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Archive Tells of Cracking Ancient Greek Language
By Michael Miller/University of Cincinatti
A retired Classics professor from Texas donated a collection of papers to the University of Cincinnati detailing the deciphering of an ancient Greek language that baffled generations of scholars. University of Texas at Austin Professor Emeritus Thomas Palaima donated boxes of documents, correspondence, files and photos chronicling the coordinated effort to translate the script called Linear B used in the Mycenaean language.
“I’m delighted these invaluable materials have found a home in UC Classics,” said Sean Gurd, chairman of the Department of Classics at the University of Texas at Austin.
“UC’s Classics archive may actually be the best classics-specific research library in the world, and I’ve worked in most of them.”
Linear B dates back to 1400 BC and predates Greek by several centuries. Scholars for decades were stymied in understanding and translating its symbols. “Deciphering Linear B has been called the Mount Everest of Greek archaeology. It was an enigma that captured the imaginations of many scholars,” said Jeff Kramer, a junior research associate and archivist in UC’s Department of Classics.
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