Among the logograms of Logograms are the farm animals: sheep, goats, pigs, cattle and horses. The palaces cared a great deal whether an animal was male or female, because that decided what it was good for: rams for wool, ewes for lambs and milk. So the scribes marked it.
Key idea
| Male | Female | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 𐂇 | OVISm, ram | 𐂆 | OVISf, ewe |
| 𐂉 | CAPm, he-goat | 𐂈 | CAPf, she-goat |
| 𐂋 | SUSm, boar | 𐂊 | SUSf, sow |
| 𐂍 | BOSm, bull | 𐂌 | BOSf, cow |
| 𐂅 | EQUm, stallion | 𐂄 | EQUf, mare |
Why the sheep tablets matter
Knossos alone has many hundreds of sheep tablets, covering flocks of tens of thousands of animals across Crete. Many flocks are recorded as males, which scholars take to be mostly wethers (castrated males kept for their wool). Those flocks supplied the wool for a large cloth industry recorded on other tablets. By counting OVISm and OVISf across the archive, scholars can see how the palace ran its wool business.
Reading the counts
A sheep line usually has several parts: a man's name (the shepherd), a place, then one or more animal signs, each with its own number. A flock might be written OVISm 80 OVISf 20, so you read each logogram with the number right after it: 80 rams and 20 ewes. Add the numbers when a question asks for the whole flock.
Worked example: Count the flock
- Each logogram has its own number: 80 rams, 20 ewes.
- 80 + 20.
Answer: 100 sheep.
Why it works
Common mistake
Worked example: Ram or ewe?
- pa-i-to is Phaistos, a place.
- OVISf is the sheep sign with the female mark.
- The number is 50.
Answer: 50 ewes, at Phaistos.
Worked example: Write it
- Goat is CAP (from Latin capra).
- Male adds m.
Answer: CAPm