The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1910-12-25
An Archaeological Detective Tale.

An Archaeological Detective Tale.
Professor GEORGE HEMrL is II scholar
Of versatile talents and varied interests
His chief work is In expound Germanic
philosophy to college youth. for the
| present at the Stanford University. but
he is mainstay of the American Dialect
Society. he has made notable contribu-
tions 10 the study Of English literature
and to archaeology and has b,sied him
self with ancient writing. He tells
tale Of undeciphering pulling HERO
glyphics in the current number Of
Hdrper's Magazine that IL ~ exciting u
the solution Of the cipher in PoE's Gold
Bug" though the result is merely IL
identify race that lived 5000 years ago
! instead Of establishing the hiding place
Of lost treasure The manner in which
ne carried OIL: the investigation may be
studied with profit by writers Of detec-
tive and mystery stories: there are no
gaps left for the Imagination or for the
intuitions of Sherlock Holmes or an
Arsene Enpin in the successive STEPS
in unravelling the puzzle: it ia solved
by making the correct deductions from
minute traces.
The subject of Professor HEMPis
investigation was the picture Of clay
disk found in Crete and reproduced in
Mr.. A. j. EvANs's first volume of Cretan
inscriptions. The disk was discovered
two wears ago al Phestos by the Italian
DIR. PERNIER. and archRologists have
decided that il cannot be Of later date
than laOO h. e. IL is six and a half
inches in diameter and stamped on both
sides with curious characters unlike
any found in Crete. These wind around
in spiral from the edge ,o the middle.
something like IN. figures in the once
popular game of goose The char
acters had been impressed on the clay
while IL was soft by engraved stamps.
Professor HFMPi. took the picture with
him on his summer vacation. instead Of
a picture puzzle. intending to amuse
himself by making oft what i, meant.
He had no idea a. To what tao disk
was for. nor what language if any the
characters expressed unless IL was an
Jndo-Germanic language he could do
nothing with IL. Neither did any one
know whether the unknown characters
were to be read from left 10 RICH, or the
other way. or whether IN" inscription.
if il was one, began a, the edge or the
middle of the disk Tho characters
represent either actual pictures Of
things. such "a n warriors head. n
human tigTr". fish. a jar. and 80 on,
or signs tina stand for pictures. Pro-
fessor HEMr,. noticed n slight obliarIc
scratch under some characters. that
reminded him Of mark used IN Sanshr rat.
Nenefic and early Runic wpting where
II always stands under n final Conso-
nant, hero II il AT the left side II the
the writing ran from right 10 left. This
was confirmed on examining closely
the wsv the spiral runs. and with dc
teciive shrewdness Professor Hemp
noticed that when the characters wer.
not impressed sGuarelv they we're
pressed down "A li'tl. more on the loft
side. from which he dadu"rd .hn' the
operator used his left hand + b" had
used the right il would hav. covered
up what h" had already don"
Next he counted IN. di'fcrrnt char
acters the number was fort y-five. That
was too much for an alphabet and
seemed too little for pure hisroglvphs:
the inference was that they must rep
resent syllables. as in the inscriptions
from Cyprus. where there are letters for !
the vowels, but the consonant signs stand |
for the consonant and vowel That il |
TO say, there ar. separate characters for |
ina. be. hi. bo. bu. and so forth. In. IISe
Of IN" scratch or virana. which IL en- |
ploved 10 cancel an a. made Professor |
HEMP conclude that when the Same |
character appeared without the scratch |
under u must contain an u. and hc found !
eight such characters That gave him !
his first letter Then he employed ~.
numerical test. "a. POP dOes with l.
Cryptograph. Using Greek and Ilfi
for his standard Of the Frequency ~ a..
vowels. III" mad" 'he natural guess
thar ~ IN" disk cam" from Crete the /
language wa mast likely 20 be- Gre-k. !
and d"c lded :" try 10" text first on The /
assumption 'hnt II was Greek That.
fortunately, turned ont =, b" right. I
With infinite Iati"n"" h" won one better
after anoth'.r that -rorl ~" 'rIl- most on
icr'ainInglv IN his ar'i'l,. wi'Ii th. AM oi
ingenious pictures ~ The time h. had .
mad" on seventeen characters h" Ind
determined no; only that h. WAS dealing ,
with Grras bur that u WAS the IONIC |
Attic dialect Then III. idea occurred |
to hIm that the characters we're the first /
~ tables of the Greek names for the
pictures; that proved to be true for
those he had found, and by r&nsackIng