Barbara Montecchi

This is the first comprehensive study of the largest Linear A documentary archive discovered thus far. It was found at Hagia Triada, in South-central Crete, and dated to the Late Minoan IB period, which corresponds to roughly the mid-16th century B.C. (according to “High Chronology), or mid-15th century B.C. (according to “Low Chronology”). It includes 147 written clay tablets and more than 1,000 sealings of various types. Their functions and mechanisms of interaction are reconstructed through an extensive commentary on their archaeological contexts (chapter II), physical, textual, palaeographic and/or glyptic characteristics, and their patterns of distribution (chapters III and IV).
The new classification of Linear A tablets on p. 97-107 replaces the one suggested by the same author in 2010. In chapter V, textual and archaeological data are compared in order to trace an updated picture of settlement dynamics and investigate the relationship between the Palace of Phaistos and the Villa of Hagia Triada, which are about 3 km far from each other.
Since the individuals responsible for accounting also “counted” in an economic, political, and social sense, agency issues, such as the roles and status of the people involved in sealing and writing practices, are addressed throughout the book.

Places to Work, Pray, and Die: Buildings and Builders Under the Mycenaean Elites.

Mycenaean architecture is a topic widely investigated from a typological, technological, artistic, and socio-economic point of view. Nevertheless, Linear B texts had not been yet explored with the aim of comparing textual and archaeological evidence and thus recovering further information on the topic. This study was aimed at filling this gap. The present book gathers and analyzes Linear B terms and expressions which refer to buildings (chap. I), builders (chap. III), and supplies of building materials (chap. IV). In chap. I, the textual evidence for non-religious buildings (a-mo-te-jo, ta-to-mo, si-ro, and perhaps wo-wo/wo-wi-ja) is directly compared with pertinent archaeological remains. However, the majority of building types mentioned in the Linear B texts turned out to be linked to the religious sphere (e-do, na-wo, i-je-ro, e-ka-ra, wo-ko, do, me-ka-ro, da-pu2-ri-to). Therefore, all Mycenaean buildings with certain or possible religious functions are collected and discussed in chap. II, in order to link textual and material evidence for Mycenaean religious architecture. Finally, chap. V collects and discusses the archaeological evidence for the workforce involved in the construction of monumental buildings and structures, i.e. tholos tombs, palaces, fortification walls in Cyclopean masonry, roads, bridges, and dams.  The goal of this final chapter is to detect work stages, tasks required, and the builders’ social make-up.

Available for free download: http://www.livrosabertos.sibi.usp.br/portaldelivrosUSP/catalog/book/217 .
This is the catalogue of the glass collection housed in the Archaeological Museum of the University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil. The collection is mainly made up of Roman glass sent by Italian Archaeological Museums in the 1960s, but also includes Islamic and modern European glass donated by several private collectors.

The focus of this paper is the relationship between the two most important places mentioned in the Linear B tablets from Pylos: pu-ro (alphabetical Greek Πύλος) and pa-ki-ja-na/-ne (possibly *Σφαγιᾶνα/ες). The first is identified as the seat of the Mycenaean Palace, whose remains lie on the hill of Epano Englianos, while the second is generally assumed to be an important cult centre close to the Palace, perhaps in the vicinity of Chora Volimidia. However, the attempts made so far to identify pa-ki-ja-na/-ne on the ground have not provided any definitive result. This paper investigates the possibility of a sub-level territorial organisation in which one of these two place names was a district name (pa-ki-ja-ne), while the other (pu-ro) was the main settlement within such a district. Following this scenario, the hypothesis is put forward that the temple of Poseidon (po-si-da-i-jo), which is linked to both pu-ro and pa-ki-ja-ne (PY Tn 316), should be identified with the central megaron of the Palace, the religious role of which is well known. Poseidon indeed appears as the most prominent god of the Pylos kingdom, since religious offerings with a strong fiscal aspect were periodically delivered to him. As no proper sanctuary has been brought to light in the region, it seems likely that the main god of the state was worshipped at the Palace.

This paper deals with the depictions of two specific moments of the Late Bronze Age III funeral ritual: the exposure of the deceased (prothesis), and their subsequent deposition in a coffin. In the Aegean figurative art,  such depictions are admittedly rare both on Crete and the Mainland.
The author analyzes a total of eight images. Five are painted on four clay coffins (larnakes), the other three are on pottery sherds. Among the depictions on larnakes, four have been recognized as funeral scenes since the date of their first publication, while one is interpreted as a prothesis scene here for the first time. The three sherds date back to the LH IIIC period. On two of them, we can easily recognise the body on the bed and the funeral procession, while on the third sherd a male figure with a hammer, here tentatively interpreted as the tool used for a sacrifice, is the only preserved element. The paper ends with a short account of a few similarities between Mycenaean and Early Iron Age depictions of funeral rituals.

The term "labyrinth" can refer to three different entities: 1) a real building since several labyrinths are mentioned in Egypt, Greece, Miletus, and Italy by ancient authors and inscriptions, 2) an imaginary building, i.e. the building consisting of numerous halls connected by intricate and tortuous passages in which, according to the Greek mythology, the Cretan Minotaur was held, and 3) a widespread metaphor and symbol, a unique configuration with certain well-defined and rigid characteristics attested across the Mediterranean and beyond, from Prehistory to the present day.
In this paper, the earliest evidence for each of the above-mentioned meanings is reviewed, from the Mycenaean until the Hellenistic and Roman Times. The diachronic perspective is emphasized to outline transformation processes.
The reader is also invited to walk the demarcation line between the two points of view from which the labyrinth can be approached, the physical and the metaphysical, to discover how and when it achieved a material presence and came to occupy a specific place in our mind.

This paper reconsiders the evidence for the role played by the Mycenaean officials called e-qe-ta (possibly /hekwetās/ “Followers”) in Linear B texts. They were officials of high rank, with tasks certainly in the military sphere and probably in the religious. Some scholars have also suggested that they were involved in craft productions directly controlled by the central administration, namely cloth and chariot industries. This latter hypothesis is here questioned. Among the Linear B tablets analyzed within this scope, particular attention is devoted to two tablets from Knossos. The first, As <4493.1>, is a list of personnel called e-pi-ko-wo and assigned to an e-qe-ta. The term e-pi-ko-wo is difficult to understand and it is discussed here because one of the interpretations previously suggested is “allies, auxiliaries troops”. In the second tablet, Am(2) 821.1, two e-qe-ta are recorded e-ne-ka e-mi-to. This syntagma should correspond to alphabetical Greek emmisthōn eneka "because / on account of the hired". So far such "hired people" have been thought to be hired workers, i.e. artisans. Nevertheless, this study shows that no reliable evidence does exist for the role of the e-qe-ta as supervisors of artisans. Therefore, on the ground of the certain military role of the e-qe-ta, it is here suggested that the e-mi-to/emmisthoi were people paid, or at least rewarded to fight under the orders of the e-qe-ta. In other words, the emmisthoi might have been professional warriors provided and controlled by the military officials called e-qe-ta.

This paper deals with the wool and bronze industries related to the peculiar production system termed ta-ra-si-ja /talansia/ on Linear B texts. They are contrasted to the perfume industry, with the aim of outlining the peculiarities of the Mycenaean ta-ra-si-ja and the social status of smiths and weavers. For contextual and etymological reasons it has been argued that the term ta-ra-si-ja /tala(n)siā/ indicates a production procedure directly organized by the central administration. This system entailed the weighing of certain amounts of wool and bronze, which would have been supplied to weavers and smiths in order to be processed into finished products, and finally returned to the Palace. The central administration also ran an important perfume industry, but in the related records, the term ta-ra-si-ja never appears. In my opinion, this is because the term ta-ra-si-ja doesn't fit with the raw materials involved, i.e. olive oil and spices, which were not weighed, but rather measured.
The main conclusions of the analysis carried out throughout this paper are:
1) The word ta-ra-si-ja indicated the wool- and bronze-working because wool and bronze were materials subjected to weight control;
2) ta-ra-si-ja work was carried out in areas peripheral to the Palace;
3) Social status and the number of people involved in textile production and metalworking were directly proportional to the value of the raw materials they worked with: as wool was more common and less valuable material than bronze, so larger and more humble was the workforce involved in its manufacture. The weavers were low-social-level workers, totally dependent on the Palace, which worked at home. Instead, the smiths were autonomous and mid-social-level craftsmen, obliged to provide regular “corvée” working at the place of residence;
4) ta-ra-si-ja involved an extensive production system. On the whole, such a system had an economic reach comparable to the perfumed oil industry but shared among a much larger and decentralized staff, who were supplied regularly with low quantities of raw materials.
To Sum up, the main characteristics of the ta-ra-si-ja work appear to be: 1) the weight control of raw and finished materials, 2) the fact that it was carried out at the workers' places, although centrally managed, and 3) the extensive (as opposed to intensive) system of production.

This paper examines the allocations of cereals and wine to carpenters recorded on the Linear B tablets from Thebes.
Within this scope, the attestations of the term te-ka-ta-si /tektasi/, dative plural from te-ko-to /tekton/ “carpenter”, are reviewed. Carpenters appear as recipients of HORD (barley or, more probably, wheat) on tablet Fq 247, and wine on tablets Gp 112, 114, 147, and 175. It is argued that they were carpenters employed in the building rather than in ship construction because: 1) the term seems to be attested also in two tablets from Pylos along with masons, 2) in Linear B we have another term for “ship builder”, na-u-do-mo. Then, the main reasons why it is likely that the supplies of HORD and wine recorded on such tablets from Thebes were provided during religious ceremonies are presented. Finally,  records of supplies of HORD and wine to carpenters are analyzed with the aim of suggesting how many carpenters are recorded, how much each of them receives, and what can be inferred about their social status.
The number of carpenters is never specified, but, because in Fq 247 they receive 4 sub-measures Z of HORD, we can suggest that the carpenters were either two or four. If they were four, each of them would receive HORD Z 1, i.e. 0.4 l of barley/wheat. Such an amount of barley/wheat is likely equivalent to one meal on subsistence rations. Despite the incomplete documents and the great variability in the amount of wine distributed to each individual or group in the Gp series, it is possible to infer a hierarchy of recipients based on the frequency of attestation and the amount received. Moreover, such a great variability prevents the interpretation of these distributions of wine as standard, regular payments. Since carpenters occupy the fourth position in frequency and received good amounts of wine (with a maximum of VIN 4+ in Gp147.2), a luxury item, probably during religious ceremonies, we can conclude that they enjoyed a relatively high social position in Mycenaean society and/or that people who worked for the Palace and participated at the feasts were exceptionally skilled workers.

The Mycenaean term 'o-pa' / hopā/ is a nomen actionis containing the same root as the alphabetical Greek verb 'ĕpō' ("to be about, busy oneself with"). Latin 'opus, ĕris' and its more recent variant 'opĕra' also stem from the same root and mean “work”, both in the abstract sense “working, activity” and concrete sense “product of labour”.
It is here suggested that Linear B 'o-pa' was used in a similar way as Latin 'opera' and might be thus translated as “prestazione d’opera” in Italian and “work done” in English. This meaning fits with both its attestations in the context of pastoral and craft activities and agricultural works, where the use of the term has been so far thought to be more ambiguous.
Under this light, Linear B tablet KN E 971.b, on which 'o-pa' is attested in connection with logogram GRA (wheat or barely), may record the delivery of grain yielded by agricultural works performed in a plot of land located at 'se-to-i-ja' and belonging to the Palace. Therefore, KN E 971.b may record the delivery of part of the crop due to the central authority that owned the land.
The term 'o-pa' is also attested on a clay nodule from Midea (MI Wv 6). No logogram occurs on this nodule, but it was likely that it was attached to a jar or sack containing agricultural commodities, as it was the case with other clay nodules from the same site, namely MI Wv 1 and Wv 5 featuring logogram OLE (olive oil), and MI Wv 3, which features GRA.

"Mycenaean Sanctuaries and Craft Production: the Case of Pylos, Mycenae, Tiryns, and Dimini"

This paper explores the role of sanctuaries as centres of craft activities in the Mycenean period, by analysing both epigraphic and archaeological evidence. This study re-evaluates what we know about buildings identified as sanctuaries in the sites of Pylos, Mycenae, Tiryns, and Dimini with the aim to shed light on 1) their cultic function by identifying worship activities and communal meals connected to sacrifice and libation, 2) their economic function by recognizing productive activities, 3) the connection between these functions and the central administration by analyzing Linear B administrative documents.
On the basis of a comparison of textual and archaeological data, the author suggests that: 1) the Cult Center at Mycenae, the west area of the Lower Citadel of Tiryns (centred on House VI), and the Megara complex at Dimini are identifiable as sanctuary complexes with annexed production units; 2) in LH IIIB the artisanal-religious complexes were under the control of the palace èlite and gained a higher degree of autonomy in the context of the political and economic reorganisation of LH IIIC.
Hereafter the main conclusions of this study are summarised.
Sectors attested in the documents are metalworking, cyanus working (lapislazzuli or vitreous material), perfumery, weaving, and perhaps leatherworking. Sectors archaeologically attested are metalworking, jewelry working, and ivory (and other precious materials) working.
Potnia’s sanctuaries (or at least some of them) were involved in craft production. Potnia is thought to be a goddess, worshipped under different aspects, and with various epiclesis.
Central LH IIIB sanctuaries with production units are the Cult Center at Mycenae, the West sector of the Unterburg of Tiryns (centred on the Haus VI), and the Megaron B (sanctuary) + Megaron A (workshops) at Dimini.
It is difficult to evaluate precisely how economically relevant the sanctuaries’ craft production was. The quantities of raw and semi-worked materials and of finished products found in the Cult Center at Mycenae, the organisation of the workshops in the Unterburg of Tiryns and the large size of the complex at Dimini suggest that their production capacity was much higher than that required to satisfy rituals and to furnish the temple. Moreover, the quantities of scented unguents for sanctuaries recorded in the Palaces’ archives are reviewed. On the grounds of such evidence it is argued that scented oils were produced both in the Palaces’ workshops and in workshops outside the Palaces, including sanctuaries' workshops, then stored in the storerooms of the Palaces and finally delivered, like other products, as ritual offerings (see, for example, the records of series PY Fr). One could object that the quantity of raw materials delivered by the Palaces to craftsmen in some way linked to divinities is very low, but we should remember that the single deliveries of raw materials allocated to other craftsmen were small as well (see, in particular, the bronze allocated to smiths in the Jn tablets from Pylos). To explain this we must consider that: 1) we have only part of the original records 2) small quantities are easier to manage and carry. Therefore we could imagine frequent deliveries of small quantities. Moreover, the Pylos tablets Jn 310.14 and Jn 431.16 attest that smiths of the Potnia worked both ta-ra-si-ja e-ko-te (talasia ekhontes), thus supplied with bronze by the central administration, and as a-ta-ra-si-jo (atalasioi, without talasia), thus not supplied with bronze.
Archaeological and epigraphic evidence allows us to see a mesh of economic ties that bound different sectors of the Mycenaean society, controlled by a central administrative system in the LH IIIB. This study sheds light on some workshops that seem at least to have been under the protection of gods or even localised in shrine areas. These could be close to the Palace, such as the Cult Center at Mycenae and the cult area in the Unterburg of Tiryns, or in peripheral localities, as attested by Linear B documents which record the sending of raw materials, personnel, and food rations for the personnel, both religious and craftsmen, to various sanctuaries in different places than those of the administrative centres.
The staff involved with different tasks, in the sanctuary economy should be organized hierarchically (see comments on PY An 1281 and series MY Oi) and, at least in part, itinerant (as PY An 1281 suggests). In the tablet PY Jn 829, the ka-ra-wi-po-ro, supposed to be the keeper of the temple storerooms, was in charge of delivering certain quantities of temple bronze in the form of weapons. He/she might be one of the officials who performed tasks related to economic activities in the shrines, with responsibilities for the ruling élite.
The internal organization of the sanctuaries is therefore very articulate and it is likely that such workshops did not work exclusively and full time for the Palace. The case of Tiryns clearly shows that the link between cult practice and crafts lasted beyond the destruction of the Palaces. Summing up, it seems that, in the LH IIIB period, the religious and artisan complexes were under the direct control of the central power and had acquired greater autonomy within the framework of political and economic reorganization that occurred in LH IIIC.

Some reflections on Cretan andreia and agelai.
This paper deals with two social networking models that are peculiar of the island of Crete in the 1st Millennium BC. These are called "andreia" and “agelai” by ancient Greek authors. The term "andreion" indicates the institution of common meals ("syssitia"), the buildings in which they took place, and the associations of citizens ("etairiai"). "Agelai" are associations of aristocratic boys 17-20 years old.
The aim of this study is to reconstruct their function, management, and socio-economic implications through a comparative and diachronic analysis of literary, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence from the second half of the VII to the beginning of the II century BC.
From the late-archaic to the first part of the Hellenistic period, the andreia seem to have been supplied, in part, with public funds to which contributions from the perioikoi and citizens were added; in part, with the amounts that every citizen paid directly to the andreion of which he was a member. Such permeability between minor and major units of Cretan society (politai – andreia – polis) is reflected in the pedagogic organisations too. The andreion indeed represented the main place for the education of the paides and the reference frame for the agelai. Through it a military education was provided to the adolescents, based on the private initiative of the most illustrious citizens.
The author argues that, at least in the main cities such as Lyttos and Gortys, there were as many syssitia as etairiai, until the III century B.C. Later on, the polis gradually assumed also the socio-economic aspects of the organisations, such as the andreia and the agelai, which were traditionally located in a cross position between the community and the private initiative. The unification of the syssitia of the eteriai in a unique andreion of the polis is attested at the beginning of the II century B.C.
In the last part of the paper, archaeological evidence for the andreia is reviewed. At the present stage of the field research in Crete, no building is recognizable with certainty as an andreion, but we can suggest its requirements were satisfied by complexes with specialized areas, with one or more halls for male banquets distinguished from rooms for the storage and preparation of food.

Measures of Value in Mycenaean Economy.

Linear B tablets PY Un 1322 and KN L 693 are analyzed and compared with PY An 35 and Un 443. These texts provide us with some evidence that a certain kind of craft products (we are confident of cloths) were evaluated in amounts of bronze or in amounts of grain, according to need and availability of grain or bronze in the Palace and to the nature of the products to be evaluated. Nevertheless, there is no evidence for standard units of value. Although Linear B records don’t provide us with information about international trade, it is still likely that Mycenaeans needed to join the Near Eastern system of exchange based on the evaluation of goods in quantities of weighed metal.

This paper deals with some Linear A logograms which might have been occasionally used not because of their meaning, but phonetically, on the basis of the sound of the words underlying the signs. The hypothesis is put forward that they are used in rebus compositions with one or more syllabograms to spell out different words. This would be the case with the logogram for wine (AB 131a) on two clay tablets from Agia Triada (HT 14.1 and 123a.3), the logogram for humans (A 100/102) on several clay documents from different sites (HT 72, KH Wc 2100, and PE Zb 7), and the logogram for olives (AB 122) on stone tables KO Za 1 and SY Za 2. The last two examples imply the reappraisal of the debate about the uncertain reading of one sign on KO Za 1 either as AB 27 or 122. It is shown that the latter is the most convincing on the grounds of palaeographical comparisons.

This paper has three main aims:
1) to clarify how Linear A and Linear B clay documents are currently classified based on their shapes; 2) to contrast LA and LB clay documents according to their formats and the kind of commodities recorded; 3) to investigate the relationship between tablets and sealings in the Neopalatial period.

This is the publication of the first results of the research project I carried out in 2017-2018 thanks to an A. Onassis Fellowship. It investigates the practice of writing on clay vessels in the Aegean during the Middle and early Late Bronze Age (1925/00-1470/60 BC, according to Manning 2010, p. 22, table 2.2), when two different scripts were used: Cretan Hieroglyphic and Linear A.
A total of 28 clay vessels featuring Cretan Hieroglyphic inscriptions or inscribed seal impressions and 80 clay vessels featuring Linear A inscriptions were considered. Sign sequences not clearly identifiable as a script, but possibly imitating it, and isolated signs were excluded.
This paper aims at showing the characteristics which make inscribed pottery, even when inscribed in an undeciphered script, a valuable means of exploring Bronze Age cultural, social, and economic aspects, by focusing on its purposes and the actors involved, at different stages, in producing and consuming it. The topic is approached from a diachronic perspective to pinpoint elements of continuity, innovation, and also interruption between the First and Second Minoan Palace periods, as far as issues of agency and literacy are concerned.

This paper examines the textual evidence for categories related to counting, weighing, and measuring commodities in the Aegean societies. On the ground of a comparative and diachronic study, changes throughout the Middle and the Late Bronze Age are outlined. It is argued that different and autonomous measurement systems coexisted and possibly had their own internal and distinct developments until the Mycenaean Era when a great effort was put into reducing the range of weight and measurement units. The widely shared opinion that Linear B record system implies special units for weighing wool and cloths is questioned since Linear B logogram LANA perfectly fits the major weight series.
The last section of the paper collects and reviews some recent attempts to recognise in the archaeological record evidence for concrete counting in the Late Bronze Age Aegean. This final review shows that one–to–one counting and counters were still used when writing had been already well established.

This paper focuses on the occurrence of sealings impressed by the same seal faces or by very similar seal faces at different archaeological sites in the Late Minoan I period. Sealings are small clay lumps impressed one or more times with one or more seal faces, and at times inscribed with Linear A signs. Such a sealing system was aimed at controlling the mobilization of resources and goods. The existence of a dense network of inter-regional trade in the Neopalatial Period is indeed well documented by the overall archaeological evidence. Since impressions left on clay nodules by the same seals or by very similar seals occur on different types of sealing found at different sites on Crete (Knossos, Sklavokambos, Hagia Triada, Gournia, Zakros, and Chania) and outside Crete (Akrotiri on the island of Thera), we can argue that the inter-regional trade was, at least in part, managed by one or more central administrations. The aim of this paper is to clarify this last point and address the issue of whether or not we can infer the existence of diplomatic and legal bonds between the Knossos Palace and the other main Aegean settlements from the sealings.

Clay sealings are administrative devices well attested in the Aegean during the entire Bronze Age. Their shapes, characteristics and function change through time and, at least until the last phase of the Late Bronze Age, are in part still poorly defined. As for the Neopalatial period, almost all the available material dates to LM I and is grouped in four main types, conventionally called noduli, roundels, flat-based nodules and hanging nodules. The present paper focuses on the hanging nodules, which are in turn divided into Single-hole hanging nodules (also called sting-end nodules) and Two-hole hanging nodules (also called string nodules).  Since the evidence at our disposal is inconsistent, its interpretation largely depends on the way in which data have been collected. My goal here is to suggest some adjustments in the classification methodology, and to highlight possible relationships among different types of documents according to the archaeological contexts in which they have been found.

This paper stems from a study carried out by the author on the Neopalatial sealings housed in two Italian museums, namely the National Archaeological Museum of Florence and the National Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum “L. Pigorini” in Rome. The major aim of this project was the application of digital technologies for the virtual representation and reconstruction of Aegean sealings. Side reflections on shapes, inscriptions, and functions of Neopalatial sealings, which emerged from the autopsy of the material, are here presented

This paper contains remarks on the epigraphic and archaeological evidence for the relative values of Linear A fractions and for the absolute values of the Minoan largest units of measurement. It is chiefly aimed at reviewing updated bibliography on the matter, and understanding whether the similarity between Linear A and B symbols for measures and weight rests on identical values. As far as the concluding remarks are concerned, in the light of recent publications the following values remain the most probable for the most attested Linear A fractions: J = 1/2, D = 1/3, E = 1/4, A = 1/20, H = 3/10, X = 9/20, F = 1/8, B = 1/5, K = 1/16. Mycenaean ideograms for measures conventionally transcribed as T, M, and N seem to derive from Linear A fraction signs conventionally transcribed as K, DD, X, but do not seem to rely on identical values or express analogous ratios. Finally, the occurrence of sign *118 in Linear A is reviewed and contrasted with the use of ideogram *118 and syllabogram 90/wo in Linear B

This paper offers a complete and updated analysis of the textual evidence for fractions, miscalculations, and units of measurement in the Linear A documents.
The following relative values are suggested for the most frequently attested fraction signs: J = ½, D = 1/3, E = ¼, B = 1/5, F = 1/8. The formal resemblance between three Linear B measuring signs and three Linear A fraction signs could suggest K = 1/10, DD = 1/30, X = 1/120, but the possible geometric progression on HT Zd 156 would suggest K = 1/16.
Nine tablets from Ayia Triada show miscalculations (HT 9a, 123a.b, 94a, 118) or other problems in calculations (HT 13, 102, 116, 119, 127). Two tablets seem to contain partial sums (HT 110a e 11a) and may be part of missing sets of tablets (as is the case with HT 10).
The highest units of measurement are implicit in the commodities’ ideograms and smaller quantities are pointed out by fraction signs. Only the unit for weight has a distinguishing symbol, the ideogram AB 118, and it probably has the same value in Linear A and in Linear B (about 31.2 g.). Because the inscription incised on the pithos ZA Zb 3 mentions 32 units of wine and the volume of the pithos is about 556 l, the absolute value of the Minoan unit for liquids could be about 17.4 l, but the analysis of the other two inscribed pithoi with ideograms and numerals (KN Zb <27> and KN Zb 35) shows that the inscriptions on pithoi had administrative purposes and dealt with certain products not exclusively contained in the pithos bearing the inscription. The pithoi were used for long periods, on the contrary the function of the inscriptions was limited to the first stuffing of the vase and this fact explains why the inscriptions on pithoi are occasional and have a low degree of visibility.

Five Linear A tablets, which were found in the so-called “Villa Reale” at Haghia Triada and dated to the LM IB period, are analyzed and compared to Linear B records of equipment and agricultural commodities intended for feasting, in order to recognize similarities and differences. The first (HT 31) is a list of large and regular amounts of different types of vessels. It is analyzed in detail in an attempt to recognize the vessel shapes by means of comparing ideograms and archaeological evidence, and of understanding the aim of such a list. The other four tablets (HT 27a, 89, 94a and 100) are lists divided in two sections, the first recording personnel (ideogram *100/102 and variants) and the second recording three or four agricultural commodities in the same order. Besides the detailed analysis, a new reading, based on a personal examination of the tablet, is suggested for HT 94a.5. Moreover, we try to distinguish between tablets recording food given regularly as substantial rations and tablets recording food offered on a specific occasion, by examining the quantity and quality of the products and comparing them with meaningful Linear B examples. HT 27, 89, 94 and 100 seem linked to specific occasions and record participants and provisions of food, drink and, in one case, perfumed oils. On the other hand, HT 31 seems to be the auditing or collection of the vessels required for feasting. Our general conclusion is that these five tablets reflect the preparation of large Minoan feasts, which served also to reward the workforce and might be given in the context of religious ceremonies.

Text structure of Linear B tablets PY Un 2, 6, 47, 138, 718, and 853 (banqueting lists), and the products and quantities recorded on them are presented and compared with Linear A tablets HT 23, 30, 38, 114, and 121 (miscellaneous records) in order to recognize similarities and differences.
The interpretation of HT 23 is the most doubtful: the presence of wheat, wine and perfumed oil and the amount of wine (ten units) might be suitable for a feast, but the quantity of wheat (less than one unit) seems too small (compare tables 2 and 3 in the paper).  Furthermore, the reading of the ideogram for ox (b side line 2) is very uncertain and unknown commodities are too many to reach a secure conclusion.
As regards the other Linear A tablets (HT 30, 38, 114, and 121), the comparative study presented in this paper suggests that they are lists of banqueting foodstuff, drink and sacrificial animals, with the possible addition of ointments, cloth and vessels, which are products otherwise well documented in feasting contexts.

This paper represents my first attempt to group Linear A tablets into homogeneous groups, by following the example of the standard classification used for Linear B tablets. Linear A tablets from Hagia Triada are classified into different classes indicated by a capital letter, on the basis of their subject matter (shown by the ideograms), then they are in turn grouped into series indicated by a small letter, on the basis of the variation occurring in the arrangement of the text. For example, the A-class is characterized by ideograms for persons and agricultural commodities, while in the Aa series includes lists of people followed by lists of cereals, figs, wine and occasionally oil. The major aims of this type of classification is to facilitate the comparison between Linear A and B tablets and, at the same time, easily detect the peculiarities of the Linear A tablets with regard to their content and layout.
The classification provisionally presented in this article is, however, completely reviewed and corrected in chapter III.2 of my book “Contare a Haghia Triada” (Incunabula Graeca CVII, 2019). In the book, the possibility to form homogeneous sets of documents, according to subject matter, text arrangement, find spot and scribe, is also investigated.

SOME COMMENTS ON TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF LINEAR A TABLETS FROM AYIA TRIADA.
The textual analysis of Linear A tablets presented in this paper is the result of preliminary philological research done in the unpublished dissertation “Administration and accounting systems at Ayia Triada in LM IB” (in Italian). This paper is an examination of syllabic groups and isolated signs which appear most frequently in Linear A tablets from Ayia Triada. It seems wise to not rely on the many suggested decipherments and linguistic interpretations which attribute meanings on the basis of assonance or on unfounded etymology. Rather the interpretation of the written records should be based on the analysis of the textual organisation and on reciprocal relationships among signs. Analysis done so far reveals, for example, that the lists of words which are followed by numbers 1, summed up at the end of the list, are not necessarily made up of personal names (see the case of AB 81-56-55/KU-*56-NU). It also states that the only characteristic that distinguishes the syllabic group AB 31-76/SA-RA2 from many other phonetic groups, which are probably senders or recipients (personal and local names), is the high frequency (the word is attested in 18 tablets) and thus we exclude the hypothesis that this could be a “transactional term”. Given the available traces, we propose to integrate six units at the beginning of HT 100.2, so the sum of the numbers from lines 1-3 should be 99, while the total indicated at line 3 is 97, which can be explained if the 2 associated units, on line 2, at AB 67/KI were a deficit, since the sign would be the abbreviation of AB 67-02/KI-RO, and for this reason would not be included in the sum. We propose also a revision of the inscription KE Zb 3, "*67/KI". The layout is accurate and the sign is traced in a much more naturalistic way than the syllabic sign AB 67. Its shape is rather so similar to the cup, on which it is engraved, to suggest that it indicates the cup, but since an ideographic use of AB 67 would not be otherwise attested, I suggest that, in this particular case, the sign has a purely decorative function. If so it would be not an inscription stricto sensu.

Title: A virtual path through centuries, faces, landscapes, and documents: From Crete to Italy, from proto-history to history. Abstract: This is the presentation of a specific section of the virtual interactive museum built by the Aegean Lab of the University of Florence called MUSINT (https://www.sagas.unifi.it/vp-429-musint-project.html), devoted to
the sealed administrative documents discovered at Hagia Triada (Crete) and housed in three different Museums, the Herakleion Archaeological Museum in Crete (Greece), and two Italian Museums, in Rome and Florence. The aim of this interactive museum is double: 1) to make the access to these findings easier for all people potentially interested,
and 2) to reconstruct the links between these findings and the history of their discovery and shipping to Italy in the early 19th century.

This lecture dealt with the origin and graphic development of signs in the three writing systems used in the Aegean during the 2nd millennium BC: Cretan Hieroglyphic (CH), Linear A (LA), and Linear B (LB). While we can safely say that LB graphic repertoire was largely borrowed from LA, with a few innovations for syllabograms and more logograms, the relationship between CH and LA is less clear and still debated in scholarship. The lecture was organized in three parts: First a recap of the results of two recently published studies regarding the relationship between CH and LA (Ferrara, Montecchi, Valério 2021 and 2022), followed by a personal close-up regarding the percentage of LA syllabograms that seems to derive from CH. Finally, a focus on a selection of image-based signs was aimed at engaging the audience in a discussion about issues related to shapes’ interpretation, identification of physical referents, possible influence from Egypt, and development up to LB.

Abstract of a talk delivered at the Archaeological Society at Athens on the 19th of  January 2018 (Minoan Seminar).
Main topic expanded in the paper "Distribution and Functions of Minoan Inscribed Clay Vessels..." :
https://www.academia.edu/44635186/Distribution_and_Functions_of_Minoan_Inscribed_Clay_Vessels_and_the_Consequences_for_the_Question_of_Literacy_in_the_Bronze_Age_Aegean