A Companion to Linear B - The University of Texas at Austin

106 T.G. PALAIMA §12.2.2.2
to reinforce the stability of the tablets. When the tablets were accidentally
baked in the intense fires that preserved them, much of the fibrous material was
itself burned away. In a few cases, however, study of fragments of leaf-shaped
tablets at Pylos revealed that some of the fibrous material was still preserved
in what would have been the interior of the tablets when they were intact.
§12.2.2.2. Sealings and labels
Fig. 12.43. Drawing of an
apprentice rolling out clay
(after SJÖQUIST – ÅSTRÖM
1985, frontispiece)
A ‘sealing’ in the Mycenaean palatial period is a small lump of clay that can
be wedged into the space created by the tips of the thumb, index finger and
middle finger, when they are brought together, or, as Melena has demonstrated,
it can be pressed into the space between the index and middle finger where they
join the palm of the hand (Fig. 12.44). The lumps of clay are formed around
the knot in a string that is thereby ‘secured’ from being tampered with without
anyone noticing. The string comes out of the sealing (also called a nodule from
the Latin word for the ‘knot’ that is literally encased in the clay that surrounds
it) at each of its ends. These sealings or nodules thus guarantee the integrity of
whatever objects they were attached to. They bear seal impressions that specify
who the responsible party or entity was for whatever transaction is being conducted
by means of these devices. There are many uninscribed sealings. 136
136 See PALAIMA 1987a for an overview of inscribed and uninscribed sealings and their purposes.
The largest group of inscribed sealings are those from Thebes that are connected with sacrificial
animals. Even in this set of sixty-one sealings, five were uninscribed. See PITEROS –
OLIVIER – MELENA 1990.