RECURRENT SIGN-GROUPS

261

Just as some of the formulas on the signets are absent from the graffito series,
so some recurrent sign-groups of the clay documents are not found on the seals.
Examples of the latter, with small arrows indicating the direction in which the
characters run, are given in Table XX (Fig. 117}.

A very notable feature both on the seals and on the clay documents is the
number of recurring sign-groups in which the order of the characters is rigidly

Recurring
groups pe-
culiar to
graffiti.

Adherence
to fixed
order in

SIGNS ON
SEALS

ON CLAY
DOCUMENTS



SIQNS ON ON CLAY

SEALS Documents

a >B~

\(JfPSiaJ

k.

■I^W st^v

^AYfYJ^rU

£

AA| AAQ

c*i

11^

<i ' (P. Sol*'

I

^K<£?3*(riMl

<l#

■U V (*utf&t) #1.

t|§' % V ) (nasal

eil

V. V fp.iooa.)

n.

VB a*I2U

/ IV* 3iw

0.

«jy V ^V«.h

' (f.a«.)

1A

IOT%'> U (_/ Tf»«j

TABLE XIX. Fig.116.

Glyptic and Graffito Versions of Identical Sign-groups.

maintained. It might have been supposed, for instance, that the signs of the
frequently repeated formula, consisting of the gate, leg, and Y, fa ^^ M/ would

sometimes change their positions. But this is not the case. The evidence tends to
show that the ' gate' sign is always at the beginning, the ' leg' in the middle, and the f

at the end. So, too, in the formula often associated with it, J*l CO \1^ the