Multimedia at Minoan Myrtos–pyrgos, Crete

Abstract

The Minoan settlement of Myrtos–Pyrgos on the south coast of Crete has produced five seals (and one unfinished seal), 11 seal impressions on clay vessels, two roundels and one nodulus, as well as two Linear A tablets and two inscriptions on clay vessels. Dating between Early Minoan II and Late Minoan IB, these documents form valuable evidence for the development of sealing, marking and writing practices at a small but important rural settlement, including a penchant for using antique seals for stamping jars. They contribute too to understanding the regional hierarchical and, probably, political cultures of Crete throughout this long period, especially in the late Protopalatial phase of Middle Minoan IIB, when there seems to have been a special relationship with Malia on the north coast, and again in Late Minoan IB, when there was a relationship with Knossos. Finally, the paper discusses a pithos fragment from Tel Haror in Israel, which appears to have an inscription in Cretan Hieroglyphic or Linear A, and may well have been a product of Myrtos or nearby.