“Beyond Linear B: on Rarely Attested Sign Categories in Cretan Hieroglyphic Seals and Clay Documents”

In this paper I shall be proposing a new hypothesis for some peculiar Cretan Hieroglyphic seals defined by Anna Margherita Jasink as “matrix seals”, suggesting placing them between seals and clay administrative documents, as a “link” between these two typologies of texts. The basis for this suggestion arises from their formats, their “contents” (i.e. the specific categories of signs they bear) and from their suggested use in Minoan sealing practices. Tentatively defined as “seals for counting” in a recent publication,1 this interpretation now seems to have gained further support from a newly published seal found by Athanasia Kanta in a building interpreted as a Neopalatial sanctuary connected with the Palace of Knossos and labelled KN S (4/4) 01.