Archaeology Odyssey

See the refutation of I.J. Gelb’s thesis in David Diringer, The Alphabet (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1968; 3rd edition), p. 166.

The argument is set forth in detail in my Homer and the Origin of the Greek Alphabet (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1991). See also Barry B. Powell and Ian Morris, eds. A New Companion to Homer (Leiden, the Netherlands: E.J. Brill, 1997)

See David Ridgway, “Greek Letters at Osteria dell Osa,” Opuscula Romana 20 (Stockholm, 1996), pp. 87–97.

The Adapter’s striking choice of five vowel signs may have been influenced by the Cypriot syllabic writing, descended from Bronze Age Cretan scripts.

The Adapter might have gotten the number five from the Mediterranean tradition of purely phonetic writing (Linear B), which “recorded” Greek in the Bronze Age, or from the Cypro-Minoan script (derived from Linear B), which was used on Cyprus from about 1100 B.C. to 300 B.C. In each of these syllabic writing systems, five graphic signs were assigned as vowels.

Ignace J. Gelb A Study of Writing (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago, 1963).

Thomas, “The Homeric Epics: Strata or a Spectrum?” Colby Classical Quarterly 29 (1993), pp. 273–282.

J.K. Anderson, “The Geometric Catalogue of Ships,” in Carter and Morris, The Ages of Homer, pp. 181–191, offers a compelling account of the creative transformation of the Dark Age bards.

J. Michael Padgett, “A Geometric Bard,” in Carter and Morris, The Ages of Homer (Austin: Univ. of Texas, 1995), pp. 389–405.

Kurt Raaflaub, “Homer und die Geschichte des 8.Hr.s.v.Chr.,” in J. Latacz ed., Zweihundert Jahre Homer-Forschung (Stuttgart: B.G. Teubner, 1991) pp. 205–256.