The Supersyllabogram ZA with no less than 3 others, O, KI & PE! Knossos Tablet KN 927 F s 01


The Supersyllabogram ZA with no less than 3 others, O, KI & PE! Knossos Tablet KN 927 F s 01 (Click to ENLARGE):

Knossos Tablet KN 927 F a 01 rams

Although this tablet looks a little confusing (messy?) at first, it really is not all that difficult to translate, when you come down to it. We just need to separate the men from the boys, or the mature rams from the young ones, so to speak. This tablet (above) illustrates exactly how I accomplished this without too much fuss. A small word of explanation: if 3 rams have just been introduced to the flock this year, I presume that that they are young rams, otherwise why would there be so few of them to introduce. And that is why I rendered the text the way I did.

It is astonishing but also really space saving, that the scribe had the presence of mind to use 4 supersyllabograms on one tablet! Now that is what I call saving precious space on what is admittedly a small tablet, as most Linear B tablets are. Yet again, this tablet is a superb example of how (some) Linear B scribes resorted to sypersyllabograms in a big way, as a shorthand, making shorthand a notable characteristic of Linear B (let alone with its prolific use of logograms and ideograms).       

Richard
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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

4 thoughts on “The Supersyllabogram ZA with no less than 3 others, O, KI & PE! Knossos Tablet KN 927 F s 01”

  2. Fantastic translation Richard. I never would have worked that one out. I am back from my holiday now and anxious to catch up so I will have to go through all your posts. The six fragments you gave me I did not get much time to work on while away but will now concentrate and get back to you as soon as possible.

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    1. Why thank you. I am humbled. You sure know how to encourage me, because I often get
      discouraged, so keep it up. Glad you had such fun on your holidays. I expected you would.

      byeeeee

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      1. It is my absolute pleasure, Rita. I do this for ANY good friend, you and Yann included, and it sure looks like James is coming right into our inner circle as well. His finds of the tablet, and shards too is astounding! He can go a long way with these amazing artifacts.

        He has asked me to ask you to post the photo of the shard he sent you.

        Thanks!

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