Heraklion Archaeological Museum - CollectiveAccess System : Sealings-Inscriptions : Clay sealed bureaucratic record with Cretan Hieroglyphic inscription [Σ-Τ172]

Clay sealed bureaucratic record with Cretan Hieroglyphic inscription

Σ-Τ172

Clay

Intact

Maximum length: 5.3 cm. Width: 2.1 cm.

Knossos

Palace of Knossos, West Wing, "Hieroglyphic Deposit"

Middle Bronze Age. Protopalatial period, Middle Minoan II period.:

1800-1700 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 economic administration

Description

Clay crescent sealing originally suspended from a cord. It bears inscriptions in Cretan Hieroglyphic on three surfaces and four impressions made by two different seals: one with Cretan Hieroglyphic signs and a pictorial seal with an animal head. Crescent sealings functioned as labels, as they conveyed information on a commodity or a transaction via the inscriptions and seal impressions. The presence on some of these of a logogram, a sign of Cretan Hieroglyphic mainly used of goods, indicates that these sealings probably accompanied wine, cereals, olives and saffron. While at Malia only one sealing of this type bore impressions from two different seals, multiple sealing was a usual practice at Knossos: over half the sealed bureaucratic records had been stamped by two, three or even four seals.

Bibliography:

Olivier, J-.P. and L. Godart 1996. Corpus Hieroglyphicarum Inscriptionum Cretae. ?tudes Cr?toises 31. Paris, 1996, #027 and #123. Poursat J.C. “Chronologie.” In J.P. Olivier, and L. Godart, Corpus Hieroglyphicarum Inscriptionum Cretae, ?tudes Cr?toises 31. Paris, 1996, 27-32. Weingarten, J. “Sealing Studies in the Middle Bronze Age, III: the Minoan Hieroglyphic Deposits at Mallia and Knossos”. In W. M?ller, Sceaux Minoens et Myc?niens, Corpus der Minoischen und Mykenischen Beiheft 5. Berlin, 1995, 285-311 (p. 293, fig. 4.1).

Author:

G. F.

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