Writing in the West

Bronze Age Aegean scripts, Cypriot scripts, and the evolution of the

Greek alphabet

Historical background

Minoans in Crete

Palace of Knossos

Minoan writing system

Mycenaeans in mainland Greece

Fortified centers

Mycenae Pylos

Mycenaean writing

Decipherment of Linear B

Sir Arthur Evans

Began excavating at Knossos in 1900

Discovered 3000 clay tablets

Published first volume after WWI, but most inscriptions remained unpublished

Coined Linear A and Linear B

Discovery of the Pylos archive

1939

SW mainland Greece

Archive room discovered with the first trench

First steps in decipherment

Early steps in decipherment

Establishment of the signary

Problems with handwriting one sign or two?

Direction of writing: tablets began at left edge and finished before right edge

Alice Kober

Compiled over 180,000 attestations of signs

Created frequency list of signs

Initial, medial, or final position

Let us face the facts: an unknown language, in an unknown script, cannot be deciphered.

Kobers triplets

Michael Ventris

Architect by training

Bucking the trend Cypriot script was used for Greek, deciphered in the 1870s

Tentative decipherment

Ko-no-so Knossos

A-mi-ni-so Amnisos

to-so and to-sa Greek tosos and tos, so much/many ???

Greek words began appearing; collaboration with John Chadwick

Decipherment passes the test!

Dark blue: ti-ri-po-de Light blue: ti-ri-po Green: di-pa me-zo-e qe-to-ro-we (goblet, large four-

handled) Yellow: di-pa me-zo-e ti-ri-we-e (goblet, large three-

handled)

Aegean Scripts

Cretan Hieroglyphs

First used ca. 1800 BCE

Mallia and Knossos

Seals and clay bars

Undeciphered

Phaistos disk

6.5 in diameter

242 signs arranged into 61 groups

Runs right to left overlapping signs

Arkalochori axe

Linear A

Ayia Triadha primarily

First used ca. 1700 BCE

1427 documents with ~7400 signs

Writing is sloppier than Linear B

Unknown language

Linear A

Written left to right

Three vowels: A, I, U

Written on clay tablets, stone offering tables, hair pins, pots

Linear B archives

Linear B syllabograms

Linear B spelling

89 syllabic signs

Five vowels are represented (A, E, I, O, U)

Two diphthongs are represented (AI and AU)

All other diphthongs require two syllables

qa-si-re-u = basileus, (ruler)

MANY ambiguities in Mycenaean writing

pe can be Greek , , , , ,

Linear B ideograms

~160 ideograms Usually written in Latin CUR (currus) chariot OVIS sheep

Sample tablet

Mycenaean religion

Di-wo Zeus

Di-wo-nu-so Dionysos

A-re Ares

A-ta-na-po-ti-ni-ia Athena Potnia

Po-se-da-o Poseidon

Po-re-na those brought Human sacrifice?? PY Tn 316

Writing in ancient Cyprus

Cypriot writing systems

Cypro-Minoan

1450-900 BCE

Undeciphered

Cypriot Syllabary

800-250 BCE

Deciphered

Cypro-Minoan 1

204 texts

Clay balls, cylinder seals, copper ingots, votive stands, ivory objects, bowls

72 syllabograms

1079 signs in texts

1450 - 900 BCE

Cypro-Minoan 2

3 clay tablets from Enkomi

61 syllabograms

2000 signs in texts

1200-1100 BCE

Cypro-Minoan 3

8 clay tablets from Ugarit in Syria

50 syllabograms

253 signs in texts

1250-1100 BCE

Cypro-Minoan: How many languages?

CM 1 and CM 2 probably represent two different languages

CM 3 differs markedly from CM 2 but may represent the same language as CM 1

Cypro-Syllabic / Cypriot Syllabary

Used 800-250 BCE

55 syllabic signs

Inscriptions are written in Greek and Cypriot

Decipherment of Cypro-Syllabic

Cypriot and Phoenician bilingual

Idalion tablet

Phoenician at Idalion

Cypro-Syllabic at Idalion

Evolution of the Greek alphabet

From aleph to alpha

Herodotus

These Phoenicians who came with Cadmusbrought with them to Hellas, among many other kinds of learning, the alphabet, which had been unknown before this, I think, to the Greeks. As time went on the sound and the form of the letters were changed.

At this time the Greeks who were settled around them were for the

most part Ionians, and after being taught the letters by the Phoenicians, they used them with a few changes of form. In so doing, they gave to these characters the name of Phoenician, as was quite fair seeing that the Phoenicians had brought them into Greece.

The Ionians have also from ancient times called sheets of papyrus skins, since they formerly used the skins of sheep and goats due to the lack of papyrus. Even to this day there are many foreigners who write on such skins.

From Phoenician to Greek

Adoption of the 22 letters of the Phoenician alphabet

5 of the consonants were converted into vowels

Addition of four new letters

Dating of the transmission

Phoenician was consistently written R to L after 1050 BCE

Problem: No Greek inscriptions for another 300 years!

Adopted ca. 850 BCE? Many possibilities:

Mixing of merchants in Cyprus

Phoenicians sailing to the Aegean

Greeks sailing to the Levant

Adoption of the alphabet from groups in Turkey

Use of alphabet in Euboea first

Dipylon inscription ca. 750 BCE

Nestors Cup ca. 750 BCE

[] [] [] [] [] [ ] [] .

Nestors cup I am, good to drink from. Whoever drinks from this cup, him straightaway the desire of beautiful-crowned Aphrodite will seize.

Epichoric alphabets

Each regional power had its own version of the alphabet

Greek inscriptions written L to R, R to L, boustrophedon

Alphabet finally standardized ca. 400 BCE