Conny Waters – AncientPages.com – A retired Classics professor from Texas has generously contributed a collection of papers to the University of Cincinnati. This donation includes valuable insights into deciphering an ancient Greek language that had puzzled scholars for generations.
The script Linear B appears on a clay tablet, one of more than 600 that University of Cincinnati Classics Professor Carl Blegen discovered in 1939 while working on excavations at Pylos, Greece. Credit: UC Classics
The documents provide detailed accounts and analyses, significantly contributing to classical studies and enhancing our understanding of ancient languages.
University of Texas at Austin Professor Emeritus Thomas Palaima donated boxes of documents, correspondence, files and photos chronicling the coordinated effort to translate the script called Linear B used in the Mycenaean language.
“I’m delighted these invaluable materials have found a home in the UC Classics,” said Sean Gurd, chairman of the Department of Classics at the University of Texas at Austin.
“UC’s Classics archive may actually be the best classics-specific research library in the world, and I’ve worked in most of them.”
Linear B, an ancient script dating back to 1400 B.C., predates the Greek language by several centuries. For many years, scholars faced significant challenges in deciphering and translating its symbols, which posed a complex puzzle for linguistic experts.
“Deciphering Linear B has been called the Mount Everest of Greek archaeology. It was an enigma that captured the imaginations of many scholars,” said Jeff Kramer, a junior research associate and archivist in UC’s Department of Classics.
In 1900, archaeologists made a significant discovery at Crete: the first inscriptions of Linear B. This early finding laid the groundwork for further exploration into this ancient script. Building on this foundation, renowned University of Cincinnati Classics Professor Carl Blegen made a substantial contribution in 1939 when he unearthed over 600 tablets inscribed with Linear B during his excavations at Pylos, Greece.
University of Texas at Austin Professor Emeritus Thomas Palaima donated a collection of letters, journals, documents and photos chronicling the translation of Linear B to the University of Cincinnati. Pictured are Texas archivist Garrett Bruner, left, UC Classics junior research associate Jeff Kramer, Texas doctoral graduate Dimitri Nakassis, now a professor at the University of Colorado, and Palaima. Credit: Andrew Higley
Blegen is renowned for his archaeological excavations at the ancient city of Troy and his significant contributions in Greece, particularly with the unearthing of the Palace of Nestor, a central hub of Mycenaean culture during the Bronze Age.
However, his discovery of tablets has been especially crucial in advancing our understanding of Linear B, an ancient script used by the Mycenaeans.
“It was really with Blegen’s finding so many tablets that they were able to decipher the language,” Kramer said.
The international translation initiative made significant progress thanks to the efforts of Brooklyn College Professor Alice Kober, who over several years, worked closely with Emmett Bennett Jr., a graduate student from UC Classics and a protégé of Blegen. Together, they dedicated their efforts to deciphering the language, contributing greatly to this scholarly endeavor.
During World War II, there was a global fascination with codes and code-breaking. In this context, Bennett served as a cryptographer for the Allies. His role involved translating coded messages from Japan, contributing to the critical efforts in deciphering enemy communications.
“Right after World War II, you had a lot of code-breakers who had training relevant to this task,” Kramer informed.
Brooklyn College scholar Alice Kober catalogued individual symbols found in Linear B and identified both their frequency in the tablets and their juxtaposition to other symbols. She stored the notecards — more than 180,000 of them — in old cigarette boxes. Photo/Andrew Higley
Deciphering a 3,500-year-old language solely through written symbols presents a significant challenge for linguists and academics. This task becomes even more complex with the earlier version of this Greek script, known as Linear A, which remains undeciphered. The primary reason is the scarcity of surviving examples of Linear A text, making it difficult to understand and interpret fully.
Before the advent of spreadsheet software, Kober from Brooklyn College undertook the meticulous task of cataloging symbols by their frequency and their placement next to other characters. She recorded this information on index cards, which she stored in numerous old cigarette boxes. Her efforts resulted in a collection of 180,000 records that are now preserved in the University of Cincinnati’s Classics archives.
Through her painstaking analysis, she discovered that the endings of lines of Linear B were consistently different, suggesting a change in the form of a word as many languages today do with plurals or vowels that reflect gender. Kramer said these are called declensions.
Meanwhile, Kober and Bennett also corresponded with an English architect who had both a knack for languages and an obsession with cracking Linear B. Like Kober, architect Michael Ventris spoke numerous languages and in his spare time put together a grid associating the symbols with consonants and vowels.
Sadly, Kober’s work was cut short by her untimely death from illness in 1950. But both Palaima and Kramer are convinced she was close to making a critical breakthrough on Linear B. Instead, it was Ventris and his research partner John Chadwick, another former code-breaker at England’s top-secret Bletchley Park, who discovered in 1952 that Linear B is a form of Greek and provided the first published translation.
“Kober and Bennett built the staircase that Ventris ascended,” UC’s Kramer said. “He didn’t build any of the risers or steps, but he did take the final steps that Kober may have taken if she had lived.”
Ventris also died an untimely death in a car accident in 1956. He was just 34.
So what do the tablets say?
Palaima said they were mostly business records on international trade networks, imports and exports and other goods and services.
“They don’t write histories or poetry. They don’t send letters,” Palaima said.
“These are records that keep track of who’s doing what, where and how they’re doing it,” Palaima said. “We see a lot of feasting texts for gods and lots of names for chariots, armor and animals. How many sheep. Who owns the flocks. What shepherds are on duty. And how many are available for the next feast.”
Palaima said he is pleased that his collection will provide future scholars with the records and letters that help tell this important story at a place that contributed so much to its discovery.
“It’s sort of like this stuff is coming home. UC Classics is the greatest program to study the Mediterranean Bronze Age,” Palaima said.
Source – University of Cincinnati
Written by Conny Waters – AncientPages.com Staff Writer
