One Script, One Kingdom? Exploring and Explaining the Heterogeneity of Linear B (15 min)

Presenters

Dimitri Nakassis, University of Colorado Boulder

Abstract

A number of scholars have interpreted the uniformity of the Linear B script and of its use over the two centuries of its existence (ca. 1390–1180 B.C.E.) as the administrative imposition of a single political authority: one script, one Mycenaean kingdom. Yet the script’s uniformity has typically been asserted rather than empirically assessed, and indeed few Linear B scholars have suggested that the script’s consistency across time and space requires special explanation. This paper demonstrates that detailed analysis of the texts provides evidence for subtle but substantial variations across a variety of domains: vocabulary, sign use, palaeography, tablet formatting, and administrative function. While some of these differences can be attributed to a variety of causes, such as changes over time or the vicissitudes of individual scribal preferences, I argue that the evidence does not reflect a level of uniformity that requires a political explanation. The variations in scribal practice are instead more consistent with the absence of any centralized training, even within individual sites. For example, Kevin Pluta has shown that the intrasite variation in paleography and orthography at Pylos and Knossos is inconsistent with formal training in the practice of writing. I conclude that peer polity interaction and the specialized uses to which Linear B was put better account for the continuities that we observe in the textual evidence.