DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.811#0457
4o4 UPPER TREASURY LATER USED FOR ARCHIVES
Sealings
and
tablets of
Linear
Class B.
Relics
from
' Trea-
sury ' in
' R. of
Stone
Bench '.
its original floor. It is certain indeed that, at least as a repository of
documents, this small chamber continued to fulfil its original function.
A large number of clay sealings, mostly fragmentary, and some of them
distinctly late in type, were found below at a higher level, their presence
being explained by the collapse of the floor as restored after the seismic
catastrophe. As forming stratigraphically a separate entity from the bulk of
the present deposit an account of this scattered but very important hoard of
clay seal-impressions is reserved for a later Section.1
Some of these sealings, in that case accompanied by fragments of
Inscribed Clay tablets of the Linear Class B, occurred above the balustrade
of the neighbouring ' Queen's Bath-room'. It may be assumed indeed that
the deposit of late seal-impressions found in the small bordering space
immediately West of the ' Service Stairs ' and named, after a recurring type
there found, the ' Area of the Demon Seals ',2 also belonged to this later
deposit. This is confirmed by the parallel discovery, above the floor-level
of the passage-way at the foot of the stairs, of broken seal-impressions of
the same class, together with some thicker clay nodules that had evidently
been attached to the strings of packages presenting graffito inscriptions of
Class B. An account of these later relics must be reserved to the conclud-
ing part of this Work, where it is proposed to deal with the closing Palace
phase belonging to the Second Late Minoan Period.3 From its occurrence
near the Northern border of the adjoining ' Room of the Stone Bench', it is
also probable that the largest of all the advanced linear tablets—of which
a facsimile will be there found—was derived from the same archives as
preserved in the Treasury Chamber in its later phase. This inscription
consists of twenty-four lines and contains lists of numerous persons, marked
by the male ideograph, attached in each case to a sign-group apparently
representing the name.
The possibility that part of the original relics had remained in situ may
allow us to suppose that the disturbance incident on the final catastrophe at
the end of L.M. II was instrumental in distributing some stray specimens
above the floor of the adjoining ' Room of the Stone Bench ' including one
of the gold-plated bronze axes4 and the gold fish.5
1 See Vol. iv.
2 It was here that were found most of the
fragments of the ' Shield Fresco' belonging to
the Upper Loggia of the ' Grand Staircase' (see
above, pp. 301, 302).
3 See, too, my forthcoming Scripta Minoa,.
ii and iii.
4 Found just beyond the remains of the
West wall of the 'Treasury'.
6 Near its South-West Corner.
Sealings
and
tablets of
Linear
Class B.
Relics
from
' Trea-
sury ' in
' R. of
Stone
Bench '.
its original floor. It is certain indeed that, at least as a repository of
documents, this small chamber continued to fulfil its original function.
A large number of clay sealings, mostly fragmentary, and some of them
distinctly late in type, were found below at a higher level, their presence
being explained by the collapse of the floor as restored after the seismic
catastrophe. As forming stratigraphically a separate entity from the bulk of
the present deposit an account of this scattered but very important hoard of
clay seal-impressions is reserved for a later Section.1
Some of these sealings, in that case accompanied by fragments of
Inscribed Clay tablets of the Linear Class B, occurred above the balustrade
of the neighbouring ' Queen's Bath-room'. It may be assumed indeed that
the deposit of late seal-impressions found in the small bordering space
immediately West of the ' Service Stairs ' and named, after a recurring type
there found, the ' Area of the Demon Seals ',2 also belonged to this later
deposit. This is confirmed by the parallel discovery, above the floor-level
of the passage-way at the foot of the stairs, of broken seal-impressions of
the same class, together with some thicker clay nodules that had evidently
been attached to the strings of packages presenting graffito inscriptions of
Class B. An account of these later relics must be reserved to the conclud-
ing part of this Work, where it is proposed to deal with the closing Palace
phase belonging to the Second Late Minoan Period.3 From its occurrence
near the Northern border of the adjoining ' Room of the Stone Bench', it is
also probable that the largest of all the advanced linear tablets—of which
a facsimile will be there found—was derived from the same archives as
preserved in the Treasury Chamber in its later phase. This inscription
consists of twenty-four lines and contains lists of numerous persons, marked
by the male ideograph, attached in each case to a sign-group apparently
representing the name.
The possibility that part of the original relics had remained in situ may
allow us to suppose that the disturbance incident on the final catastrophe at
the end of L.M. II was instrumental in distributing some stray specimens
above the floor of the adjoining ' Room of the Stone Bench ' including one
of the gold-plated bronze axes4 and the gold fish.5
1 See Vol. iv.
2 It was here that were found most of the
fragments of the ' Shield Fresco' belonging to
the Upper Loggia of the ' Grand Staircase' (see
above, pp. 301, 302).
3 See, too, my forthcoming Scripta Minoa,.
ii and iii.
4 Found just beyond the remains of the
West wall of the 'Treasury'.
6 Near its South-West Corner.