Provides valuable insights into the development and use of the Linear B writing system and important methodological advances in investigating the Linear B texts' chronology and the activities of their writers. Of value to classicists, Mycenaean Greek archaeologists, and linguists working on writing systems.
Decades after Michael Ventris deciphered Linear B and showed that its language was Greek, nearly one-sixth of its syllabic signs' sound-values are still unknown. This book offers a new approach to establishing these undeciphered signs' possible values. Analysis of Linear B's structure and usage not only establishes these signs' most likely sound-values providing the best possible basis for future decipherments but also sheds light on the writing system as a whole. The undeciphered signs are also used to explore the evidence provided by palaeography for the chronology of the Linear B documents and the activities of the Mycenaean scribes. The conclusions presented in this book therefore deepen our understanding not only of the undeciphered signs but also of the Linear B writing system as a whole, the texts it was used to write, and the insight these documents bring us into the world of the Mycenaean palaces. A colour version of figures 5.1-5.4 of chapter 5 can be found under the 'Resources' tab.
Recenzijos
'This study represents a thorough and skillful handling of disparate evidence. The linguistic discussion of sound values is rich, but not myopic, and writing is understood as a human practice, rather than the disembodied representation of phonemes. The careful study of palaeographic variants, with an eye to testing old hypotheses, represents a valuable model for future studies of Linear B.' Theodore Nash, Rhea Classical Review
Daugiau informacijos
Ground-breaking analysis of the Linear B undeciphered signs shedding light on the writing system and the activities of its writers.
1. The (ongoing) decipherment of Linear B;
2. Identifying 'missing' values in the Linear B syllabary;
3. The undeciphered signs inherited from Linear A;
4. The undeciphered signs with no certain Linear A correspondences;
5. Exploring the potential of palaeography with the undeciphered signs; Conclusions; Appendix: corpus of attestations of the undeciphered signs.
Anna P. Judson is a Research Fellow in Classics at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Her Ph.D. thesis on the undeciphered signs of Linear B won the University of Cambridge's Hare Prize for the best Classics thesis. She is now researching the writing practices of the Mycenaean scribes.
