Palmer, L.R.
Oxford University Press (Clarendon Press), 1998 (reprint of 1963 edition).
cloth, dj., 502 pp.
Book Number 20403
Intended as an introduction to the information contained in the Linear B texts from Mycenaean Greek sites and addressed to the non-specialist, this book provides a selection of the more interesting texts with a full commentary. Palmer's interpretation is by combinatory analysis in which "the meaning of syllabically written words is circumscribed as far as possible by textual analysis before the lexicon is consulted", rather than the purely etymological method used by earlier scholars, including Ventris. The results are summarized in Palmer's introduction, which deals with epigraphy, decipherment, and the Mycenaean language together with questions of geography, social structure, economy and religion. A final section discusses the evidence bearing on the final catastrophe of Pylos. There is a full bibliography, and Glossary of every extant Linear B word.