After The Palace Economy you know what the tablets do say: who owed what, who got what, where and how much. It is just as important to know what they do not say, because the gap is where many popular mistakes begin.
Key idea
| The tablets give us | The tablets do not give us |
|---|---|
| Names of people, places and gods | Stories, poems or myths |
| Numbers of sheep, workers, jars, chariots | Letters, laws or treaties |
| Titles such as wanax and lawagetas | The names of particular kings |
| Offerings to gods | What people believed about the gods |
| A snapshot of the palace's last season | History: wars, events, causes |
Why so much is missing
Three reasons. First, Linear B was a palace bookkeeping tool, used by a few scribes for accounts (Scribes and Their Hands). Second, clay survived only where fire baked it, so we have the files of the last months, not the long-term records (Clay, Fire and Survival). Third, any longer texts may have been written on materials such as wood or leather, if they existed at all; none has survived, so we cannot know.
Why it works
Common mistake
Worked example: Can the tablets answer it?
- The tablets record palace business up to the fire.
- They do not describe events or causes.
Answer: No; they show the palace's business, not what destroyed it.
Worked example: Can the tablets answer it?
- Ta 641 lists tripods with numbers.
- Inventory is exactly what tablets record.
Answer: Yes, at least for the vessels listed.