But several difficulties might be
pointed out which are in the way of an acceptance of this view, and it
is probable that the older identifications with Greek tribes must still
be retained, so that Meneptah's Akaivasha are evidently the ancient
representatives of the Achai(v)ans, the Achivi of the Roman poets. The
terminations _sha_ and _na_, which appear in these names, are merely
ethnic and locative affixes belonging to the Asianic language system
spoken by these tribes at that time, to which the language of the Minoan
Cretans (which is written in the Knossian hieroglyphs) belonged. They
existed in ancient Lycian in the forms _azzi_ and _nna_, and we find
them enshrined in the Asia Minor place-names terminating in _assos_
and _nda_, as Halikarnassos, Sagalassos (Shakalasha in Meneptah's
inscription), Oroanda, and Labraunda (which, as we have seen, is the
same as the [Greek word], a word of pre-Hellenic origin, both meaning
"Place of the Double Axe") The identification of these _sha_ and _nal_
terminations in the Egyptian transliterations of the foreign names, with
the Lycian affixes referred to, was made some five years ago,* and is
now generally accepted. We have, then, to find the equivalents of
these names, to strike off the final termination, as in the case of
Akaiva-sha, where Akaiva only is the real name, and this seems to be
the Egyptian equivalent of _Axaifol_, Achivi.
Pages:
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390