The Decipherment of Linear B: PY Ta 641


Folks, simply have to read Gretchen Leonhart’s superb translation of Pylos 641-1952, the very first tablet Michael Ventris deciphered. Just click on the Link in this post to jump to her Blog, Konoso, where you can read her translation in its entirety.

Konosos

Source > The Pylos Tablets: Texts of the Inscriptions found 1939-1954, ed. Emmett L. Bennett, Jr., Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1955, pg.66. PY Ta 641

The Tripod Tablet

An inventory of vessels and contents
Scribe 2

Note the determinatives–tripods and vases–at the end of each line and the numerical correspondences of their projections to certain preceding words in each line.  For example, compare, with ti-ri-owe,  the vase with three projections.

.1a   ke-re-a2 *201 VAS[     [See the superscript at the end of the first line.]
.1b  ti-ri-po-de , a3-ke-u , ke-re-si-jo , we-ke *201VAS 2 ti-ri-po , e-me , po-de , o-wo-we *201VAS 1 ti-ri-po , ke-re-si-  jo , we-ke , a-pu , ke-ka-u-me-no[
.2  qe-to *203VAS 3 di-pa , me-zo-e , qe-to-ro-we *202VAS 1 di-pa-e , me-zo-e , ti-ri-o-we-e *202VAS 2 di-pa , me-wi-jo , qe-to-ro-we *202VAS 1 [
.3  di-pa , me-wi-jo , ti-ri-jo-we *202VAS 1 di-pa , me-wi-jo , a-no-we *202VAS 1

  1. a3-ke-u |
  2. a-no-we | ενος (enos) | last year’s, *one-year
  3. a-pu | ἀφύ(ω) (aphuo) |…

View original post 276 more words

Published by

vallance22

Historical linguist, Linear B, Mycenaean Greek, Minoan Linear A, Arcado-Cypriot Linear C, ancient Greek, Homer, Iliad, only Blog ENTIRELY devoted to Linear B on Internet; bilingual English- French, read Latin fluently, read Italian & ancient Greek including Linear B well, Antikythera Mechanism