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CHAPTER XIII - THE LINEAR SCRIPTS AND THE TABLETS AS HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
Sterling Dow  and
John Chadwick
Edited by
I. E. S. Edwards ,
C. J. Gadd ,
N. G. L. Hammond  and
E. Sollberger
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Summary

ISOLATION OF MINOAN–MYCENAEAN LITERACY

If some fairly high degree of literacy, and at least a modest production of literature, are to be expected in an original and in other respects notable culture, such as the Minoan in its great days, then the Minoan culture must be considered odd. As with all peoples before a certain measure of literacy is attained, doubtless there was ‘oral literature’, but about Minoan oral compositions nothing much can be inferred. When at length writing had been learned, at least writing for some purposes, the writing down of creative literature seems not to have been one of the purposes. Of written literature, indeed, not one scrap survives, nor is there any evidence pointing to the existence of any written literature. Oral compositions may well have been common right down to the end. Certainly there was no high degree of literacy.

For the understanding of this, many necessary facts are known only partially, and many more are lost. Theory too is weak. About literacy itself, generally, as a phenomenon, knowledge is rudimentary. There is no published study that has both scope and value. We know little of what to expect, how to understand. This is particularly true of the earlier stages. Until enough is known so that sharp delimitations are possible, it seems best to include a wide range of graphic expression and communication.

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The Cambridge Ancient History
, pp. 582 - 626
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1973

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