WIKIMEDIA COMMONS: 5 major articles by Richard Vallance Janke, Spyros Bakas and Rita Roberts In a major new development in the international dissemination of 5 papers by Spyros Bakas, Rita Roberts and Richard Vallance Janke, the following 5 articles are now universally available on WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, with 47,480,622 files:These articles are: CLICK on each logo to download each article: 1. Vallance Janke, Richard. “An Archaeologist’s Translation of Pylos Tablet TA 641-1952 (Ventris) with an Introduction to Supersyllabograms in the Vessels & Pottery Sector in Mycenaean Linear B”, Archaeology and Science (Belgrade). Vol. 11 (2015) ISSN 1452-7448. pp. 73-108
2. Vallance Janke, Richard. “The Decipherment of Supersyllabograms in Linear B”, Archaeology and Science (Belgrade). Vol. 11 (2015) ISSN 1452-7448. pp. 73-108
3. Vallance Janke, Richard. “The Mycenaean Linear B “Rosetta Stone” for Linear A Tablet HT 31 (Haghia Triada) Vessels and Pottery”, Archaeology and Science (Belgrade). Vol. 12 (2016) ISSN 1452-7448. pp. 75-98
4. Vallance Janke, Richard and Bakas, Spyros. “Linear B Lexicon for the Construction of Mycenaean Chariots”, Epohi/Epochs. Vol. XXIV (2017), Issue 2. pp. 299-315
5. Roberts, Rita & Janke, Richard Vallance, consulting editor. The Minoan and Mycenaean Agricultural Trade and Trade Routes in the Mycenaean Empire
The appearance of these articles on WIKIMEDIA COMMONS greatly enhances their international profile. Richard Vallance Janke June 19 2018
Tag Archive: LINEAR B
Guidelines for submissions to Les Éditions KONOSO Press now on academia.edu:
Guidelines for submissions to Les Éditions KONOSO Press, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, are now on academia.edu. Our new Press will be publishing online monographs and books only, from 40 to 200 pages long. Submissions will be accepted starting July 1 2018. Any person submitting papers should expect to wait 6 months before we can advise that person whether or not we have accepted the submission. Submissions guidelines are very strict. You must read them exhaustively. Submissions not following these guidelines will be automatically rejected.
The editors on our board of editors are of the highest calibre with the finest credentials. Here is the list of all our editors:
ISBN 978-0-9868289-1-1
Board of Editors/Conseil des rédacteurs
Richard Vallance Janke, University of Western Ontario, Emeritus
Editor-in-Chief
Alexandre Solcà
Associate Editor-in-Chief, Université de Genève
Spyros Bakas,
Chief Associate Editor, University of Warsaw
Associate Editors:
John Bengtson, University of Minnesota
Julia Binnberg, University of Oxford, Classical Archaeology
Nic Fields, University of Newcastle, England
Jean-Philippe Gingras, Royal Military College of Canada
Jorrit Kelder, University of Oxford, Oriental Studies, Associate Professor
Roman Koslenko, Mykolaiv National University & National Academy of Sciences, Ukraine
Haris Koutelakis, Kapodistrian University of Athens
Massimo Perna, Università degli Studi di Napoli Suor Orsola Benincasa
Philipp Schwinghammer, Universität Leipzig, Historisches Seminar
Olivier Simon, Université de Lorraine, independent researcher, PIE
The most renowned of these editors are Spyros Bakas of the University of Warsaw, an expert in ancient Mycenaean and Greek warfare, and Jorrit Kelder of the University of Oxford, one of the world’s most famous researchers in Mycenaean Linear B.
Our Press promises to become one of the world’s most prestigious publishers in ancient Aegean studies in short order.
You may submit your first paper as of July 1 2018.
Richard Vallance Janke, Editor-in-Chief, May 9 2018
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Linear A tablet KH 5 (Khania) ca. 1450 BCE – adorned with ivy:
This tablet, which significantly dates from 1450 BCE, right at the time of the transition from the Linear A to the Linear B syllabary, appears to have 3 Mycenaean-derived words inscribed on it. Because it was probably one of the very last tablets inscribed in Linear A, it could just as well have been inscribed in Linear B. The first two syllables of ADAKISIKA, i.e. ADA, are Old Minoan (OM), falling within the substrate of the original Minoan language. Both ADA and ADU appear to deal with large(r) quantities in the Minoan language. And the first and second words, ADAKISIKA + WISASANE = adorned with plenty of ivy in equal measure, make for a perfectly acceptable phrase. WINASAO very much appears to be a variant of Linear A WINU, which means wine. It may be cast in an archaic Minoan ablative absolute, which would perhaps explain its orthography.
Since the rest of this tablet is in Old Minoan (OM), the language of the original Minoan language substrate, it is indecipherable.
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Linear A words and ideograms for cereals + general Linear A ideograms:
The chart above lists almost all of the Linear A words and ideograms for cereals + general Linear A ideograms. The Linear A Semitic words and ideograms for cereals are identical to those found on Linear A tablets HT 86 and HT 95 (Haghia Triada). Simply refer to the previous posts on these two highly significant Linear A tablets to confirm these interpretations. Also found in this chart are general Linear A ideograms, the majority of which are identical to their Linear B counterparts, which should come as no surprise to anyone, considering that the Linear B syllabary is merely a refinement of the Linear A syllabary.
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Rita Roberts’ translation of Knossos tablet KN 160a J j 11, dealing with wine, corrected:
Rita Roberts’ translation of Knossos tablet KN 160a J j 11, dealing with wine, corrected, is trickier than the previous one she has translated to fulfill the requirements for her second year of university, KN 906 Da 02, dealing with livestock. Because this tablet is damaged, truncated left and right, it can be more difficult to establish meaning for certain terms. But not necessarily so. Rita struggled gainfully with this tablet. And this is understandable. What determines everything in the decipherment of any tablet, Linear A or B, is CONTEXT. If we cannot determine what any given word(s) mean in the actual context of the tablet, we sometimes fail to grasp the meanings of these words. But in the end, everything falls into place, and a relatively convincing translation can be gleaned from it, as we see in the illustration above.
The only character which occasions real difficulty is the supersyllabogram PE, which usually stands for “seed(s)”. But if this the meaning to be extracted, it does not really make all that much sense, since grape seeds do not contribute much to wine, only the grapes do. The only explanation I can muster here is this: the grape seeds had to be extracted, i.e. removed, from the grapes to produce the wine. That makes sense. Finally, we find the ideogram for “olive oil” on this tablet, but how olive oil mixes with wine is a mystery to me, unless the olive oil is being served with bread along with the wine. But there is no mention of bread on this tablet. So some issues remain unresolved.
Richard
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Rita Roberts’ translation of Knossos tablet KN 906 Da 02 corrected, livestock from the marketplace:
This is one of three tablets which Rita Roberts had to translate to qualify for her second year of university. This tablet is the easiest of the three, on an ascending scale of difficulty. Rita achieved the excellent mark of 91 % = A + for this tablet. Congratulations, Rita!
The other two tablets are extremely challenging, even for experts in Linear B.
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Preliminary Roster of Editors, Aux Éditions Konoso Press, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Richard Vallance Janke, University of Western Ontario, Emeritus
Editor-in-Chief
Alexandre Solcà
Associate Editor-in-Chief, Université de Genève
Spyros Bakas,
Chief Associate Editor, University of Warsaw
Associate Editors:
Julia Binnberg, University of Oxford, Classical Archaeology
Nic Fields, University of Newcastle, England
Roman Koslenko, National Academy of Sciences, Ukraine
Xaris Koutelakis, Kapodistrian University of Athens
Philipp Schwinghammer, Universität Leipzig, Historisches Seminar
Olivier Simon, Université de Lorraine
Editors’ Credentials and Degrees, plus their academia.edu pages or home pages will appear in the Forward to each monograph published. Aux Éditions Konoso Press, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, will publish online monographs only, from 20-100 pages long, each with its own unique ISBN (International Standard Book Number). We shall be accepting our first submissions from the summer of 2018 onward. The first monograph will probably be published in early 2019. If you are interested in becoming an Associate Editor of our already prestigious board of editors, please contact Richard Vallance Janke at: vallance22@zoho.com
supplying your credentials and degrees, and the name of the institution from which you obtained your highest degree.
Thank you
Richard Vallance Janke,
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
April 2018
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Yet another Linear A inscription, Malia MA 1, apparently entirely in proto-Greek and/or in Mycenaean-derived Greek:
Malia MA 1 is yet another Linear A inscription apparently entirely inscribed in proto-Greek and/or in Mycenaean-derived Greek:
If it is, it clearly describes King Minos, on the grounds of labyrinth, in which is found the Minotaur, with a dedication of gold to the goddess Rhea, at least if the left-truncated word … jei begins with re … , hence: rejei (which is dative singular). Although this last interpretation is entirely conjectural, it does make sense in context.
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Richard Vallance Janke added to ORCID, Connecting Research and Researchers:
Richard Vallance Janke added to ORCID, Connecting Research and Researchers. ORCID is a major international clearinghouse for researchers and authors who wish to submit manuscripts, papers and journal articles to hundreds of prestigious international journals, including scores of linguistics and archaeological journals. Click on Richard’ ORCID record below to visit it on the ORCID site:
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Mycenaean Linear B units of dry measurement:
This chart speaks for itself. Notice that at least 4 of these dry units of measurement in Linear A have counterparts in Linear A.
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THE MYCENAEAN LINEAR B “ROSETTA STONE” TO MINOAN LINEAR Tablet HT 31 (Haghia Triada) Vessels and Potteryhas just been uploaded to my academia.edu account, here:
To DOWNLOAD it, click on the DOWNLOAD button on the top right hand side of the page. ABSTRACT In partnership with The Association of Historical Studies, Koryvantes (Athens), we address past and current prospects for the decipherment of the Minoan language, which has never met with any credible success in the 117 years since the ?rst discovery of Minoan Linear A tablets by Sir Arthur Evans at Knossos in 1900. A considerable number of philologists and historical linguists, some of them amateurs, claim to have deciphered the Minoan language, yet no one has ever formulated a convincing decipherment. We advance a unique and entirely untested approach to unravelling the text of Minoan Linear A tablet HT 31 (Haghia Triada), based on the principle of cross-correlative retrogressive extrapolation (CCRE) from Mycenaean Linear B to Linear A. HT 31 so closely parallels Mycenaean Linear B tablet, Pylos Py TA 641-1952 (Ventris) that the latter effectively serves as a kind of “Rosetta Stone” for the former. There is also credible evidence that a Mycenaean derived superstratum imposed itself on Linear A as the result of the Mycenaean conquest of Knossos and Crete ca. 1500 – 1450 BCE or, failing that, their all but absolute suzerainty over Knossos and its dependencies. Approximately 300 or 26 % of 1166 intact words in Linear A are very likely of Mycenaean origin.
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Rita Roberts’ translation of Knossos tablet KN J 1 f 01, her last tablet for her second year of university:
Line 1: Deukijojo = month name + temeno = shrine. The damaged first syllabogram looks like TO. The actual word temeno = “temple” does not appear on the first line of this tablet, since it appears that the the scribe has made a scribal error, which actually happens quite often on Linear B tablets. The writing is messy, and appears to read teno, which would explain the scribal error, i.e. he missed on one syllabogram. Deukijojo could either be a month name, in which case it means “the tenth month” or more properly in this content, “of the tenth month” or it could simply be a person’s name. If it refers to the tenth month, then it follows that the entire tablet refers to this month.
Line 2:
Wakatanujo – or- Dukatanayo = name + newejo = “of something new” + 3 units (probably bales) of barley. Hence the line refers to 3 new units (probably bales) of barley from Wakatanujo – or- Dukatanayo
Line 3:
Padarejode = a place hame, which is a sanctuary = hence, olive oil from Dardare and 2 units (probably bales) of barley.
Line 4:
Pade = name plus olive oil and 1 unit (probably a bale) of barley
Line 5:
Pasiteoi = “to all gods” barley and 1 unit of olive oil
Line 6:
olive oil and barley for Qerasiya = goddess Artemis, with numerals absent because of right truncation.
Line 7:
1 unit of barley to all the gods at Aminiso = Amnisos
Line 8:
2 units (probably pithoi) of olive oil for the goddess Erinu. Note that Erinu references one of the Furies (Erynies) in Greek. So it would appear that the scribe tells us that there was a sacrifice to at least one of or probably all of the Furies to appease them so that crops would thrive.
Line 9:
Gold and olive oil and 1 cyperus plant, probably dedicated to the priestess of the winds in Line 10.
Line 10:
4 cyperus plans dedicated to Anemo Ijereja = to the priestess of the winds
Line 11:
Blank and truncated.
Line 12:
3 units (probably pithoi) of olive oil and 2 units of barely plus 2 cyperus trees (also probably dedicated to the priestess of the winds)
Line 13:
Blank and truncated.
COMMENT:
This is the very last tablet Rita Roberts is to translate for her second year of university, and it is by far the most challenging she has ever been confronted with to date. Congratulations to Rita! She is now about to take her final examination for her second year, which is to consist of 25 questions in increasing level of difficulty, the last 5 of which are to be translations of tablets, plus her second year thesis paper, What did the Minoan agricultural sector contribute to the Mycenaean Empire? This paper must be at least 25 pages long, inclusive of the bibliography but excluding illustrations, which will add to the page length of her thesis. Since this thesis paper is much more difficult than her first year thesis, I am allotting her three months to complete it, i.e. Feb. 15 – May 15. However, she must complete the rest of the examination in just 2 weeks (Feb. 15 – March 1 2018).
In the next post, I shall re-inscribe the entire tablet in archaic Greek from the Mycenaean.
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Linear B tablet from Mycenae translated by Rita Roberts:Translation: 1. Wodiyeya Deminiya l [NOTE 1] 2. Mano * [2] + Arekasadaraqe = Mano * and Arekasadara 2 3. Risura + Qotaqe = Risura and Qota 2 4. Eritupina + Teodoraqe = Eritupina and Theodora 2 5. Otowowije + tukateqe = Otowowije and her daughter 2 6. Anea + tukateqe = Anea and her daughter 2 7. Pirowona + Kiraqe ** [3] = Pirowona and Kira 2 8. Pukaro * [2] + Ketideqe = Pukaro and Kedite 2 9. ? Scratched ...?moqe = and …?mo 2 10. ... Maraqe = and Mara 2 11. scratched ? 1 12. ? + Kiraqe ** = and Kira 2 [3] 13. blank NOTES: [1] Since in Line 1, Wodiyeya Deminiya l is followed by the number 1, this can only be one person. Thus, her name is Wodiyeya Deminiya. [2] * Mano * and * Pukaro * are men's names. Line 11 also refers to only 1 person, but the name of the person is truncated, i.e. it no longer appears on the tablet. [3] ** kira ** - or Kira = Ki/ra or Kei/ra = onomastics. Also appears on a Linear A tablet as Kira (onomastics). Complements of Rita Roberts Greek transliteration: 1. a / #odie/ia Deminei/a 2. b / Ma/noj A0leca/ndra te/ 3. b / Risu/ra Bo/ta te/ 4. b / E0riqoupi/na Qeodo/ra te/ 5. b / O0qo#o#iei/ej quga/ter te/ 6. b / A0ne/a quga/ter te/ 7. b / Piro#o/na Kei/ra te/ 8. b / Puka/roj Keti/dej te/ 9. b / ... moj te/ 10. b / ... M/a/ra te/ 11. ... a / 12. b / Kei/ra te/
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Article, Linear B Lexicon for the Construction of Mycenaean Chariots just published on academia.edu:
Click on the TITLE to view and download the article:
just uploaded to my academia.edu account at the link above. To download it, click the green DOWNLOAD button on the right side of the document.
Illustrations from the article:
This Lexicon is the only one of its kind in the entire world. To date, no one has ever published a Linear B Lexicon on a subject as focused as the Construction of Mycenaean Chariots.
This article has just been published in the prestigious European journal, Epohi (Epochs), Vol. 25, Issue 2 (2017), published bi-annually by the Department of History of St. Cyril and St. Methodius, University of Veliko, Tarnovo, Bulgaria. I have been invited by the Editor-in-Chief, Stefan Iordanov, to publish new papers in the near future (sometime in 2018) and again in 2019. Considering that the Editor-in-Chief, Stefan Iordanov, solicited me to submit this article sight unseen, you can be sure I shall submit more papers to the journal.
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Linear B syllabary with correspondances to the ancient Greek alphabet including digamma:
This table of the Linear B syllabary with correspondances to the ancient Greek alphabet including digamma outlines how each series of syllabograms, e.g. A E I O U, DA DE DI DO DU, KA KE KI KO KU, MA ME MI MO MU, TA TE TI TO TU etc. corresponds with the ancient Greek letter series, including the archaic Greek letter digamma, very common in Mycenaean Greek but absent from Classical Greek which are common to them. In some cases, the first consonant of the syllabogram series exactly matches the consonant + vowels of the Greek letters to which that series corresponds. These are:
DA DE DI DO DU = da de dei dh di dh do dw du
MA ME MI MO MU = ma me mei mh mi mh mo mw mu
NA NE NI NO NU = na ne nei nh ni nh no nw nu
SA SE SI SO SU = sa se sei sh si sh so sw su
But there is one significant problem. The Linear B syllabary cannot distinguish between short and long Greek vowels, or Greek double-vowel combinations. Thus,
DE DI DO = de dei dh di dh do dw
ME MI MO = me mei mh mi mh mo mw
NE NI NO = ne nei nh ni nh no nw
SE SI SO = se sei sh si sh so sw
must account for 2 or 3 vowel variations in the ancient Greek alphabet, as seen above. For example, as seen in the D series of syllabograms above, DE = any of 3 = de dei dh DI for either di dh & DO for either do dw. The list of syllabogram series and their Greek alphabetic equivalents above provides several examples of these vowel variations.
Syllabogram series representing multiple consonants + vowels:
Syllabogram series representing multiple consonants + vowels are more complex. These are:
KA KE KI KO KU corresponding to:
ga ge gei gh gi gh go gw gu
ka ke kei kh ki kh ko kw ku
xa xe xei xh xi xh xo xw xu
PA PE PI PO PU corresponding to:
pa pe pei ph pi ph po pw pu
fa fe fei fh fi fh fo fw fu
ya ye yei yh yi yh yo yw yu
QA QE QI QO corresponding to:
ba be bei bh bi bh bo bw bu
ga ge gei gh gi gh go gw gu
RA RE RI RO RU corresponding to:
la le lei lh li lh lo lw lu
ra re rei rh ri rh ro rw ru
TA TE TI TO TU corresponding to:
ta te tei th ti th to tw tu
qa qe qei qh qi qh qo qw qu
Plenty of examples of all of the consonant + vowel variations explained in all instances above are found in the table, following the table of syllabogram series, at the top of this post.
CONVENTIONS in Linear A and ancient Greek orthography:
Linear B is also unable to account for the presence of consonants in the ancient Greek alphabet, especially in the case of final or ultimate consonants, which are extremely common in ancient Greek, and de rigueur in masculine and neuter nouns and adjectives, and in the conjugations of several persons, singular and plural, in all cases of ancient Greek verbs (present, future, imperfect, aorist, perfect and pluperfect in all moods, indicative, optative and subjunctive). But only the present and aorist (CHECK) in the indicative and the present in the optative occur in Linear B.
I shall be posting the Greek equivalents to Linear B nouns, adjectives and verbs in an upcoming post.
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Translation of Linear B tablet KN 903 Da 01 by Rita Roberts:
Here we have Rita Roberts’ translation of Linear B B tablet KN 903 Da 01. In her own decipherment, Rita translated Watoakoraya as a personal name of a shepherd or herdsman, but this is clearly wrong, because akoraya is genitive singular and means “from the market” and Wato is archaic dative singular for Watos, which is a place name. So the proper translation is “from the market at Watos”. Otherwise, her translation is sound.
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Translation of Linear B tablet KN 894 Do 04 by Rita Roberts:
Here we have Rita Roberts’ translation of Linear B B tablet KN 894 Do 04, which I find quite fascinating, even though it is so short. This is because of the supersyllabogram ZE, which literally means “yoked with a pair of” or as Rita Roberts puts it “a team of oxen”. In addition, we have the enclitic QE following the name Tomako, which means “and”, implying that there was another herdsman mentioned before Tomako; hence, the tablet is left-truncated as well as right-truncated.
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Linear B tablet KN 702 M b 11, “to all the gods” by Rita Roberts
This is one of the most significant of all Linear B tablets, as it refers “to all the gods” . But who are all of these gods in Mycenaean Greek? Beneath the translation all of the Mycenaean gods are listed. We notice that whereas many of them survived into archaic and classical Greek (those tagged with an asterisk * after them), some did not. They simply disappeared after the fall of Mycenae ca. 1200 BCE. However, this does not mean that most of them were not (highly) significant to the Mycenaeans. We cite in particular Potnia or Potnia Theron = Mistress (of the Wild Beasts), Emaha2 (Emahai), Manassa, Presphaion, Qerasiya (Kerasiya) and Tiriseroe.
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Brian Wyble’s carved facsimile of Linear B tablet KN 349 J b 12. He made this himself. Amazing!
Linear B text Latinized:
Rukito apudosi + ideogram for “olive oil” 52+ (because it is right
truncated)
Translation:
52 + units (probably amphorae) of olive oil, delivery to Lykinthos.
Transliterated into archaic Greek:
n /b / a0mfiforh/#ei e1laia, a0pu/dosij Lu/kinqo.
Brian is our newest student of Linear B. He already has a fundamental understanding of ancient Greek, although I am sure he realizes from the archaic Greek text above that he needs to master archaic Greek. This should come to him in no time flat.
Welcome from all of us to the study of Linear B, Brian!
