https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/Recent content in Linear A and Linear B on Teddy Rook Bookhttps://teddyrookbook.com/img/share.jpghttps://teddyrookbook.com/img/share.jpgHugoenhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/aegean-world/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/aegean-world/Crete, the Cyclades and mainland Greece, linked by the sea, in the Bronze Age (about 3000 to 1100 BC). Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/minoans/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/minoans/Crete's Bronze Age civilization, named by Arthur Evans after the legendary King Minos; we do not know what they called themselves. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/cretan-palaces/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/cretan-palaces/Knossos, Phaistos, Malia and Zakros: big buildings around a central court that stored goods, held workshops and kept records. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/mycenaeans/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/mycenaeans/Greek speakers of the mainland from about 1600 BC, with palaces at Mycenae, Pylos, Thebes and Tiryns; by about 1450 BC Greek speakers ran Knossos too. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/aegean-dating/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/aegean-dating/Periods named from pottery styles (Early, Middle and Late Minoan; Helladic on the mainland), tied to years by radiocarbon and by links to Egypt. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/end-of-palaces/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/end-of-palaces/Around 1200 BC the mainland palaces were destroyed, Pylos by fire, and writing disappeared from Greece for about four centuries. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/kinds-of-writing/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/kinds-of-writing/Three ways to write: a sign for a word (logogram), a sign for a syllable (syllabogram), or a sign for a single sound (a letter of an alphabet). Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/how-syllabary-works/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/how-syllabary-works/One sign per syllable: a vowel alone (a) or a consonant plus a vowel (ka, ke, ki, ko, ku), so the signs fill a grid of consonants and vowels. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/cretan-hieroglyphs/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/cretan-hieroglyphs/Crete's earliest script, used mostly on seals from about 2100 or 1900 BC to about 1700 BC; it overlapped with Linear A and is still unread. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/aegean-scripts/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/aegean-scripts/Linear A gave rise to Linear B; on Cyprus, Cypro-Minoan and then the Cypriot syllabary, which wrote Greek and was read in the 1870s. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/greek-alphabet/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/greek-alphabet/After the palaces fell no one wrote in Greece for about four centuries; around 800 BC Greeks borrowed the Phoenician letters and added vowels. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/evans-knossos/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/evans-knossos/Evans began digging at Knossos in March 1900, found thousands of clay tablets, named Linear A and Linear B, and believed their language was not Greek. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/blegen-pylos/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/blegen-pylos/In 1939 Blegen found the archive room of the palace at Pylos on the first day of digging; after the war, in 1952, his team found many more tablets. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/clay-and-fire/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/clay-and-fire/The tablets were sun-dried clay meant for one season's records; the fires that destroyed the palaces baked them and saved them. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/sign-numbers/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/sign-numbers/Emmett Bennett sorted the signs into a standard list; scholars still name a sign by its number, like *08, and write an unread sign that way. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/kober-triplets/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/kober-triplets/In the 1940s Alice Kober showed that Linear B words change their endings, using sets of three related forms, without guessing any sounds. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/the-grid/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/the-grid/Michael Ventris placed signs in a grid so that signs in one row shared a consonant and signs in one column a vowel, before knowing any of the sounds. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/place-names/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/place-names/Ventris tried known Cretan place names on words found only at Knossos: ko-no-so (Knossos), a-mi-ni-so (Amnisos) and tu-ri-so (Tylissos), and the grid gave Greek. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/announcement-1952/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/announcement-1952/Ventris announced on BBC radio on 1 July 1952 that Linear B was Greek; with John Chadwick he published the case in 1953. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/tripod-tablet/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/tripod-tablet/On Pylos tablet Ta 641, read in 1953, the words read by Ventris's values describe the pictured vessels: ti-ri-po beside a tripod, and cups with four, three or no handles. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/vowels/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/vowels/a, e, i, o and u: five signs that stand for a vowel alone, the first column of the grid. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/first-rows/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/first-rows/Each row is one consonant with the five vowels: da de di do du, ka ke ki ko ku, and so on. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/more-rows/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/more-rows/The rest of the grid: q for sounds like kw, r for both r and l, z for a sound like dz, and the glides j and w; some rows have gaps. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/special-signs/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/special-signs/Signs beyond the basic grid: a2 (ha), a3 (ai), au, pu2 (phu), ra2, ra3, ro2, ta2, and signs for clusters like dwe, dwo, nwa, pte, twe and two. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/unread-signs/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/unread-signs/About fifteen rare signs, such as *18, *47 and *63, have no agreed value; a few, like *65 (perhaps ju) and *79 (perhaps zu), have proposed values. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/open-syllables/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/open-syllables/Linear B can only write syllables that end in a vowel, so Greek words full of consonant clusters and final consonants must be bent to fit. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/dropped-consonants/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/dropped-consonants/Final consonants, and l, m, n, r and s before another consonant, are not written: ka-ko is khalkos (bronze), pa-ta is panta (all), pe-mo is sperma (seed). Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/empty-vowels/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/empty-vowels/Other consonant clusters are split with a vowel borrowed from the next syllable: ko-no-so for Knossos, ti-ri-po for tripos, a-re-ka-sa-da-ra for Alexandra. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/sound-mergers/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/sound-mergers/r stands for r and l; p, k and q signs each cover a voiced, voiceless and aspirated sound; only d and t are kept apart; h is usually not written. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/glides-diphthongs/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/glides-diphthongs/Between vowels the glides j and w often appear (i-je-re-u, hiereus, priest); the u of a diphthong is written (au, eu), but the i of ai, ei, oi is often left out. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/logograms/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/logograms/Signs for things (man, woman, horse, tripod, wheat, wine) that stand before a number and say what is counted; they are not read as part of a sentence. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/sex-marks/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/sex-marks/Small marks show the sex of animals: a ram has two short bars across its stem, a ewe a forked stem; scholars write them OVISm and OVISf. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/numerals/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/numerals/Strokes for ones, bars for tens, circles for hundreds, circles with rays for thousands; you add them up, and the order of the groups does not change the value. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/measures/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/measures/Dry goods: a unit, then T (a tenth), V (a sixth of T) and Z (a quarter of V); liquids: a unit, S (a third), V and Z; weights from the talent (L) down. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/tablet-forms/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/tablet-forms/Page-shaped tablets for lists, palm-leaf tablets for single entries, clay labels for baskets, sealings, and words painted on jars. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/scribal-hands/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/scribal-hands/Each scribe's handwriting can be recognized; scholars count about 66 hands at Knossos and 45 at Pylos and number them. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/reading-a-tablet/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/reading-a-tablet/Most lines follow one pattern: a word or name, then a logogram, then a number; a word divider separates words. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/words-descendants/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/words-descendants/ti-ri-po is tripous (tripod), di-pa is depas (cup), e-ra-wo is elaion (oil), wa-na-ka is anax (lord): many Mycenaean words live on in later Greek. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/case-endings/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/case-endings/Some endings show through the spelling: -o-jo for the genitive of o-stems (te-o-jo, of the god), -e and -i for datives (di-we, to Zeus), -pi for an instrumental plural. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/tablet-places/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/tablet-places/ko-no-so (Knossos), pa-i-to (Phaistos), a-mi-ni-so (Amnisos), ku-do-ni-ja (Kydonia, modern Chania), pu-ro (Pylos) and te-qa (Thebes) are named on the tablets. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/gods-named/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/gods-named/po-se-da-o (Poseidon), di-we and di-wo (Zeus), e-ra (Hera), di-wo-nu-so (Dionysus), e-ma-a2 (Hermes) and a-ta-na-po-ti-ni-ja (Mistress Athena) appear by name. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/palace-economy/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/palace-economy/The tablets track what came in and went out: flocks and wool, oil and perfume, rations for workers, bronze for smiths, chariots and armor. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/wanax-lawagetas/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/wanax-lawagetas/The wa-na-ka (wanax) ruled the palace state; the ra-wa-ke-ta (lawagetas) ranked next; a qa-si-re-u (later basileus, king) was a lesser local official. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/offerings/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/offerings/Tablets list offerings of oil, honey and gold vessels to gods; Pylos tablet Tn 316 records gold vessels and people brought to Zeus, Hera and others. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/what-they-dont-say/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/what-they-dont-say/No poems, laws, letters or histories survive in Linear B; the tablets record one season's business, so much about these people remains unknown. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/linear-a-corpus/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/linear-a-corpus/The Minoan script, used about 1800 to 1450 BC: about 1,400 short inscriptions, most from Hagia Triada, Zakros, Chania and Phaistos. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/shared-signs/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/shared-signs/Many Linear A signs look like Linear B signs, so scholars read them with the Linear B values by convention; this is a working guess about sounds. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/la-numbers/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/la-numbers/Linear A counts with the same decimal marks as Linear B and also has fraction signs; J as one half is widely accepted, while values for the others are proposed. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/ku-ro/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/ku-ro/The word read ku-ro stands before a number that equals the sum of the list above it, so it is widely accepted to mean "total"; ki-ro also recurs in lists, its meaning uncertain. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/libation-formula/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/libation-formula/Stone offering tables from sanctuaries repeat a set of words, such as a-sa-sa-ra-me (also ja-sa-sa-ra-me), i-pi-na-ma and si-ru-te; their meanings are unknown. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/why-unread/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/why-unread/The texts are few and short, the Minoan language matches no known language, and there is no bilingual text like the Rosetta Stone. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/judging-claims/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/judging-claims/A good decipherment makes testable predictions, reads the whole corpus the same way, fits place names and new finds, and convinces specialists. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladderhttps://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/side-by-side/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://teddyrookbook.com/ancient-scripts/linear-a-and-b/side-by-side/The same sign shapes, different languages: what we know about each script, what we don't, and why Linear B could be read when Linear A cannot. Linear A and Linear B · Ancient Scripts Ladder