Project

Linear B editorial activities have hitherto followed traditional methods and no systematic attempts have been undertaken to produce indices or digital editions of tablets available through the internet, with the sole and important exceptions of the Índices Generales de la Lineal B by F. Aura Jorro (Univ. of Alicante) and the DAMOS project by F. Aurora (Univ. of Oslo).

To contribute filling the gap, the Linear B Electronic Resources (LiBER) project has been launched by the National Research Council's Institute for the Study of the Ancient Mediterranean (CNR-ISMA). The project, which has been conceived and is currently developed by Maurizio Del Freo and Francesco Di Filippo with the collaboration of Françoise Rougemont (CNRS, UMR 7041) and Claudia V. Alonso Moreno (UAM, Departamento de Historia Antigua, Medieval y Paleografia y Diplomatica), aims at producing a fully-featured digital edition of the Linear B documents available to date, with the substantial addition of a brand new search engine for the treatment of logo-syllabic scripts.

Accordingly, the ultimate goal of LiBER is to provide Linear B scholars, and all those who are interested in the Mycenaean world, with an updated edition of the Linear B documents as well as with an integrated searching tool, able to sort, filter and combine the documents on the basis of textual, archaeological, paleographic and topographic criteria.

All documents actually kept stored into LiBER database are reproduced from the current paper editions and are updated with any new relevant information about classifications, readings, joins, scribal hands, findspots or chronologies. Being unicode-encoded, each document can be viewed on screen as in its original printed layout, thus respecting both the typographic conventions of the transcription rules (special characters, uppercase, lowercase, italics, superscripts, subscripts, etc.) and the spatial disposition of the text elements of the original scribal support (number of spaces between signs, size of gaps, etc.). For each document, in addition to the transliteration, a photograph with different zoom levels and a critical apparatus are also provided.

The LiBER search engine allows users to filter textual data by using multiple criteria and fully supports "regular expressions" for complex queries. The results are listed in alphabetical order and can be visualised as lists of texts as well as findspots on an interactive map, thus integrating webgis capabilities to the project. By default, filtered data are sorted by series of documents, but, if needed, they can be rearranged by texts, scribes or findspots.

The text encoding as well as the search engine have been adapted to Linear B from the Progetto Sinlequinnini, a Document Management System already developed by F. Di Filippo and currently employed for the cuneiform archives from Ebla and Emar.

So far, all the Linear B texts from Mycenae, Tiryns and Midea have been added to the database, while the Knossos documents are currently being processed.

Sources of texts

Unless otherwise stated, texts and critical notes are reproduced from:

  • J.L. Melena, J.-P. Olivier (ed.), TITHEMY. The Tablets and Nodules in Linear B from Tiryns, Thebes and Mycenae. A Revised Transliteration, Salamanca 1991.
  • A. Sacconi, Corpus delle iscrizioni vascolari in lineare B, Roma 1974.
  • Sp. Iakovidis, L. Godart, A. Sacconi, "Les inscriptions en linéaire B découvertes dans la 'Maison de Petsas' à Mycènes", Pasiphae 6 (2012), pp. 47-57.

We thank the authors for kindly giving permission to reproduce their texts.


Sources of photographs

Mycenae

  • A. Sacconi, Corpus delle iscrizioni in lineare B di Micene, Roma 1974.
  • A. Sacconi, Corpus delle iscrizioni vascolari in lineare B, Roma 1974.
  • V. Georgiev, Kadmos 1976, p. 95-96, pl. 1.
  • W. Müller, J.-P. Olivier, I. Pini, AA (1998), p. 42, fig. 11.
  • Ergon 2008, p. 37, fig. 37.
  • S. Iakovidis, L. Godart, A. Sacconi, Pasiphae 6 (2012), p. 56-57.

Midea

  • K. Demakopoulou - N. Divari-Valakou, Minos 27-28 (1992-93), p. 303-305, pl. I-II.
  • G. Walberg, Atti del secondo congresso internazionale di Micenologia, vol. III, Roma 1996, p. 1336-1337, figs. 2-4.
  • K. Demakopoulou - N. Divari-Valakou, Minos 29-30 (1994-95), p. 325-326, pl. IB.
  • K. Demakopoulou - N. Divari-Valakou, Minos 29-30 (1994-95), p. 326-327, pl. IIA-B.
  • G. Walberg, Minos 31-32 (1996-1997), p. 133-134, pl. I.
  • K. Demakopoulou et al., OAth 27 (2002), p. 53-54, fig. 85-87.

Tiryns

  • A. Sacconi, Corpus delle iscrizioni vascolari in lineare B, Roma 1974.
  • L. Godart, J.-P. Olivier, in Tiryns VIII, Mainz 1975, p. 37-53, pl. 41.
  • E. Deilaki-Protonotariou, A. Sacconi, PP 33 (1978), p. 423-424.
  • U. Naumann, L. Godart, J.-P. Olivier, BCH 101 (1977), p. 229-234.
  • L. Godart, J.-P. Olivier, AA (1979), p. 450-458.
  • L. Godart, J.T. Killen, J.-P. Olivier, AA (1979), p. 457-458, fig. 3.
  • L. Godart, J. T. Killen, J.-P. Olivier, AA (1983), p. 413-426.
  • J.‑P. Olivier, AA (1988), p. 253-268.

The digitization of the photographs is due to B. Foschi (CNR-ISMA).


Origin of maps

Mycenae

  • Map adapted from R. Treuil et al., Les civilisations égéennes du néolithique et de l'âge du bronze. Deuxième édition refondue, Paris 2008, p. 390, fig. 50.

Midea

  • Map adapted from K. Demakopoulou et al., "Excavations in Midea 2000 and 2001", OAth 27 (2002), p. 42, fig. 41.

Tiryns

  • Map adapted from Tiryns. Forschungen und Berichte, Band VI, Mainz am Rhein 1973, Pl. 9 (Prophitis Elias Cemetery).
  • Map adapted from Tiryns. Forschungen und Berichte, Band XI, Mainz am Rhein 1990, Karte 8 "Tiryns" (Tiryns: Citadel and Lower Town).