Note 167 — Chapter IV · ETHNIC CHARACTERS.
Reading edition
The discovery by A. J. Evans of a special syllabic writing in the island of Crete leads one to conjecture, on the contrary, that it was from this unfortunate island that the first alphabet set out. This writing, more ancient than the Phœnician characters, is a direct derivative of pictography; it is found again at Cyprus and in Asia Minor at the epoch of the Ægean civilisation.—A. J. Evans, Rep. Brit. Ass., 1896, p. 914.