Minoan Linear A, Linear B, Knossos & Mycenae

MAJOR DEVELOPMENT! 24 Supersyllabograms in Minoan Linear A just discovered, 8 of them deciphered (versus 36 in Mycenaean Linear B):



In case you were wondering whether or not the Mycenaeans invented supersyllabograms, think again. It was the Minoan Linear A scribes who invented them, and passed them on to their Mycenaean heirs. I never even suspected there were supersyllabograms in Minoan Linear A until I started trying to decipher at least some Minoan terms in May of 2016. Lo and behold, to my astonishment, there are 24 of them in Linear A, a substantial number, amounting to 66 % of the number of supersyllabograms in Mycenaean Linear B = 36. It is now obvious that if I can decipher any more than the 8 supersyllabograms I have already translated in Minoan Linear A, I may very well be able to decipher more Minoan Linear A words. It remains to be seen. However, I am greatly encouraged by the fact that the apparent meanings of the 8 supersyllabograms I have already deciphered in Minoan Linear A seem to match almost perfectly the actual translations of the Minoan Linear A words to which they apparently correspond. See my decipherments of 8 Minoan Linear A SSYLS (supersyllabograms) following the table of SSYLs in Linear A immediately below.

If it had not been for the fact that I successfully deciphered  the 36 supersyllabograms in Mycenaean Linear B, I would never have stumbled upon the 24 SSYLs in Minoan Linear A, nor would I have been able to cross-correlate these 8 supersyllabograms, DA KA KI NI PA RA SA TE. These 8 supersyllabograms account for 33 % of all the SSYLs in Minoan Linear A. My decipherments of the 8 SSYLs is quite an achievement, considering I, like everyone else in the world, do not know what the Minoan language actually is. I stress again, I have only managed to decipher some of its vocabulary, not the language itself. This is in stark contrast to the 36 supersyllabograms in Mycenaean Linear B which I have been able to decipher with relative ease, in view of the fact that I am intimately familiar with Mycenaean Linear B, having already translated at least 1,000 Linear B tablets. So the fact that I have been able to decipher even 8 of 24 supersyllabograms in Minoan Linear A is almost a miracle in itself.

You can be sure that my decipherments of these 8 Linear A supersyllabograms will figure largely in my upcoming article in Archaeology and Science, Vol. 16 (2016) (Belgrade) ISSN 1452-7448, “Linear B tablet Pylos TA 641-1952 (Ventris), the “Rosetta Stone” for Minoan Linear A tablet HT 31 (Haghia Triada) vessels and pottery”. You can just imagine how exciting a development this has been for me!

Moreover, this development has allowed me to add yet another Minoan Linear A term to my Glossary of Minoan Linear A, samuku, which almost certainly refers to the harvest(ing) of grains (barley or wheat). See SPECIAL NOTES at the end of this post.

The Table of 24 Minoan Linear A supersyllabograms From Haghia Triada (HT) & Khania (KH):
 
A	HT2	olive oil HT39 vase (v)
DA	HT133 (g)
DI *	HT12	olive oil (qatidate) HT14 (oo) HT28 HT50 HT90 HT121 HT129
E *	HT2	olive oil HT21 HT34 (g) (+ sumuku huge nos.) HT50 HT58 (oo)
KA *	HT28 	man (m) HT88 HT97 HT100
KE	HT26	(vase)
KI *	HT8	olive oil HT18 HT28 HT44 HT50 HT91 HT101 HT125 HT129 HT140
KU	HT32	cloth (c) HT61 (g) HT128 X4!
MI *	HT28 (oo) HT50 HT90 HT91 HT100 HT101 HT116 X2 b HT125 HT137
NE *	HT23 (oo) HT32 HT100
NI	appears on several Linear A tablets all by itself, and invariably means figs. It is the only supersyllabogram shared with Mycenaean Linear B, which apparently simply inherited it lock, stock and barrel from Minoan Linear A.
QE *	HT18 grains (g) HT28 HT36 HT99 HT101 HT121 (oo)
PA *	HT43 (g) HT93 X3! HT102 X2 HT120 X2 HT125 HT128 KT27
RA	HT44 (oo)  KH91 (v)
RI	HT23 (oo) HT35 HT60 HT110 (v) KH82 (oo)
RU *	KH12 (v) KH63 KH84 KH85 KH91
SA	HT27  (g) HT131 
SI	HT27 
TA *	HT30 (oo) HT35 KH19 KH39 KH55 KH61 KH85
TE	HT3	figs HT9 wine HT13  (kaudeta) HT18 HT19 HT21 HT40 HT44 (g) HT51 (f) HT62  HT67 (f) HT70 (f) HT96 HT133 (g)
TU *	HT23 (oo) HT28 HT50 HT101
U *	HT2 	olive oil HT21 HT28 HT40 HT44 HT58 HT91 HT96 HT100 HT101 HT125 HT140 X3
WA	HT27 
WI	KH5 (w = vinegar)

* All of the following supersyllabograms in Minoan Linear A deal exclusively with olive oil: DI E KI MI NE TA TU U

* All of the following supersyllabograms in Minoan Linear A deal exclusively with grain: DA QE (except for HT121) PA

* All of the following supersyllabograms in Minoan Linear A deal exclusively with wine: SA SI WA WI

* The supersyllabograms KE & RU in Minoan Linear A deal exclusively with vases and pottery.

* The supersyllabogram KA in Minoan Linear A deals exclusively with men.

Supersyllabograms I have deciphered in Minoan Linear A:

I have already more or less successfully deciphered the following 8 supersyllabograms in Minoan Linear A:

DA = dadumata = grain/wheat measurer? = Linear B sitokowo
KA = kapa = follower or foot soldier, attendant to the king 
KI = kidata = to be accepted for delivery = Linear B dekesato
OR
kireta2 (kiritai) = delivery = Linear B apudosis
kiretana = (having been) delivered (past participle passive) = Linear B amoiyeto
AND
kireza = unit of measurement for figs, probably 1 basket
AND
kiro = owed = Linear B oporo = they owed
NI = nipa3 (nipai) or nira2 (nirai) = figs = Linear B suza. But Mycenaean Linear B shares NI with Minoan Linear A, in spite of the fact that the Mycenaean word for figs is suza.   
PA = pa3ni (amphora for storing grain) + pa3nina = grain or wheat stored in an amphora
RA ra*164ti = approx. 5 litres (of wine) 
SA sara2 (sarai) = small unit of measurement: dry approx. 1 kg., liquid approx. 1 litre
TE = tereza = standard unit of usually liquid measurement, sometimes of dry measurement

All of my decipherments of supersyllabograms in Minoan Linear A further substantiate my decipherments of the Minoan Linear A terms to which they correspond (as seen above).

Here is Table 8 of the 36 Supersyllabograms I have deciphered in Mycenaean Linear B: 



The meanings of the supersyllabograms in Mycenaean Linear B do NOT correspond in any way with those in Minoan Linear A. This table appears in my soon to be published article, “The Decipherment of Supersyllabograms in Linear B” in Vol. 15 (2015) of the prestigious international annual, Archaeology and Science (Belgrade) ISSN 1452-7448. 

SPECIAL NOTES:

[1] The SSYL KI for olive oil has something to do with sara2 (sarai) = small unit of measurement: dry approx. 1 kg., liquid approx. 1 litre OR kireta2 (kiritai) = delivery = Linear B apudosis + kiretana = (having been) delivered (past participle passive) = Linear B amoiyeto OR kireza = unit of measurement for figs, probably 1 basket OR kiro = owed = Linear B oporo = they owed. 

[2] Although I have been unable to decipher the supersyllabogram E for olives, it has facilitated my translation of yet another Minoan Linear A word,  samuku, which appears in such huge numbers (245 + 100) on Minoan Linear A tablet HT 34, dealing specifically with grains (barley or wheat) that is almost certainly means the “harvest” of a total of 345 large units of grains, corresponding to something like our modern bushels.