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May 19, 2005
New Minoan Linear A Tablets from Bulgaria
The Sofia News Agency has just announced a very exciting find: tables written in Minoan Linear A from southern Bulgaria. The article doesn't say much and there are no pictures. One thing it does say is somewhat misleading.
Ancient tablets found in South Bulgaria are written in the oldest European script found ever, German scientists say.[snip]
The discovery proves the theory of the Bulgarian archaeologists that the script on the foundings is one of the oldest known to humankind, the archaeologist Nikolay Ovcharov announced Wednesday.
Well, I'm not sure what "script" or "European" means in the above, but because even at ~3500 years old (15th to 16th century BCE) they are not even close to being "one of the oldest known" European scripts (at least by my definitions of "scripts" and "European"). Among "Minoan" like scripts, Minoan Linear A is not the oldest known. The hieroglyphic scripts on CMS II.1 nos. 391, 393, and 394 from Archanes Phournoi are much older. These examples are from the Middle Minoan IA period (ca. 2050-1950 BCE). The oldest Hieroglyphic tablets from Crete are older (ca. 1750 - 1675 BCE) than these newly found Minoan Linear A tablets. If all Ovcharov means is the oldest from the European mainland, that isn't much of a claim.
Just for the record, while not European, the earliest Sumerian scripts are somewhere around 1500 years older than these new finds. And Egyptian hieroglyphics, while somewhat more problematic in origin, are also from about 3000 BCE.
On a more positive note, the more Minoan Linear A tablets the better. The language is not at all understood and the more there is to work with the more likely it is that someone will resolve the many outstanding problems. In addition, having texts from southern Bulgaria expands the known range over which this language was used. That is always useful knowledge. Just for the record, I am still betting that Minoan Linear A is a Semitic language. But, as they say, the jury is still out.
I'll tell you more when more is known.
Bibliography
CMS - Corpus der Minoischen und Mykenischen Siegel (Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag).
Two good web sites that cover Minoan Linear A from which I cribbed some of the above are,
Linear A Texts in phonetic transcription maintained by John Younger at the University of Kansas
Lesson 10: Middle Minoan Crete from Dartmouth
Posted by Duane Smith at May 19, 2005 3:03 PM | Read more on Archaeology |
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