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

110 T.G. PALAIMA §12.2.2.3
Further Province of Pylos (series Ma: Hand 2 wrote both the tablets and
the label);
(4) records of flax connected with communities in both provinces that have
skilled work groups, individuals and even a deity associated with them
(series Na and Ng: Hand 1 wrote most of the Na texts, the two Ng summary/totaling
texts and the labels 137 that are tentatively connected with the
Na series);
(5) records of landholding in the district of pa-ki-ja-ne (series Eb and Eo:
Hand 41 wrote the tablets and the label); 138
(6) the inspection inventories of armour refurbishing (series Sh and label
Wa 732: both by the tablet-writer of stylus group 733 of stylistic class ii
and found in grid square 52); 139
(7) records of repair work with wheels (Hand 26 wrote both the label Wa 1148
and the tablets of series Sa).
We do not know how the information in tablets like Aa 60, Aa 240, or the
tablets of the Ma or Na sets was obtained. It is clear that reporting had to come
into the palace centre or that administrative agents of the palace had to go out
and gather information. It is unlikely, however, that these texts were written
down very far from the central archives in which the tablets were stored. This
makes it possible that the labeling of the transport-baskets occurred when the
tablets reached the proximity of the central archives. The records of the inspection
inventory for the five pairs of armour may have been written down in the
Northeast Workshop (Fig. 12.16, Rooms 92-100).
§12.2.2.3. Styluses
We have seen that Sir Arthur Evans spoke of the ductus (or manner of drawing
the lines of signs through the clay) on certain Knossos tablets as possessing
a needle-like precision. This may have planted the idea that the Mycenaean
scribes wrote with a writing implement that was sharpened to a point, much
137 Wa 917 refers, it seems, to the prominent person a-ko-so-ta whom we discuss below (§12.2.5)
as having completed a distribution (o-da-sa-to, hos [?] das[s]ato) in his status as an e-qe-ta,
ek w etas and somehow involving an official known as the e-re-u-te, ‘inspector’. Fragmentary
tablet Na 1356 makes the attribution of the label to the Na series plausible because it refers
to the wanaks and seemingly the same official (the e-re-u-te). As an e-qe-ta, a-ko-so-ta would
have had a close relationship with the wanaks. Wa 948 simply refers to the Hither Province.
138 The label preserves two vocabulary items that are important for the landholding records written
by the same hand: onateres ‘landholders who derive a benefit from the land through
usufruct’, and ktoinahon the genitive plural of the term for the basic plots of land.
139 The text of label Wa 732 can be restored as †Ìõ[rakes.