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Minoan Linear A: A Provisional Balance Sheet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

John Chadwick
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Extract

The decipherment in 1952 by Michael Ventris of the prehistoric script known as Minoan Linear B at once suggested that here lay the key to the earlier Cretan script called Linear A. Linear B was proved to be a syllabic script which represented, imperfectly but just adequately, the Greek language in a form more archaic than any other surviving records. At an early stage in our short-lived partnership I discussed with Ventris the possibility of applying the results to the older script, and we both made certain experiments; but we concluded that the situation did not allow any easy progress, and being deeply committed to the development of his Linear B theory, we decided to leave this field to others, at any rate for the time being. Since then a great deal of work on Linear A has been published by other scholars, almost all of it based upon the decipherment of Linear B, and equally inspired by the success which attended the solution of the major problem. It is not, perhaps, too soon to review some of these attempts and appraise the progress made so far. We are clearly far from an agreed solution; but there are encouraging signs that the true solution is not too far beyond our grasp, though I for one doubt whether it can be achieved by mere ingenuity. I should like to emphasize at the outset that I am completely neutral in the controversies which are raging, and this account is intended to be quite impartial.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 33 , Issue 132 , December 1959 , pp. 269 - 278
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1959

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References

1 G. Pugliese Carratelli, ‘Le iscrizioni preelleniche di Haghia Triada’, Monumenti Antichi 40 (1944) cols. 422–610.

2 A. Furumark, ‘Linear A und die altkretische Sprache’, (duplicated), Deutsches Archāologisches Institut, Berlin, 1956.

3 Words are quoted here for convenience of printing not in Linear A, but in the inferred syllabic values described below.

4 HT 118; is + 6 + 4 + 10 is totalled as 30; cf. C. Gordon, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 17 (1958), pp. 245–55; E. Peruzzi, Minos, v, i, p. 9.

5 e.g. Pylos Jn 658: the product of 5 LB X 16 (= 80 LB) is written as 3 TALENTS 20 LB, instead of 2 TALENTS 20 LB (1 TALENT = 30 LB).

6 Pylos Ta641, Tn996; Knossos K 740.

7 Counting K as a Latin letter, and allowing the equation C = I.

8 See note 2.

9 G. Pugliese Carratelli, ‘La decifrazione dei testi micenei e il problema della Lineare A,’ Annuario della Scuola Archaeologica di Atene, 30–2, pp. 7–21.

10 G. P. Goold and M. Pope, ‘Preliminary investigations into the Cretan Linear A Script’ (duplicated), Cape Town, 1955.

11 Documents in Mycenaean Greek, p. 69.

12 V. Georgiev, Le déchiffrement des inscriptions crétoises en Linéaire A, and La position du dialecte crétois des inscriptions en Linéaire A, Studia Linguistica in honorem Acad. Stephani Mladenov, Sophia, 1957, PP. 419–50.

13 See note 9.

14 P. Meriggi, ‘Primi Elementi di Minoico A’ (Suplemento a Minos), Salamanca, 1956.

15 See note 2.

16 L. R. Palmer, ‘Luvian and Linear A,’ Transactions of the Philological Society, 1958, pp. 75–100.

17 C. Gordon, ‘Notes on Minoan Linear A,’ ANTIQUITY, 1957, pp. 124–30; ‘Akkadian Tablets in Minoan Dress; ANTIQUITY 1957, pp. 237–40. See also his letter in ANTIQUITY, 1958, pp. 215–16; and ‘Minoan Linear A’, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 17 (1958), pp. 245–55.

18 M. Pope, ‘The Linear A Question’, ANTIQUITY, 1958, pp. 97–99.

19 ‘On the language of Linear A,’ Minos, vi, i (1958), pp. 16–23.

20 S. Davis, ‘The Language of the Linear A Script of Minoan Crete and its Morphology’ (duplicated), London Institute of Classical Studies, 1959. See now Greece and Rome, N.S. 6 (1959), pp. 20–30.

21 G. Neumann, ‘Zwei minoische Gefässbezeichnungen,’ Glotto 37 (1958), pp. 106–12.

22 Athenaeus 784 a/b; cf. H. H. Schaeder, SPAW, 1935, p. 491, n. 1. (I am indebted to Professor O. Masson for these references.)

23 M. Pope, Minos, VI, i, p. 21, n. 3. Professor Pope has kindly informed me that the join was there wrongly credited to Bennett; it was proposed by Mr W. Brice, and confirmed by the authorities at Iraklion Museum, but has not yet been published.

24 Mention should be made here of the useful studies by E. Peruzzi: ‘Elenchi di persone da Haghia Triada’, Parola del Passato, 51 (1956), pp. 434–8; ‘L’iscrizione HT 13’, Minos, v (1957), pp. 35–40; ‘Note minoiche’, Minos vi, (1958), pp. 9–15; ‘L’iscrizione HT 31’, Minoica (Sundwall Festschrift), Berlin, 1958, pp. 287–93. His ‘Recent interpretations of Minoan (Linear A),’ Word 15 (1959), pp. 313–24, reached me only after this article was written.