Acta Classica Universitatis Scientiarum Debreceniensis 1. (1965)

Tegyey Imre: Observations on a Linear B cadastral list

ACT A CLASSICA UNIV. SCIENT. DEBRECEN. I. I960. p. 1 — 10. OBSERVATIONS ON A LINEAR B CADASTRAL LIST BY IMRE TEGYEY The decipherment of the Linear В script — besides the increase of our know­ledge concerning the history of the Greek language — is an aid in furthering the study of the structure, administration, economic basis, military organization and religion of the Late Bronze Age. The tablets, relating to land tenure, are of very great importance for the study of economic life and social system. Among the in­scriptions,1 that came to light in Pylos, a cadastral list has been found that contains lands from pa-ki-ja-ne territory. This find is very remarkable because its parallel formulae. One of the sets of the cadastral survey (Eo-En tablets) contains the so-called ki-ti-me-na ko-to-na land and also lands leased by the landholders in o-na-to form. The characteristic terms of the second set (Eb-Ep) are: ke-ke-me-na ko-to-na and pa-ro da-mo.2 The two sets are connected through persons of landholders and te­nants and this connection can be demonstrated also in diagrams on cadastral map, designed by Bennett,3 on the basis of the tablets. Both sets have been preserved in a double recension: the Eo and Eb series contains smaller and single entries, the tablets that are marked with En and Ep, may be considered as the summary of the single entries but in larger „pages”. The cadastral list of pa-ki-ja-ne was carefully investigated as a comprehensive whole. Ventris and Chadwick, Brown, Bennett, Adrados, Luria, Palmer contribu­ted to the clearing up of the problem by a comprehensive method of covering the whole field,4 Carratelli, Furumark, Webster, Ruiperez, Tovar, Bartonek and others by explaining some terms.5 1 E. L. Bennett, The Pylos Tablets. Text of Inscriptions Found 1939 —1954. Princeton 1955. The text in transcription: C. Callavotti — A. Sacconi, Inscriptiones Pyliae ad Myce­­naeam aetatem pertinentes. Roma 1961. To the latter cp. J. P. Olivier, Sur le text des „Frumentaria documenta” des Inscriptiones Pyliae. Kadmos 2(1963)127 ff. 2 M. Ventris —J. Chadwick, Documents in Mycenaean Greek. Cambridge 1956 (= Docu­ments), 232 ff. 3 E. L. Bennett, The landholders of Pylos. American Journal of Archaeology 60 (1956) 107 ff. 4 Ventris —Chadwick, Documents 1. c.; W. E. Brown, Land-tenure in Mycenaean Pylos. História 5(1956)385 ff. ; Bennett, AJA 60(1956)103 ff. ; F. R. Adrados, El culto real en Pilos y la distribución de la tierra en época micénica. Emerita 24(1956) 353 ff. and Más sobre el culto real en Pilos. Emerita 29(1961)53 ff. ; С. Я. Лурье, Язык и культура Микенской Греции. Москва —Ленинград. 1957. 233 ff. L.R.Palmer, The Interpretation of Mycenaean Greek Texts. Oxford 1963 ( = Interpretation), 186 ff. 5 С. P. Carratelli, La decifrazione deitesti micenei. La Parola del Passato 9( 1954) 102 ff. ; A. Furumark, Ägäische Texte in griechischer Sprache. Eranos 52(1954)36 ff. ; T. B. L. Webster, From Mycenae to Homer. London 1958, 14 ff. ; M. S. Ruiperez, Notes on Myce­naean Land-division and Livestock-grazing. Minos 5(1957)174 ff. ; E. Will, Aux origines 1 Acta Classica1

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