Heraklion Archaeological Museum - CollectiveAccess System : Seals : Bone polyhedral seal with incised signs of "Archanes Script" [Σ-Κ2260]

Writing in Ancient Crete ➔ Bone polyhedral seal with incised signs of "Archanes Script"

Σ-Κ2260

Bone

Intact

Height: 5 cm.

Phourni

Phourni, Funerary Building 6

Middle Bronze Age. Late Prepalatial period, Middle Minoan ΙA period.:

2000 - 1900 BC:

Gallery:

III

Case:

Exhibition thematic unit:

Middle Bronze Age - Protopalatial period (1900-1700 BC). The First Palaces. The emergence of palatial societies

Writing and administration

Description

Unique bone polyhedral seal, a funerary offering from Burial Building 6 at Archanes Phourni. This is an impressive example of “Archanes Script", a writing system with pictorial elements found on seals and sealings of the Late Prepalatial and Protopalatial periods. The uniqueness of this seal lies in the fact that it has 14 sealing surfaces, two of them bearing incised signs of the Archanes Script . These signs are also found in the Minoan scripts developed in the following period, Cretan Hieroglyphic and Linear A. One of the signs is the double axe, a diachronic symbol of the Minoan civilisation with strong ideological connotations. The other sealing surfaces depict pictorial themes such as a human figure holding a basket, a leg, or various animals, which may also have been writing signs or semasiographic codes. The“Archanes Script" was first identified on seals from the cemetery of Archanes Phourni, but it has also been found in other parts of the island. The survival of Archanes Script signs in Cretan Hieroglyphic and Linear A is the strongest evidence in support of the view that the two main Minoan scripts of the Protopalatial period arose from a common ancestral writing system.

Bibliography:

Platon, N. Corpus der Minoischen und Mykenischen Siegel. Band II.1. Iraklion Arch?ologisches Museum. Die Siegel der Vorpalastzeit. Berlin, 1969, no. 391. Decorte, R.P.-J.E. “The first “European” writing: redefining the Archanes Script”. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 37.4 (2018): 341-372. Flouda, G. "Η επινόηση της γραφής και της σφράγισης". In S. Mandalaki and G. Rethemiotakis, Μινωικός κόσμος. Ταξίδι στις απαρχές της Ευρώπης, Heraklion, 2015, 63-93. Sakellarakis, Y. and Ε. Sapouna-Sakellaraki. Αρχάνες. Μια νέα ματιά στη Μινωική Κρήτη. Vol. 1. Athens, 1997, 326-330.

Author:

E. S.

Photographs' metadata