Aegean Linear Script(s): Rethinking the Relationship Between Linear A and Linear B (Cambridge Classical Studies) - Hardcover

Salgarella, Ester

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1108479383 ISBN 13: 9781108479387

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2020

Synopsis

When does a continuum become a divide? This book investigates the genetic relationship between Linear A and Linear B, two Bronze Age scripts attested on Crete and Mainland Greece and understood to have developed one out of the other. By using an interdisciplinary methodology, this research integrates linguistic, epigraphic, palaeographic and archaeological evidence, and places the writing practice in its sociohistorical setting. By challenging traditional views, this work calls into question widespread assumptions and interpretative schemes on the relationship between these two scripts, and opens up new perspectives on the ideology associated with the retention, adaptation and transmission of a script, and how identity was negotiated at a moment of closer societal interaction between Cretans and Greek-speaking Mainlanders in the Late Bronze Age. By delving deeper into the structure and inner workings of these two writing systems, this book will make us rethink the relationship between Linear A and B.

About this title

About the Author

Ester Salgarella is a Junior Research Fellow at St John's College, Cambridge and in the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, specialising in Bronze Age Aegean scripts.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1108479383
• ISBN 13: 9781108479387
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 436