Minoan/Linear A | Mycenaean Greek/Linear B | Finding Minoan/Non-Greek Names in Linear B Sources | Resources to Avoid
Minoan/Linear A
Linear A Texts
Linear A (lineara.xyz)
Contains a huge number of Linear A inscriptions (possibly all—the site doesn’t have an “About” page that explains the site contents) searchable by text, tablet name, and a variety of tags. Entries often have pop-up windows with extra information. An essential tool for research in Linear A.
Linear A Texts in Phonetic Transcription
Wayback Machine archive of John Younger’s well-respected and currently defunct Linear A website. The text formatting requires some experience with Linear A to understand; I recommend starting with lineara.xyz and moving to John Younger’s site when you’re familiar with how Linear A lists are laid out.
SigLA: The signs of Linear A: a paleographical database
Slightly difficult to browse, and using the information has a learning curve, but it contains a huge percentage of the body of Linear A tablets. No information about individual words, but you can find every tablet where a given word appears.
Onomastic Research in Linear A
Davis and Valério, “Names and Designations of People in Linear A: A Contextual Study of Tablets HT 85 and 117.” B. Davis and R. Laffineur (eds), Neôteros. Studies in Bronze Age Aegean Art and Archaeology in Honor of Professor John G. Younger. Peeters: 2020. Pp. 23-31.
Facchetti, Giulio M. “Comparable Name-Lists in Linear A.” Kadmos Bd. 35. Walter de Gruyter, 1996. Pp. 100-104.
Negri, Mario, “Onomastica Minoica: I Nomi in -A-Re.” SMEA 43/1 (2001), pp. 75-91.
Peruzzi, E. (1959) “Recent Interpretations of Minoan (Linear A),” WORD, 15:2, 313-324, DOI: 10.1080/00437956.1959.11659701
Other Research in Linear A
Linear A Texts
Wayback Machine archive of John Younger’s well-respected and currently defunct Linear A website.
Bennet, J. “Now You See It; Now You Don’t! The Disappearance of the Linear A Script on Crete,” in J. Baines, J. Bennet, and S. Houston (eds.), The Disappearance of Writing Systems: Perspectives on Literacy and Communication (London 2008) 1-29.
Davis, Brent. 2013. “Syntax in Linear A: The Word Order of the Libation Formula.” Kadmos 52(1),
35–52.
— “Introduction to the Aegean Pre-Alphabetic Scripts.” Kubaba 1, 2010. Pp. 38-61.
Finkelberg, Margalit. “Minoan Inscriptions on Libation Vessels.” Minos 25-26(1990-91) 43-86.
Steele, Pippa. CREWS Display: Replica Linear A Tablet. April 20, 2018.
Thomas, Rose. “Some reflections on morphology in the language of the Linear A libation formula.” Kadmos 2020; 59(1/2). Pp. 1-23.
Uchitel, Alexander. “Ships and shipment in Minoan Linear A.” Minos 39, 2016, pp. 9-16.
Mycenaean Greek/Linear B
Linear B Texts
Linear B (linearb.xyz)
From the same author as lineara.xyz. Contains a huge number of Linear B inscriptions (possibly all—the site doesn’t have an “About” page that explains the site contents) searchable by text, tablet name, and a variety of tags. Entries often have pop-up windows with extra information. An essential tool for research in Linear B.
Onomastic Research in Linear B
Billigmeier, Jon C. “An Inquiry into the Non-Greek Names on the Linear B Tablets from Knossos and Their Relationship to Languages of Asia Minor.” 1970. Pp. 177-183.
Davies, Anna Morpurgo. “The Morphology of Personal Names in Mycenaean and Greek.”
Enegren, Hedvig Landenius. The People of Knossos: Prosopographical Studies in the Knossos Linear B Archives. Boreas. Uppsala Studies in Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Civilizations 30. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 2008. 219. ISBN 9789155471088. SEK 240.00 (pb).
A complete prosopography (list of all known people) of the Linear B tablets from Knossos, with extensive analysis of the names, scribes, and social structure of Knossos.
Garcia Ramon, J.L. “Mycenaean Onomastics.” Yves Duhoux and Anna Morpurgo Davies (eds.), A Companion to Linear B: Mycenaean Greek Texts and their World, Volume 2. Walpole, MA: Peeters, 2011. Pp. 213-251.
Hajnal, Ivo. “Graeco-Anatolian contacts in the Mycenaean period“
Ilievski, Petar Hr. “The Suffix -ulo/a- in the Mycenaean Personal Names.”
Ilievski is an early researcher who has a tendency to propose Greek readings that are not confirmed by later scholars, but his work is often useful. Confirm his readings with later scholars.
Meissner, Torsten. “Greek or Minoan? Names and Naming Habits in the Aegean Bronze Age.” Robert Parker (ed.), Changing Names: Tradition and Innovation in Ancient Greek Onomastics. Proceedings of the British Academy (London, 2019; online edn, British Academy Scholarship Online, 19 Sept. 2019).
Nakassis, Dimitri. Individuals and Society in Mycenaean Pylos. Netherlands: Brill, 2013.
Analysis of what the Linear B tablets from Pylos reveal about the people and society of the time. Includes a complete prosopography (list of all known people) of the Linear B tablets from Pylos. This is by far one of the best resources for the names and social structure of Pylos, and likely much of the rest of the Greek world. (But note that Pylos is distinct from Crete, which had a somewhat different social structure and a largely Minoan population. The non-Greek names from Pylos are drawn from across the Aegean world, whereas the non-Greek names from Crete are largely Minoan.)
— “The individual and the Mycenaean state : agency and prosopography in the Linear B texts from Pylos.” Ph.D. diss. University of Texas at Austin, 2006.
The dissertation version of Individuals and Society at Mycenaean Pylos. Nakassis refined the work between 2006 and its publication in book form in 2013, but the meat of the work is there. This is a free substitute for those who can’t get ahold of the book.
Palaima, Thomas G. “Mycenaean Militarism from a Textual Perspective: lāwos, dāmos, klewos.“
Other Research in Linear B
Davis, Brent. “Introduction to the Aegean Pre-Alphabetic Scripts.” Kubaba 1, 2010. Pp. 38-61.
Judson, Anna P. “The Mystery of the Mycenaean ‘Labyrinth’: The Value of Linear B PU2 and Related Signs.”
— “THE TABLET-MAKERS OF PYLOS: AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION INTO THE PRODUCTION OF LINEAR B TABLETS.” The Annual of the British School at Athens 118 (2023): 147–70. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068245423000059.
Salgarella, Ester. “Cracking the Cretan code.” https://aeon.co/essays/without-a-rosetta-stone-can-linguists-decipher-minoan-script
Thompson 2003: “Special vs. Normal Mycenaean Revisited.” Minos 37-38, 2002-2003, pp. 337-369.
Tomas, Helena. 2013. Saving on Clay: The Linear B practice of cutting tablets. In: Piquette, K. E. and Whitehouse, R. D. (eds.) Writing as Material Practice: Substance, surface and medium. Pp. 175-191. London: Ubiquity Press. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/bai.i
Finding Minoan/Non-Greek Names in Linear B Sources
Baumbach, Lydia. “The people of Knossos: Further thoughts on some of the personal names.”
An examination of the names in the KN C-series tablets found at Knossos.
Baumbach, Lydia. “Names of Shepherds at Knossos.” Acta Classica XXX (1987), pp. 5-10.
Firth, Richard J. “Further statistical analysis of the personal names used on Crete during the late Bronze Age.”
Ilievski, Petar Hr. “Observations on the Personal Names from the Knossos D Tablets.” In Mykenaika, 1992, pp. 321-349.
Meissner, Torsten. “Greek or Minoan? Names and Naming Habits in the Aegean Bronze Age” Robert Parker (ed.), Changing Names: Tradition and Innovation in Ancient Greek Onomastics. Oxford Academic Books, 2019. Pp. 21-46.
Steele, Philippa M. and Meissner, Torsten. “From Linear B to Linear A: The problem of the backward projection of sound values.” Philippa M. Steele (ed.), Understanding Relations Between Scripts: The Aegean Writing Systems. Philadelphia: Oxbow Books, 2017. P. 93-110.
van Soesbergen 2022: van Soesbergen, Peter George. The Decipherment of Minoan Linear A: Hurrians and Hurrian in Minoan Crete. Volume I, Part IV.
I do not use van Soesbergen’s proposed etymologies, but his analyses of what is and is not a personal name are useful.
Resources to Avoid
There are three things that serve as excellent warnings that a source is bad:
1. The author identifies Linear A with a known language. This is the brightest of red flags. Scholars have gone over Linear A with a fine-toothed comb for over 70 years, looking for any connection with known languages. If there was a connection, they would have found it. Anyone who claims they’ve broken the code and Linear A is definitely [insert language here] is a wingnut.
Note that it’s valid to suggest that the Minoan language contains elements of, or loanwords from, other languages. The Minoans were travelers and traders who criss-crossed the Mediterranean. It would be more surprising if they didn’t pick up pieces from other languages.
2. The author claims to have translated sections of Linear A. She or he can make this claim without associating Linear A with a known language. The usual method is to look at the words on a tablet whose meaning is known, then assign a meaning to the nearby words. It’s reasonable to do this with a few words—after all, we know the meaning of KU-RO from context—but the people who make claims like these claim to have translated well over a hundred words.
3. A paper is not formatted professionally. Anyone can upload papers to Academia.edu or Researchgate.net. Most papers are copies of journal articles or book chapters, and they show it: The typography is polished, the footnotes are perfectly formatted, and the page headers and footers have page numbers and publication data. While not all professionally published articles are good, they suggest a baseline level of competence that self-published papers lack. So if a paper looks more like a Word file than a journal page—or worse, IS a Word file, and not a PDF—it’s probably not trustworthy.
Blogs are another form of unprofessional publication. There are legitimate scholarly blogs out there, but they’re swamped by the number of amateur blogs. (cough) Unfortunately, the nature of the Internet means it’s easier to find a bad blog than a good paper. If you find a blog and the contents sound legitimate, look up the blog owner. A blog owner worth trusting will have credentials, and possibly professional publications.
And an honorary fourth red flag:
4. The source is old. A lot has changed in the field of Linear B scholarship, even within the past 20 years. Even a source that was state of the art when it was published can be outdated to the point of near-uselessness now.
My very general guidelines, based on a month or two of amateur study, are:
- Sources from the 50’s and 60’s are too old to be useful, except for the occasional point that was worked out early.
- Sources from the 70’s are highly questionable.
- Sources from the 80’s and 90’s are often useful, but beware of transliteration. The accepted sound values of many signs have changed.
- Sources from the 2000’s through mid-2010’s are excellent, but a few sound values will be wrong.
- Sources from the mid-2010’s through the present are excellent and usually have up-to-date sound values.
Bad Sources
Skip these sources. (Note that although most of them have multiple red flags, red flag #1 is the easiest to describe.)
- konosos.net makes a remarkably kack-headed argument that the Minoan language is Japanese.
- Iurii Mosenkis believes that Linear A is Greek.
- Olivier A. Samson believes that Linear A is Greek.
- Richard Vallance Janke is an “independent scholar” of questionable quality and substantial gullibility who believes that he has translated part of Linear A.
- Peter George van Soesbergen believes Linear A is a Hurrian dialect. He’s better educated than the average person on this list, with a dissertation on the onomastics of Linear A and B and a long academic history as a professor of classical studies. However, his adoption of some questionable readings, plus his belief that Linear A is a Hurrian dialect, regretfully puts him in the list of sources to avoid.