DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1793#0046
r
38 LINEAR SCRIPT B: THE PALACE ARCHIVES OF KNOSSOS
T. Tablets with phonetic signs followed by numerals.
U. Tablets with sign-groups followed by numerals.
V. Tablets without ideograms, but sign-groups in compartments.
W. Provisionally blank.
X. Unclassifiable because fragmentary and without 'commodity'-sign.
Z. Seal-impressions and endorsements.
Most of the tablets were found in rooms and passages within the Palace; but a few (B 42-190)
beyond the West Wall enclosing the Magazines, whither they had been scattered as the buildings
decayed. It is clear from the find-spots that they were not found where they were stored, but where
they had fallen—sometimes in their store-boxes—from the upper floors of the buildings (Knossos
Report, 1900, 50 ff.; 1904, 56 ff.; SM I. 40-3; PM IV. 622). For example, the middle fragment of
B 479 was found in the Seventh Magazine, but the two ends in the Eighth. Yet the general distribu-
tion was sufficiently preserved to permit the assignment of tablets B 746-8, stolen by a workman, to
their proper find-spot (PM IV, pref. p. xxi; cf. 97; SM I. 46).
Very few of the fragments have hitherto been reassembled, and it is likely that some tablets may
still be reconstructed, when the originals can be handled; especially the 'cattle-tablets' § E with the
'principal names' in § X.
At one time (SM I. 38) AE thought that 'the larger deposits of clay archives must have been
naturally of gradual accumulation'; but this must refer to their accidental dispersal into the lower
rooms: for apart from a few exceptionally hard-baked tablets, he assigned them all to the 'concluding
age of the Remodelled Palace', i.e. to L.M. II.
Find-spots recorded in AE notes seem to be registered in accord with the progress of the excava-
tion in 1899-1903, beginning from the neighbourhood of the earlier tumultuary trenches near the
south-west angle, northward to the Throne Room and the North Entrance to the Central Court.
But this sequence ends at the 'Area south of the Bay of the Seal Impression': tablets B 1064-1383
are all broken to left, B 1384-1512 are all broken to right; so there has been complete regrouping
here. The find-spots recorded in AE notes are printed in clarendon type at the head of the groups
of tablets there found. Other find-spots given in PM and other publications are:
House of the Fetishes. Knossos Report, 1905, 16; SM I. 55 : tablet not identified.
Upper East-West Corridor in the Domestic Quarter. Knossos Report, 1902, 38.
East Treasury in the Domestic Quarter. PM III. 404.
Magazine by the Royal Road [?=Armoury]. PM II. 577.
Area above the Early Keep. PM IV. 733.
Room of the Archives. PM IV. 701-4.
Room of the Stone Bench. PM III. 404.
Order of Localities (Find-spots) from AE MS. notes
Cf. the plan of the Palace, PM IV. 728, fig. 710
1-34. Clay Chest ('Bath-shaped Receptacle') 'in a small chamber near the South Propylaeum. SM I. 17-18; BSA
1899-1900, 18, pi. 1.
No. 34 is the tablet found in surface soil by Antonios Zakhyrakis; copied and photographed by AE in 1894;
38 LINEAR SCRIPT B: THE PALACE ARCHIVES OF KNOSSOS
T. Tablets with phonetic signs followed by numerals.
U. Tablets with sign-groups followed by numerals.
V. Tablets without ideograms, but sign-groups in compartments.
W. Provisionally blank.
X. Unclassifiable because fragmentary and without 'commodity'-sign.
Z. Seal-impressions and endorsements.
Most of the tablets were found in rooms and passages within the Palace; but a few (B 42-190)
beyond the West Wall enclosing the Magazines, whither they had been scattered as the buildings
decayed. It is clear from the find-spots that they were not found where they were stored, but where
they had fallen—sometimes in their store-boxes—from the upper floors of the buildings (Knossos
Report, 1900, 50 ff.; 1904, 56 ff.; SM I. 40-3; PM IV. 622). For example, the middle fragment of
B 479 was found in the Seventh Magazine, but the two ends in the Eighth. Yet the general distribu-
tion was sufficiently preserved to permit the assignment of tablets B 746-8, stolen by a workman, to
their proper find-spot (PM IV, pref. p. xxi; cf. 97; SM I. 46).
Very few of the fragments have hitherto been reassembled, and it is likely that some tablets may
still be reconstructed, when the originals can be handled; especially the 'cattle-tablets' § E with the
'principal names' in § X.
At one time (SM I. 38) AE thought that 'the larger deposits of clay archives must have been
naturally of gradual accumulation'; but this must refer to their accidental dispersal into the lower
rooms: for apart from a few exceptionally hard-baked tablets, he assigned them all to the 'concluding
age of the Remodelled Palace', i.e. to L.M. II.
Find-spots recorded in AE notes seem to be registered in accord with the progress of the excava-
tion in 1899-1903, beginning from the neighbourhood of the earlier tumultuary trenches near the
south-west angle, northward to the Throne Room and the North Entrance to the Central Court.
But this sequence ends at the 'Area south of the Bay of the Seal Impression': tablets B 1064-1383
are all broken to left, B 1384-1512 are all broken to right; so there has been complete regrouping
here. The find-spots recorded in AE notes are printed in clarendon type at the head of the groups
of tablets there found. Other find-spots given in PM and other publications are:
House of the Fetishes. Knossos Report, 1905, 16; SM I. 55 : tablet not identified.
Upper East-West Corridor in the Domestic Quarter. Knossos Report, 1902, 38.
East Treasury in the Domestic Quarter. PM III. 404.
Magazine by the Royal Road [?=Armoury]. PM II. 577.
Area above the Early Keep. PM IV. 733.
Room of the Archives. PM IV. 701-4.
Room of the Stone Bench. PM III. 404.
Order of Localities (Find-spots) from AE MS. notes
Cf. the plan of the Palace, PM IV. 728, fig. 710
1-34. Clay Chest ('Bath-shaped Receptacle') 'in a small chamber near the South Propylaeum. SM I. 17-18; BSA
1899-1900, 18, pi. 1.
No. 34 is the tablet found in surface soil by Antonios Zakhyrakis; copied and photographed by AE in 1894;