Five-year Report 1996-2001

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As suggested by the resolution of CIPEM at the 8th International Mycenological Colloquium in Ohrid, Yugoslavia, in 1985, the Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory at the University of Texas at Austin has made brief reports on its activities at subsequent colloquia. During the period 1996-2001, PASP has continued its mission to serve as a center for the study of Mycenaean, Minoan and Cypriote texts, languages and cultures.

Six main areas of concentration during the last four years were:

  1. preparation for the 11th International Colloquium held May 7-13, 2000;
  2. mounting of the related exhibition on the lives and work of Michael Ventris and Linda Schele and their collaborators and the decipherment of Mayan and Mycenaean writing (March 9-August 1, 2000 in the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, General Libraries UT Austin) and its accompanying catalogue;
  3. acquisition of materials pertaining to the work of early researchers in the field of Mycenaean studies and work upon this material;
  4. a: continuation of the revived analytical bibliography Studies in Mycenaean Inscriptions and Dialect, for which during this period volumes covering 1982-83 and 1994-95 have appeared and the volume for 1996-97 is in press and due June 2001.
    b: an on-line version of the data in the PASP SMID volumes is imminent.
  5. helping in the production of Palace of Nestor IV, the definitive corpus volume of the Pylos texts, under the direction of José L. Melena, and with the assistance of E.L. Bennett, Jr., J. Bennet, R. Firth, T.G. Palaima, R. Palmer, K. Pluta, C.W. Shelmerdine.
  6. scholarly and professional work by the director, by visiting scholars, and by graduate students participating in the program.

The director of PASP also continues to serve as co-editor of Minos and as its book review editor, as US representative on CIPEM, as a Mitglied of the Mycenaean Commission of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He served 1996-2000 on the executive committee of the Managing Committee of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and on the editorial board of the Spanish journal of classical philology Faventia. PASP also continues to cooperate in the publication of Aegaeum, and PASP has much-appreciated exchanges of publications with ISMEA in Rome, the Institute of Classical Studies University of London, the Department of Antiquities in Cyprus, and Ziva Antika in Skopje.

During the period 1996-2001, PASP was paid extended visits by Artemis Karnava (March-May 1998) Ilse Schoep and Jan Driessen (April 1998) and by José Melena (October-November 1999). They participated in ongoing seminars on Linear B economy and administration and on Mycenaean Greek religious texts and did their own research with the archives and reference materials in PASP. We append here the official report by Melena of the results of his stay. Karnava’s work is embodied in her completed PH.D. thesis The Cretan Hieroglyphic Script of the Second Millennium BC: Description, Analysis, Function and Decipherment Perspectives (Brussels, 2000).

Regarding (2) and (3) the results were seen physically in the exhibition and the catalogue. Both were made possible with funding from the Institute for Aegean Prehistory and the Dickson Centennial Professorship #2. The catalogue is available from PASP for a $10 handling fee:

T.G. Palaima, E. Pope and F. Kent Reilly eds., Unlocking the Secrets of Ancient Writing: The Parallel Lives of Michael Ventris and Linda Schele and the Decipherment of Mycenaean and Mayan Writing. Catalogue of an Exhibition Held at the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, March 9–August 1, 2000 (Austin 2000) Pp. vi + 34. 24 text figures. [rev. THES (09/01/00) 25]

PASP during the period 1996-2001 has acquired mainly photocopies of important original sources: the correspondence of Sir John Myres with Michael Ventris and Alice Kober; the chapter of Prudence Smith’s unpublished memoirs dealing with June-July 1952 and Ventris’s decipherment and BBC broadcast; materials from Andrew Robinson (who visited PASP in early June 1999) relating to his work with Ventris; and most significantly rich materials and insights from Oliver Cox, Ventris’s architectural partner and friend. We also have on loan Alice Kober’s own copy of her published dissertation. We encourage scholars in other countries to make every effort to preserve their intellectual Mycenological heritage and to record the history of work in this field. The director of PASP spent a good deal of satisfying time exploring and writing about the mostly unsung contribution of Alice Kober to the field of Mycenology.

Regarding (4), again the support of INSTAP has made possible remarkable progress now that systems are in place for efficient compilation and editing of the necessary data for SMID We received an internal UT FASTTEX grant to help make SMID on-line accessible and searchable. We ask that younger scholars please contact the current SMID editor Nick Dobson for ways of participating in the production of SMID.

Remember that SMID was founded by Michael Ventris as a concrete manifestation of his firm belief in ‘group working’ among Mycenologists. We attach the report of former chief SMID editor Peter Van Alfen on recent work.

Regarding (5) a report was made by the chief editor, José L. Melena, to the research tools and publications committee. A good portion of the visit by J.L.Melena to PASP, when not visiting the Buckhorn Museum, was devoted to this work.

Regarding (6) PASP receives a high volume of e-queries now about a wide range of matters. These are answered with due dispatch.

The following theses or articles were written by PASP students and the director since 1996:

T.G. Palaima:

  • [with E. Pope and F. Kent Reilly] Unlocking the Secrets of Ancient Writing: The Parallel Lives of Michael Ventris and Linda Schele and the Decipherment of Mycenaean and Mayan Writing. Catalogue of an Exhibition Held at the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, March 9–August 1, 2000 (Austin 2000) Pp. vi + 34. 24 text figures.
  • “100 years of Linear B at Knossos” = Review article on J. Chadwick et al., Corpus of Mycenaean Inscriptions from Knossos, Volumes 2-4 in AJA 105.2 (2001) 316-320 (with J.L. Melena)
  • “The Palaeography of Mycenaean Inscribed Sealings from Thebes and Pylos, Their Place Within the Mycenaean Administrative System and Their Links With the Extra- Palatial Sphere,” in W. Mueller ed., Minoisch-mykenische Glyptik. Stil, Ikonographie, Funktion CMS Beiheft 6 (Mainz 2000) 219-238.
  • “MA Tn 249: A Linear B Tablet from Marburg with Ritual Information and Graffiti,” in Minoisch-mykenische Glyptik, 361-368.
  • “Courage and Prowess Afoot in Homer and the Vietnam of Tim O’Brien,” Classical and Modern Literature 20/3 (2000) 1-22
  • “themis in the Mycenaean Lexicon and the Etymology of the Place-Name *ti-mi-to a- ko,” Faventia 22/1 (2000) 7-19.
  • “Transactional Vocabulary in Linear B Tablet and Sealing Administration,” M. Perna ed., Administrative Documents in the Aegean and their Near Eastern Counterparts. Proceedings of the International Colloquium, Naples, February 29-March 2, 1996 (Turin 2000) 261-276.
  • “Classics: Apocalypse Now or Working Toward the Future?” Classical Bulletin 75.1 (1999) 85-97, a special issue devoted to the current state and future of Classics edited by L. Golden and K. Herbert.
  • “Religion in the Room of the Chariot Tablets” Journal of Prehistoric Religion 14 (2000) 24-27 [with J. Gulizio and K. Pluta].
  • “Kn02 – Tn 316,” in S. Deger-Jalkotzy et al. eds., Floreant Studia Mycenaea. Akten des X. Internationalen Mykenologischen Colloquiums in Salzburg vom 1.-5. Mai 1995 (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Philosophisch-Historische Klasse Denkschriften 274: Vienna 1999) Band II, 437-461.
  • (with Elizabeth Sikkenga) “Linear A > Linear B,” MELETEMATA. Studies in Aegean Archaeology Presented to Malcolm H. Wiener as He Enters His 65th Year (Aegaeum 20: Liège and Austin 1999) 599-608.
  • “po-re-na: A Mycenaean Reflex in Homer? An I-E Figure in Mycenaean?” in Minos 31-32 (1996-97 [98]) 303-312
  • “Mycenaean Militarism from a Textual Perspective. Onomastics in Context: lawos, damos, klewos,” in R. Laffineur ed., Polemos: Warfare in the Aegean Bronze Age (Aegaeum 19: Liège and Austin 1999) 367-378
  • “A Linear B Inscribed Galet from Liège: LIE Ga 1998 A Gaufre or ‘Galet’,” in R. Laffineur ed., Polemos: Warfare in the Aegean Bronze Age (Aegaeum 19: Liège and Austin 1999) 507-511
  • “Remembering a Scholar: John Chadwick Was One of the Founding Fathers of Mycenaean Studies,” Archaeology Odyssey (Winter 1999) 11
  • “Linear B and the Origins of Greek Religion: ‘di-wo-nu-so‘,” in N. Dimoudis and A. Kyriatsoulis eds., The History of the Hellenic Language and Writing: From the Second to the First Millennium B.C.: Break or Continuity?, Acts of the 2nd International Conference of the Society for the Study and Spreading of Hellenic History Held at Ohlstadt, Germany 03.-06.10.1996 (DZA Verlag für Kultur und Wissenschaft GmBH: Altenburg 1998 ISBN 3-9806602-0-6) 205-222; discussion 223-224
  • “Linear Scripts'” in Encyclopedia Americana 1998 (Grolier 1998) 523-524
  • “Potter and Fuller: The Royal Craftsmen,” in R. Laffineur and P.P. Betancourt eds., Tekhne, Aegaeum 16 (Liège 1997) 407-412
  • “PH Up 1996,” in R. Laffineur and P.P. Betancourt eds., Tekhne, Aegaeum 16 (Liège 1997) 539-543
  • “‘Archives’ and ‘Scribes’ and Information Hierarchy in Mycenaean Greek Linear B,” in Maria Brosius and Alan K. Bowman eds., Papers of the Workshop “Archives and Archival Tradition: Concepts of Record-Keeping in the Ancient World” held at the Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents Oxford University September 17-19, 1998 (OUP forthcoming)
  • “Assessing the Linear B Evidence for Continuity from the Mycenaean Period in the Boeotian Cults of Poseidon (and Erinys) at Onchestos (Telphousa—Haliartos),” in John M. Fossey and Michael B. Cosmopoulos eds., Boiotia Antiqua VII-VIII: Studies in Boiotian Archaeology, History, and Institutions (including Papers Presented at the IX International Conference on Boiotian Antiquities, Winnipeg 29-31 October 1998) (Chicago: Ares forthcoming).
  • “Special vs. Normal Mycenaean: Hand 24 and Writing in the Service of the King?” in J. Bennet and J. Driessen eds., A-NO-QO-TA. Festschrift for J.T. Killen (Minos special double volume forthcoming).
  • “The Inscribed Bronze ‘Kessel’ from Shaft Grave IV and Cretan Heirlooms of the Bronze Age Artist named ‘Aigeus’ vel sim. in the Mycenaean Palatial Period,” in Y. Duhoux and C. Davaras eds., Festschrift William C. Brice (submitted 02//99)
  • “Alice Elizabeth Kober,” in Getzel Cohen and Martha Joukowsky eds., Women in Archaeology (submitted 12/03/99)
  • “Archaeology and Text: Decipherment, Translation, and Interpretation,” Presented at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Workshop at UCLA on the Theme of Archaeology in the Mediterranean: The Present State and Future Scope of a Discipline, March 23-25, 2000
  • “The Modalities of Economic Control at Pylos,” in P. Carlier et al. eds., Proceedings of the Conference Journées Égéennes Held at the Université Nanterre, Paris March 8- 10, 1999. (submitted 1/2000)

Nicolle Hirschfeld

  • The PASP Data Base for the Use of Scripts on Cyprus (Minos Suppl. 13: 1996)
  • with M. Yon, V. Karageorghis and A. Caubet, Ras Shamra-Ougarit XIII: Céramiques mycéniennes (Paris and Nicosia forthcoming)
  • “Cypro-Minoan: patterns of Use in the Archaeological Record,” in J. Smith ed., The Archaeology of Script and Seal use in the Second and First Millennia B.C. (forthcoming)
  • “Ways of Exchange in the LBA Eastern Mediterranean: the Evidence of the Marked Vases,” BICS 42 (1997-98) 212-213
  • Ph.D. Thesis (12/99) “Potmarks of the Late Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean”

Kevin Pluta

  • “The Role of Hand 2 in Administration at Pylos,” Antiquitas Viva (forthcoming) [with V. Kyriakidis]
  • “A Reconstruction of the Archives Complex at Pylos: Preliminary Considerations,” Minos 31-32 (1996-97) 231-250
  • “Religion in the Room of the Chariot Tablets” Journal of Prehistoric Religion 14 (2000) 24-27 [with J. Gulizio and T.G. Palaima].
  • M.A. Thesis (5/00) “Sealings in the Archives at Pylos”

Peter van Alfen

  • “The LM IIIB Inscribed Stirrup Jars as Links in an Administrative Chain,” Minos 31- 32 (1996-97) 251-274

Stavroula Nikoloudis

  • “Animal Sacrifice in the Mycenaean World,” Journal of Prehistoric Religion (forthcoming)

Amanda Krauss

  • “i-je-ro and Related Terms,” Journal of Prehistoric Religion (forthcoming)

Joann Gulizio

  • “Hermes and e-ma-a2: The Continuity of his Cult from the Bronze Age to the Historical Period,” Antiquitas Viva (forthcoming)
  • “Religion in the Room of the Chariot Tablets” Journal of Prehistoric Religion 14 (2000) 24-27 [with T.G. Palaima and K. Pluta].
  • “Ares in the Linear B Tablets and the Continuity of the Cult of Ares in the Historical Period,” Journal of Prehistoric Religion (forthcoming)
  • M.A. Thesis (5/00) “Hermes and Ares in the Linear B Texts: The Continuity of Their Cults from the Bronze Age to the Historical Period”

Susanne Hofstra

  • Ph.D.. Thesis (12/00) “Small Things Considered: The Finds from LH III B Pylos in Context”

Zoe Dorton

  • M.A. Thesis (8/96) “A Study of TE-KO-TO-NE and TO-KO-DO-MO“

Jason Railsback

  • M.A. Thesis (12/97) “Mycenaean Theophoric Names”

In addition other former PASP students like Susan Lupack and Susanne Hofstra have contributed a variety of scholarly papers and published works of scholarship during the course of their dissertation work under the direction of C.W. Shelmerdine.

Hofstra in 2000-2001 holds a teaching position at Wabash College, Lupack at Brooklyn College, and Hirschfeld at University of Tennessee Knoxville. Van Alfen is a fellow at the American School and the Albright Institute in Jerusalem.

The proceedings of the 11th International Mycenological Colloquium will appear as an Hesperia Supplement.