The race to decode a mysterious language - Susan Lupack

Summary

The discovery of nearly 3,000 mysterious tablets in the early 1900s by Sir Arthur Evans on the island of Crete led to decades of scholarly intrigue over the meaning of the script, known as Linear B. Initially thought to represent the Minoan language, the script was eventually deciphered by Alice Kober and Michael Ventris. Ventris' breakthrough revealed that Linear B was actually an early form of Greek, not Minoan, reshaping our understanding of ancient Greek and Minoan civilizations. However, the language of the Minoans, represented by Linear A, remains an unsolved mystery to this day.

Takeaways

• 😀 Sir Arthur Evans uncovered nearly 3,000 tablets with mysterious symbols on Crete, which he believed represented the Minoan language.
• 😀 The meaning of these symbols remained a mystery for 50 years, despite numerous theories proposed by scholars from around the world.
• 😀 Evans discovered the tablets at the Palace of Knossos, a site filled with colorful frescoes and maze-like hallways.
• 😀 The civilization was named Minoan by Evans, after the mythical King Minos of Crete, and the script was called Linear B.
• 😀 Scholars initially speculated that Linear B could represent lost languages like Etruscan or Basque, but the true nature of the script remained unclear.
• 😀 Evans published only a limited number of the inscriptions during his lifetime and could not decipher the script himself.
• 😀 Alice Kober, a professor at Brooklyn College, dedicated decades to studying Linear B, and made significant progress by analyzing symbol frequencies and word endings.
• 😀 Kober’s work revealed that Linear B had grammatical structure based on word endings, but she passed away before fully decoding it.
• 😀 Michael Ventris, an architect and scholar, built upon Kober’s work, using new inscriptions from Pylos and comparing them with those from Knossos.
• 😀 Ventris made a breakthrough by comparing Linear B to the Cypriot syllabary, eventually revealing that the script represented the Greek language, not Minoan.
• 😀 Ventris's discovery overturned the previous theory that the Minoans had conquered the Greeks, showing that it was the Greeks who invaded Crete and adopted the Minoan script for their own language.
• 😀 Despite the deciphering of Linear B, the language of the Minoans, represented by another script called Linear A, remains undeciphered and continues to be a mystery.

Q & A

What did Sir Arthur Evans discover in the early 1900s on the island of Crete?

Sir Arthur Evans discovered nearly 3,000 tablets inscribed with strange symbols, which he believed represented the language of Europe's oldest civilization.

What was the name Evans gave to the civilization he uncovered on Crete?

Evans called the civilization the Minoan civilization, named after the mythical Cretan ruler, King Minos.

What is the significance of Linear B in the context of the Minoan civilization?

Linear B is the script that Evans believed represented the Minoan language. However, it was later found to represent an early form of Greek, not Minoan.

Why was the meaning of Linear B a mystery for 50 years?

The meaning of Linear B was a mystery because Evans did not fully decipher the script, and he closely guarded the tablets. Only a small number of inscriptions were published during his lifetime.

What were the two accurate observations made by Sir Arthur Evans about Linear B?

Evans accurately observed that the tablets were administrative records and that the script was a syllabary, where each symbol represented both a consonant and a vowel.

How did Alice Kober contribute to the deciphering of Linear B?

Alice Kober, a professor at Brooklyn College, spent two decades analyzing the symbols of Linear B. She created a frequency chart of symbols and analyzed their relationships, making significant progress in deciphering the script.

What was Alice Kober’s method for analyzing Linear B symbols?

Kober analyzed the frequency of symbols and how often they appeared together, creating a detailed chart to understand the grammatical structure of Linear B. She stored her findings on scrap paper due to the scarcity of writing materials during World War II.

Who was Michael Ventris, and how did he contribute to the decipherment of Linear B?

Michael Ventris was an architect and a scholar who became obsessed with Linear B as a child. He worked on deciphering the script during World War II and, after the war, built on Kober’s grid and made a breakthrough by comparing inscriptions from Knossos and Pylos.

What discovery did Michael Ventris make that helped him decipher Linear B?

Ventris discovered that the symbols of Linear B could correspond to sounds in the Cypriot syllabary, which led him to decode the word 'Knossos'. This breakthrough helped him realize that Linear B represented an early form of Greek, not the Minoan language.

What did the discovery that Linear B represented Greek instead of Minoan reveal about the relationship between the Minoans and the mainland Greeks?

The discovery revealed that the mainland Greeks likely invaded Crete and adopted the Minoan script to write their own language, overturning Evans' theory that the Minoans had conquered the mainland Greeks.