DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1118#0328
6So OVERLAPPING OF CLASSES A AND B
This habit, which gives the tablets of Class A a rather crabbed
appearance, is at times the cause of some obscurity. On the other hand, it is
to be observed that examples of the A script executed under conditions free
from this artificial limitation, such as those, above referred to, incised on
stone libation vessels, the graffito or painted inscriptions on walls, or those in-
scored on the large jars, are almost entirely free from these compound forms.
The small, nearly square-shaped tablets of M. M. III ^ date, such as
those from the Temple Repositories and a single, more or less contemporary
specimen from the Phaestos Palace, show a tendency in the succeeding
L. M. I Period somewhat to enlarge their dimensions. Far the most
prolific source of these are the deposits found in buildings outside the
Little Palace at Hagia Triada, which indeed give the best idea of the whole
class of tablets bearing the A script. These, as is well shown in the case
of a large official residence, were associated with pottery of L. M. I a type,
but it is clear that some of ihem overlapped L. M. I b.
One consequence of this late duration was the reaction of certain charac-
: teristic forms of the Knossian Class B.1 This, too, is corroborated by
a significant change in the decimal sign of the numeration, which is other-
wise—as shown by Comparative Table, Fig. 676, below—very similar in the
two groups. The earlier A symbol for 10—inherited from the Hieroglyphic
system—is a single pellet (•). This, however, is transformed by intermediate
stages into the universally diffused B equivalent of the decimal sign, a hori-
zontal stroke (—). The evidence on the whole points to the surviving use
of Script A, at least down to the close of the L.M. \b Period—contemporary
with the earlier phase of L. M. II at Knossos—or, approximately speaking,
well down into the Fifteenth Century before our era.
Com- In addition to the evidences of maritime enterprise supplied by the
inter" naval types and tablets of Class A from Hagia Triada, there may be found
illustrated many illustrations of industry and commerce. References are to be seen to
by H. . . *, , | r .
Triada the cultivation of saffron,2 of olives,3 and apparently other trees good toi
tablets. £rujt or t;mjjer] while nerE| as ;n Class B, the ' barn ' sign 4 recurs as an
indication of cereal produce. The loom speaks for the existence of textile
industry. Together with the repetition of the ' balance ' or ' talent sign,
significant of large business transactions, there is also, as in B, a reference
to various forms of metal vases. For comparison with similar groups ol D,
and at the same time to give a general illustration of the contrasts presentee
1 E.g, the 'throne' sign on the Trullos - See pp 716,717.
ladle (see p. 6S3). ' Cf. pp. 622, 623 above.
' See p. 718 and Fig. 703.
This habit, which gives the tablets of Class A a rather crabbed
appearance, is at times the cause of some obscurity. On the other hand, it is
to be observed that examples of the A script executed under conditions free
from this artificial limitation, such as those, above referred to, incised on
stone libation vessels, the graffito or painted inscriptions on walls, or those in-
scored on the large jars, are almost entirely free from these compound forms.
The small, nearly square-shaped tablets of M. M. III ^ date, such as
those from the Temple Repositories and a single, more or less contemporary
specimen from the Phaestos Palace, show a tendency in the succeeding
L. M. I Period somewhat to enlarge their dimensions. Far the most
prolific source of these are the deposits found in buildings outside the
Little Palace at Hagia Triada, which indeed give the best idea of the whole
class of tablets bearing the A script. These, as is well shown in the case
of a large official residence, were associated with pottery of L. M. I a type,
but it is clear that some of ihem overlapped L. M. I b.
One consequence of this late duration was the reaction of certain charac-
: teristic forms of the Knossian Class B.1 This, too, is corroborated by
a significant change in the decimal sign of the numeration, which is other-
wise—as shown by Comparative Table, Fig. 676, below—very similar in the
two groups. The earlier A symbol for 10—inherited from the Hieroglyphic
system—is a single pellet (•). This, however, is transformed by intermediate
stages into the universally diffused B equivalent of the decimal sign, a hori-
zontal stroke (—). The evidence on the whole points to the surviving use
of Script A, at least down to the close of the L.M. \b Period—contemporary
with the earlier phase of L. M. II at Knossos—or, approximately speaking,
well down into the Fifteenth Century before our era.
Com- In addition to the evidences of maritime enterprise supplied by the
inter" naval types and tablets of Class A from Hagia Triada, there may be found
illustrated many illustrations of industry and commerce. References are to be seen to
by H. . . *, , | r .
Triada the cultivation of saffron,2 of olives,3 and apparently other trees good toi
tablets. £rujt or t;mjjer] while nerE| as ;n Class B, the ' barn ' sign 4 recurs as an
indication of cereal produce. The loom speaks for the existence of textile
industry. Together with the repetition of the ' balance ' or ' talent sign,
significant of large business transactions, there is also, as in B, a reference
to various forms of metal vases. For comparison with similar groups ol D,
and at the same time to give a general illustration of the contrasts presentee
1 E.g, the 'throne' sign on the Trullos - See pp 716,717.
ladle (see p. 6S3). ' Cf. pp. 622, 623 above.
' See p. 718 and Fig. 703.