DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1118#0240
592
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LATER SEALINGS
The intermediate sphragistic phrase answering to the L. M. I b epoch
is partly supplied by the contents of certain tombs, notably that of Vapheio.
For evidence parallel with the above, afforded by clay sealings for-
merly attached to documents, we have, however, with some individual
exceptions, to pass on to the large though scattered deposits of such ob-
jects—many fragmentary—belonging to the last palatial phase of Knossos.
With these, too, must be grouped the clay seal impressions, more sparsely
found in actual association with the hoards of inscribed tablets of the then
prevalent Linear Class B, and in some cases countermarked with signs of
that form of the script.1
From the outset, however, it is necessary to understand a difficulty
which besets this class of material in its later phase. In the case of the
large hoards of sealings, above referred to, from Zakro, Hagia Triada, and
Knossos itself, the clay nodules presenting the impressions were well baked,
as the result of some special method of treatment. I n this they are paralleled
by the clay documents of the Linear Class A with which they were con-
temporary. But, at the later epoch to which both the tablets of Class B
and the associated clay seal impressions belong, the process was of a
more summary kind, and in both cases it would appear that they were little
more than sun-dried. The hoards of inscribed clay tablets, indeed, could
hardly have been preserved except for the supplementary heating clue to
the conflagration of a large part of the building. In more than one case—
though great precautions were taken when once the danger was ascertained
—a torrential storm of rain at the moment of excavation reduced both tablets
and clay sealings to pulp. Fire—so fatal to other archives—was, at
Knossos, an actual cause of preservation.
The clay itself, made use of for both documents and sealings of the
earlier class, had been of finer quality and better prepared. Thus the
artistic details of the intaglios themselves were better reproduced than was
often possible in the case of the rougher and less carefully prepared clay
used in the later period.
Most The less durable quality of the material was so far recognized by the
wWhIocu- Palace officials themselves that, whereas in the days of the ' Middle Palace',
at Knossos and elsewhere, hoards of sealings were actually found in base-
ment repositories, according to the later arrangement these, like the
documents to which they had been originally attached, seem to have been in
nearly all cases preserved in upper-floor rooms.2 It is possible, indeed, that
1 See below, pp. 616, 617. near the border of the Southern Terrace of
" The clay chest containing tablets found the West Palace section lay, however, on the
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LATER SEALINGS
The intermediate sphragistic phrase answering to the L. M. I b epoch
is partly supplied by the contents of certain tombs, notably that of Vapheio.
For evidence parallel with the above, afforded by clay sealings for-
merly attached to documents, we have, however, with some individual
exceptions, to pass on to the large though scattered deposits of such ob-
jects—many fragmentary—belonging to the last palatial phase of Knossos.
With these, too, must be grouped the clay seal impressions, more sparsely
found in actual association with the hoards of inscribed tablets of the then
prevalent Linear Class B, and in some cases countermarked with signs of
that form of the script.1
From the outset, however, it is necessary to understand a difficulty
which besets this class of material in its later phase. In the case of the
large hoards of sealings, above referred to, from Zakro, Hagia Triada, and
Knossos itself, the clay nodules presenting the impressions were well baked,
as the result of some special method of treatment. I n this they are paralleled
by the clay documents of the Linear Class A with which they were con-
temporary. But, at the later epoch to which both the tablets of Class B
and the associated clay seal impressions belong, the process was of a
more summary kind, and in both cases it would appear that they were little
more than sun-dried. The hoards of inscribed clay tablets, indeed, could
hardly have been preserved except for the supplementary heating clue to
the conflagration of a large part of the building. In more than one case—
though great precautions were taken when once the danger was ascertained
—a torrential storm of rain at the moment of excavation reduced both tablets
and clay sealings to pulp. Fire—so fatal to other archives—was, at
Knossos, an actual cause of preservation.
The clay itself, made use of for both documents and sealings of the
earlier class, had been of finer quality and better prepared. Thus the
artistic details of the intaglios themselves were better reproduced than was
often possible in the case of the rougher and less carefully prepared clay
used in the later period.
Most The less durable quality of the material was so far recognized by the
wWhIocu- Palace officials themselves that, whereas in the days of the ' Middle Palace',
at Knossos and elsewhere, hoards of sealings were actually found in base-
ment repositories, according to the later arrangement these, like the
documents to which they had been originally attached, seem to have been in
nearly all cases preserved in upper-floor rooms.2 It is possible, indeed, that
1 See below, pp. 616, 617. near the border of the Southern Terrace of
" The clay chest containing tablets found the West Palace section lay, however, on the