Sul patrimonio logogrammatico del Geroglifico cretese

Based on the classification proposed by Jean-Pierre Olivier and Louis Godart in the Corpus Hieroglyphicarum Inscriptionum Cretae, it emerges that the sign inventory of the Cretan Hieroglyphic Script, like the two Aegean ‘linear’ writing systems, consists predominantly of syllabograms and logograms. The former are identified in CHIC as nos. 001-096 and are attested on archival documents and sealstones, except for nos. 014, 048, 076, and 095, which appear only on seals. Logograms are represented by signs nos. *151-*182, which appear on both clay documents and seals, with the addition of *157 and *181, found only on the latter. These two categories of signs are accompanied by nine klasmatograms in total (two of which are attested only on sealstones: 308 and 309), as well as by arithmograms and stiktograms. Among the logograms, one category that remains entirely unexplored is that of composite signs. These signs, abundantly attested in Linear A and to a much more limited extent in Linear B, were considered by the CHIC authors to be represented in too small a number to suggest systematic use within the older Cretan script. However, a recent discovery (published as KN S (4/4) 01) necessitates a more in-depth examination of this typology, for which a preliminary analysis—albeit still hypothetical—is presented here regarding its composition, use, and function within the Cretan Hieroglyphic writing system.