Knossos

Knossos, Flickr: gromgull


Wikipedia: Knossos
Ian Swindale's Knossos tour

photo by Flickr: gromgull

Knossos Transliterations

~3,800 Inscribed Items

KN A* series:
KN Ag, KN Ai, KN Ak, KN Am, KN Ap, KN As

KN B* series:
KN Bg, KN B

KN C* series:
KN Ca, KN Ce, KN Ch, KN Co, KN C

KN D* series:
KN Da, KN Db, KN Dc, KN Dd, KN De, KN Df, KN Dg, KN Dk, KN Dl, KN Dm, KN Dn, KN Do, KN Dp, KN Dq, KN Dv, KN D

KN E series

KN F* series:
KN Fh, KN Fp, KN Fs, KN F

KN G* series:
KN Ga, KN Gg, KN Gm, KN Gv, KN G

KN K series

KN L* series:
KN Lc, KN Ld, KN Le, KN Ln, KN L

KN M* series:
KN Mc, KN M

KN N* series:
KN Nc, KN Np

KN O* series:
KN Oa, KN Od, KN Og

KN Pp series

KN Ra, KN R series

KN S* series:
KN Sc, KN Sd, KN Se, KN Sf, KN Sg, KN Sk, KN So, KN Sp

KN U* series:
KN Uc, KN Uf, KN U

KN V* series:
KN Vc, KN Vd, KN V

KN W* series:
KN Wb, KN Wm, KN Wn, KN Ws

KN X* series:
KN Xd, KN Xe, KN Xf, KN X

Definitions

Chadwick & Ventris 1973: toponym

Toponym: ko-no-so
Allative: ko-no-so-de
Ethnics: ko-no-si-ja, ko-no-si-jo

Parallel Sign Groups

ko-no-si-ja (KN E): a-mi-ni-si-jaethnic, pa-i-ti-jaethnic
ko-no-si-jo (KN Xd): ru-ki-ti-jo?ethnic

Associated Commodities

BOS: KN C
GRA: KN E
LUNA: KN E
M: KN Bg
OLE: KN Fh?
TELA+TE: KN Le
VIR: KN Am, KN As, KN B

Associated Anthroponyms

pi-sa-wa-tahapax: KN B?
qo-te-ropa-i-to: KN As

References

Chadwick, John and Michael Ventris, 1973 Documents in Mycenaean Greek

6 Responses to Knossos

  1. Translation of of Knossos Tablet, KN 390 J f 21, Erinu, the Avenging Deity. Is she the Minoan Snake Goddess? The correlation between Erinu, otherwise known as Erinys in Classical Athens, and the Minoan Snake Goddess is open to more than mere speculation. In fact, this fragment may be highly significant. I discuss this at some length on the post on the translation of this extremely important Linear B fragment, even though it contains only this one word, ERINU, here:

    https://linearbknossosmycenae.wordpress.com/2014/07/29/knossos-tablet-kn-390-j-f-21-erinu-the-avenging-deity-is-she-the-minoan-snake-goddess/

    This would be a valuable new addition to your database of Knossos tablets, since you currently have none of the Knossos tablets in the KN J series.

    Richard Vallance Janke,
    Ottawa, Ontario, Canada,
    Linguist, Ancient Greek, Mycenaean Linear B & Arcado-Cypriot Linear C
    https://linearbknossosmycenae.wordpress.com

    • Hello, Richard. The KN J references are old, and no longer in use. You’ll want to have a look at Killen & Olivier 1989 (see the References section at the bottom of the relevant KN tablet pages) for new joins and references of the Knossos tablets, as well as various publications since then in academic journals such as Kadmos. The tablet you are referring to is on this site as KN Fp 1+ and the fragment you reference was joined in to a larger tablet for a more complete context. e-ri-nu’s dative e-ri-nu-we appears somewhat uncertainly on the KN V 52+ tablet.

      Unfortunately, that’s currently the only context we have in Linear B for the appearance of the word, which is enough for noting interesting parallels but not enough to confirm a definition with certainty.

      My favourite book on Linear B that discusses the rigor of decipherment methodology is The Linear B Decipherment Controversy Re-examined by Saul Levin. It was written back in 1972 so it’s no longer up to date on what’s now commonly accepted in the LB lexicon, but it’s a brilliant look at the rigor with which one should approach any decipherment. Truly a great read.

      • Hello K.A. Raymoure,

        Thanks for informing me that the KN J series is old. The reason why I used it is that I took all my references directly from Scripta Minoa. I of course completely agree that we cannot confirm any such interpretation with certainty. But it is surely a viable alternative. I shall deinitely consult the other tablets you refer to & add them to my blog. I must have a look at the book by Saul Levin. Thank you so much.

        Richard Vallance Janke

  2. Full version of the article Linguistic reconstruction of the tablet KN As 1516 can be found on the website veneti.info
    For the present in Czech only with English abstract. English version will follow.

  3. “Of the total number [of Knossos place-name occurrences], approximately 84.9% are place-names (880 occurrences) and 15.1% are ethnics (157 occurrences). It is observed that there is a tendency for this percentage pattern to be repeated in individual examples but in two cases of interest ethnics predominate, i.e. at Amnisos and Knossos. By contrast, ku-ta-to, the place-name with the largest total number of occurrences, has only seven ethnics, the remaining 72 place-name occurrences providing 91% of its total. This can be explained by the predominance of ku-ta-to in the sheep tablets which contain very few ethnics, although they do include a-]mi-ni-si-ja (Dn 1319) and ko-no-si-ja (Dn 5508 [?], Dv 1487). Some places are not attested in ethnic form. Three such places of importance, occuring more than 10 times, are tu-ni-ja, se-to-i-ja and ra-ja.” – Jennifer K. McArthur, Place-Names in the Knossos Tablets Identification and Location

  4. Pingback: Quora

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *