Pawnee--A Preliminary Report,
    American Anthropologist, 4, 730-736, 1902.
    Ralph N. Buckstaff wrote:
    "These Indians recognized the constellations as we do, also the important stars,
    drawing them according to their magnitude.
    The groups were placed with a great deal of thought and care and show long study.
    ... They were keen observers....
    The Pawnee Indians must have had a knowledge of astronomy comparable to that of the early white men."
    See Ralph N. Buckstaff, Stars and Constellations of a Pawnee Sky Map,
    American Anthropologist, Vol. 29, Nr. 2, April-June 1927, pp. 279-285, 1927.
    In our book, we take these observations one level further
    and show that megalithic sites and petroglyphic rock carving and pictographic rock art in Native America,
    together with mounds and earthworks, were made to represent territorial geographic landmarks
    placed according to the stars of the sky using the ready map of the starry sky
    in the hermetic tradition, "as above, so below".
    That mirror image of the heavens on terrestrial land is the "Sky Earth" of Native America,
    whose "rock stars" are the real stars of the heavens, "immortalized" by rock art petroglyphs, pictographs,
    cave paintings, earthworks and mounds of various kinds (stone, earth, shells) on our Earth.
    These landmarks were placed systematically in North America, Central America (Meso-America) and South America
    and can to a large degree be reconstructed as the Sky Earth of Native America."


    Our Blogs and Websites

    • 99 is not 100 • Aabecis • AK Photo Blog • Ancient Egypt Weblog • Ancient World Blog • AndisKaulins.com • Andis Kaulins Blog • Archaeology Travel Photos (Flickr) • Archaeology Websearch • Archaeo Pundit • Arts Pundit • Astrology and Birth • Baltic Coachman • Biotechnology Pundit • Book Pundit • Chronology of the Ancient World • Easter Island Script • Echolat • edu.edu • Einstein’s Voice • Etruscan Bronze Liver of Piacenza • EU Pundit • Gadget Pundit • Garden Pundit • Golf Pundit • Gourmet Pundit • Hand Proof • House Pundit • Human Migrations • Idea Pundit • Illyrian Language • Indus Valley Script • Infinity One : The Secret of the First Disk (the game) • Isandis (blogspot) • Journal Pundit • Kaulins Genealogy Blog • Kaulinsium • Latvian Blog • LawPundit.com • LawPundit (blog I) • Law Pundit (blog II) • LexiLine.com • Lexiline Journal • LexiLine (ProBoards) • Library Pundit • Lingwhizt • Literary Pundit • Magnifichess • Make it Music • Maps and Cartography • Megalithic World • Megaliths • Megaliths.net • Minoan Culture • Mutatis Mutandis • Nanotech Pundit • Nostratic Languages • Phaistos Disc • Pharaonic Hieroglyphs • Photo Blog of the World • Prehistoric Art Pundit • Private Wealth Blog • PunditMania • Quanticalian • Quick to Travel • Quill Pundit • Road Pundit • Sport Pundit • Star Pundit • • Stars Stones and Scholars (blog) • Stars Stones and Scholars (book) • Stonehenge Pundit • The Enchanted Glass • UbiquitousPundit • WatchPundit • Wine Pundit • Word Pundit •