CLAY SEALINGS COUNTERMARKED AND ENDORSED 617

titles as seen in Fig. 604, a, 6, the throne sign, [j—the mark of a Palace
official—is included.

Good examples of this double means of obtaining security, as applied
to the sealing of chests containing valuable stores, came to light in the

Fig. 604. Clay Sealings with Scenes from Bull-sports, counter-
marked by ' Balance ' and Barred 8 Signs, and endorsed with Graffito
Signatures, in both Cases containing the 'Throne' Sign.

building described as the ' Armoury', North-West of the Palace.1 The con-
torted lion design, of which at times very rough impressions were found at
the base of the sealings belonging to this group (Fig. 603), had been in some
cases coimtermarked by the arrow sign. The appropriateness of this as a
mark of control was illustrated not only by the occurrence in the same deposit
of tablets inscribed with this sign and referring to two large lots of arrows,
respectively 2,630 and S.540 in number, but by the discovery of two
depots of bronze arrow-heads, each of which had been contained in a
wooden chest with bronze loop handles. The sealings themselves were
found among the charred remains of these coffers, which had evidently been
secured by .the string that had passed through the major axis of each.

See A. E., Knossos, Report, 1904 (B.S.A., a ground floor space here had fallen from an
x)> P. 54 seqq. The tablets, seal impressions, upper chamber,
and remains of wooden chests found in

Arrow
sign mark
of the
'Armoury'
Deposit.