A Companion to Linear B: Mycenean Greek Texts and Their World

by Yves Duhoux, Anna Morpurgo Davies (Editor), Stefan Hiller

Linear B is the earliest form of writing used for Greek; it is a syllabic script which belongs to the second half of the second millennium BC and precedes the earliest alphabetic texts by at least four hundred years. The tablets written in this script offer crucial information about the economy, administration, religion, institutions, etc. of the Mycenaean period. But who wrote these texts? What types of texts were they? How can we read them, understand them and interpret them? What do they teach us about the history, economy, religion, society, geography, technology, and language of the Mycenaean period? This Companion aims at answering these and other questions in a series of chapters written by internationally recognised specialists in the subject, who not only summarise the results of current research but also try to explain the problems which arise from the study of the texts and the methods which can be used to solve them. No Mycenologist can currently cover with authority all the field and the Companion is aimed both at the beginner who needs an introduction to the whole area and to advanced scholars (archaeologists, historians, classicists) who require an up-to-date account which can serve as a standard reference tool.

343 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Yves Duhoux is a classical philologist, linguist, and Mycenologist known for his work in Ancient Greek linguistics. He is an emeritus professor at the Université catholique de Louvain.

Reviews

[Koen Crolla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though a lot shorter, this second entry maintains the standard of quality of the first, and deals with scribal hands, onomastics, and what the tablets tell us about the geography and religion of Mycenaean Greece. Kees Ruijgh also contributes a chapter comparing Homeric Greek to Mycenaean, which should have been the most interesting essay of the lot to me (my interest in Linear B, and Greek in general, stems from an interest in historical linguistics), but contains so many outrageous claims of the type commonly produced by an emeritus professor who spent too many years at the tail end of his career without significant challenge, all sourced only to other articles written by Ruijgh, that it's pretty spoiled; even that contains extricable value, though.
Looking forward to the third one.