Question

In Neopalatial Crete (c. 1750–1450 BCE), Minoan administrative centers utilized two distinct clay sealing formats to monitor commodities: flat-based nodules, which were pressed directly against parchment or leather documents secured with cord, and 'noduli'—small, unattached lumps of clay impressed with a single seal but bearing no string impressions or parchment marks. While flat-based nodules served to verify the intactness of sealed archival rolls deposited in central palace repositories, noduli were routinely recovered in non-palatial villa sites and domestic quarters, often bearing incised Linear A numerical tallies on their reverses. Early twentieth-century epigraphers assumed noduli were discarded receipts for goods already disbursed to provincial elites. However, recent petrographic analysis of the clay fabrics demonstrates that while the parchment-securing nodules were consistently manufactured from fine, centrally processed clays identical to those of palatial pottery, noduli were fabricated exclusively from coarse, locally sourced clays native to the specific outlying hamlets where they were discovered. Moreover, the seal impressions on noduli in provincial sites match seal impressions found on palatial storeroom labels in Knossos and Phaistos.

Which of the following inferences regarding Neopalatial Minoan administration is most strongly supported by the passage?