Rita Roberts’ translation of Linear B tablet KN 342 J e 01 concerning olive oil

Rita Roberts’ translation of Linear B tablet KN 342 J e 01 concerning olive oil:

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Minoan Linear A tablet HT 88 (Haghia Triada), ripe figs & fig gatherers in pay/hired: the next decisive step in the partial decipherment of Linear A

Minoan Linear A tablet HT 88 (Haghia Triada), ripe figs & fig gatherers in pay/hired: the next decisive step in the partial decipherment of Linear A




Minoan Linear A tablet HT 88 (Haghia Triada), which was quite out of my reach just a week ago, has now become accessible to decipherment. This is a direct result of the fact that I had already deciphered these words on this tablet, namely, reza (standard unit of measurement), kiro (owed) & datare (fig overseer). This outcome has for the first time facilitated the task of deciphering Linear A tablets in and of themselves which do not contain enough clues or indicators to trigger a plausible decipherment. Thus, I was able to extrapolate 2 news terms from this tablet alone.

kikina ostensibly means “purple” or, more accurately, “ripe” = Linear B popureyo.
pajare = “in pay” or “hired”  = Linear B emito.

This development may prove to be decisive, triggering a cascading domino effect, opening up preciously inaccessible vocabulary as a direct result of the 88 terms I have already managed to decipher, more or less accurately.

Here is an abbreviated version of Prof. John G. Younger’s version of HT 88:

Which of atare/datara/uta2 in Minoan Linear A = Mycenaean Linear B opisuko “a figs overseer” ?

Which of  atare/datara/uta2 in Minoan Linear A = Mycenaean Linear B opisuko “a figs overseer” ?



In Minoan Linear A, at first glance there appear to be two possibilities  for “figs overseer”, [1] atare & [2] datara = Mycenaean Linear B opisuko. The third word appearing in the illustration above, uta2 (utai) appears to refer to something else relating to figs, possibly “harvesting of figs”. But this troubles me quite a lot, since this last word is so different from the first two. It would seem more likely that the word for “harvesting of figs” would be something like atareuta2 (atareutai) or datarauta2 (dataraiutai). The next problem facing us is which word, atare or datara, actually refers to a “fig overseer”? This is no idle question. The term atare would appear to be masculine, whereas datara seems to be feminine, thereby disqualifying it as meaning “fig overseers”. On the other hand, datara may not be feminine at all, in which case it does qualify.  Moreover, it prepends the letter “d” to a minor variation of atare. So which one refers to a “fig overseer” and which to a “fig gatherer”? ... or perhaps it is even possible that neither of them refers to either, leaving the actual word for “fig overseer” as uta2 (utai). Tricky. I shall have to list all 3, of which atare may mean either “fig overseer” or  fig gatherer” and datare the same, or vice versa. I reserve uta2 (utai) as an alternative for “fig overseer”. 

These 3 words dilute to entries seventy (70) seventy-one (71).