eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

and Classical periods shows close links with other areas of the Peloponnese. For example, the
crooked iota is found in use in Arkadia, Achaea and Korinth and various inscriptions from
Olympia cannot be readily identified as specifically Arkadian or Eleian (Jeffery 1990, pp.207-
208; 215; Hall 1997, p.146 fig.21). These observations show that Arkadia certainly was not
isolated from its neighbours. Regarding Linear B, it may have had or at least masked more
variation than can be ascertained and it is difficult to regard it as indicative of how people
spoke at that time: it was a script used in a limited fashion mainly for inventories, and as such
could not possibly reflect how people actually spoke. Linguists heavily influenced by myths
and traditions in the literary sources may be too ready to confirm a particular relationship.
For example, an inscription discovered in a chamber tomb in ancient Paphos in Cyprus is
often used to support the myth of the foundation of this site by Agapenor of Tegea. It is
Greek written in Cypriot syllabary, with the genitive –u ending reflective of a dialect similar
to that spoken in Arkadia. Hall (1997, p.136) argues that its appearance is rather an active
attempt on the part of the inhabitants to forge links with the Greek mainland, than a reflection
of their ethnicity.
Such contradictions to Arkadian mythology and linguistic evidence prevent taking the
traditional accounts too literally. Whilst claims to autochthony may have been encouraged by
a collective memory of escaping the worst of any upheavals at the end of the LBA, they make
it increasingly difficult to imagine an indigenous population continuing to speak a dialect of
Greek directly descended from that found on the Linear B tablets, protected by its remote and
mountainous location, especially if this occurred through a period where the art of writing
seems to have been lost. If, therefore, we do not necessarily expect a continuing population in
the region of Arkadia at the end of the BA and beginning of the IA, perhaps the region was
indeed deserted and a full archaeological record need not be expected. In this case, the
project can be concluded here.
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