Redefining an Archive: A Guide to the Context of the Pylos Linear B Tablets from Rooms 7 - 8 and Its Proper Analysis (20 min)

Presenters

John Evrenopoulos, Greek Ministry of Culture

Abstract

This paper aims to provide a new insight into the generally established notion of Rooms 7 and 8 from the palace of Nestor in Pylos as the central archive of this administrative building (better known as Archives Complex). Overviewing the archaeological data concentrated till the present day, it focuses on reexamining many different fields of information, then combining the incoming evidence under a new perspective. The idea of having tablets created or kept in workshops, rooms, and storage areas near the palatial building can be justified in multiple ways, in relation to the frame of administrative and economic activities, taking place in situ under the supervision of the palace and its officers. It is now debated whether these rooms could satisfy the goal of preserving a long-term, ever-increasing supply of written documents. New evidence and terms, in correspondence to the reevaluated contextual and paleographical information, are now coming into light. Overall, it is now considered that the life span of the Pylos Linear B documents is much shorter than previously thought, leading to the adoption of new designations for Rooms 7 and 8, which replace the prevailing use of the term Archives Complex.

  AIA-8B