• Scribes as Editors: Tracking Changes in the Linear B Documents

    Author(s):
    Anna P. Judson (see profile)
    Date:
    2020
    Group(s):
    Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean archaeology, Ancient Greece & Rome, Archaeology, Classical archaeology, Classical Philology and Linguistics
    Subject(s):
    Antiquities, Prehistoric, Europe--Aegean Sea Region, Language and languages--Writing, Inscriptions
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    Linear B, Mycenaean scribes, Late Bronze Age Greece, writing practices, administrative practices, Aegean prehistoric archaeology, Writing systems, Epigraphy, Scribal culture
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/48sj-wm29
    Abstract:
    This is the first page only. Full article is available at https://doi.org/10.3764/aja.124.4.0523 (JSTOR subscription required) or https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/310940 (open access). Abstract: A wide variety of edits can be identified in the Linear B administrative documents from Mycenaean Greece. The writers of these documents (the Mycenaean scribes) can be seen to have made changes to their texts by erasing, rewriting, or adding signs, words, or whole entries. The edits include not only correcting errors and updating information (as might be expected for these administrative documents) but also a wide variety of changes that affect the texts' presentation rather than their content, such as alterations to their layout, textual structure, and orthography, and even the forms of individual signs. By analyzing these edits and the motivations behind them, this article sheds light on the priorities of the Mycenaean scribes in creating and using their administrative documents and the choices they made in the process of doing so. The results demonstrate that despite these records' short-term nature (tablets were kept for no longer than a year) they were not merely rough or preliminary texts over which relatively little care was taken but were active documents designed for ongoing use and consultation within the Mycenaean palatial administrations' yearly administrative cycles.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    https://doi.org/10.3764/aja.124.4.0523
    Publisher:
    Archaeological Institute of America
    Pub. Date:
    2020-9-14
    Journal:
    American Journal of Archaeology
    Volume:
    124
    Issue:
    4
    Page Range:
    523 - 549
    ISSN:
    0002-9114
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    3 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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