"La cosiddetta ‘formula di Archanes’ del contesto della glittica minoica pre- e proto-palaziale: analisi comparata"

In the multidisciplinary study into the Cretan hieroglyphic script on seals, which advocates a synergy between anthropology, archaeology, epigraphy and semiotics, a connection can be postulated among the inscription’s meaning, the shape and the material of the seal on which it was engraved, the way the signs are arranged in the graphic space, the syntax of speci csign-groups, and the sphragistic use of seals. Concerning these very aspects, the so-called hieroglyphic ‘Archanes formula’ reveals a writing habitus completely different from the other hieroglyphic ‘formulas’, thus suggesting a different meaning and scope. This inscription later reappears in Linear A as the much discussed a/ja-sa-sa-ra-me ‘libation formula’. It now seems gener- ally accepted, from a combinatory point of view, that its meaning is linked to the semantic eld of ‘to give/to offer to – the deity’. This in turn allow us to hypothesize that hieroglyphic seals bearing the ‘Archanes formula’ may well have been used as personal status symbols and sphragistic instruments by factions or corporate groups who justi ed their claims to keep surplus resources thus subtracting them from the community as ‘offerings/things delivered to the deity’.