Minoan Linear A, Volume I, Part 1
MINOAN LINEAR A, VOLUME I, HURRIANS AND HURRIAN IN MINOAN CRETE, PART 1: TEXT.
The author has reviewed previous attempts to decipher Minoan Linear A concluding that none can be accepted as presenting consistent phonological and morphological evidence, which is required for identification of an idiom written with an undeciphered script. Using phonological and morphological evidence, he has shown by linguistic methods that Linear A may well be the notation of an idiom with specific phonological features and a morphology of agglutinative character that can be explained from Hurrian. Finally, he has identified Linear A sequences with Hurrian lexical terms and many Hurrian onomastics. More decisive is the evidence of typical grammatical forms with specific suffixes in Linear A that can only be interpreted as Hurrian, for instance, Linear A u-mi-na-si = cuneiform umminnaši (of the lands), Linear A e-na-si = cuneiform e-en-na-a-ši (of the gods) with the Hurrian suffixes of the plural article and plural genitive. The structure of Hurrian names, especially of theophorous personal names, can easily be recognized: Linear A su-ki-ri-te-i-ja = cuneiform Šukri-teia, hypocoristic of Šukri-tešub (Tešub = Hurrian Stormgod)….
Minoan Linear A, Volume I, Part 2
MINOAN LINEAR A, VOLUME I: HURRIANS AND HURRIAN IN MINOAN CRETE PART 2: TEXT, BIBLIOGRAPHY AND INDICES
The author has identified the idiom written with Linear A as a language of agglutinative character. The Hurrian language appeared to be the best candidate from a linguistic and historical point of view. The predominantly Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni, with its vassal states in Syria such as Alalakh and Aleppo (Khalba in Hurrian, Khalab in Semitic), was the only great political and military power next to Egypt, contemporary with Minoan Linear A in Crete. Since Hurrians played a significant part in Minoan civilization, it appears preferable to explain the striking parallels between Hesiod’s Theogony and the Hurrian myths of ‘the Kingdom in Heaven’ and ‘the Song of Ullikummi’ through close contacts between Mycenaean Greeks and ‘Hurrian’ Minoans in Crete during the Bronze Age than by later contacts of Greeks with the Near East and Asia Minor in historical times. The author also demonstrates that the parallels are not limited to the struggle between three generations of Gods: Hurrian Anu (Heaven), his son Kumarbi and grandson Tešub and Greek Ouranos (Heaven), his son Kronos and grandson Zeus.
Minoan Linear A, Volume II, Part 1
MINOAN LINEAR A, VOLUME II: CORPUS OF TRANSLITERATED LINEAR A TEXTS, PART 1: ARKHANES – KEA.
D.W. Packard proved in several publications (1967 -1974) that use of the Ventris’s values of signs with graphic identity in Linear A and B showed a ratio of confirmatory alternations of just over 2 : 1 within Linear A in favour of decipherment by the Ventris’s values over the average result of nine fictitious decipherments. M. Pope and J. Raison, ‘Linear A: Changing perspectives’, in: Études minoennes I (1978), found that Packard’s results were even better (3 : 1), if they were adjusted for context. Likewise, comparing Linear A with Linear B, the ratio of confirmatory alternations is just over 3 : 1 in favour of decipherment by the Ventris’s values, and more important: if the Linear A matches with Linear B from Knossos are separated from those from the mainland, the ratio is 5 : 1 for Knossos and 4 : 3 for the mainland. These results offer so much confidence that a (provisional) transliteration of Linear A texts with Linear B values appears justifiable. The author hopes that the present Volume, Part 1 and 2, will contribute to Linear A scholarship encouraging philological and linguistic research.
Minoan Linear A, Volume II, Part 2
MINOAN LINEAR A, VOLUME II: CORPUS OF TRANSLITERATED LINEAR A TEXTS, PART 2: KHANIA – ZAKROS.
After publication of photographs and transcriptions of the Linear A texts, in particular L. Godart – J.-P. Olivier, Recueil des inscriptions en linéaire A, Vol. 1-5, Paris 1976-1985, and transnumeration of the texts by J. Raison and M. Pope, scholars were in need of a reliable transliteration of all Linear A texts. The present Volume offers transliterations of texts, bibliographies, critical annotations in which the different readings of several editors are compared, joins that have been made, inventory numbers in the musea, dates based on the context of the findings. The texts are first presented in accordance with the texts as they are inscribed. Subsequently the analysed structure of the texts is offered in the same way as Mycenaean Linear B scribes used to inscribe their much larger page tablets and as a modern bookkeeper would do using his tabulator. The author hopes that Part 1 and 2 of the present Volume will contribute to Linear A scholarship and encourage philological and linguistic research.