Inkpotamus

A poem about...

the decipherment of Linear B by Alice Kober and Michael Ventris

Old Sir Arthur Evans, on clay tablets, found some writing,
In the ruins of Knossos, which archaeologists thought exciting.
Linear B is what we call that script which Cretans scratched in clay,
Many thousand years ago, recording what they’d say.

“This is some unknown Cretan tongue,” Sir Arthur felt quite sure,
“Spoken by King Minos and his famous Minotaur.”
Sir Arthur couldn’t read the script, nor the language it did speak,
But one thing he was certain of: it wasn’t ancient Greek!

When Sir Arthur passed away, up came Miss Alice Kober,
Who analyzed and scrutinized and carefully thought things over.
“These symbols are not letters, like in our alphabet,
But as in Babylonian, they’re syllables, I’ll bet.”

In many ancient languages, words vary at the end,
The final sound is changed to show which meaning you intend.
She hoped that this might offer up a clever new technique,
But the only thing she knew for sure: it wasn’t ancient Greek!

By looking for repeated words in the tablets, she could see,
Some symbols at the ends of words changed consistently.
If a consonant and vowel make up each symbol’s sound,
Then those that start and end the same can easily be found.

She didn’t know the language nor the sound of any word,
But she knew which groups of symbols rhymed, if only they were heard.
Scholars cheered her, “Now it’s nearer, the translation that we seek!”
And on one thing they were all agreed: it wasn’t ancient Greek!

When Miss Alice passed away, Michael Ventris had a go,
He realised that in the text there was one thing we might know:
Those words that crop up oftenmost are probably city names,
Other words may change a lot but names can stay the same.

For the first time in three thousand years, through guesswork he had found,
The key to read this Cretan script and work out how it sounds.
He thought perhaps Etruscan was the language they did speak,
For one thing every scholar knew: it wasn’t ancient Greek!

He took the names that he had guessed, and Alice Kober’s table,
That grouped the symbols by their sounds, and found that he was able,
To sound some other symbols out; then the words began to speak,
And to Michael Ventris’ great surprise: the words were ancient Greek!