Sir Arthur Evans and the discovery of Minoan script

The palace of Knossos in Crete was excavated by British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans in 1900. The excavation also ‘discovered a large number of clay tablets inscribed with mysterious symbols’ (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/linearb.htm) and Evans ‘dubbed the inscriptions and the language they represented as “Minoan”’ (ibid) because he believed that ‘he had discovered the palace of King Minos, together with the Minotaur’s labyrinth’ (ibid), told in the Greek mythology.

Sir Arthur Evans was born in 1851, in Nash Mills, England. He was ‘the son of the famous prehistorian Sir John Evans’ (http://sirarthurevans.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/biography/), and was ‘educated at Harrow School, Brasenose College, the University of Oxford’ (http://archpropplan.auckland.ac.nz/virtualtour/knossos/22more.htm) in between 1870 and 1874. He ‘travelled across Europe for many years’ (http://sirarthurevans.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/biography/) before he was ‘appointed Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum’ (ibid) in 1884. His work in the Museum did not prevent him from further travelling and ‘from 1893 onwards his interests shifted to Greece and especially Crete’ (ibid). This shift seems to be triggered by his interest in languages as well for ‘Evans visited Crete for the first time in 1894 in order to study and decipher the unknown script that could be made out on seal stones, he also purchased about quarter of the site. A year later he published the results in Cretan Pictographs and Pre-Phoenician Script (http://archpropplan.auckland.ac.nz/virtualtour/knossos/22more.htm).

The Palace of Knossos

Political situation also backed up his further researches and enabled him to conduct a massive excavation at Knossos ‘when the island had been declared an independent State’ (ibid) in 1900. The excavation at the site continued until 1931. As for the excavation, it is said that ‘it proved necessary to preserve and restore the monuments that were being uncovered’ (ibid) from the early stage, but the method of restoration Evans took ‘has received much criticism since it introduced materials foreign to Minoan architecture’ (ibid). As for deciphering of the discovered inscriptions, Evans made a certain achievement in his life time:

‘He realised that the inscriptions represented three different writing systems: a "hieroglyphic" script, Linear A and Linear B.
The hieroglphic script appears only on seal stones and has yet to be deciphered. Linear A, also undeciphered, is thought to have evolved from the hieroglyphic script, and Linear B probably evolved from Linear A, though the relationship between the two scripts is unclear.
Evans figured out that short lines in Linear B texts were word dividers. He also deciphered the counting system and a number of pictograms, which led him to believe that the script was mainly pictographic' (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/linearb.htm).

For reading the text in full:  http://wrex2009.wordpress.com/2013/08/26/discovery-and-deciphiering-of-the-crete-inscriptions-liner-b/

Baruch Spinoza's excommunication from the Jewish community

Baruch Spinoza's inclination for free thoughts represented by Descartes and his conflicts against Jewish orthodox community cast a shadow upon his relationship with his own family, especially when his father died in 1654. It is said that he was brought to a legal battle against his sister Rebekah, who tried to ‘block his inheritance’ (http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/spinoza.html), and although he could win the court case, he must have acknowledged the situation where he was ‘almost completely cast off by his family’ (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14217a.html). Due to avoid further troubles within the Jewish community, he decided to ‘leave and move in with Franz Van den Enden’ (http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/spinoza.html), who could offer a teaching post in in his own school. During this teaching period, it is said that Spinoza ‘perfected himself in Latin and continued his philosophical investigations by the study of St. Augustine, the Stoics, Scholasticism… , the philosophy of the Renaissance and that of some modern writers, especially of Hobbes’ (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14217a.html).

 

Ironically, however Spinoza deeply engaged into cultivating from modern philosophical fashions and social thoughts, the community he was surrounded retained its conservative nature, at the least, or presumably even tightened. It is reported that ‘many problems concerning unbelief arose within and around the Portuguese Jewish community of Amsterdam’ (http://books.google.com/books?id=TWCOLdhcwEIC&pg=PA425&lpg=PA425&dq=27+July+1656+spinoza+excommunicated&source=bl&ots=vv2sa-bSqF&sig=sdz0DFvo8-qm8IjxZGLNmIAx5iA&hl=en&ei=J2LfTpSlN-7DmQXapqHwBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CFcQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=27%20July%201656%20spinoza%20excommunicated&f=false, p. 425) in around 1655 and it did not take long before these problems took a form of visible and physical action.

On 27 July 1656, the rabbis of the Jewish community in Amsterdam issued the proclamation of the excommunication against Baruch Spinoza. According to the web source above, the proclamation was issued because of ‘the “abominable heresies he practiced and taught”. These heresies were presumably the following: (1) denial of the immortality of the soul, (2) denial of the divinity of the Law, and (3) the view that the God exists only philosophically’ (ibid). Practically, the proclamation prohibited Spinoza to make any kind of communication with other members of the community (http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/spinoza_curse.html) and soon afterward, it extended to expel him from living in Amsterdam.

Baruch Spinoza

 

For reading the text in full: http://wrex2009.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/the-excommunication-of-benedict-baruch-spinoza/

Benedict (Baruch) de Spinoza, his Jewish background

Benedict de Spinoza is one of the most influential philosophers in the history of Western thoughts and is recognised as one of the pioneers the Existentialism. He was born to a Jewish family exiled from Portugal to Amsterdam, Holland in his parents’ generation (http://wrex2009.wordpress.com/2010/03/17/maranos-ancestors-of-spinoza-the-philosopher/).

 

When he was born to a family of Jewish merchants in Amsterdam on 24 November 1632, he was ‘originally called Baruch, a name that he later translated into its Latin equivalent Benedict’ (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14217a.htm ). His father, Michael de Spinoza, was ‘a prosperous merchant and Warden of both the synagogue and the Amsterdam Jewish school’ (http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/spinoza.html) and his mother, Hana Debora, was Michael’s second wife. It is also known that his father Michael married a third wife called Hester de Espinosa in 1641, when Baruch was about eight years old.

In his early years, Baruch studied at the Amsterdam Jewish school, where he showed ‘rapid progress in Hebrew and the study of the Talmud, and his teachers, especially Rabbi Saul Levi Morteira, had the greatest hopes of his future’ (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14217a.htm), in accordance with his father’s wish, to make him a Rabbi.

 Rabbi Saul Levi Morteira

It is uncertain how and when young Baruch began to divert from his firmly established reputation as a hopeful for becoming a Rabbi and accounts from biographers describing the period from 1651 to 1654 occasionally do not match coherently. By ignoring some subtle differences in these descriptions, important things that occurred in Spinoza’s life can be summed up in the following three; (1) by 1651, he could hardly get on with the Jewish community and ‘he was looked upon with suspicion by orthodox Jews’ (ibid), (2) he came across with the philosophy of Rene Descartes, and (3) he has acquainted with a private school manager called Franz van den Enden, who was also known as ‘ex-Jesuit and freethinker’ (ibid).
 

 

For reading the text in full: http://wrex2009.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/the-excommunication-of-benedict-baruch-spinoza/