Wednesday, March 19, 2025

The Cretan halter

Four years ago were revealed some ivory artifacts from Knossos. This last 3 March, one Anastasia Kanta cowrote with Palaima and two others, An archaeological and epigraphical overview of some inscriptions found in the Cult Center of the city of Knossos (Anetaki plot). The scenestealer is an ivory circle. So we're just getting to this "now".

This is in the "neopalace", Arthur Evans' famous "Minoan" labyrinth with the smooth downpoint red columns; "Anetaki" plot, sacred to Knossos before they built that palace.

What is had here isn't just the length, 119 characters of Linear A syllable and pictograph. It's the calligraphy. The script wasn't just for accountants. We never should have thought they were, because linear scripts just work better for papyrus (and plaster) than for clay. Cuneiform and other stampings work for clay.

One does wonder where the papyrus books be at. Could be, they were burned. Or just rotted: Crete ain't as damp as, say, Dacia but it ain't Egypt, either.

BACKDATE 3/21

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