670

THE PALACE OF MINOS, ETC.

almond shape, engraved with characters of Class A, was found on the site
of the Little Palace at Knossos (Fig. 490).1 This, however, must be regarded
as quite an exceptional phenomenon though, occasionally, single linear
characters appear in the field of lentoid gems of
No longer the pictorial class. The rule was now, where
inscriptions were necessary, for the writing to
be incised on the clay of the sealing itself while
still soft. In the last Age of the Palace,
when the linear Script B was prevalent, this
practice was much in vogue, and, as we shall
see, not only were the pinched clay nodules
endorsed on two sides, but the seal impres-
sion showing the pictorial type was itself
often countermarked with one or more linear

Inscrip
tions on
Seals.

Graffiti,
however,
on Clay-
Sealings.

Fig. 490. Green Steatite
Amygdaloid from Little
Palace, Knossos, with In-
scription of Linear Class
A. (f).

signs.

A class of seal-stones and signets makes its appearance indeed about
this time which has a false hieroglyphic aspect. This class generally exhibits

d

Fig. 491. Late out-growth of Prism-Seal, (f)

Hiero-
glyphic
sign-
groups
imitated
as

amulets.

heads of various animals grouped together, most of them taken over without
method from earlier signets. Thus on a seal impression from Hagia
Triada 2 we see the heads of a bull, a wolf, and a dog, and two other carni-

1 The characters of the uppei line answer
to regular types of the Linear Class A. The
first of 1. 2 is common to the Hieroglyphs
(No. 25), but also finds an analogy in Class A.
The second of 1. 2 resembles Hieroglyph No.
33. The transitional aspects of this part of

the inscription incline us to place it very early
in the M. M. Ill series.

2 Mon. Ant., xiii (1903), p. 35, Fig. 26. My
own interpretation of the figures is somewhat
different from that there suggested.