A Companion to Linear B - The University of Texas at Austin

94 T.G. PALAIMA §12.1.2.7
Skelton’s work brings a statistical tool to bear upon what previously was a
matter of the developed experience, judgment and reasoning of Mycenaean
palaeographers. This procedure does not replace, or even necessarily take precedence
over, traditional palaeographical work, because it, too, requires human
judgments and choices in determining what data to select and how to interpret
the results. But it provides another way of working with a large body of
unwieldy material, and the choices made in analyzing data are transparent. 121
Fig. 12.35 shows the details that Skelton used in studying stylistic variation of
one sign, ni (the phonogram) or NI (the logogram for ‘figs’) in Linear B.
In the end, however, all palaeographical study of the Linear B script relies
upon the sign forms on the clay tablets. This brings us back to the pioneering
observations of Bennett: 122
‘The first and most important criterion is provided by the forms of the signs.
Many signs have a fairly large range of variation in shape and construction.
The number of strokes used in drawing the sign is not invariable; lines crossed
by other lines may be drawn either in one stroke or in two separate strokes,
and sometimes single strokes may be replaced by two parallel lines in the same
position. Non-essential lines may be added as if they were serifs. In place of
straight lines, curves may be drawn, and simple curves may be elaborated.
The proportions of the signs are not constant; lines may be relatively longer
or shorter, and the angles at which lines meet may increase or decrease. Finally
the clay in which the signs are incised frequently preserved the record of the
order and direction in which strokes are drawn; a line crossing another breaks
and distorts it and the end of a line can be distinguished by the clay raised up
by the stylus.’
Mycenaean palaeography then is based upon strokes in malleable clay and
upon Bennett’s principles of study that fortunately rest on a very firm foundation.
Readers desiring general information about archives per se with some additional
perspectives on the functions and status of scribes, the administrative
working of the sites that have produced Linear B records, the training and
schooling of scribes, and the nature of archives and work deposits in the archaeological
and epigraphical record, all in the context of texts, archives and scribes
in other ancient cultures, should read the second part of this chapter. 123
121 See Skelton’s discussion of the forms of the ideogram VIR in comparison with the studies
made by Bennett, Driessen and Palaima discussed above (SKELTON 2008, 165-166). And note
her conclusions concerning classes of scribal styles at Pylos and the relative chronology of
the mainland koiné style (SKELTON 2008, 173-174).
122 MT II, 90.
123 Also see BROSIUS 2003 and PALAIMA 2003b.