JOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES

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January-March 2011 JOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES Volume III., Issue 1. _____________________________________________________________________________________ The preconception of Minoan “l’art pour l’art” or “symbolic expression” is nothing more than reflecting of our cultural utilities back on the Minoans. For the Minoans, the images conveyed a meaningful and clear textual message encoded into the iconic code, with a very clever and always at hand, or should we say, at tongue, code-book: the rebus principle to decode it. Compare the above masterpieces with the primitive Australian Aboriginal cave painting from the Cape York Peninsula, Cooktown area. Willie Gordon explains the particulars on this cave painting as follows: “The Guurrbi man is like an estate manager, as he looks after a certain area, and the welfare of the people who enter that area. He has a big responsibility and is worthy of great respect. This man has markings within his body which show what he must use to do his job to the best of his ability. He has to use his mind for good reasoning, his heart for good decision making, and his gut for good instincts. There is another mark around his waist indicating that all good thought processes are made without carnal influences.” From the description it is clear that this “X-ray” painting is a coded message: carnal feelings and perceptions should not influence ones decisions, one should be brainy (colloq. intelligent person), hearty, and have guts (colloq. personal courage and determination; perseverance). With the code – name the viscera marked by the line – the textual message has been easily decoded in English, although a bit differently from the original in Guugu Yimithirr language. This is not an “art work”, not an “artistic depiction” of a man for aesthetic pleasure, nor a “symbolic expression” – no symbols are present, just lines indicating the locations of the viscera in question – this is a coded message about the qualities of a man, conveyed with picture-writing elements or pictorial writingelements. Writing has very deep roots and it is practically the same everywhere: a textual message coded with the names of the depicted objects. By sounding the elements of the picture-writing, one is conveying a textual message which is different from the visual impression of the whole picture. Isn’t that what we call reading? _____________________________________________________________________________________ © Copyright Mikes International 2001-2011 74
January-March 2011 JOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES Volume III., Issue 1. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Bibliography: Petty, Genevieve. The Construction of Religion: A Critique of “Dancing in the Dark” (http://poeme.memory-motel.net/academic/construction.pdf) Barthes, Roland. “Rhetoric of the Image.” (an excerpt) (http://tracesofthereal.co./2009/12/21/therhetoric-of-the-image-roland-barthes-1977/) Cain, C. D. “Dancing in the Dark.” American Journal of Archaeology 105, no. 1 (Jan. 2001), p. 27-49 Gordon, Wilfred. Guurrbi my special place, Guurrbi Tours, Cooktown (http://guurrbitours.blogspot.com/2010/05/guurrbi-and-guurrbi-man.html) The bibliography in C. D. Cain’s footnote: Matz, F. 1958 “Götterscheinung und kultbild im minoischen Kreta” AbhMainz 7. Wiesbaden Brandt, E. 1965. Gruss und Gebet: Eine Studie zu Gebärden in der minoisch-mykenischen und frügrischischen Kunst. Waldsassen: Stiftland Hägg, R. 1983 “Epiphany in Minoan Ritual” BICS 30 Warren, P. 1987 “The Ring of Minos” In ΕΛΙΛΑΠΙΝΗ Heraikleion _____________________________________________________________________________________ © Copyright Mikes International 2001-2011 75
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