N.inv. Pigorini/ Serie W

71963 / HT Wa 1407

The single-hole hanging nodule  71963 / HT Wa 1407 bears a seal impression representing “Two running antelopes” (Alberti et alii 2013, 11).

The nodule bears one Linear A sign on face A.

AB 77/ KA

The sign recurs alone on one-hole hanging nodules n. inv. 71962 e n. inv 71963; it could be an abbreviation for a product, even though it recurs on tablets DEALING with people as ethnic, job, title, and could have value of ideogram as in the roundel Wc 3013, WHERE is used with acrophonic or ideographic value (Perna 2000, 212; Negri 2002-2003, 99, Montecchi 2019, 284-285).

Apparently, this sign was used with different meanings in various contexts. It might refer to a commodity (i.e. an agricultural or textile item), to a specific personnel category (Negri 2002-2003, 100; Montecchi 2019, 282).

This single-hole hanging nodule was discovered in the North-West Quarter, between the Room 13, also known as “Stanza dei Sigilli”, and the Portico 11, like most of the cretulae, probably fallen from the upper floor, which collapsed in the fire that destroyed the Villa (Halbherr 1903, 30; Levi 1925, 73; for the provenance of administrative documents See Militello 1988, 1992, 2001, 2011).

Measures 2.6 cm x 1.4 cm x 1.4 cm.

Scribe —

The seal impression HT 79 recurs 43 times. It occurs three times in the “Pigorini corpus” (Del Freo 2002-2003,62).

The motif represents two goats, one male one female, clashing horns while they are at the “flying gallop scheme”. The seal must have been of an important official, indeed the impression fits with a golden ring (Weingarten 1988, 106).

The goat, in the Minoan iconography, perceived as part of the Cretan landscape, is a widespread motif. As agrimi, the wild Cretan goat, it recurs in the religious field as sacrificial animal or deities’ companion, but it is also symbol of fertility, and takes part of the hunting scenes often as pray (Polinsky 2018, 33; Blakolmer 2016, 105-107). The “flying gallop scheme” is used to convey the strengthness and the velocity of the animal, showing its body stretching; the motif has an aegean origin in the MM I, but with its variants spreads in Egypt, Syria, and Ciprus, continuing in the myceanean art in the TM IIIB (Crowley 1977, 107-111).

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