Preview of volume 1, Preview of volume 2
[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review]
The first edition of Documents in Mycenaean Greek (1956) was published by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick just three years after their publication of the decipherment of the Linear B writing system.[1] Documents1 presented accounts of the decipherment, the writing system, the language — an early dialect of Greek — and the elements of Mycenaean society revealed by the Linear B tablets, along with transcriptions and translations of 300 texts with commentary. Sadly, Ventris died very shortly before this publication — a circumstance which, as Chadwick wrote in the preface to the 1973 second edition (Documents2), both delayed the production of an updated edition and resulted in his update taking the form of an appendix to a reprint of the original, rather than a fully rewritten text.
Documents2 has remained a core text of Mycenaean studies ever since, and yet Chadwick’s 1973 comment that “with the passage of time it has become clear that much more needed to be said about these texts…and new discoveries demand that additions be made to the selection”[2] has for some time been equally true of the second edition. The 50 years that have elapsed between its publication and that of The New Documents in Mycenaean Greek (henceforth New Documents) have, naturally, seen a vast increase in Mycenological literature, including new methodologies (particularly in combining textual and material evidence to better understand many aspects of the Linear B texts and Mycenaean society) and significant new discoveries of tablets, especially in Thebes, Khania, and most recently Ayios Vasileios.
New Documents is thus an extremely valuable addition to Mycenological literature — not only for existing Linear B researchers, but also, and perhaps most crucially, for students and for specialists in related fields in need of a comprehensive reference work as a starting point for reading and understanding these texts.[3] The title of New Documents reflects its much more comprehensive updating than that of the second edition: although the authors have generally taken equivalent sections of Documents1/2 as their starting point,[4] this is a new work, distinguished from the earlier versions not least by its status as a multi-authored edited volume. John Killen is to be congratulated on the enormous achievement of both overseeing this volume as sole editor (after the intended co-editor Anna Morpurgo-Davies sadly passed away in 2014) and authoring a significant proportion of it — Killen is sole or co-author of over half of the tablet commentary chapters, in addition to the essay on Mycenaean religion.
The work is divided into four parts, in two volumes: a series of essays on key themes in Linear B studies; drawings of selected texts (by Louis Godart); a collection of texts organised by theme (e.g. “personnel”, “agricultural produce”) and presented with transcriptions, translations, and commentaries; and the glossary and endmatter. The only part reprinted unchanged from Documents1/2 is Ventris’ chapter on “Discovery and decipherment”; while the decision to preserve the original account of the decipherment by its architect (pun intended) is certainly understandable, it is a shame not to have an up-to-date essay to put the decipherment more fully into the context of early 20th-century Bronze Age Aegean archaeology.[5] Some sections represent significant expansions over Documents1/2: four separate chapters deal with Mycenaean geography, economy, society and political systems, and religion, as compared to the original single chapter on “The evidence of the tablets”, while the commentaries include 350 texts compared to the previous 300. Others are entirely new, such as the essays on the documents’ archaeological and historical context (Chapter I) and the whole family of Aegean and Cypriot syllabic scripts (Chapter III), as well as the inclusion of drawings. Some restructuring has also taken place due to improved understanding of the texts and the Mycenaean administrations: for instance, texts discussed in Documents1/2 under “Proportional tribute and ritual offerings” are now variously located in the sections on land tenure (Chapter XVI.2), taxation (Chapter XV), and religion (Chapter XIX).
For the most part, the introductory essays provide clear and thorough overviews of key themes in studying the Linear B texts, including their archaeological context, the writing system, document types, and language, and the various aspects of Mycenaean society which the texts reveal. These essays will be extremely useful both as an introduction for those new to the field, and as a reference work for specialists; I will certainly be assigning many of them to my own MA students.[6] A minority of the essays are, however, less suitable for these purposes: in particular, the essays discussing the absolute values of the units for weight and volume (Chapter IV.6–7) are extremely lengthy technical discussions, and not easy to follow even for a Linear B specialist. The survey of the Aegean and Cypriot scripts (Chapter III), while generally clear and reasonably comprehensive, at times assumes knowledge a non-specialist will not have, and at others gives only a single side of some contentious issues;[7] Chapter VIII similarly gives a good overview of the Mycenaean palatial economy, but lacks clear explanations of some terms for the benefit of non-specialists.
The usual format of the commentary chapters consists of an introduction to the overall topic (covering the texts’ general contents and purposes, key terminology, relevant debates in the field, etc.), followed by a selection of transcribed texts, with translations and commentaries interpreting Mycenaean words and discussing points of difficulty in the text.[8] To illustrate this with a random example, Chapter XII “Livestock” first introduces the Linear B signs and terms relating to different animals, then gives a detailed account of research into and ongoing debates over the contents and purposes of particular groups of livestock tablets. Commentaries on selected tablets then follow, grouped by both topic and site (e.g. flock records at Pylos, shearing and lambing records at Knossos). Readers should note that these chapters are designed to be read as a whole — giving a thorough introduction to the topic, followed by a useful selection of particularly important or representative texts — rather than to be dipped into for information on a particular text. Terms which are discussed in the introduction or in one text’s commentary are generally not included in successive commentaries, and texts may not be translated if they follow other similarly structured texts, so for this use the preceding material or the glossary needs to be consulted.
The glossary, containing brief definitions of all known Mycenaean words (whether featured in New Documents’ selected texts or not) will be an extremely useful resource for readers. Depending on our level of understanding of the words, some entries provide only text references and basic interpretations (e.g. “PN” i.e. “place-name”), while others also include phonemic transcriptions, classical Greek equivalents, translations, grammatical information and/or references to diverging interpretations. This is not intended to replace the standard Mycenaean dictionary,[9] but for basic information this glossary is much more convenient and more easily accessible to a wider range of users.
Various other practical features of the work could, however, have been made more user-friendly. Apart from indications when a text is included in the commentaries (which are not given when a whole series of texts, of which some appear in the commentaries, is mentioned), there is relatively little cross-referencing where topics are discussed in more than one chapter; internal cross-references also show frequent (but usually minor) mistakes in page numbers.[10] There is also no indication in the commentaries of which texts have drawings in Part II (as about 60% do), nor does the concordance, intended for comparison with Documents1/2, allow for easy location of a particular text’s commentary. Indices of Mycenaean words (only some of which are included in the general index) and of Linear B texts discussed outside of the commentaries would equally have helped readers navigate this complex publication.
Finally, readers should be aware of a lack of consistency in citing relatively recent publications. For a number of understandable reasons (the work’s length and complexity, the death of the intended co-editor, a global pandemic), it is clear that different parts of the volume were completed at very different times, and the earliest have not always been updated closer to publication. Chapter III contains a note to the effect that it has not been updated since its completion in 2007; as a result, it does not include significant recent work on the Aegean and Cypriot scripts.[11] No other chapter was last updated quite so long before publication, and this type of book will always have a lengthy production process, so references to works published from, say, 2020 onwards are not necessarily to be expected; but even references to publications from the later (and in some chapters the earlier) 2010s are infrequent overall. Since signposting readers to further bibliography is a key purpose of this kind of reference work, it is a shame that more up-to-date references were not at least added to the initial bibliographic footnotes provided at the beginning of some chapters.[12]
New Documents will, nonetheless, be essential for researchers, students, and teachers of the Linear B documents to consult, whether their interest in the tablets is primarily epigraphic, linguistic, or archaeological. This work’s combination of wide-ranging overviews with detailed textual interpretation makes it unrivalled as a guide to understanding the texts and the evidence they provide for reconstructing the activities and interests of the Mycenaean palaces.
Authors and Titles
Volume 1
Part I. Introductory essays: history, script, language and culture
I. The archaeological and historical context (John Bennet)
II. Discovery and decipherment (Michael Ventris)
III. Syllabic scripts in the Aegean and Cyprus in the second and first millennia (Jean-Pierre Olivier)
IV.1-5. The Mycenaean writing system (Rupert Thompson and Torsten Meißner)
IV.6. The absolute values of the symbols for weight (Pia de Fidio)
IV.7. The absolute values of the symbols for volume (Pia de Fidio)
V. The Linear B documents (Maurizio del Freo)
VI. The Mycenaean language (Rupert Thompson)
VII. Geography (John Bennet)
VIII. Economy (Pia de Fidio)
IX. Mycenaean society and political systems (Cynthia Shelmerdine)
X.1. Mycenaean religion (John Killen)
X.2. Mycenaean and classical Greek religion (Robert Parker)
Part II. Drawings of selected tablets
Volume 2
Part III. Selected tablets, transcription, translation, commentary
Introduction: interpreting Linear B (John Killen)
XI. Lists of personnel (John Killen)
XII. Livestock (John Killen)
XIII. Agricultural produce (John Killen)
XIV.1. Land tenure (Yves Duhoux)
XIV.2. The Pylos ‘dosmos’ tablets (Pia de Fidio)
XV. Taxation (Cynthia Shelmerdine)
XVI. ‘Industrial’ production (Yves Duhoux)
XVII. Finished products I: vessels and furniture (John Killen & John Bennet)
XVIII. Finished products II: military equipment. Part I: archaeological commentary (Joost Crouwel); part II: the texts (Robert Plath and John Killen)
XIX. Religion, cults and ritual (John Killen)
XX. The inscribed stirrup-jars (Peter van Alfen)
XXI. Miscellaneous texts (John Killen)
References
Aura Jorro, Francisco (1985–1993), Diccionario micénico vol. I–II, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas.
Aura Jorro, Francisco, Alberto Bernabe, Eugenio R. Luján, Juan Piquero and Carlos Varias García (2020), Suplemento al diccionario micénico, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas.
Aurora, Federico, Asgeir Nesøen, Damir Nedić, Heidi Løken and Andrea Bersi (2013), ‘DĀMOS – Database of Mycenaean at Oslo’. https://damos.hf.uio.no/.
D’Agata, Anna-Lucia, Luca Girella, Eleni Papadopoulou and Davide G. Aquini (eds) (2022), One State, Many Worlds: Crete in the LM II-IIIA2 Early Period. Proceedings of the International Conference held at Khania, Μεγάλο Αρσενάλι, 21st-23rd November 2019, Edizioni Quasar.
Davis, Brent (2014), Minoan Stone Vessels with Linear A Inscriptions, Peeters.
Decorte, Roeland P.-J.E. (2018a), ‘The first “European” writing: redefining the Archanes Script’, Oxford Journal of Archaeology 37 (4), 341–72.
— (2018b), ‘The origins of Bronze Age Aegean writing: Linear A, Cretan Hieroglyphic, and a new proposed pathway of script formation’, in Silvia Ferrara and Miguel Valério (eds), Paths into Script Formation in the Ancient Mediterranean, 13–49, Edizioni Quasar.
Del Freo, Maurizio, Francesco Di Filippo and Françoise Rougemont (2013), ‘LIBER: Linear B Electronic Resources’. https://liber.cnr.it/.
Del Freo, Maurizio and Massimo Perna (eds) (2016), Manuale di epigrafia micenea. Introduzione allo studio dei testi in lineare B, 1st edn, libreriauniversitaria.it.
— (eds) (2019), Manuale di epigrafia micenea. Introduzione allo studio dei testi in lineare B, 2nd edn, libreriauniversitaria.it.
Duhoux, Yves and Anna Morpurgo Davies (eds) (2008–2014), A Companion to Linear B: Mycenaean Greek Texts and their World, vol. 1-3, Peeters.
Ferrara, Silvia, Barbara Montecchi and Miguel Valério (2021a), ‘The making of a script: Cretan Hieroglyphic and the quest for its origins’, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 386, 1-22.
— (2021b), ‘What is the ‘Archanes Formula’? Deconstructing and reconstructing the earliest attestation of writing in the Aegean’, Annual of the British School at Athens 116, 43–62.
— (2022), ‘The relationship between Cretan Hieroglyphic and Linear A: a palaeographic and structural approach’, Pasiphae: Rivista di filologia e antichità egee XVI, 81–109.
Godart, Louis and Anna Sacconi (2019–2020), Les archives du roi Nestor. Corpus des inscriptions en linéaire B de Pylos. Vol. I: Séries Aa-Fr; Vol. II, Séries Gn-Xn, Fabrizio Serra.
Judson, Anna P., Torsten Meißner and Rupert J.E. Thompson (2016), ‘CaLIBRA: Cambridge Linear B Research Archive’. http://calibra.classics.cam.ac.uk/.
Kotsonas, Antonios (2020), ‘History of research’, in Lemos and Kotsonas (eds), 75–96.
Lemos, Irene S. and Antonios Kotsonas (eds) (2020), A Companion to the Archaeology of Early Greece and the Mediterranean, Wiley-Blackwell.
Melena, José L. and Richard J. Firth (2019), The Knossos Tablets, 6th edn, INSTAP Academic Press.
Olivier, Jean-Pierre and Maurizio Del Freo (2020), The Pylos Tablets Transcribed, 2nd edn, libreriauniversitaria.it.
Salgarella, Ester (2020), Aegean Linear Script(s): Rethinking the Relationship between Linear A and Linear B, CUP.
Steele, Philippa M. (ed.) (2013), Syllabic Writing on Cyprus and its Context, CUP.
— (ed.) (2017), Understanding Relations Between Scripts: The Aegean Writing Systems, Oxbow Books.
Ventris, Michael and John Chadwick (1953), ‘Evidence for Greek dialect in the Mycenaean archives’, Journal of Hellenic Studies 73, 84–103.
— (1956), Documents in Mycenaean Greek. Three Hundred Selected Tablets from Knossos, Pylos and Mycenae with Commentary and Vocabulary, 1st edn, CUP.
— (1973), Documents in Mycenaean Greek, 2nd edn, CUP.
Notes
[1] Ventris and Chadwick 1953; 1956.
[2] Ventris and Chadwick 1973, xiii.
[3] Other key reference works have, of course, been published since Documents2, such as Duhoux and Morpurgo Davies 2008–2014 (an extremely useful resource, but not nearly as comprehensive as New Documents, especially in its anthology of texts) or Del Freo and Perna 2016/2019 (closer to New Documents in scope and structure, but not accessible to non-Italian-speaking students).
[4] Within each chapter, material which has been used unchanged from Documents1/2 is indicated with D/D2 in the margins, while * indicates newly written material. (This system unfortunately tends to result in a confusingly frequent repetition of “D/D2/*” next to partially rewritten paragraphs).
[5] For an overview, and further references, see Kotsonas 2020.
[6] It should be said that the £180 price for both volumes means buying this work will be out of reach for many readers (although considering the amount of content, this is more reasonably priced than many academic publications!), but it is available online to those with institutional Cambridge Core subscriptions.
[7] For instance, a mainland creation of Linear B is not as generally accepted as is claimed (pp.75–6; cf., e.g., Salgarella 2020, 376–80); the reference to a “Mycenaean invasion” of Crete (p.76) is likewise controversial (for a range of views on this, see papers in D’Agata et al. 2022).
[8] The exception is Chapter XVIII, on military equipment, which is divided into “archaeological commentary” and “texts”; integrating these could have produced a clearer overall picture of the evidence for Mycenaean weapons, armour, and chariots.
[9] Aura Jorro 1985-1993; Aura Jorro et al. 2020.
[10] Apart from this, and some minor formatting issues, the work is generally well-presented. I noticed only a very small number of errors in the translations in Part III: text 73 = KN Dk(2) 1076, delete “at Ku-ta-to”; 207 = PY Jn 829, for “750 kg bronze” read “750 g bronze”; 269 = PY Ta 716, “gold” (ku-ru-so) has been omitted; 293 = KN So(1) 4430, “with teeth” (o-da-twe-ta) has been omitted.
[11] To list only a very small selection, see, e.g., papers in Steele 2013 and 2017; Davis 2014; Decorte 2018a and 2018b. More recent works that reasonably could not be included in this chapter include, e.g., Salgarella 2020; Ferrara, Montecchi and Valério 2021a, 2021b, and 2022.
[12] A comprehensive list of recent work not cited or under-used in New Documents is evidently impossible to include here, but some key resources which those new to Mycenaean studies should be aware of include: new text editions: Melena and Firth 2019; Godart and Sacconi 2019–2020; Olivier and Del Freo 2020. Dictionary supplement: Aura Jorro et al. 2020. Handbook: Lemos and Kotsonas 2020. Online databases: Aurora et al. 2013; Del Freo, Di Filippo and Rougemont 2013; Judson, Meißner and Thompson 2016.