Thebes tablets
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
The Thebes tablets are clay tablets, discovered in the city of Thebes, with inscriptions in the Mycenaean language in the Linear B script, dating to the 13th century BC.
A substantial portion, some 250 tablets, amounting roughly to 5% of the entire Mycenaean corpus, was discovered by Vassilis L. Aravantinos, the current archaeological superintendent of Thebes, in 1993[?].
The French and Italian linguists Louis Godart and Anna Sacconi were charged with the publication of these tablets. During the following years, they gave only tantalizing glimpses of the contents, resulting in accusations by experts that they were deliberately delaying publication.
The tablets were finally published in 2002, and the impact of their overall content was by most reviewers perceived to be rather less than expected. Nevertheless, the tablets contain a number of important forms previously unattested, such as ra-ke-da-mi-ni-jo /Lakedaimniyo/ "a man from Lacedaemonia (Sparta)", or ma-ka /May Gay/ "Mother Gaia" (a goddess still revered in Thebes in the 5th century BC, as reported e. g. in Aischylos' Seven Against Thebes). Interesting is also ku-na-ki-si /gunayksi/ "of women", exhibiting the peculiar oblique stem of greek γυνη "woman".
Godart and Sacconi read the tablets to indicate cult activity dedicated to Demeter, Zeus protector of crops, and to Kore, and they speculate that the roots of the Eleusinian Mysteries can be traced back to Mycenaean Thebes.
