Got it in writing: A surprising Bronze Age discovery

Further Findings - The University of Texas at Austin, 30-05-2011

Listening to Cynthia Shelmerdine describe the writing on a Greek tablet from more than 3,000 years ago, it’s like she was looking over the scribe’s shoulder as he worked. She points out details and nuance of technique, the condition of the tablet and what it means, literally, and for the world of Greek archaeology. “Notice how the signs are the same height as each other? ” says Shelmerdine, a retired Classics professor at The University of Texas, pointing to a photo of the tablet on her iPhone. “That takes some care and planning when you’re writing with a bone stylus and sizing on clay.” Sometime between 1450 and 1350 B.C., an administrative scribe – a Bronze Age version of a guy with a clipboard – had etched Greek characters in the Linear B writing system on the damp clay of the tablet.  On one side are the number one and a name. The other side appears to be part of a verb. The context of the information is more a memo from shipping and receiving than a scrap of a Greek poem.  At some point, the tablet was burned, which fired it like a clay pot in a kiln. Thus it was preserved to be found in a rubbish pit with pieces of pottery.

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