Mycenaean Texts [ LGLOR2744 ]

A complete syllabus and an initial bibliography are available on the iCampus server.

A elementary knowledge of Classical Greek is desirable.

The course deals with the following themes:
- The history of Writing in Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean;
- The socio-cultural context of Mycenaean text documents;
- Inscriptions and the Mycenaean language.

At the end of this course the student will be able to study, in their context, the Mycenaean text documents, making use of the linguistic, socio-cultural, historic, geographical and archaeological data dealt with in this course.

Oral exam

The course consists of lectures and personal work.

The course will focus, above all, on placing the Mycenaean documentary inscriptions in their socio-economic environment (the palace) and to draw the attention to the similarities and specialities of this documentation in relation to written sources produced in contemporary palaces in the Middle East: there will be special emphasis on the invention and application of writing in the cadre of palaces.

Special attention will be paid to the material aspect of tablets, to their production, to their conservation and archiving; the questions of palaeography will also be touched on.

The student will be trained in the principal work tools that are relevant to the study of Mycenae (corpus of texts, dictionaries, manuals, the principal scientific revues and collections, the papers of the International conferences) and also the history of this scientific discipline.

Finally, the major part of this course is devoted to the reading and commentary (philological, historical and archaeological) of the Mycenaean tablets.

- M. Ventris & J. Chadwick, Documents in Mycenaean Greek, Cambridge, 1973;
- Y. Duhoux & A. Morpurgo Davies (ed), A companion to Linear B. Mycenaean Greek Texts and their World (BCILL, 120; 127), Louvain-la-Neuve, 2008; 2011 (volume 3 in preparation);
- F. Aura Jorro, Diccionario micenico, Madrid, 2 vol., 1985-1993.

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