Linear B for you and me

15 Points Per Correct Answer - No time limit  

1. During which historic period was Linear B in use? Hint: this lasted from about 1400-1200 BC. Athens' Golden Age Minoan civilization Mycenaean civilization Greece's Dark Age

2. What material was Linear B usually written on? Clay tablets Wood Stone All of these

3. The first Linear B tablets were discovered by Sir Arthur Evans, who was excavating what palatial site, the probable home of the mythical Minotaur? Pylos Knossos Mycenae Thebes

4. After some of the Linear B tablets were published, Emmett Bennett, then a professor at Yale, performed the first step towards the decipherment of Linear B. What was this first crucial step? Making a list of characters Doing a frequency analysis of the characters Making a list of "words" Assigning phonetic values to the characters

5. It turned out that Linear B had approximately 90 phonetic characters, far too many for it to be an alphabet of the sort we English-speakers use, and far too few for it to be purely ideographic, like the Chinese writing system. Instead, it was probably what type of writing system, which uses one character to represent one syllable? Consonantal alphabetic Idiotgraphic Sillybabble Logophonetic Syllabic

6. Alice Kober, a chain-smoking, very driven American scholar, discovered that some Linear B "words" had varied endings, for example (using modern conventions for transliterating Linear B characters), a-mi-ni-so / a-mi-ni-si-ja / a-mi-ni-si-jo. What is it called when a language, like the one represented by Linear B, changes word endings to indicate grammatical function? Declension Reflection Inflection Conjugation

7. The decipherer of Linear B was able to do so partly by applying the phonetic values of similar-looking signs from a related script to Linear B. On what island was this writing system used? Crete Euboea Rhodes Cyprus

8. Who actually deciphered Linear B? (This individual was somewhat unusually suited for the job ...) John Chadwick, a lecturer at Cambridge Tom Palaima, a Bob Dylan-quoting American scholar Emmett Bennett, a professor at Yale Michael Ventris, an English architect

9. We now know the phonetic values of all the Linear B phonetic signs. True False

10. As it turned out, the Linear B texts did not contain spectacular works of literature. Instead, what did they record? Laws and legal documents Administrative records Chants from religious rituals All of these

11. One tablet used to dramatically cinch the decipherment was a tablet from Pylos recording what? A list of tripods A historical account of the Trojan War A chant to Poseidon King Nestor's laundry list

12. What was the title of the ruler, the head guy, the "big cheese" of the Mycenaean palatial system? gwasileus (qa-si-re-u) wanax (wa-na-ka) damokoros (da-mo-ko-ro) lawagetas (ra-we-ke-ta)

13. At the time of the decipherment, nobody was expecting to find the names of gods on Linear B tablets, but they did! Some of these gods actually did not survive into the later Greek pantheon. Which of the following gods appear in Linear B? Drimios, the son of Zeus (di-ri-mi-jo) Poseidon (po-se-da-o) All of these Athena (a-ta-na-po-ti-ni-ja)

14. The decipherment of Linear B definitively showed that this consonant was used in early Greek, although it had dropped out of use by the time of Plato. What consonant was this? For a hint, you might consider the difference between the Greek word "ergon" and its English cognate, "work." Answer: (Come on...which letter is different?)

15. Linear B's sister script has not yet been deciphered. What is the name of this sister script? Linear C++ Linear X Linear A Linear C