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

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100 T.G. PALAIMA §12.2.2.1 Fig. 12.38. Pylos tablets Ta 713 and Sh 742 drawings (after PT II, 66, 82) finely levigated clay with carefully smoothed edges. Contrast its shape and appearance with the drawn-out, uneven, and tapering shape of tablet Sh 742. It is perhaps no accident that the tablet with the better appearance (Ta 713) is part of the series that lists important communal banqueting paraphernalia, including here tables made with stone, ivory and special woods, and inlays and figural decorations. This inventory was very difficult to compile and lay out in recorded form. It was entrusted, therefore, to Hand 2, who writes other major sets. Sh 742 by Stylus 733-Cii, on the other hand, is one tablet from a series of twelve tablets with repetitive texts that document sets of refurbished armour that were checked one by one to make sure they had reached a state of readiness. There are six tablets with identical texts pertaining each to an individual set of defensive armour of one style, and four tablets with identical texts pertaining to defensive armour of a slightly different kind of construction. 132 Although we should not underestimate the importance that armour had for the elite Mycenaean military class, it seems legitimate to conclude that these inspection texts are a less difficult and less prestigious scribal assignment. §12.2.2. How were the Linear B tablets made, shaped, written and organized? §12.2.2.1. Tablets Linear B tablets can be cut or reshaped to special sizes to fit specific recordkeeping tasks. In Fig. 12.39, the scribe uses a rectangular tablet (Cn 608), 132 On the Sh series, see PALAIMA 1996a. On the Ta series and tablet Ta 713, see Documents 2 , 332-348, 496-502.
§12.2.2.1 SCRIBES, SCRIBAL HANDS AND PALAEOGRAPHY 101 Fig. 12.39. Pylos tablet Cn 608 (photo from PASP archives, annotation by K. Pluta) drawing rule lines on it so that the eleven lines run across the narrow width of the tablet and down its length. The tablet is perfectly sized and expertly laid out to receive this text, without any trace of hesitation or crowding of information. The scribe (Hand 1) writes a two-line header that says: ‘Thus the o-pi-da-mi-jo (subject) will fatten fatted pigs (object)’. The o-pi-da-mi-jo, opidamioi here seem to be individuals who work on the lands of the damos and for the profit of the damos.
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BIBLIOTHÈQUE DES CAHIERS DE L'INST
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SUMMARY CHAPTER 12 SCRIBES, SCRIBAL
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§12.1.1 SCRIBES, SCRIBAL HANDS AND
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A Companion to Linear B - The University of Texas at Austin

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