A Fragmentary Libation Table With Inscription In Linear A From Petsophas, Palaikastro (Pk Za 27)
Résumé
This article is the first publication of a fragmentary libation table with inscription in Linear A showing an example of the socalled 'libation formula'. The signs, the text and the formula of the inscription are presented and discussed. I. THE OBJECT This fragment of a stone libation table inscribed with Linear A (Fig. 1) is a surface find from the Petsophas peak sanctuary. It was found in the course of the 2012 survey season, 1 and reported to our Ephoria representative before being recovered and brought to the apotheke. 2 Previously, eleven libation tables have been found and published from Petsophas (Davis 2014, 17-28). J.L. Myres found four of these (PK Za 9-12) during the excavations of the early 20th century, although their inscriptions were not detected until some time later (Davis 2014, ibid.). A further five (PK Za 14-18) were discovered by C. Davaras when he excavated the site in the 1970s. Two more examples were actually found lower down the north slope, one in 1904 outside a small cave (PK Za 8), and the other in the 1962-3 excavation seasons of M.R. Popham and L.H. Sackett (PK Za 20) (Davis 2014, ibid.). The new fragment is of serpentine like the other libation tables from Petsophas (Davis 2014, 346-360). In terms of typology, this must be of the rectangular kind (type A) defined by P. Muhly (1981; see also Davis 2014, 68-75). 3 B. Davis suggests that of the eleven previously known examples from Petsophas, eight are rectangular and three of the round type. Of the rectangular examples, he is further able to identify two as having a stepped base (type A.V in Muhly's scheme) and three with a pedestal base (type A.VIII) (Davis 2014, 72, tab. 12). The extent of preservation of this piece-just a part of the rim-makes it difficult to reconstruct the form of the base, whether stepped or with pedestal. The typology as well as the comparison with the other libation tables from Petsophas strongly suggest that the object is Neopalatial in date. II. THE INSCRIPTION