Spice from 11 boughs of a terebinth tree (Knossos Tablet KN 1530 R t 01)... rather romantic Click to ENLARGE:



In my valiant, though not necessarily entirely successful, attempt to recover syllagograms and lost text from at least some of Knossos Tablet KN 1530 R t 01, a badly damaged Linear B Tablet, I have taken my cue from Andras Zeke and his splendid blog, the Minoan Language Blog, which unfortunately has been mysteriously idle ever since September 2012. For some reason unknown to me, Andras Zeke has simply disappeared from the scene, and his disappearance is a terrible loss to the research community devoted to the eventual decipherment of Linear A, in which he was making considerable headway. The Minoan Language Blog is also an excellent source for the advancement of the further decipherment of those areas of Linear B, which have to date defied decipherment. I strongly recommend this blog to anyone involved in any capacity in research into Linear A or Linear B.

There are several instances of (some seriously) damaged Linear A tablets on the Minoan Language Blog, which Andras Zeke has valiantly attempted to restore, usually with a remarkable degree of success, as illustrated for instance by this consummate restoration of a Linear A tablet which he effected (Click to jump to the entry for this tablet in the Minoan Language Blog:



I cannot claim to have achieved anywhere near the proficiency Andras Zeke has mastered in recovering lost portions of damaged tablets, but I have made my best efforts to fill in at least some of the gaps on Knossos Tablet KN 1530 R t 01, much of which has been effaced beyond restoration.

Perhaps the single factor which lends some credence to my so-called “decipherment” is that it hangs together, that it is somehow coherent, all the retrieved parts matching up like the pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. This does not mean that my partial translation is in any sense of the word the “right” one, whatever that is supposed to mean, any more than it is any conceivable variant on the “wrong” ones. It is just the decipherment I was able to pull from the ashes, whatever its supposed merits. I invite any and all researchers/accomplished translators of Linear B to come up with their own versions of “decipherments” of this intriguing tablet, however much they may be at variance with my own.

Richard