Sebastian TraunmüllerArchäologischer Anzeiger 2012/2: 1-27.
The small number of securely datable pottery deposits on Minoan Crete poses one of the crucial problems of Neopalatial chronology. Zominthos, however, seems to be the exception to that rule. The ceramic assemblage found in the area of the pottery workshop derives from a sealed deposit par excellence and is thus of paramount chronological significance.
J and E, the most frequent metrograms of Linear A archives, are reconsidered in their main occurrences, after the discovery of a new text that has been used to demonstrate the value J=1/2.
La discussion de la tablette linéaire A HT 123 présentée par R. et E. Cash suggére fortement que linéaire A ki-ro n’a pas la valeur de ‘deficit’, vel sim.
In 1987 a long (87.2 cm) bronze implement has been found in a fairly rich tomb of Palaepaphos-Skales, in the very core of the later Paphian syllabary. The tomb is dated C.G. I, i.e. between 1050 and 950.
The main problem with Linear A, as is well-known, is that such a script has not been deciphered yet. Problems relating with the decipherment are the small amount and extension of available texts, which prevent us from recognizing phonetic, morphological and syntactic rules, necessary for an accurate comparison with other known languages.
The significance of the sixteen Linear B tablets from the Pylos Megaron dealing with textiles and related topics has thus far largely been ignored, and with good reason - the tablets are fragmentary, and appear to make very little sense either on their own or as part of a larger whole.
It has been widely accepted that the Linear B lemmata pe-re-ke-u, pe-re-ke, and pe-re-ko [reflect the Mycenaean verbal root found also alphabetic Greek πλέκω, πλέξις, πλοκή, πλόκος, πλόκανον, etc. However, there are both internal contextual and external “etymological” (i.e. historical phonological) obstacles to this interpretation.
Erik Hallager, Eleni Papadopoulou & Iris TzachiliKadmos 50 (2012): 63-74.
The Minoan peak sanctuary of Vrysinas is located on the peak of Agio Pneuma in the Vrysinas range, south of Rethymnon city. It is an elevated site (858 m. asl.) with high visibility from and of the surrounding area, and with lines of sight with to other local peak sanctuaries, notably Atsipadhes.
Roland Cash & Evelyne CashKadmos 50 (2012): 33-62.
Le corpus connu des textes disponibles en linéaire A est avant tout constitué par des documents de comptabilité. Il est fréquent qu’on puisse comprendre le sens général d’une tablette au vu de sa structure générale.
Le terme linéaire A ku-ro est attesté dans 29 tablettes, où il indique la somme (parfois erronée) des entrées d’une tablette ou, bien plus souvent, celle d’ une ‘section’ (qui peut aussi correspondre à la face a ou b) de la tablette concernée.
L’écriture syllabique linéaire A est utilisée dans l’Égée de l’âge du Bronze – essentiellement en Crète, mais aussi dans d’autres îles, sur le continent grec en Anatolie (on a même cru en trouver en Israël).
This article focuses on several overlooked assemblages of the Bronze Age artefacts from Troy brought to light by H. Schliemann and W. Dörpfeld. It briefly presents the complicated history and partition of duplicate artefacts from the Berlin collection and their donation to many European institutions after Schliemann’s death.
Dimitris Tambakopoulos & Yannis Maniatisin Anna Gutiérrez Garcia-M., Pilar Lapuente Mercadal & Isabel Rodà de Llanza (eds) 2012. Interdisciplinary Studies on Ancient Stone. Proceedings of the IX Association for the Study of Marblesand Other Stones in Antiquity (ASMOSIA) Conference (Tarragona 2009). [Documenta 23], Tarragona: Institut Català d’Arqueologia Clàssica, 287-299.
The use of marble in prehistory and in particular in the Early Bronze Age is clearly evident in the Greek Cycladic islands where the famous Cycladic figurines appeared and spread all over the Aegean. However, the absence of quarrying traces in that period and the abundance of marble outcrops in most of the Cycladic islands makes the creation of reference databases very difficult and hence the determination of provenance of prehistoric artefacts quite demanding.
Simon Jusseret & Manuel SintubinSeismological Research Letters 83:4 (July/August 2012): 736-742.
Since its discovery in the beginning of the twentieth century by British archaeologist Arthur Evans, the Bronze Age (Minoan) civilization of Crete (Greece, ca. 3000–1200 B.C.) received considerable scholarly, scientific, and popular attention.
