The people of Knossos : Prosopographical studies in the Knossos Linear B archives

Sammanfattning: The thesis comprises a study of the personal names and designations recorded on the Knossos Linear B tablets. The tablets are largely fragmentary and are written in a syllabic script. When deciphered the language proved to be an early form of Greek. The tablets date to the Mycenaean period of the Palace of Knossos. They were uncovered in several archival deposits which recent studies have shown may not all be contemporary as generally believed. The study deals with patterns of name recurrences in order to see whether it is possible from a prosopographical viewpoint to discern any interconnections between the deposits. As an aid in determining whether identical names refer to the same individual, a statistical test was conducted. Moreover, individual personal names and groups of particular names are studied in order to see whether individuals are encountered in different contexts. The results of these studies also help to resolve the problem of chronological simultaneity vs dissimilarity of the dating of the tablets at Knossos, at least regarding the deposit in the Room of the Chariot Tablets. The study supports the recent view that the tablets from this deposit are to be dated to an earlier period than the remaining corpus.