Semiotics of Minoan scripts and their materiality

What is it about?

In this paper I suggest that the evolution of the earliest form of Minoan writing coincides with the transformation of the Minoan seal repertoire towards iconicity. Although the initial stages of the development of the "Archanes Script"(a sequence of five signs which may have conveyed phonetic values) are elusive, it is tempting to see its emergence on seals with an emblematic function as meaningful. I have argued that the constituent signs of this 'formula' possibly evolved out of a gradual transformation from a representational to a symbolic function, as exemplified by specific seal-groups of the Late Prepalatial period (late 3rd millennium B.C.). The contention that emblematic devices, such as seals, may have been one of the sources of inspiration for symbolic visual imagery is reinforced by cross-cultural analogies relating to the earliest stages of Near Eastern scripts (Proto-cuneiform, Proto-Elamite). At the same time, the combination of signs with a pictorial character (semasiographic signs?) and pure script signs (the first glottographic signs) on a few seals of the "Archanes Script Group" may reflect a successful emulation of the earliest imported Egyptian scarabs.

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Why is it important?

In traditional narratives of Minoan archaeology, the visual display of writing is usually overlooked. Nonetheless, recent cross-disciplinary studies on the materiality of writing have demonstrated that attention should be directed not only to the written messages of inscriptions, the signified, but also to the physical aspects of their material supports, such as size, shape, material and functional aspects; these aspects were probably also perceived by past actors as signifiers employed and transmitted within various material and ideological contexts. Thus, special emphasis is placed on artefacts that possibly served as symbolic devices, mainly Hieroglyphic sealstones and their impressions on clay. Semiotic relationships that are grounded in the material and symbolic properties of the artefacts themselves are particularly examined. For example, how did scale, directionality, alignment and the small scale of writing inform the creation of stone, metal and clay objects inscribed in Cretan Hieroglyphic or Linear A? Were these parameters pertinent to the perception of the inscriptions thereon by elites or by other segments of the population?

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