Minoan Linear A words: 7 types of cloth on tablet HT 117 (Haghia Triada) compared with 7 types of cloth in Mycenaean Linear B

Minoan Linear A words: 7 types of cloth on tablet HT 117 (Haghia Triada) compared with 7 types of cloth in Mycenaean Linear B:



My, my, what a co-incidence? Or is it?  7 types of cloth are apparently tallied on tablet HT 117 (Haghia Triada), at least if I have translated the “correct” words corresponding to cloth types in Minoan Linear A (although I am fairly certain I have come close to the mark), and these can be compared with 7 types of cloth in Mycenaean Linear B,



although in the latter case I may have missed 1 or 2 types of cloth. At any rate, no one knows what kinds of textiles/cloth even the words in Mycenaean Linear B refer to, so what does it matter if the 7 Minoan Linear terms for cloth/textiles do not align with their supposed Mycenaean Linear B counterparts? It does not matter one jot, since we will never know what the cloth/textile types are in either syllabary. So take your pick. One is as good as the next.

The main point is that we have apparently catalogued 7 major types of textiles/cloth in Minoan Linear A with a fairly high degree of certainty ( > 60 %).

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Linear B tablet KN 641 R j 02, textiles painted red

Linear B tablet KN 641 R j 02, textiles painted red:



Linear B tablet KN 641 R j 02 repeatedly refers to textiles painted red (3 times) and apparently to textiles painted purple, once only. The word Oapapa appears to be a woman’s name (very likely Minoan), which suits the context quite well. The word kekareareiyo, in the genitive case, also appears to be a type of cloth,  given that it is (probably) followed by the word POpureya (right-truncated after the initial syllabogram PO), meaning that whatever type of cloth it is, it is not purple. The word papeya = farpeia on line 4 is also almost certainly a type of cloth, since it is painted red. The units of textiles referred to are most likely rolls or skeins. Several place names are mentioned, so the textile industry for dying cloth is apparently widespread. The peculiar thing is that the toponyms are all minor place names.

Linear B tablet K 224 and the new military supersyllabogram QE = woven undertunic & the supersyllabogram IQO ZE = a team of horses

Linear B tablet K 224 and the new military supersyllabogram QE = woven undertunic & the supersyllabogram IQO ZE = a team of horses:

Here we encounter the all-new supersyllabogram QE inside (incharged) in the ideogram for linen (under)tunic. It is crucial to understand that this supersyllabogram QE is completely unlike the previous one, QE inside a shield = “a wicker shield”. This new supersyllabogram QE, qeqinomeno, literally means “woven”, hence it refers to “a woven undertunic” or to be more precise, “a woven linen undertunic”, which once again the Mycenaean warriors wore under their toraka = ancient Greek thoraxes, i.e. Their breastplates. These two supersyllabograms are entirely different and must never be confused. This is the one and only instance in Mycenaean Linear B in which the same supersyllabogram appears inside two different ideograms, the first for “a shield” and the second for “an undertunic”. These two supersyllabograms QE + shield and QE + undertunic appear in the military sector only, and in no other sector of the Minoan/Mycenaean economy.