both sides of the pebble

The Kafkania pebble was found in Kafkania, some 7 km north of Olympia, in 1994. It bears a short inscription of eight syllabic signs in Linear B, possibly reading a-so-na / qo-ro-qa / qa-jo. On the reverse side, there is a double axe symbol. The inscription is not unambiguously identifiable as in the Mycenean language, but qo-ro-qa has been suggested to be a personal name with the well known -oqos (-ωπς) suffix. Olympia (Greek: Ολυμπία Olympía or Ολύμπια Olýmpia, older transliterations, Olimpia, Olimbia), a city of ancient Greece in Elis, is known for having been the site of the Olympic Games in classical times, comparable in importance to the Pythian Games held in Delphi. ... 1994 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... Linear B script sample Linear B is the script that was used for writing Mycenaean, an early form of the Greek language. ... Minoan symbolic labrys of gold, 2nd millennium BC: many have been found in the sacred cave of Arkalochori on Crete) The Labrys is a doubleheaded axe. ... Map of Bronze Age Greece as described in Homers Iliad Mycenaean is the most ancient known form of the Greek language, spoken on the Greek mainland and on Crete in the 16th to 11th centuries BC, before the Dorian invasion. ...

The inscription has been dated to ca. the 17th century BC from the archaeological context. This would make it the earliest written testimony on the Greek mainland, and the earliest document in Linear B. (18th century BC - 17th century BC - 16th century BC - other centuries) (1690s BC - 1680s BC - 1670s BC - 1660s BC - 1650s BC - 1640s BC - 1630s BC - 1620s BC - 1610s BC - 1600s BC - 1590s BC - other decades) (3rd millennium BC - 2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC) Events 1700 - 1500 BC -- Hurrian conquests...

Several specialists of Mycenaean epigraphy, however, have expressed serious doubts about the authenticity of the inscription, and it is quite possible that it is a modern forgery.

References

• X. Arapojanni, J. Rambach, and L. Godart, Kavkania: Die Ergebnisse der Ausgrabung von 1994 auf dem Hügel von Agrilitses (2002).

External links

• http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2005/2005-01-20.html
• http://www.geocities.com/yongmax/linb_eng.htm