ZNAK SAGITE — više od fantastike — edicija, časopis, knjižara...

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-ancient-tablet-20110402,0,6337523.story

Ancient tablet bears writing, to scientists' surprise
A 2-inch-by-3-inch clay tablet is older than expected — dating to 3,350 years ago — and is found at a site in Greece where researchers did not expect to find writing.


The tablet measures 2 inches by 3 inches and has writing on both sides in the Linear B system, which is older than the alphabet. (Christian Mundigler)

By Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times

April 2, 2011
Archaeologists have found a clay tablet bearing the earliest known writing in Europe, a 3,350-year-old specimen, which makes it at least 150 years older than other known tablets from the region.

Found in one of the palaces linked to Greece's King Nestor of Trojan War fame, the tablet not only is older than expected, but also appears at a site, called Iklaina, where researchers did not expect to find writing, said its discoverer, Michael Cosmopoulos of the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

The tablet, fortuitously preserved when someone discarded it in a trash pit and burned it, was part of the state's formal record-keeping process, and its discovery sheds light on early state formation, Cosmopoulos said.

Archaeologists "had grown more and more comfortable" with the idea that writing was limited to the major ruling centers of the time and was not to be found at secondary sites such as Iklaina, which was the equivalent of a district capital, said archaeologist Thomas Palaima of the University of Texas at Austin, who was not involved in the research.

"It was a great surprise and a welcome surprise" to find writing at a secondary center, he said.

Iklaina, which dates to the Mycenaean period of 1500 BC to 1100 BC, sits at the southwestern corner of Greece. It was an independent state until about 1400 BC, when it was conquered by King Nestor, who incorporated it into his kingdom, which he ruled from the nearby city of Pylos. Overall, 16 states were brought under his rule.

Only one of them, Nichoria, has been previously studied, and no tablets were found there.

Cosmopoulos has been excavating at Iklaina for 11 years. Among other things, he has found evidence of a Mycenaean palace with elaborate architecture, colorful murals and a drainage system with clay pipes that was far ahead of its time (da li?). The architecture included what are known as Cyclopean walls, which are constructed of crude limestone boulders fitted roughly together, with smaller chunks placed between them.

Cosmopoulos did not expect to find tablets because they were not meant to survive. "They were never meant to last for more than a year," he said. "Then they were recycled." The tablets were allowed to dry in the sun, which made them very brittle. But the tablet they found had been accidentally broken and thrown in a garbage pit, then burned, which fired the clay, preserving it.

The tablet measures 2 inches by 3 inches and has writing on both sides in the Linear B system, which is older than the alphabet. It consists of about 87 signs and was used primarily for keeping track of property. On the front of the tablet is a verb that relates to some sort of manufacturing. On the back are what appear to be men's names alongside numbers.

The presence of the tablet at Iklaina, Palaima said, suggests two possibilities. It may indicate that Iklaina was once a major center of its own and had the potential to become a dominant center until it was crushed and absorbed by Pylos.

But it could also be that, even after Iklaina became part of Nestor's kingdom, it was allowed to retain a significant amount of administrative freedom. That would be surprising, Palaima said, because most historians believe that virtually all record-keeping was centralized in the major centers. If the city was allowed to retain record-keeping, it would suggest that Pylos maintained a benevolent rule over its domain.

The findings will be published this month in the Proceedings of the Athens Archaeological Society.

Mnogo me nerviraju ta američka ad hoc otkrića.

"Od 1939. godine znamo da je u Mikenskim palatama bilo u upotrebi pismo... Dešifrovanje ovog pisma, koje je izvršio Majkl Ventris, opisao sam u svojoj maloj knjizi Dešifrovanje linearnog B pisma (The decipherment of Linear B, Kembridž 1958.)" Ovo je u uvodu svoje knjige "Mikenski svet", Rad, Beograd, 1980. napisao Džon Čedvik. U Mikensku (Minojsku) kulturu spada i Pil (sa okolinom), tako da je ovaj krnjotak samo mali dodatak obimnoj zaostavštini te kulture. Glinene tablice su korišćene u tadašnjem magacinskom administriranju trgovačkih zapisa i imale dnevnu vrednost, odnosno, dok se ne prepišu u trajni oblik (sic!). Posle se glina zamesi i razvalja za sutrašnje zapise. Kako je minojska kultura u velikoj meri uništena u plamenu, na nekim mestima su se tablice zapekle i Evans i društvo ih našli. Trajni zapisi su verovatno bili na papirusu.
Izvinjavam se što nemam link.

Nek je i bez linka, otrpećemo

Mada zamaskirano u američke novce i ustanovu, ipak Grk vodi istraživanja...

Nego, meni je upitno ovo tumačenje:

Quote from: zakk on 05-04-2011, 11:10:09If the city was allowed to retain record-keeping, it would suggest that Pylos maintained a benevolent rule over its domain.

Koji bi to vladar dozvolio da se NE VODE knjige, pa mora valjda da se zna čega i koliko ima i koji je njegov deo!

Pil je imao devet administrativnih jedinica:
Pi-swa,
Me-ta-pa,
Pe-to-no,
Pa-ki-ja-ne,
A-pu₂,
A-ke-re-wa,
E-ra-to ili Ro-u-so,
Ka-ra-do-ro i
Ri-jo.
Na nivou glinenih tablica (a one su jedino sačuvane) svaka je vodila svoju administraciju.
A da ti ja zajmnem knjigu, pa prouči polako?

Pa nije da me ne zanima... ponesi kad budeš nailazio do kluba ovijeh dana.

A da pokušaš da vreme korisnije upotrebiš tako što ćeš uneti sve emitore u bibliografiju... 

Nadgledaj, Mićo! Ovo su sve fatači na zjale.

More obojica da oladite sa tim šta bi ja trebalo da radim sa svojim vremenom. Radim kolko hoću i šta hoću a vi navalili ko mutavi. Ne pomaže to.