r's work at Knossos settled that question for ever,
and revealed the existence of more than one form of writing. Since
then the material has been rapidly accumulating, and at present the
number of objects--tablets, labels, and other articles-inscribed
with the various Cretan scripts can be counted by thousands.

[Footnote *: Perrot et Chipiez, 'La Grece primitive: l'Art mycenien,'
p. 985.]

The earliest form of Minoan writing that can be traced consists of
rude pictographic symbols engraved upon bead-seals and gems. This
primitive pictographic writing is characteristic of the Early Minoan
period, and throughout the succeeding period of Middle Minoan it was
gradually developed into a hieroglyphic system which is believed
to present some analogies to the Hittite form of writing. But in
the latest phases of the Third Middle Minoan period there begins
to appear, at Knossos and elsewhere, a series of inscriptions in a
very different style. The characters are no longer hieroglyphic,
but have become definitely linear, and are arranged very much as
in ordinary writing. In general they are incised upon the clay
tablets of which so many hundreds have been found, but there are
several instances in which they have been written with ink, apparently
with a reed pen, as in the case of the two Middle Minoan III. cups
found at Knossos, which bear linear inscriptions executed before the
clay was fired. While in the case of the hieroglyphic inscriptions
the characters run indifferently from left to right, or from right
to left, in this linear script their fixed direction is the usual
one, from left to right. Suffixes were apparently used to indicate
gender, and pictorial signs indicating the contents of the document
are also in use, though more sparingly than they came to be in
the later form of script. Such signs as occur seem to show that
the documents in which they are found mainly related to matters
of business. The saffron-flower, various vessels, tripods, and
balances, probably for the weighing of precious metals, occur most
frequently among these determinatives.

At Knossos this form of linear writing, Dr. Evans's Class A, appears
to have had a comparatively short vogue. Documents belonging to it
are only found in the particular stratum which is connected with
Middle Minoan III., and are to be dated, according to Dr. Evans's
latest revision of the chronology, not later than 1600 B.C., the
period at which Middle Minoan III. clos