Translation of Linear B Tablets KN 515 R r 11 & KN 516 Rs 12 by Rita Roberts

Translation of Linear B Tablets KN 515 R r 11 & KN 516 Rs 12 by Rita Roberts:

Advertisement

Translation of Linear B tablet KN 558 R I 61 by Rita Roberts

Translation of Linear B tablet KN 558 R I 61 by Rita Roberts:

Translation of Knossos tablet KN LD (1) 573 by Rita Roberts

Translation of Knossos tablet KN LD (1) 573 by Rita Roberts:



This tablet presents several difficulties. While a literal translation is adequate, we must use our imagination to render a fluent translation. For instance, in line 1.we translate “delivered free” as “tariff free”, since in line 2. the cloth is “foreign”, i.e. “imported”, as well as being “decorated”  or more accurately “embroidered”. In addition in 3. the supersyllabogram WI can mean either simply “leather” or “made of leather”, implying that there is a piece made of leather to go with the imported embroidered cloth. So as we can see, this is far from being a straightforward translation. It is in fact one of the most difficult tablets Rita Roberts has ever had to translate. 

Translation of Linear B tablet, KN 581a R ? 03, Knossos, by Rita Roberts

Translation of Linear B tablet, KN 581a R ? 03, Knossos, by Rita Roberts:

Translation of Linear B tablet, KN 586 Rm 11, Knossos, by Rita Roberts

Translation of Linear B tablet, KN 586 Rm 11, Knossos,  by Rita Roberts:



This is far from being a straightforward tablet to decipher. It presents at least 3 difficulties:

1. the presence of the relatively rare logogram RIYO (see the tablet above) in the putative personal name ARIYOA.
2. the presence of digamma (#) twice in the name on line 2, which could be either the putative personal name, KOWOWEYA or RUWOWEYA, depending on how one is able to decipher the first left-truncated syllabogram on that line, which could be either KO or RU.
3. the presence of  what appears to be the rare syllabogram JU at the end of the second line, but we cannot even be sure of that.

The tablet is damaged enough to raise the questions in 2. and 3. above.

Rita Roberts, translation of Knossos Linear B tablet, KN 556 R o 01

Rita Roberts, translation of Knossos Linear B tablet, KN 556 R o 01:

Rita Roberts, translation of Knossos Linear B tablet, KN 555 R o 05

Rita Roberts, translation of Knossos Linear B tablet, KN 555 R o 05:

Translation of Knossos Linear B tablet KN 554 R o 06 by Rita Roberts

Translation of Knossos Linear B tablet KN 554 R o 06 by Rita Roberts:

Translation of Knossos Linear B tablet KN 530 R l 23 by Rita Roberts

Translation of Knossos Linear B tablet KN 530 R l 23 by Rita Roberts:

Translation of Knossos Linear B tablet KN 552 R o 03 by Rita Roberts

Translation of  Knossos Linear B tablet KN 552 R o 03 by Rita Roberts:

Translation of Linear B tablet KN 560 R l 12 by Rita Roberts

Translation of Linear B tablet KN 560 R l 12 by Rita Roberts:

Translation of Knossos tablet KN 529 R x 11 by Rita Roberts

Translation of Knossos tablet KN 529 R x 11 by Rita Roberts:

Translation of Knossos tablet KN 527 R l 51 by Rita Roberts

Translation of Knossos tablet KN 527 R l 51 by Rita Roberts:

Translation of Linear B tablet KN 528 R l 22 by Rita Roberts

Translation of Linear B tablet KN 528 R l 22 by Rita Roberts:

Translation of Knossos tablet KN 712 M p 01 by Rita Roberts

Translation of Knossos tablet KN 712 M p 01 by Rita Roberts:

 

Translation of Linear B tablet KN 708a M h 02 by Rita Roberts

Translation of Linear B tablet KN 708a M h 02 by Rita Roberts:

 

John Chadwick recognized the Linear B supersyllabograms ZE & MO

John Chadwick recognized the Linear B supersyllabograms ZE & MO:





It is quite obvious from the excerpts above from Chadwick’s masterful, Reading the Past: Linear B and Related Scripts, © 1987 that he clearly recognized the supersyllabograms ZE, corresponding to (archaic) Greek zeu/gesi = yoked and MO mo/noj = single. This being the case, it is also more than likely that he was aware of the existence of at least some of the 39 supersyllabograms in Linear B, and this is significant, because it was he who first latched onto Michael Ventris’ amazing discovery in 1952 that the Linear B syllabary was in fact the script of a very ancient and archaic Greek dialect, which we now know as Mycenaean. This raises the question, did Michael Ventris himself know about supersyllabograms? Brilliant as he was, I am greatly inclined to believe he did, but his untimely death at the young age of 34 in a terrible car accident in 1956 never gave him the chance to further develop and refine his initial decipherment of Linear B in 1952. So we shall never know. But very the idea that he may have known is truly tantalizing.

Rita Roberts, translation of Linear B tablet KN 701 Mm 01

Rita Roberts, translation of Linear B tablet KN 701 Mm 01:  



This is the first ever translation of a Linear B vessels or pottery fragment by Rita Roberts for her third, and final, year of university. In her third year, she is expected to master, first, Linear B tablets and fragments dealing with pottery and vessels, and secondly, tablet and fragments on textiles. The first category is the easier of the two to master, and so Rita will be concentrating on vessels and pottery tablets and fragments for the first quarter of her third year.
               

Linear B – KN Dd1171, article by Peter J. Keyse on academia.edu

Linear B - KN Dd1171, article by Peter J. Keyse on academia.edu 

Click on this graphic to view Keyse’s article:




Peter J. Keyse provides a thorough analysis of Linear B tablet  KN Dd 1171 in this fascinating article, which is well worth reading for anyone who is familiar with the Linear B syllabary, and certainly for anyone who is studying Linear B in depth. His article is not without errors. For instance, he deciphers PoRo as the name of someone in what he calls the PoMe “worker class” = a shepherd,



but his interpretation of of PORO is clearly incorrect, as this word  has 3 distinct meanings, one of which is the Linear B word for “a foal”, as demonstrated by Chris Tselentis in his Linear B Lexicon, here:



(The other 2 meanings of POME offered by Tselentis do not fit the context)

while POME is quite obviously Mycenaean Greek for “shepherd”:



Keyse also notes that Michael Ventris identified 3 major styles for incisions - those at Knossos, Pylos and Mycenae. In his own words: The vertical lines are quite faint scratches and not easily seen. The cuts in the clay are ‘under-cut’ i.e. pushed in at an angle . This preoccupation with Linear B scribal hands recurs in a great many articles on Linear B. Keyse also covers the what he ascertains to be the phonetic sounds of the numerics on this tablet. He also emphasizes the nature and particulars characteristics of the scribal hand on this tablet.

But it his conclusion which is most fascinating. He says,

In conclusion: 

What would Dd1171 sound like if read aloud? Po-Ro. 20 OVISm, 72 OVISf. Pa-I-To. Pa 8 OVISm. While it reasonable to say that Linear B was no more the spoken language of its day than ‘double-entry bookkeeping’ speak is for accounting clerks today it is also true to say that accountants do on occasions talk in journals and double-entry (and not only when at dinner parties and down the pub) and they certainly call over inventories to each other. It is clear that Linear B had a sound but perhaps it is unlikely that we can fairly reproduce it today. Considering the importance of numbers within the Linear B archive I find it surprising that no phonic system has been devised to represent them or if devised is not clearly documented in the literature. 

COMMENT by Richard Vallance Janke on the sound, i.e. the general pronunciation of Linear B. In actuality, we probably do have some idea of how Mycenaean Greek was pronounced. Its closest cousin was Arcado-Cypriot, represented both by its own syllabary, Linear C, and by its own archaic alphabet. The Mycenaean and Arcado-Cypriot dialects were much closer phonetically than even Ionic and Attic Greek. Phonological details of the archaic Arcado-Cypriot dialect appear in C.D. Buck, The Greek Dialects, © 1955, 1998. ISBN 1-85399-566-8, on pg. 144. He provides even more information on Arcado-Cypriot on pp. 7-8, and classifies it as an East Greek dialect, pg. 9. This is highly significant, because if Arcado-Cypriot is East Greek, ergo Mycenaean Greek also is. This places both of the archaic East-Greek dialects, Mycenaean and Arcado-Cypriot, firmly in the camp of all East Greek dialects, including Arcadian, Aeolic, Lesbian, Cyprian, Pamphylian, Thessalian, Boeotian, and the much later Ionic and Attic dialects. So it is probably fair to say that we may have at least an idea, even if somewhat inaccurate, of how Mycenaean Greek was pronounced. And this has huge implications for the further study of Mycenaean Greek phonology.

NEW! Link to our POST on how to download Scripta Minoa on academia.edu here

NEW! Link to our POST on how to download Scripta Minoa on academia.edu here.

Just click on: How to download Sir Arthur Evan’s Scripta Minoa, Volumes 1 & 2, Linear B, in their entirety.pdf:

 

and you will immediately be taken to the page on which the article appears, here:

 

 

If you are interested in Scripta Minoa by Sir Arthur Evans at all, you will definitely want to download these 2 volumes, Scripta Minoa, Volume 1 and 2. The Linear B tablets all appear in Volume 2.