Translation of Knossos Fragment KN 190 B with the Sypersyllabogram DI by Rita Roberts 

Well over a year ago I became interested in the ancient script writings of the Minoans. These scripts are written on clay tablets and were discovered by Sir Arthur Evans whilst excavating the grand Palace of Knossos in Crete. It was Evans who named these scripts Linear B.

My Linear B teacher and mentor Richard Vallance Janke is extremely helpful in guiding me through what would be a difficult course for me to follow. However, with Richards humour and patience and his unique way of teaching I have found this subject a delight to learn in so much that I have now completed levels 1-4 (Basic to Advanced, Part 1).

Now Richard has given me my first assignment in translating Linear B fragments into English. These fragments seemed simple at a first glance as all of them contained the words KOWA for girl and KOWO for boy, so I thought, this should be reasonably easy. However, when I looked at what I thought was a simple translation where the first word was KOWA followed by the single syllabogram DI this confused me, I had no idea what this could possibly mean.

I know that Richard has been working hard on his new theory of Sypersyllabograms. I call them Supergrams to myself, so I knew he would advise me to consult the Linear B English Glossary and the Linear B Lexicon a much larger dictionary where I most likely would find what the Syllabogram DI might mean, this I did and to my astonishment there I found an entry which made sense " diwiya" alternately spelled "diwiyaya" meaning "a or the Priestess of the god Zeus".

This Sypersyllabogram DI meaning is to me a logical translation since the three most important deities the Minoans worshipped were Pipituna, the Snake Goddess and Zeus, hence my translation as follows:

Translation of Knossos Fragment KN 190 B with the Sypersyllabogram DI by Rita Roberts (Click to ENLARGE):



Rita Roberts

NOTE by Richard Vallance Janke.

Folks, this is Rita’s firs major contribution as an official translator of Linear B fragments. Considering that Rita only just began learning Linear B in the spring of 2013, she has come a very, very long way indeed. The task of translating this recalcitrant fragment placed enormous intellectual demands on Rita, and she has surpassed herself in the sheer ingenuity of her translation, which I would never have dreamt of myself, in spite of my extensive knowledge of Linear B, and a translation which I consider to be not only second to none, but highly accurate. Congratulations, Rita. We look forward to more fine translations from your expert hand.

Richard