Universitätsbibliothek HeidelbergUniversitätsbibliothek Heidelberg
Metadaten

Evans, Arthur J.
The Palace of Minos: a comparative account of the successive stages of the early Cretan civilization as illustred by the discoveries at Knossos (Band 4,2): Camp-stool Fresco, long-robed priests and beneficent genii [...] — London, 1935

DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1118#0309
Overview
Facsimile
0.5
1 cm
facsimile
Scroll
OCR fulltext
•SCALES' OR 'BALANCE' SIGN ON TABLETS 661

attached to a form of y 1 and followed by an uncertain sign. The amount
indicated may have been reckoned in Minoan drachms.

Apart from the sepulchral type of gold scales for the weighing of the



Fig. 649 a, b, c.

Fragmentary Tablets from Knossos showing the 'Ingot'
and 'Balance' Signs.

butterfly Soul,2 from the Third Shaft Grave at Mycenae,3 the fullest illus-
tration of Minoan scales is to be found in the specimen found in the Mavro
Spelio Cemetery at Knossos,* which seems to have served for ordinary
personal use. The Palace scales for the weighing of ingots must have
been of much larger size.

The 'balance' sign is seen on some more or less fragmentary tablets
ot the linear Class B from Knossos, in two cases preceded by the 'ingot'
(Fig. 649 a, c). In one instance (c) the 'ingot' is crossed by the not
infrequent linear sign 7. It is followed by a single horizontal line denoting
io, while the balance is coupled with six upright strokes signifying 6. In a,
on the other hand, the figures attached to the ' ingot' = 6o show a certain
correspondence with those that follow the balance = 52 and a fraction, to
be interpreted with great probability as two quarters, or one half. It is
noteworthy in this connexion that the difference between 60 and 52* = 7J

1 A simplified form of this open hand sign Nos. Sr, 82, where a larger and a smaller
is attached to a series of other signs on tablets balance from that interment are restored. Cf.,

'Ingot'

and

' balance'

signs

coupled

on tablets.

60 and an

eighth

deducted.

of Class A. (See P. ofM., i, p. 645, Fig 478 ;
andcf. p. (5,9, Fig. 455/; 2).

"■ See P. of M., iii, pp. 148-52; and cf.
■Ring of Nestor, p. 53 seqq.

1 G. Karo, Mykmai, Atlas, PI. XXXIV,

X X 2

too, Text, p. 53, Fig. 13.

* E. J. Forsdyke, Mavro Spelio (B.S.A.,
xxviii), p. 256, Fig. 6, where scale pans, arm,
and handle were found in Tomb III.
 
Annotationen