Knossos tablet KN 1280 E m 222, 10 ewes, 10 lambs and 40 sheep in a sheep pen:Knossos tablet KN 1280 E m 222 deals with 10 ewes as mothers of 10 lambs, and also with 40 rams in a sheep pen. The supersyllabogram PA = pauro in Linear B or pauros in ancient Greek, also parvus in Latin = “small” or “little”, hence a small sheep is naturally a lamb. As if. Unfortunately, although the supersyllabogram PA occurs on no less than 38 Linear B tablets in the sheep husbandry sector of the Minoan/Mycenaean economy, there is no attested word corresponding to this supersyllabogram anywhere in the Mycenaean Greek lexicon. So I had to make an “educated guess”. Well, actually more than just educated. After all, the ancient Greek word pauros = Latin parvus = “small” or “little” eminently fits the bill. So I chose it, just like that. It is possible that this SSYL does not mean “lamb”, but I rather doubt it, especially in light of the fact that the number of lambs on this tablet is exactly equal to the number of ewes. 10 mothers, 10 lambs.
Knossos tablet KN 1280 E m 222, 10 ewes, 10 lambs and 40 sheep in a sheep pen
June 1, 2016
Tags: Ancient Greek, attested, Decipherment, ewes, ideograms, lambs, lexical, Lexicon, lexicons, LINEAR B, Linear B Tablets, LinearB, Linguistics, little, Lykinthos, Mycenaean, Mycenaean Greek, SCRIPTA MINOA, sheep, sheep husbandry, sheep pens, sheep raising, shepherd, small, supersyllabogram, supersyllabograms, syllabary, syllabic scripts, syllabograms, tablets, translation, vocabulary
