Kafkania pebble
Encyclopedia
The Kafkania pebble was found in Kafkania, some 7 km (4.3 mi) north of Olympia
, on 1 April 1994. It bears a short inscription of eight syllabic signs in Linear B
, possibly reading . The reverse side shows a double-axe symbol. The inscription is identified by some to be in the Mycenean language, though this identification remains disputed. has been suggested to be a personal name with the common /-ōkʷs/ (-ωπς) suffix. The archaeological context dated the inscription to the 17th century BC approximately. This would make it the earliest written testimony on the Greek mainland, and the earliest document in Linear B. It has been suggested that such an isolated example of Linear B script indicates at best an early stage of Mycenaean writing at that time.
G. Owens suggested that the inscription is in fact Minoan in origin and not Mycenaean. That means it could have been written for a Mycenaean, by a Minoan. There is still no evidence that the Mycenaean Greeks wrote before the Linear B archive of Knossos.
Several specialists of Mycenaean epigraphy, however, have rejected the authenticity of the inscription, and it is quite possible that it is a modern forgery. First, the pebble was apparently discovered on the morning of April Fool's Day. Second, the symbols on the artifact spelling a-so-na have been interpreted by some to purposely spell out the name Iasonas, the first name of the son of Xeni Arapojanni and Jörg Rambach, the alleged discoverers of the pebble.
Olympia, Greece
Olympia , a sanctuary of ancient Greece in Elis, is known for having been the site of the Olympic Games in classical times, comparable in importance to the Pythian Games held in Delphi. Both games were held every Olympiad , the Olympic Games dating back possibly further than 776 BC...
, on 1 April 1994. It bears a short inscription of eight syllabic signs in Linear B
Linear B
Linear B is a syllabic script that was used for writing Mycenaean Greek, an early form of Greek. It pre-dated the Greek alphabet by several centuries and seems to have died out with the fall of Mycenaean civilization...
, possibly reading . The reverse side shows a double-axe symbol. The inscription is identified by some to be in the Mycenean language, though this identification remains disputed. has been suggested to be a personal name with the common /-ōkʷs/ (-ωπς) suffix. The archaeological context dated the inscription to the 17th century BC approximately. This would make it the earliest written testimony on the Greek mainland, and the earliest document in Linear B. It has been suggested that such an isolated example of Linear B script indicates at best an early stage of Mycenaean writing at that time.
G. Owens suggested that the inscription is in fact Minoan in origin and not Mycenaean. That means it could have been written for a Mycenaean, by a Minoan. There is still no evidence that the Mycenaean Greeks wrote before the Linear B archive of Knossos.
Several specialists of Mycenaean epigraphy, however, have rejected the authenticity of the inscription, and it is quite possible that it is a modern forgery. First, the pebble was apparently discovered on the morning of April Fool's Day. Second, the symbols on the artifact spelling a-so-na have been interpreted by some to purposely spell out the name Iasonas, the first name of the son of Xeni Arapojanni and Jörg Rambach, the alleged discoverers of the pebble.
Sources
}}- OL Zh l: QVOVSQVE TANDEM?, Thomas G. PalaimaThomas G. PalaimaThomas G. Palaima is a Mycenologist, the Raymond F. Dickson Centennial Professor and the founding director of the Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory in the Department of Classics at the University of Texas at Austin....
, Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory in the Department of Classics at the University of Texas