ENEGREN-NOSCH Michael Ventris 2017

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CNR ISTITUTO DI STUDI SUL MEDITERRANEO ANTICO II

INCUNABULA GRAECA VOL. CV, 1

Direttori

Marco Bettelli · Maurizio Del Freo

Comitato scientifico AEGEAN SCRIPTS

John Bennet (Sheffield) · Elisabetta Borgna (Udine) Proceedings of the 14th International Colloquium on Mycenaean Studies Andrea Cardarelli (Roma) · Anna Lucia D’Agata (Roma) Copenhagen, 2-5 September 2015 Pia De Fidio (Napoli) · Jan Driessen (Louvain-la-Neuve) Birgitta Eder (Wien) · Artemis Karnava (Berlin) Volume I John T. Killen (Cambridge) · Joseph Maran (Heidelberg) Pietro Militello (Catania) · Massimo Perna (Napoli) Françoise Rougemont (Paris) · Jeremy B. Rutter (Dartmouth) Gert Jan van Wijngaarden (Amsterdam) · Carlos Varias García (Barcelona) Jörg Weilhartner (Salzburg) · Julien Zurbach (Paris)

PUBBLICAZIONI DELL'ISTITUTO DI STUDI SUL MEDITERRANEO ANTICO DEL CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHE

DIRETTORE DELL'ISTITUTO: ALESSANDRO NASO III

INCUNABULA GRAECA VOL. CV, 1

Direttori

Marco Bettelli · Maurizio Del Freo

Comitato scientifico AEGEAN SCRIPTS

PUBBLICAZIONI DELL'ISTITUTO DI STUDI SUL MEDITERRANEO ANTICO DEL CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHE

DIRETTORE DELL'ISTITUTO: ALESSANDRO NASO IV

AEGEAN SCRIPTS

Proceedings of the 14th International Colloquium on Mycenaean Studies, Copenhagen, 2-5 September 2015

Volume I

edited by

Marie-Louise Nosch Hedvig Landenius Enegren

Istituto di Studi sul Mediterraneo Antico - ROMA 2017 V

AEGEAN SCRIPTS

Proceedings of the 14th International Colloquium on Mycenaean Studies, Copenhagen, 2-5 September 2015

Volume I

edited by

Marie-Louise Nosch Hedvig Landenius Enegren

edizioni Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Istituto di Studi sul Mediterraneo Antico - ROMA 2017 VI

Undertaken and published with the assistance and contribution of the Lillian and Dan Fink Foundation, the Carlsberg Foundation, the Danish National Research Foundation, the Institute of Aegean Prehistory, the R. K. Rasks Legat Foundation and the University of Copenhagen.

The rights of translation, electronic storage, reproduction and total or partial adaptation by any means (including microfilm and photostatic copies) are reserved for all countries. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the Publisher, with the exception of short citations incorporated into reviews or other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

ISSN 11267348 ISBN 9788880802754

Undertaken and published with the assistance and contribution of the Lillian and Dan Fink Foundation, the Carlsberg Foundation, the Danish National Research Foundation, the Institue of Aegean Prehistory, the R. K. Rasks Legat Foundation and the University of Copenhagen.

CONTENTS

Volume I

Contents ...... VII The rights of translation, electronic storage, reproduction and total or Abbreviations ...... XI partial adaptation by any means (including microfilm and photostatic copies) Preface and acknowledgements ...... XXVII are reserved for all countries. No part of this publication may be reproduced, List of participants ...... XXXI distributed or transmitted in any form without the written permission of the Scripts, Palaeography and Research Tools Publisher, with the exception of short citations incorporated into reviews or other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. M. Del Freo, Rapport 2011-2015 sur les textes en écriture hiéroglyphique crétoise, en linéaire A et en linéaire B ...... 3 M. Egetmeyer, A. Karnava, H. Landenius Enegren and M. Perna, 2011-2015 Report on the Cypriot Syllabic Inscriptions ...... 31 M. Egetmeyer, A. Karnava, H. Landenius Enegren and M. Perna, IG XV 1, Inscriptiones Cypri Syllabicae: the completion of Fasciculus I, Inscriptiones Amathuntis, Curii et Marii...... 45 R. Firth, The Find-spots of the Linear B Tablets from the Archives Complex at Pylos ...... 55 F. Aurora, pa-ro, da-mo. Studying the Mycenaean Case System through DĀMOS (Database of Mycenaean at Oslo) ...... 83 T. Meißner and P. M. Steele, Linear A and Linear B: Structural and Contextual Concerns ...... 99 H. Tomas, From Minoan to Mycenaean elongated tablets: defining the shape of Aegean tablets ...... 115 V. Petrakis, Figures of speech? Observations on the Non-phonographic Component in the Linear B Writing System ...... 127 ISSN 11267348 J. Weilhartner, Les idéogrammes archéologiques: Does variation ISBN 9788880802754 matter?...... 169 A. P. Judson, Palaeography, Administration, and Scribal Training: © CNR edizioni, 2017 A Case-study ...... 193 Piazzale Aldo Moro, 7 - 00185 Roma Y. Duhoux, Aides à la lecture à l’âge du Bronze : Égée, Chypre et VIII Contents

Proche-Orient ...... 209 A. M. Jasink, One-sided Hieroglyphic Seals ...... 229 F. Aura Jorro, The Supplement (‘Suplemento’) to the Diccionario Micénico (DMic.) ...... 253 M. Cultraro and A. Sacconi, Un fragment de vase inscrit en linéaire B de Prinias...... 269 E. Hallager, LM IIIB Linear B from Knossos and Khania ...... 275 D. Nakassis and K. Pluta, Vorsprung durch Technik: Imaging the Linear B Tablets from Pylos...... 285 Interpretations and Contexts L. M. Bendall, Where was da-wo?...... 301 S. Lupack, The Ea Series: It Takes A Village ...... 347 C. W. Shelmerdine, Exceptional Women: Female Roles and Power in the Linear B Tablets ...... 363 J. T. Killen, Notes On Linear B Tablets Concerning Wool, Cloth and Textile Workers ...... 381 R. Palmer, Agrimia in the Knossos tablets...... 391 C. Varias García, Mycenaean Terms with the Stem /xenwos/: ‘Foreigner, Guest, Host’...... 417 A. Leukart, A Note on ze-ne-si-wi-jo ...... 429 E. R. Luján, J. Piquero and F. Díez Platas, What did Mycenaean sirens look like?...... 435 J. Bennet, On Comparison in Linear B: Genetic, Historical or Analogical?...... 461 N. Antonello Vittiglio, Testimonianze della presenza dei termini ἄλευρα e ἄλφιτα nei testi micenei...... 475 S. Nikoloudis, Tracking Eumedes, the Unguent-boiler: Mycenaean Textual and Archaeological Clues ...... 489 E. Kyriakidis, Polity and Administrative Control in Mycenaean Pylos ...... 499

Volume II Philology and Linguistics O. Panagl, Einige Paradoxa und Paralipomena im Dialekt der Linear B-Tafeln ...... 517 A. Bernabé and R. Pierini, What, When, Why: Tablet Functions and o-te Expressions in Context ...... 523 J. M. Jiménez Delgado, The Particle ἄρα from the 2nd to the 1st Millennium ...... 537 I. Serrano Laguna, ma-ka...... 549 Contents IX

J. L. García Ramón, Del trabajo en una nueva gramática del Micénico: algunos problemas de vocalismo, tu-ma-ko/to-ma-ko, da-ma/du- ma y la continuidad micénica en Lesbio ...... 563 R. J. Thompson, The Mycenaean o-stem Genitive Singular in ‑o: A Re-evaluation ...... 575 E. Džukeska, Semantics of Mycenaean Genitive: A Tentative Analysis of Genitive Singular Forms ending in -o, /-os ...... 591 D. Kölligan, Mycenaean Onomastics and Phraseology: wo-ro- qo-ta, qe-ro(-)a-ta, qi-ri-ta-ko ...... 605 Comparative Studies between the Aegean the Levant and the Ancient Near East F. Rougemont and J. P. Vita, Les « gens du roi »» à Ougarit et dans le monde mycénien ...... 625 J. Zurbach, Esclaves, dette, monnaie en Grèce mycénienne ...... 659 J. Gulizio, di-u/wi-ja and po-si-da-e-ja: Examples of Indo-European Female Consorts? ...... 673 A. Greco, From Middle Assyrian to Mycenaean archives: Some Comparative and Theoretical Considerations on the Economic and Political Elites of a Mycenaean Polity...... 683 W. E. Bibee and A. M. Wilson-Wright, A Laryngeal in Linear B: Evidence from Egyptian and Ugaritic ...... 713 Historiography F. Carraro, The Signs of Linear B and their ‘Use’ during the Decipherment. An Enquiry among the Decipherers as a Case Study ...... 751 T. G. Palaima, Emmett L. Bennett, Jr., Michael G. F. Ventris, Alice E. Kober, Cryptanalysis, Decipherment and the Phaistos Disc...... 771 H. Landenius Enegren and M.-L. Nosch, Michael Ventris and Mycenaean Studies in Sweden and Denmark ...... 789 Reports Summary of the CIPEM meeting ...... 833 Resolutions of the Signary Committee ...... 835 Resolutions of the Committee on scholarly tools ...... 839 Indexes Index of Texts ...... 843 Index of Words...... 861 X XI

Abbreviations I. Journals

AA Archäologischer Anzeiger. AAWW Anzeiger der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Philos.-Hist. Klasse. ABSA Annual of the British School at Athens. AC Antiquité Classique ACD Acta classica Universitatis Scientiarum Debreceniensis. AD Αρχαιολογικόν Δελτίον AE Αρχαιολογική Εφημερίς. ΑΙΩΝ Annali dell’Istituto universitario orientale di Napoli. AJA American Journal of Archaeology. AOF Archiv für Orientforschung. AR Archaeological Reports. ArchAnAth Αρχαιολογικά Ανάλεκτα εξ Αθηνών. ASAA Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni Italiane in Oriente. BCH Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique. BIBR Bulletin de l’Institut historique Belge de Rome. BICS Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies of the University of London. BSL Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris. CArchJ Cambridge Archaeological Journal. CPh Classical Philology. CQ Classical Quarterly. CRAI Comptes rendus de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. Ergon Τό Eργον τής εν Αθήναις Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας. G&R Greece and Rome. IF Indogermanische Forschungen. JHS Journal of Hellenic Studies. XII Abbreviations

JNES Journal of Near Eastern Studies. JPR Journal of Prehistoric Religion. MDAI(A) Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts (Athenische Abteilung). MH Museum Helveticum. MSS Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft. OAth Opuscula Atheniensia. OJA Oxford Journal of Archaeology. PCPhS Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society. PP La parola del passato. PZ Prähistorische Zeitschrift. RAL Rendiconti della Classe di Scienze morali, storiche e filologiche dell’Accademia dei Lincei. RCCM Rivista di Cultura Classica e Medioevale. RDAC Report of the Department of Antiquities Cyprus. REA Revue des études anciennes. REG Revue des études grecques. REL Revue des études latines. RFIC Rivista di filologia e di istruzione classica. RhM Rheinisches Museum für Philologie. RPh Revue de philologie, de littérature et d’histoire anciennes. SCO Studi classici e orientali. SMEA Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici. SMSR Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni. SPAW Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. SSL Studi e saggi linguistici. TAPhS Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. TPhS Transactions of the Philological Society. ZAnt Živa Antika. ZPE Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik. II. Mycenological conferences Acta Mycenaea M. S. Ruipérez (ed.), Acta Mycenaea. Actes du cinquième Colloque international des études mycéniennes, tenu à Salamanque, 30 mars - 3 avril 1970, 2 vol., Minos 11-12 (1972). Aegean Scripts M.-L. Nosch & H. Landenius Enegren (eds), Aegean Scripts. 14th International Colloquium on Mycenaean Studies, Copenhagen, 2-5 September Abbreviations XIII

2015, Incunabula Graeca, Vol. CV:1-2 (2017). Austin Colloquium Proceedings of the 11th Mycenological Colloquium, Austin, 7-13 May 2000 (unpublished). Cambridge Colloquium L. R. Palmer & J. Chadwick (eds), Cambridge Colloquium. Proceedings of the Cambridge Colloquium on Mycenaean Studies (1966). Colloquium Mycenaeum E. Risch, H. Mühlestein (ed.), Colloquium Mycenaeum. Actes du sixième Colloque international sur les textes mycéniens et égéens tenu à Chaumont sur Neuchâtel du 7 au 13 septembre 1975 (1979). Colloquium Romanum A. Sacconi, M. del Freo, L. Godart & M. Negri (eds), Atti del XII Colloquio Internazionale di Micenologia, Roma 20-25 febbraio 2006, Pasiphae 2 (2008). Études Mycéniennes M. Lejeune (ed.), Études Mycéniennes. Actes du Colloque international sur les textes mycéniens, Gif-sur-Yvette, 3-7 avril 1956, (1956). Études Mycéniennes 2010 P. Carlier, C. De Lamberterie, M. Egetmeyer, N. Guilleux, F. Rougemont, J. Zurbach (eds), Actes du XIII[e] colloque international sur les textes égéens, Sèvres, Paris, Nanterre, 20-23 septembre 2010 (2012). Floreant S. Deger-Jalkotzy, S. Hiller, O. Panagl (eds), Floreant Studia Mycenaea. Akten des X. Internationalen Mykenologischen Colloquiums in Salzburg vom 1.-5. Mai 1995, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch- historische Klasse, Denkschriften, 274 (1999). Mycenaean Studies E. L. Bennett, Jr. (ed.), Mycenaean Studies: Proceedings of the Third International Colloquium for Mycenaean Studies Held at ‘Wingspread’, 4-8 September 1961 (1964). Mykenaïka J.-P. Olivier (ed.), MYKENAÏKA. Actes du IXe Colloque international sur les textes mycéniens et égéens organisé par le Centre de l’Antiquité Grecque et Romaine de la Fondation Hellénique des Recherches Scientifiques et l’École française XIV Abbreviations

d’Athènes, Athènes, 2-6 octobre 1990, BCH Suppl. XXV (1992). Res Mycenaeae A. Heubeck, G. Neumann (ed.), Res Mycenaeae. Akten des VII. Internationalen Mykenologischen Colloquiums in Nürnberg vom 6.‑10. April 1981 (1983). Tractata Mycenaea P. Hr. Ilievski, L. Crepajac (ed.), Tractata Mycenaea. Proceedings of the Eight International Colloquium on Mycenaean Studies, held in Ohrid, 15-20 September 1985 (1987). III. Congresses 2nd Cretological Congress Πεπραγμένα B’ Διεθνούς Κρητολογικού Συνεδρίου (1967). 8th Cretological Congress Πεπραγμένα H’ Διεθνούς Κρητολογικού Συνεδρίου, Heraklion, 9-14 September 1996 (2000). 9th Cretological Congress Πεπραγμένα Θ’ Διεθνούς Κρητολογικού Συνεδρίου, Elounda, 8-6 October 2001 (2006). 10th Cretological Congress I’ Διεθνές Κρητολογικό Συνέδριο, Khania, 1-8 October 2006 (2011). Culti primordiali I culti primordiali della grecità alla luce delle scoperte di Tebe, Roma, 24-25 febbraio 2000, Contributi del Centro Linceo “Beniamino Segre” 109 (2004). Economy and Politics S. Voutsaki & J.T. Killen (eds), Economy and Politics in the Mycenaean Palace States, Proceedings of a Conference held on 1-3 July 1999 in the Faculty of Classics, Cambridge, TPhS Suppl. 27 (2001). Emporia R. Laffineur & E. Greco (eds),EMPORIA. Aegeans in Central and Eastern Mediterranean, Actes de la 10e Rencontre égéenne internationale, Scuola archeologica italiana di Atene, 14-18 Avril 2004, Aegaeum 25 (2005). Epi ponton plazomenoi V. La Rosa, D. Palermo, L. Vagnetti (eds), Ἐπὶ πόντον πλαζόμενοι. Simposio italiano di Studi Egei dedicato a Luigi Bernabò Brea e Giovanni Pugliese Carratelli, Roma, 18-20 febbraio 1998 (1999). Abbreviations XV

Fiscality M. Perna (ed.), Fiscality in Mycenaean and Near Eastern Archives, Proceedings of the Conference held at Soprintendenza Archivistica per la Campania, Naples 21-23 October 2004, Studi egei e vicino-orientali 3 (2006). Food, Cuisine and Society P. Halstead & J. Barrett (eds), Food, Cuisine and Society in Prehistoric Greece, Proceedings of the 10th Aegean Round Table, University of Sheffield, 19-21 January 2001 (2004). Kosmos M.-L. Nosch & R. Laffineur (eds), KOSMOS. Jewellery, Adornment and Textiles in the Aegean Bronze Age. 13th international Aegean conference held at Copenhagen, April 2010/13eme rencontre égéenne, Copenhague, avril 2010, Aegaeum 33 (2012). La Crète mycénienne J. Driessen & A. Farnoux (eds), La Crète mycénienne, Actes de la table ronde organisée par l’École Française d’Athènes, 26-28 Mars 1991, BCH Suppl. XXX (1997). Linear B: A 1984 Survey A. Morpurgo Davies & Y. Duhoux (eds), Linear B: A 1984 Survey. Proceedings of the Mycenaean Colloquium of the VIIIth Congress of the International Federation of the Societies of Classical Studies, Dublin, 27 August-1st September 1984) (1985). Metron K. P. Foster & R. Laffineur (eds), METRON. Measuring the Aegean Bronze Age. Actes de la 9e Rencontre égéenne internationale, New Haven, Yale University, 18-21 Avril 2002, Aegaeum 24 (2003). Monuments of Minos J. Driessen, I. Schoep, R. Laffineur (eds), Monuments of Minos. Rethinking the Minoan Palaces, Proceedings of the International Workshop “Crete of the hundred palaces?”, held at the Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain- la-Neuve, 14-15 December 2001 Aegaeum 23 (2002). Polemos R. Laffineur (ed.), POLEMOS. Le contexte guerrier en Egée à l’âge du Bronze. Actes de la 7e XVI Abbreviations

Rencontre égéenne internationale, Université de Liège, 14-17 avril 1998 Aegaeum 19 (1999). Politeia R. Laffineur & W.-D. Niemeier (eds), POLITEIA. Society and State in the Aegean Bronze Age. Actes de la 5e Rencontre égéenne internationale, University of Heidelberg, Archäologisches Institut, 10-13 April 1994, Aegaeum 12 (1995). Potnia R. Hägg & R. Laffineur (eds), POTNIA. Deities and Religion in the Aegean Bronze Age, Actes de la 8e Rencontre égéenne internationale, Göteborg University, 12-15 April 2000, Aegaeum 22 (2001). Primo Congresso Atti e Memorie del 1° Congresso Internazionale di Micenologia, Roma 27 settembre-3 ottobre 1967, Incunabula Graeca XXV (1968). Pylos Comes Alive C.W. Shelmerdine & T.G. Palaima (eds), Pylos Comes Alive. Industry + Administration in a Mycenaean Palace, May 4-5 1984, (1984). Secondo Congresso E. De Miro, L. Godart, A. Sacconi (eds), Atti e Memorie del Secondo Congresso Internazionale di Micenologia, Roma-Napoli, 14-20 ottobre 1991, Incunabula Graeca XCVIII:1-3 (1996). SyllabeS 2000 IIèmes Journées d’Etudes Linguistiques, Nantes, 25-27 mars 1999 (2000). Texte aus Theben S. Deger-Jalkotzy & O. Panagl (eds), Die neuen Linear B Texte aus Theben: ihr Aufschlusswert für die mykenische Sprache und Kultur. Akten des internationalen Forschungskolloquiums an der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 5.‑6. Dezember 2002, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil.-Hist. Klasse, Denkschriften, 338. Band (2006). Techne R. Laffineur & P.P. Betancourt (eds), TECHNE. Craftsmen, Craftswomen and Craftsmanship in the Aegean Bronze Age, Actes de la 6e Rencontre égéenne internationale, Philadelphia, Temple University, 18-21 April 1996, Aegaeum 16 (1997). Thalassa R. Laffineur & L. Basch (ed.), THALASSA. L’Égée préhistorique et la mer, Actes de la 3e Rencontre égéenne internationale de l’Université Abbreviations XVII

de Liège, Station de recherches sous-marines et océanographiques, Calvi, Corse, 23-25 avril 1990, Aegaeum 7 (1991). The Role of the Ruler P. Rehak (ed.), The Role of the Ruler in the Prehistoric Aegean. Proceedings of a Panel Discussion presented at the Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, New Orleans, Louisiana, 28 December 1992, Aegaeum 11 (1995). IV. Festschrifts Briciaka Y. Duhoux (ed.), Briciaka. A Tribute to W.C. Brice, Cretan Studies 9 (2003). Festschrift Bartoněk I. Radová & K. Václavková-Petrovicová (eds), Graeco-Latina Brunensia. Festschrift in honour of A. Bartoněk, Sborník Prací Filozofické Fakulty Brnenské Univerzity 6-7 (2001-2002). Festschrift Panagl T. Krisch, T. Lindner, U. Müller (eds), Analecta homini universali dicata. Arbeiten zur Indo- germanistik, Linguistik, Philologie, Politik, Musik und Dichtung. Festschrift für Oswald Panagl zum 65. Geburtstag (2004). KE-RA-ME-JA D. Nakassis, J. Gulizio, S.A James (eds.), KE-RA-ME- JA: Studies presented to Cynthia Shelmerdine (2014). Meletemata P. P. Betancourt, V. Karageorghis, R. Laffineur, W.-D. Niemeier (ed.), MELETEMATA. Studies in Aegean Archaeology Presented to Malcolm H. Wiener as he enters his 65th Year (1999). Minoica E. Grumach (ed.), Minoica. Festschrift zum 80. Geburtstag von Johannes Sundwall (1958). O-o-pe-ro-si A. Etter (ed.), o-o-pe-ro-si. Festschrift für Ernst Risch zum 75. Geburtstag (1986). Studi Fiandra M. Perna (ed.), Studi in onore di Enrica Fiandra. Contributi di archeologia egea e vicinorientale (2005). Studies Bennett J.-P. Olivier & T.G. Palaima (ed.), Texts, Tablets and Scribes. Studies in Mycenaean Epigraphy and Economy offered to Emmett L. Bennett, Jr. Minos Supl. 10 (1988). XVIII Abbreviations

Studies Chadwick J. T. Killen, J. L. Melena, J.-P. Olivier (eds), Studies in Mycenaean and Classical Greek presented to John Chadwick, Minos 20-22 (1987). Studies Killen J. Bennet, J. Driessen (eds), A-NA-QO-TA. Studies Presented to J. T. Killen, Minos 33-34 (1998- 1999). Studies Palmer A. Morpurgo Davies, W. Meid (ed.), Studies in Greek, Italic and Indo-European Linguistics offered to Leonard R. Palmer on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday, June 5, 1976, Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft 16 (1976). V. Editions ADGS 2005 V. L. Aravantinos, M. Del Freo, L. Godart, A. Sacconi, Thèbes. Fouilles de la Cadmée. IV. Les textes de Thèbes (1-433). Translitération et tableaux des scribes, Biblioteca di “Pasiphae” 4 (2005). AGS 2001 V. L. Aravantinos, L. Godart, A. Sacconi, Thèbes. Fouilles de la Cadmée. I. Les tablettes en linéaire B de la Odos Pelopidou. Édition et commentaire, Biblioteca di “Pasiphae” 1 (2001). AGS 2002 V. L. Aravantinos, L. Godart, A. Sacconi, Thèbes. Fouilles de la Cadmée. III. Corpus des documents d’archives en linéaire B de Thèbes (1-433), Biblioteca di “Pasiphae” 3 (2002). CHIC J.-P. Olivier & L. Godart, Corpus Hieroglyphicarum Inscriptionum Cretae, Études Crétoises XXXI (1996). CIM A. Sacconi, Corpus delle iscrizioni in lineare B di Micene, Incunabula Graeca LVIII (1974). CIV A. Sacconi, Corpus delle iscrizioni vascolari in lineare B, Incunabula Graeca LVII (1974). CoMIK J. Chadwick, L. Godart, J. T. Killen, J.-P. Olivier, A. Sacconi, I. A. Sakellarakis, Corpus of Mycenaean Inscriptions from Knossos, 4 vol., Incunabula Graeca LXXXVIII, 1-4 (1986-1998). GORILA L. Godart & J.-P. Olivier (ed.), Recueil des inscriptions en linéaire A, 5 vol., Études Crétoises XXI:1-5 (1976-1985). IC M. Guarducci, Inscriptiones Creticae opera et consilio Friderici Halberr collectae, 4 vol., (1935-1950). ICS O. Masson, Les inscriptions chypriotes syllabiques. Recueil critique commenté, [réimpr. augmentée, Paris 1983] Études Chypriotes I (1961). Abbreviations XIX

IG Inscriptiones Graecae. IG2 Inscriptiones Graecae, editio minor. KT1 E. L. Bennett, Jr., J. Chadwick, M. Ventris, The Knossos Tablets. A Transliteration (1956). KT3 J. Chadwick & J. T. Killen, The Knossos Tablets. A Transliteration. Third Edition (1964). KT4 J. Chadwick, J. T. Killen, J.-P. Olivier, The Knossos Tablets. A Transliteration. Fourth Edition (1971). KT5 J. T. Killen & J.-P. Olivier, The Knossos Tablets. Fifth Edition, Minos Supl. 11 (1989). MT II E.L. Bennett, Jr., The Mycenae Tablets II (with an introduction by A.J.B. Wace & E.B. Wace; translation and commentary by J. Chadwick), TAPhS 48:1 (1958). MT III J. Chadwick, The Mycenae Tablets III (with contributions from E.L. Bennett, Jr., E.B. French, W. Taylour, N.M. Verdelis & Ch. K. Williams), TAPhS 52:7 (1962). MT IV J.-P. Olivier, The Mycenae Tablets IV. A Revised Transliteration (1969). PTT I E. L. Bennett & Jr., J.-P. Olivier, The Pylos Tablets Transcribed. Part I. Text and Notes, Incunabula Graeca LI (1973). PTT II E. L. Bennett & Jr., J.-P. Olivier, The Pylos Tablets Tran-scribed. Part II. Hands, Concordances, Indices, Incunabula Graeca LIX (1976). Schwyzer E. Schwyzer, Dialectorum Graecarum exempla epigraphica potiora, (1923), 2nd ed. (1960). SEG Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum. SM I A. J. Evans, Scripta Minoa I. The Hieroglyphic and Primitive Linear Classes (1909). SM II A. J. Evans, Scripta Minoa II. The Archives of Knossos. Clay Tablets in Linear Script B, edited from notes and supplemented by J. L. Myres (1952). Syll.3 W. Dittemberger, Sylloge inscriptionum Graecarum, 3. ed. (1915- 1924). TAM III.1 R. Heberdey, Tituli Asiae Minoris III. Tituli Pisidiae linguis Graeca et Latina conscripti. 1. Tituli Termessi et agri Termessensis (1941). TITHEMY J. L. Melena & J.-P. Olivier, TITHEMY. The Tablets and Nodules in Linear B from Tiryns, Thebes and Mycenae. A Revised Transliteration, Minos Supl. 12 (1991). TMT C. Consani, M. Negri, Testi Minoici trascritti con interpretazione XX Abbreviations

e glossario, Incunabula Graeca C (1999). TT I J. Chadwick, Linear B Tablets from Thebes, Minos 10 (1970), 115- 137. TT II Th. G. Spyropoulos & J. Chadwick, The Thebes Tablets II, Minos Supl. 4 (1975). VI. Other publications Aspects Y. Duhoux, Aspects du vocabulaire économique mycénien (cadastre - artisanat - fiscalité) (1976). CMS I. Pini et al., Corpus der minoischen und mykenischen Siegel (1964). Companion Y. Duhoux & A. Morpurgo-Davies, Companion to Linear B: Mycenaean Greek Texts and their World. Vol. 1, Bibliothèque des cahiers de l’Institut de Linguistique de Louvain 120 (2008); Vol. 2, Bibliothèque des cahiers de l’Institut de Linguistique de Louvain 127 (2011); Vol. 3, Bibliothèque des cahiers de l’Institut de Linguistique de Louvain 133 (2014). DGE Francisco R. Adrados & J. Rodríguez Somolinos (ed.), Diccionario Griego-Español, (1980-). DELG P. Chantraine, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque. Histoire des mots (1968-1980). Desservants J.-P. Olivier, À propos d’une «liste» de desservants de sanctuaire dans les documents en linéaire B de Pylos (1960). DMic. F. Aura Jorro, Diccionario griego-micénico, 2 vol., (1985-1993). Docs M. Ventris & J. Chadwick, Documents in Mycenaean Greek (1956). Docs2 M. Ventris & J. Chadwick, Documents in Mycenaean Greek, 2nd ed., (1973). Docs3 J.T. Killen & A. Morpurgo Davies (eds), Documents in Mycenaean Greek, 3rd ed. (in preparation). Dosmoi P. De Fidio, I dosmoi Pilii a Poseidon: una terra sacra di età micenea, Incunabula Graeca LXV (1977). Early Destruction J. Driessen, An Early Destruction in the Mycenaean Palace at Knossos: A New Interpretation of the Abbreviations XXI

Excavation Field-Notes of the South-East Area of the West Wing (1990). Études C. J. Ruijgh, Études sur la grammaire et le vocabulaire du grec mycénien (1967). EDG R. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, 2 volumes (2010) EWA M. Mayrhofer, Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen (1986-2001). Formation P. Chantraine, La formation des noms en grec ancient (1933). GEW H. Frisk, Griechisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (1954-1972). Gr.Gr. E. Schwyzer, Griechische Grammatik (1934- 1953). HGD I A. Thumb & E. Kieckers, Handbuch der griechischen Dialekte I (1932). HGD II A. Thumb & A. Scherer, Handbuch der griechischen Dialekte II (1959). HMG A. Bartoněk, Handbuch des mykenischen Griechisch (2003). HPN F. Bechtel, Die historischen Personennamen des Griechischen bis zur Keiserzeit (1917). IDA F. Vandenabeele & J.-P. Olivier, Les idéogrammes archéologiques du linéaire B, Études Crétoises XXIV (1979). IEW J. Pokorny, Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (1949/1959). IGLB J.-P. Olivier, L. Godart, C. Seydel, C. Sourvinou, Index généraux du linéaire B, Rome 1973 Incunabula Graeca, LIX (1973). Interpretation L.R. Palmer, The Interpretation of Mycenaean Greek Texts (1963). Kühner-Gehrt R. Kühner, B. Gehrt, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache (1890-1904). LfgrE B. Snell, H. Erbse (ed.), Lexicon des frühgriechischen Epos (1955). LGPN I P. M. Frazer & E. Matthews, A Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, vol. I: The Aegean Islands- Cyprus-Cyrenaica (1987). XXII Abbreviations

LGPN II M.J. Osborne & S.G. Byrne, A Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, vol. II: Attica (1994). LGPN III.A P.M. Frazer, E. Matthews, A Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, vol. III.A: Peloponnese, Western Greece, Sicily, and Magna Graecia, (1997). LGPN III.B P.M. Frazer, E. Matthews, A Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, vol. III.B: Central Greece: From the Megarid to Thessaly (2000). LGPN IV P. M. Frazer, E. Matthews, A Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, vol. IV: Macedonia, Thrace, Northern Regions of the Black Sea (2005). LIMC Lexicon iconographicum mythologiae classicae (1981-1999). LIV H. Rix, Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2 ed. (2001). LSJ H.G. Liddell, R. Scott, H.S. Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed. with a Supplement (1968). LSJ-RS P.G.W. Glare, Greek-English Lexicon. Revised Supplement (1996). Manufacture and A. Michailidou (ed.), Manufacture and Measurement: Measurement Counting, Measuring and Recording Craft Items in Early Aegean Societies, Μελετήματα 33 (2001). Mémoires I M. Lejeune, Mémoires de philologie mycénienne. Première série (1955-1957) (1958). Mémoires II M. Lejeune, Mémoires de philologie mycénienne. Deuxième série (1958-1963) Incunabula Graeca XLII (1971). Mémoires III M. Lejeune, Mémoires de philologie mycénienne. Troisième série (1964-1968) Incunabula Graeca XLIII (1972). Mémoires IV M. Lejeune, Mémoires de philologie mycénienne. Quatrième série (1969-1996) Incunabula Graeca XCIX (1997). Mentions M. Gérard-Rousseau, Les mentions religieuses dans les tablettes mycéniennes Incunabula Graeca XXIX (1968). MGL A. Morpurgo, Mycenaeae Graecitatis Lexicon, Incunabula Graeca III (1963). MGV J. Chadwick & L. Baumbach, The Mycenaean Abbreviations XXIII

Greek Vocabulary, Glotta 41 (1963), 157-271; L. Baumbach, The Mycenaean Greek Vocabulary II, Glotta 49 (1971), 151-190. Minoan Roundel E. Hallager, The Minoan Roundel and other Sealed Documents in the Neopalatial Linear A Administration, Aegaeum 14 (1996). MME W.A. McDonald & G.R. Rapp, Jr. (ed.), The Minnesota Messenia Expedition. Reconstructing a Bronze Age Regional Environment (1972). Mochlos IB K.A. Barnard, Th.M. Brogan (ed.), Mochlos IB. Period III. Neopalatial Settlement on the Coast: The Artisan’s Quarter and the Farmhouse at Chalinomouri. The Neopalatial Pottery, Prehistory Monographs 8 (2003). Mochlos IC J.S. Soles et al. (ed.), Mochlos IC. Period III. Neo- palatial Settlement on the Coast: The Artisan’s Quarter and the Farmhouse at Chalinomouri.The Small Finds, Prehistory Monographs 9 (2004). Mycenaean Feast J. Wright (ed.), The Mycenaean Feast, Hesperia 73:2 (2004). OKTi L.R. Palmer, On the Knossos tablets: The Find- places of the Knossos Tablets (1963). OKTii J. Boardman, On the Knossos tablets: The Date of the Knossos Tablets (1963). Pape-Benseler W. Pape & G.E. Benseler, Wörterbuch der griechischen Eigennamen (1884). People M. Lindgren, The People of Pylos, prosopographical and methodological studies in the Pylos archives. 2 vol., Boreas 3 (1973). Perfume Industry C.W. Shelmerdine, The Perfume Industry in Mycenaean Pylos, SIMA-PB 34 (1985). Personennamen O. Landau, Mykenisch-griechische Personennamen (1958). Phonétique M. Lejeune, Phonétique historique du mycénien et du grec ancien (1972). PoM A.J. Evans, The Palace of Minos at Knossos, 4 vol., (1921-1935). PoN I C. W. Blegen, M. Rawson, The Palace of Nestor at Pylos in Western Messenia. I. The Buildings and XXIV Abbreviations

their Contents (1966). PoN II M. Lang, The Palace of Nestor at Pylos in Western Messenia. II. The Frescoes (1969). PoN III C.W. Blegen, M. Rawson, W. Taylour, W.P. Donovan, The Palace of Nestor at Pylos in Western Messenia. III. Acropolis and Lower Town, Tholoi and Grave Circle, Chamber Tombs, Discoveries outside the Citadel (1973). Problems in Decipherment Y. Duhoux, T.G. Palaima, J. Bennet (eds), Problems in Decipherment, BCILL 49 (1989). RE Real-Encyclopädie der klassischen Altertums- wissenschaft. Rethinking Mycenaean M.L. Galaty & W.A. Parkinson (ed.), Rethinking Palaces Mycenaean Palaces. New Interpretations of an Old Idea, The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology UCLA, Monograph 41 (1999). Royauté P. Carlier, La royauté en Grèce avant Alexandre (1984). Sanctuaries and Cults R. Hägg & N. Marinatos (eds), Sanctuaries and Cults in the Aegean Bronze Age, Proceedings of the First International Symposium at the Swedish Institute in Athens, 12-13 May, 1980, Skrifter Utgivna av Svenska Institutet i Athen 4°, XXVIII (1981). Sandy Pylos J. L. Davis (ed.), Sandy Pylos: An Archaeological History from Nestor to Navarino (1998). Scribes Cnossos J.-P. Olivier, Les scribes de Cnossos. Essai de classement des archives d’un palais mycénien, Incunabula Graeca XVII (1967). Scribes Pylos T.G. Palaima, The Scribes of Pylos, Incunabula Graeca LXXXVII (1988). Scribes RCT J. Driessen, The Scribes of the Room of the Chariot Tablets at Knossos. Interdisciplinary Approach to the Study of a Linear B Deposit, Minos Supl. 15 (2000). Studia Mycenaea A. Bartoněk (ed.), Studia Mycenaea, Proceedings of the Mycenaean Symposium, Brno, April 1966 (1968). Studia Myceanea (1988) T.G. Palaima, C.W. Shelmerdine, P.Hr. Ilievski Abbreviations XXV

(eds), Studia Mycenaea 1988, Živa Antika Monographies No. 7 (1989). Textos J.L. Melena, Textos griegos micénicos comentados (2001). Thera IV S.N. Marinatos, Excavations at Thera IV (1970 Season) (1971). Wortbildung E. Risch, Wortbildung der homerischen Sprache, 2. ed. (1974). XXVI XXVII

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Marie Louise Nosch and Hedvig Landenius Enegren

At the meeting of the Comité international permanent d’études mycéniennes (CIPEM) in Sèvres in September 2010, the CIPEM accepted Marie-Louise Nosch’s suggestion to host the 14th Mycenological colloquium in Copenhagen. The first gathering took place in Gif-sur-Yvette near Paris in 1956. The spirit of good humour and collaborative enthusiasm established at the first colloquium became known within the field asl’ésprit de Gif. The group of countries and scholars at the mycenological conferences still reflect the correspondents and receivers of Ventris’s work notes, which he had circulated to colleagues long before the internet made such a practice feasible.1 The Gif colloquium included participants from Britain, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the USA. Today mycenological studies are also an active field of research in Germany, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, and Australia. It is still the founding members of CIPEM who represent the most numerous scholars in the field of Aegean scripts since 1956, but new scholars join the group, and the photographs from each mycenological colloquium illustrate how the number of participants increases. We are an expanding discipline. Another significant change is the increasing number of female scholars in the field. John Chadwick, in his speech at Salzburg in 1995 noticed the few female scholars,2 but this has also changed since then. In Nürnberg 1981, the hosts graciously arranged for a parallel ‘spouse program’ during the colloquium. In Copenhagen, 24 of 57 participating scholars were women. Since the publication in 1954 of Documents in Mycenaean Greek, Ventris and Chadwick strived to include other disciplines into the study of Aegean scripts, among others, the disciplines exploring texts from the ancient Near East. Pierre Carlier and his co-organisers of the 13th Mycenological Colloquium

1 Bennet 2014. 2 Chadwick 1999, 36. XXVIII Marie Louise Nosch and Hedvig Landenius Enegren in Sèvres in 2010 were the first to convene special events on comparative studies of the Mycenaean palatial economy and Near Eastern palatial economies.3 We believe this to be a particularly important yet challenging endeavour and we are happy that several colleagues took up the challenge and publish stimulating comparative studies in the present volume. Since the Paris colloquium in 2010, we have lost colleagues who will be missed for their scholarly contribution as well as for the friendship that unites us: Pierre Carlier (1949-2011), Emmett L. Bennett Jr. (1918-2011), Petar Hr. Ilievski (1920-2013), Martin S. Ruipérez (1923-2015), Anna Morpurgo-Davies (1937-2014) and Margareta Lindgren (1936-2017). We would like to take this opportunity to dedicate this volume to one our discipline’s first ladies, historical linguist Anna Morpurgo-Davies, a world-leading figure in the study of ancient Greek and Anatolian, and as such a role model for what it takes to conduct comparative analyses. We corresponded with Anna Morpurgo-Davies until a few months before she passed away in September 2014. She was trained by Gallavotti and was editor of the first lexicon of Mycenaean, published in 1963. In Oxford, she worked closely with professor of Comparative Philology, Leonard Palmer, and Hittitologist and epigraphist David Hawkins. In 1971, she succeeded Palmer as chair at Oxford. In this volume we also wish to remember the very first female scholar in Aegean scripts, Alice Kober (1903-1950), and thus highlight her significant contribution to the field of Mycenology. Alice Kober who received an MA and PhD from Columbia University became assistant professor at Brooklyn College. It was with a Guggenheim Fellowship that she was able to immerse herself full-time to the study of Linear B.4 Her methodological approach to the study of the Linear B signary, in which she established that the Mycenaean script shows an inflected language, ultimately influenced Ventris’s final decipherment of the script.5 We also wish to commemorate our Scandinavian colleague, Margareta Lindgren (1936–2017). A pupil of Arne Furumark, she continued the Linear B scholarly tradition at Uppsala University with her publication on the prosopography of Pylos, a fundamental work within Mycenaean Studies. As head of the Department for Maps and Prints at the Uppsala University Carolina Library for many years, she kept in close contact with the Department of Archaeology and Ancient history as an immensely appreciated lecturer in Aegean Scripts, who really knew how to engage her audience with her keen sense of humour. On a personal note, she was the thesis advisor to the co-

3 Zurbach et al. forthcoming. 4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Kober 5 https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/15875 Preface and acknowledgements XXIX editor of this volume (Hedvig Landenius Enegren). Her last participation in a Mycenological Colloquium was in Rome in 2006 with a paper on Cypriot Scripts. Many of us remember her vivid personality and her enthusiasm in a wide range of interests that went beyond Linear B; these included in later years, among others, pistol target shooting and the Harry Potter books! It was an honour to host the 14th Mycenological Colloquium in Copenhagen, 2-5 September 2015. We thank friends and colleagues for joining us for this event, and for their presentation and fruitful discussions. We are particularly honoured to hear of l’esprit de Copenhague, uniting us all in a friendly conversation on the advancement of knowledge in our field. For hosting the conference on the exquisite premises of the Carlsberg Academy, the former private villa of brewer Jacobsen and domicile of Niels Bohr, we warmly thank the Carlsberg Foundation. For continued support and trust, we thank the Danish National Research Foundation and the University of Copenhagen. Egzona Haxha, Camilla Ebert and Louise Ludvigsen were our efficient and kind coordination and organisation hostesses and assistants. We warmly thank Maurizio Del Freo for all his help in editorial and other matters; for the indexation Mikkel Nørtoft and for editorial assistance Peder Flemstad. We warmly thank Lillian and Dan Finks Fond, the Institute for Aegean Prehistory and the R.K. Rasks Legat foundation for generous support for this publication. We are grateful to Alessandro Naso, Marco Bettelli and Maurizio Del Freo for welcoming the conference proceedings in the Incunabula Graeca series. Copenhagen and Brussels, Fall 2017

Bibliography Bennet, J. 2014 ‘Literacies’ – 60+ Years of ‘Reading’ the Aegean Late Bronze Age, BICS 57:2, 127-137. Chadwick, J. 1999 Linear B: Past, Present and Future. In Floreant, 29-38 Carlier P. †, Joannès, Fr., Rougemont, Fr., Zurbach J. (eds), Palatial Economy in the Ancient Near East and in the Aegean. First steps towards a comprehensive study and analysis. Acts of the ESF Exploratory Workshop held in Sèvres, 16-19 Sept. 2010, Pisa – Rome, F. Serra, 2017.

XXXI

LIST OF AUTHORS

Francisco Aura-Jorro, Yves Duhoux Universidad de Alicante, Spain Université Catholique de Louvain, [email protected] Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium [email protected] Federico Aurora University of Oslo, Norway Elena Džukeska [email protected] University “Ss. Cyril and Methodius”, Skopje, FYROM Lisa M. Bendall [email protected] Keble College, Oxford University, UK [email protected] Markus Egetmeyer Université de Paris IV-Sorbonne, France John Bennet [email protected] British School at Athens, Greece [email protected] Richard Firth University of Bristol Alberto Bernabé [email protected] Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain José Luis García Ramón [email protected] Universität zu Köln, Germany [email protected] William Bibee University of Texas at Austin, USA Alessandro Greco [email protected] Sapienza, Università di Roma, Italy [email protected] Flavia Carraro University of Copenhagen, Denmark Joann Gulizio [email protected] University of Texas at Austin, USA [email protected] Massimo Cultraro CNR-IBAM, Catania, Italy Erik Hallager [email protected] University of Aarhus, Denmark [email protected] Maurizio Del Freo CNR-ISMA, Rome, Italy Margherita Jasink [email protected] Università di Firenze, Italy [email protected] Fatima Díez Platas Universidad de Santiago de José Miguel Jiménez Delgado Compostela, Spain Universidad de Sevilla, Spain [email protected] [email protected] XXXII List of authors

Anna Judson Dimiri Nakassis Pembroke College, Cambridge University of Colorado Boulder, University, UK USA [email protected] [email protected] Artemis Karnava Stavroula Nikoloudis Inscriptiones Graecae, University of Melbourne, Australia Brandenburgische Akademie der [email protected] Wissenschaften, Berlin, Germany Marie-Louise Nosch [email protected] University of Copenhagen, Denmark John Killen [email protected] Jesus College, Cambridge Thomas G. Palaima University, UK The University of Texas at Austin, [email protected] USA Evangelos Kyriakidis [email protected] University of Kent, UK Ruth Palmer [email protected] Ohio University, USA Daniel Kölligan [email protected] Universität zu Köln, Germany Oswald Panagl [email protected] Universität Salzburg, Austria Hedvig Landenius Enegren [email protected] University of Copenhagen, Denmark Massimo Perna [email protected] Università degli Studi Suor Orsola Alex Leukart Benincasa, Naples, Italy University of Geneva, Switzerland [email protected] [email protected] Vassilis Petrakis [email protected] Ministry of Education, Athens, Eugenio R. Luján Greece Univ. Complutense de Madrid, Spain [email protected] [email protected] Rachele Pierini Susan Lupack Università di Bologna, Italy Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia [email protected] [email protected] Juan Piquero Torsten Meissner Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Cambridge University UK Spain [email protected] [email protected] List of authors XXXIII

Kevin Pluta Culturas del Mediterráneo y Oriente The University of Texas at Austin, Próximo, Madrid, Spain USA [email protected] [email protected] Nicola Antonello Vittiglio Françoise Rougemont Universitat Autònoma de CNRS, UMR 7041, Nanterre, France Barcelona, Spain [email protected] [email protected] Anna Sacconi Jörg Weilhartner Sapienza, Università di Roma, Italy Universität Wien, Austria [email protected] [email protected] Irene Serrano Aren Max Wilson-Wright Universidad Complutense de Madrid, The University of Texas at Austin, Spain USA [email protected] [email protected] Cynthia W. Sherlmerdine Julien Zurbach The University of Texas at Austin, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, USA France [email protected] [email protected] Philippa Steele Magdalene College, Cambridge University, UK [email protected] Rupert Thompson Selwynn College, Cambridge University, UK [email protected] Helena Tomas University of Zagreb, Croatia [email protected] Carlos Varias García Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain [email protected] Juan Pablo Vita CSIC–Instituto de Lenguas y XXXIV

SCRIPTS, PALAEOGRAPHY AND RESEARCH TOOLS 789

MICHAEL VENTRIS AND MYCENAEAN STUDIES IN SWEDEN AND DENMARK* Hedvig Landenius Enegren and Marie-Louise Nosch

Michael Ventris took a keen interest in Scandinavia due to his training as an architect. He visited Denmark and Sweden on several occasions and maintained contact with architectural colleagues in Copenhagen and Stockholm. It was also in Denmark and Sweden that Ventris received some of the first and most spectacular recognition for his achievements as a decipherer. In this paper we present some of his unpublished correspondence with friends and colleagues to illustrate Ventris’s Scandinavian projects and fascination for Scandinavian architecture. We also illustrate the impact he made on academia in Denmark and Sweden in the early 1950s.1 Michael Ventris and Sweden Ventris the architect in Sweden Michael Ventris’s first contact with Sweden was not with respect to Mycenology and Linear B but rather in his capacity as an architect. He visited the country in the summer of 1947 together with fellow students from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London (hereafter AA), Oliver Cox and Graeme Shankland. Ventris was on a scholarship from the AA,2 and he obtained a paid internship at one of the major architectural firms in

* We warmly thank the director of the Institute of Classical Studies, Professor Greg Woolf, and especially Dr Olga Krzyszkowska, Institute for Classical Studies, Univ. of London, for hosting us and our archival research for two days 13-14 April 2016. We also wish to thank the following who shared their knowledge for the purposes of this text and for all their kind help: Edward Bottoms, Peder Flemestad, Erik Hallager, Henrik Holmboe, Karl-Christian Lammers, Cherine Munkholt, Erik Petersen, Richard Simpson, Karin Westin Tikkanen, Susanne Varming, Jonathan Wiener, and Susanna Winkler. All translations from Swedish and Danish to English are our own. We thank Jonathan Wiener for revising the English of this contribution. 1 The classic biography of Ventris is Robinson 2012, see also Fox 2013. 2 O. Cox in his lecture on M. Ventris, cf. http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/VIDEO/lecture.php?ID=2515. 790 Hedvig Landenius Enegren and Marie-Louise Nosch

Stockholm, the Kooperativa Förbundets arkitektkontor (KF),3 the Cooperative Federation’s Architectural Office, under the direction of the legendary Professor of Architecture Eskil Sundahl, head of the KF office 1925-1958. A certificate at the end of the internship signed by Eskil Sundahl states: “Michael Ventris has shown the greatest interest in his work, an unusual ability to penetrate constructive problems and a mature view of architectural things. We are certain that Michael Ventris will become a clever and skilful member of our profession”.4

Fig. 1. Certificate signed by Eskil Sundahl, head of the Kooperativa Förbundets arkitektkontor, dated 9 August 1947 (ICS Box 2 MV 028). With permission from the Institute of Classical Studies, London.

3 Tetlow et al. 1984, 26. Ventris eventually received his diploma from the AA on 29 January 1951 (ICS Box 2 MV038), cf. fig. 1. 4 Certificate dated 9 August 1947 (ICS Box 2 MV 028), cf. fig. 1. Michael Ventris and Mycenaean Studies in Sweden and Denmark 791

Ventris worked most directly in the department headed by the architect Lennart Uhlin.5 In an interview in 1992 Uhlin reminisced about the former employee, stating that “…I have never had a collaborator who has approached his work in such a scientific way. He was a brilliant person”.6 Lennart Holm, a fellow Swedish architect at KF, later that autumn (1947) visited London for the festivities in celebration of the Architectural Association’s centenary. For the occasion he stayed at the Ventris’s Highgate home in London, much impressed with its interior decoration by a family friend, Marcel Breuer. Le Corbusier was also present at the event and Holm remembers him admiring the AA student exhibition and being especially taken with one student’s work namely, that of Michael Ventris!7 Holm furthermore reminisces that Ventris was quite fluent in Swedish which he had apparently picked up by reading newspapers when working in British intelligence in Germany.8 Holm says the three English architecture students sometimes attended lectures at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and practised their Swedish by imitating the announcements on Tram number 4 which they took to get there.9 Holm remembers Ventris during this time in Sweden as busily working on the decipherment of Linear B.10 Sweden as the choice for an internship in architecture was logical. Sweden’s neutral stance in World War II must have been a major incentive for collaborative efforts on matters architectural. Most of Europe’s cities had suffered heavy bombing which destroyed architectural landmarks, and Sweden thus became a natural choice for interchange between British and Swedish architects.11 Swedish post-war housing with its emphasis on building for the population of the Welfare state became internationally known as The New Empiricism.12 The British interest in Swedish architecture, however, can be traced back to the 1920s. In 1923 W. B. Yeats at the time of his acceptance of the Nobel Prize in literature marvelled at the architecture of the Stockholm City Hall,13 the venue for the Nobel Prize Ceremony awards, designed by the architect

5 Holm 2003, 44. 6 Interview with Lennart Uhlin on 25 April 1992, referred to in Brunnström 2004, 61-62. 7 Holm 2003, 44-45. 8 Holm 2003, 44. 9 Holm 2003, 44. 10 Holm 2003, 45: “He showed me infinite frequency tables of the mystical signs, their occurrences and positions, everything done by hand with a manual calculator” (translation by the authors) 11 E.g. the Architectural Forum in its July 1945 issue included the major article “Sweden is Modern: G. Howard Smith Reviews the Development of Contemporary Architecture in Sweden: A Selection of Recent Residential Recreational and Cultural buildings”. 12 Rudberg 1987, 18. 13 Yeats, although an Irish national after the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922 belongs within the English literary tradition. 792 Hedvig Landenius Enegren and Marie-Louise Nosch

Ragnar Östberg. The ceremony itself was held in a majestic room, the so-called Gyllene Salen (Golden Hall) decorated with a huge golden mosaic by Einar Forseth which later is said to have inspired Yeats to write his poem Sailing to Byzantium.14 The AA had a longstanding collaboration and interest in Swedish architecture dating back to the visit of the Crown Prince of Sweden, the later King Gustav VI Adolphus, to the AA seven months before the Nobel Prize ceremony.15 This visit seems to have been the impetus for the AA to focus on Scandinavia rather than on the Netherlands as had been the case in the past.16 Swedish Modernism with architects such as Gunnar Asplund17 and Sigurd Lewerentz18 eventually inspired the Contemporary Style reflected in the Festival of Britain in 1951.19 The utopian suburban planning occurring in Stockholm during this time was of great interest to English architects, who were faced with the task of rebuilding Britain after the war. It is evident that Ventris, too, was taken with Swedish Modern Architecture. In 1946 in a manuscript for a book review of the Swedish publication Trettiotalets Byggnadskonst i Sverige (Swedish Architecture in the 1930s),20 Michael Ventris compared the social and political frameworks of Sweden and the USA and their capacities to re-think and design housing architecture. He shows no admiration for post-World War I Soviet architecture. Ventris’s credo comes in the conclusion: “Good modern architecture tends to find its expression where there is democracy – perhaps not in its narrow meaning – but where there is social optimism, a sense of participation of the individual in the community, and family life enjoying and expanding standard of living. The large number of excellent Swedish public buildings, town theatres and schools selected by competition is a proof that a vital modern style has found a natural soil in which to grow.”21

14 We thank Edward Bottoms for pointing this out. See also Bottoms 2010 (AA Files no. 60, 66-67). 15 Bottoms 2010, AA Files no. 60, 66-67. 16 Bottoms 2010, AA Files no. 60, 66-67. 17 His works include the Stockholm Public Library and a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Skogskyrkogården (Woodland Cemetery) on the outskirts of Stockholm. 18 Among his works are the Malmö City Theatre and the Chapel of the Ascension located in the World Heritage Site Skogskyrkogården (Woodland Cemetery). 19 Bottoms 2010, 66-67. 20 Published by Svenska Arkitekters Riksförbund (Swedish Architects Association) in 1943. 21 (ICS Box 1, MV 018 extract 04) manuscript for book review dated 27 January 1946. This social dimension finds a parallel expression in Frank Pick’s foreword a decade earlier to the catalogue of the British pavilion at the Paris International Exhibition in 1937, in which he states his views on the design regarding everyday objects: “...and these not in their most ornate or extravagant forms, but in the form in which they may be found over and over again, even in the form in which they are available Michael Ventris and Mycenaean Studies in Sweden and Denmark 793

During his internship at KF’s architectural office, Ventris’s diligence shines through. His regular letters to his wife22 demonstrate his keen sense of observation. In one of the first letters of his trip to Stockholm by train, Ventris tells of his chance visit to the Malmö Theatre.23 Arriving in Stockholm, Ventris checked into that temporary quarters behind the NK department store (still standing today) complaining “…the sway is a lack of a bath but there are public baths across the street”.24 He seems amused by the fact that his room had been reserved in the name of Wennquist, obviously a ‘Swedification’ of Ventris.25 He further lauds the Gondolen restaurant, still open today, located 33m above Slussen (the lock connecting Lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea) and reached by the Katarinahissen lift, which offers a magnificent view of the Stockholm harbour.26 On 5 June 1947 he writes to Lois: “…had an interview with Sundahl who’s a charming old boy although he has awful trouble with his English”.27 Ventris visited various sites in Stockholm and was much impressed with the Drottningholm Castle Theatre erected in 1777 (still hosting performances today): “… it has been untouched since 1777 with all the old scenery together with a vast collection of old theatrical dgs (drawings - author comment) and prints from the 17th and 18th century collected by Gustav III, absolutely fascinating.”28 Ventris, Shankland and Cox found more permanent quarters in a 4-room sub-let flat in a suburb of Stockholm at Spångavägen 49 in Riksby, close to

for all our people. … For our English life is free and self-determined, and democracy to us means more than a mode of government: it means a fashion of living which leaves men and women free to express themselves as they will in what they have, or wear, or do, or use, so long as each respects the like freedom of his neighbour.’ (Catalogue of the British Pavilion, 306-307). We thank Richard Simpson for the reference and for highlighting this point. 22 Ventris’s wife went by two names, Betty and Lois, for the sake of simplicity Lois will be used in the present article. 23 Letter to Lois dated 4 June 1947 on the train between Malmö and Stockholm (ICS Box 2 MV 23: extract 1). Ventris’s attention to detail is acute. He writes: “…it was surprising how small the auditorium is compared to the vast stage & equipment behind”; “… the 4-story dressing room block and the entrance to the little theatre works very well from the outside, also quite in contrast to the rather classical formality of the main façade with its neatly polished very pale marble. The foyer itself works as a space (again the railings have a marvellous quality), but we felt not enough was done with colour and the pillars left in painted plaster looked a little unfinished”; “…No doubt the citizens are very proud of their theatre but I think there is a general feeling that it is out of scale with the town…”. 24 Ventris stayed at the Norrländska Hotellet on Jakobsbergsgatan. Letter to Lois dated 4-5 June 1947 (ICS Box 2 MV 023, extract 1). Older apartments in Stockholm did not yet have proper bathrooms but people regularly used the many public baths in the city, some of which have now become expensive spas. Most probably Ventris here refers to the baths at Sturebadet, still in use today. 25 Letter to Lois 4-5 June 1947 (ICS Box 2 MV 023, extract 1). 26 Letter 4 June 1947 (ICS Box 2 MV 023, extract 1). 27 Letter 5 June 1947 (ICS Box 2 MV 023, extract 1). Before World War II, the first foreign language in the Swedish school curriculum was German, in 1946 this changed to English. 28 Letter to Lois, 11 June 1947 (AA Archives Ventris 2011:21). 794 Hedvig Landenius Enegren and Marie-Louise Nosch

Bromma Airport (Fig. 2).29 He writes to Lois “… unfortunately the permanent tenant seems to be German, away until September, and the furniture isn’t as Swedish Modern as one would hope.” He continues “…Oliver, Graeme and I had a hysterical time after moving in yesterday, proscribing various articles of furniture to be removed…” He further comments on the rationing still in use in Sweden at the time stating that they had already used up their first allowance although “… milk, cheese, eggs and fancy cakes are unlimited and plentiful”30 (Fig. 3). In the same letter to Lois he informs her that he has received his Swedish work permit and mentions that soap is rather scarce and asks her to send him some!31

Fig. 2. Drawing by Oliver Cox in a letter to Lois Ventris describing Cox’s Shankland’s and Ventris’s life in Stockholm ( ICS Box 2 MV 029). With the kind permission from the Cox Family and the Institute of Classical Studies, London.

29 Letter to Lois, 11 June 1947 (AA Archives Ventris 2011:21). 30 Letter to Lois, 11 June 1947 (AA Archives Ventris 2011:21). 31 Letter dated 30 June 1947 (ICS MV 023. Box 2). In a further letter dated Midsummer Eve 1947, he states that “Reindeer is off the ration and it makes excellent sandwiches.” (ICS Box 2 MV 023). Michael Ventris and Mycenaean Studies in Sweden and Denmark 795

Ventris was meticulous in monitoring his financial situation during his stay in Stockholm and used a chart on graph paper with the heading Cash Situation stating his pay from KF, when rent is due to be paid and the stocking-up of food. From the chart we can follow exactly when Ventris moved from the hotel (10 June) to new lodgings in Riksby, along with the fluctuating finances until he left Sweden on 3 September 1947.32 During his internship, Ventris designed a Konsum supermarket in July 1947, although it was never, to our knowledge, constructed.33 In a letter to Lois he tells her he is at the moment “…drawing out 1:50s of a re-modelled Konsum shop:-

Fig. 3. Ventris own copy of Architecture in Stockholm, compiled by the Swedish Architects Association in 1947. Note the reference to ration cards (ICS Box 2 MV.041 extract 2)

32 ICS Box 2 MV 027. 33 ICS Box 2 MV025, extract 2; see Fig. 4. Located in the suburb of Stockholm, Johanneshov, Kvarteret Gravyren. One can note his use of both Swedish and English. A visit to the Architecture and Design Centre archives in Stockholm where part of the KF archives are stored (10/05/2016) yielded no further information. See also Robinson 2002, 55, 796 Hedvig Landenius Enegren and Marie-Louise Nosch

Fig. 4. Ventris’s design of a Konsum supermarket at Kvarteret Gravyren, Johanneshov, July 1947 (ICS Box 2 MV025 extract 2). With permission from the Institute of Classical Studies, London. the sections are quite meaningless which seems to be the general practice.” He continues “The engineer comes along and suggests a little bit of “skoj, (sharawaggi & c) with the railings & canopies which I take a good view of, but which I do feel very well qualified to achieve”.34 In his Notes on Terrace Houses in Sweden, Ventris compares English architecture with Swedish demands on functionality. He notes “differences from an English plan. 1. No deliveries in Sweden, so the kitchen need not be next to the front door. 2. No throughway:- no home laundry, and less private garden space. In the English plan kitchen, dining room and living room should best be on the ground floor.”35 He further observes “kitchen to the W. if children are to be watched then W is necessary.” On a page with the notation ‘scribbles’ Ventris sketches different colours for Swedish houses which he lists according to polycolor and prismato.36

34 ICS Box 2 MV 023, extract 3. Letter to Lois 18 June 1947. See also Wieser 2005, 211. With further reference to Rudberg 1998, with regard to ‘sketching something fun’. Robinson 2002, 55. 35 AA Ventris archive Box 19a. 36 ICS Box 2 MV 025, extract 1, see Fig. 5. Michael Ventris and Mycenaean Studies in Sweden and Denmark 797

Fig. 5. Ventris’s sketches of different colours for Swedish houses (ICS Box 2 MV 025 extract 1). With permission from the Institute of Classical Studies, London.

Ventris was a resourceful man. In 1947 he evidently wrote to Walter Gropius, famous for the Bauhaus movement and professor of Architecture at Harvard University, asking him to contribute with a newspaper article to the AA student magazine PLAN of which he was co-editor. In his reply, Gropius politely thanks Ventris for sending him the first issue of the magazine but declines his invitation to contribute, citing a heavy workload. Instead, Gropius offers to send him a “… statement about the teaching of design which represents a contribution I made last week at a round-table conference on this subject” to be put in print.37 This letter to Ventris, moreover, offers a most interesting insight into Gropius’ own view of the Bauhaus movement. Gropius writes:

37 Letter 3 February 1948 (ICS Box 2 MV 032). 798 Hedvig Landenius Enegren and Marie-Louise Nosch

“In one of the articles which appeared in PLAN I observed that again the assumption is made that the Bauhaus was an aesthetic movement only and not one which dealt with the problems of living. I really don’t know who started this rubbish. It is absolutely untrue. The strongest feature of the Bauhaus was the common interest of all who took part in it, in the problems of a community life, and we made earnest endeavours to try that out within our own group there. Of course since then the problems have become more articulate and more subtle, but basically the social component was considered the most important.”38 As mentioned, Ventris displayed remarkable linguistic abilities. According to his fellow student at the AA, Oliver Cox, Ventris taught himself Swedish in two weeks prior to taking up his job in Stockholm.39 In a letter to Lois he comments on his Swedish working environment and colleagues and states: “… everyone is very jolly & friendly but I have laid myself open by starting off in Swedish, with the result that nobody addresses me in English and half the time I haven’t much of a clue. Everybody ‘du’s’ each other which is a relief and good mornings and goodbyes consist invariably of a shout of ‘hej’… (Better keep up a little Swedish especially food and groceries.)”40 The beginnings of Mycenology in Sweden Sweden prides itself on the longest and strongest mycenological tradition in Scandinavia. It was, however, the Finno-Swedish scholar Johannes Sundwall who pioneered Mycenaean studies. Sundwall was the first Scandinavian to be actively involved with Aegean scripts. He was a reader in Ancient History

38 Letter 3 February 1948 (ICS Box 2 MV 032). 39 O. Cox Michael Ventris Memorial Lecture: The Man and The Architect, 30 October 1997, see http:// www.aaschool.ac.uk/VIDEO/lecture.php?ID=2515. 40 Letter to Lois 15 June 1947 (ICS Box 2 MV 023, extract 3). ‘Du’ in Swedish is the informal way of addressing a person as opposed to the more formal ‘Ni’. See also Robinson 2002, 53. According to Oliver Cox, Ventris was quick to learn Swedish. Cox reminisces over the time in Stockholm: “We took a flat over there. Before we went over we had two weeks in which we got a Swedish grammar and a First Swedish Course and the four of us studied these [Probably Lois was counted in the four - author comment]. Michael was able to read these books, and was able to take us through the lessons in a week or so! We got to Sweden by boat and train – we hadn’t motorcars in those days – and at the customs we suddenly found that Ventris was actually conversing with the Customs officers in Swedish after two weeks’ reading the book. We then realised that this was anamazing facility. I then spent a few days going around with him to offices, looking for jobs, and it was perfectly clear he could manage to converse really well and within two or three weeks he got a job because of that. (it was a difficult time to get work. We’re still in touch with his old boss in Sweden)…” (Tetlowet al. 1984, 26). Michael Ventris and Mycenaean Studies in Sweden and Denmark 799 from 1907-20 at the University of Helsinki,41 and became associate professor at the Åbo Academy in 1919, and was full professor in Ancient History and Greek and Roman Literature, 1921-45. He was an expert on cultural history and had specialised in Greek epigraphy. Moreover, he corresponded with Alice Kober. In his first letter (in 1947), Sundwall writes to her in English: “I wish to compliment you on your methodical treatment of the most intricate problem that is met with in the Ancient History”.42 Thereafter, he continues his letters in German.43 Kober responds in English. In a letter from 19 March 1949 she writes: “Thank you for your painstaking questions which help me to correct my errors.” Swedish Mycenological scholars also include Axel W. Persson, professor of Classical Archaeology and Ancient History at Uppsala University from 1925-1951, who in 1930 published Schrift und Sprache in Altkreta. His pupil Arne Furumark, who succeeded him in 1951, went through Persson’s papers after his death. He then discovered that Persson had been on Ventris’s list of those to whom he had sent his work notes. So Furumark wrote to Ventris to suggest that they could start to confer on some points. On 18 May 1952 Ventris responded: “…I don’t know if anybody else at Uppsala are active in the Minoan decipherment but if you like I can send you copies of my small Work Notes”. Thus Gudmund Björck, Professor of Ancient Greek and Literature at Uppsala University (1945–1955)44 and Furumark became active participants in the decipherment venture. After the breakthrough, they were strong supporters, both corroborating Ventris’s hypotheses. Moreover, although he himself was not a linguist but known for his work on Greek and Mycenaean Religion, the Swedish scholar Martin P:son Nilsson also expressed his enthusiasm.45 Ventris the decipherer and Sweden In a letter dated 23 May 1953, Ventris informed Emmett Bennett of Furumark and Björck’s collaborative efforts in Uppsala.46 The correspondence

41 The Swedish title Docent corresponds to the academic title ‘Reader’ in the UK. 42 Letter dated 6 January 1947. Courtesy PASP Digital Repository. 43 Letter 14 December 1948. 44 Cf. Björck 1954. 45 Chadwick 1958, 87. 46 Courtesy PASP Digital Repository, Univ. of Texas at Austin. Ventris writes: “In addition to you and me, the following are at present actively engaged in juggling with the Linear B phonetic values or in looking at the language from the viewpoint of comparative philology: John Chadwick at Cambridge, Prof. L.R.Palmer, 1 Canterbury Square, Oxford (with undergraduate George Huxley, Magdalen College), Arne Furumark, S:t Johannesgatan 24, Uppsala” (with Gudmund Björck), Ernst Sittig at Tübingen. Myres seems to look at our work encouragingly, but would probably be the last person to suggest an active collaboration with us for the future. Having had the first draft of phonetic values, from me, I don’t think any of them are in a position, or likely (except perhaps Furumark) to rush into print with 800 Hedvig Landenius Enegren and Marie-Louise Nosch between the Swedish scholars and Ventris shows the strong support given to the amateur philologist by the Swedish academics. From the letters Ventris sent to Furumark, it is evident that the two actively discussed points in Ventris’s work- in-progress. In a letter dated 15 September 1952, Ventris explained: “The “Experimental Vocabulary” which I sent to you represents I’m afraid, a slightly irresponsible deviation from the policy of objective internal analysis which Bennett and I have been trying to impose on ourselves; and its results are, I’ll be the first to admit, decidedly uncertain still. However, we seemed to have reached the point in the analysis, where some sort of experimental vocalisation must be undertaken and may throw up some sort of clarification of grammatical and vocabulary forms. The general consensus of opinion, including Myres is that we are “on to” something promising, but that it isn’t quite clear how far definite conclusions can be pushed”.47 Björck offered to publish Ventris’s results in the Swedish periodical Eranos, an offer which Ventris in his letter to Furumark on 26 October 1952 politely declined: “I have written separately to Björck to discuss some of the points he raises, and to thank him for the offer to print an article of ours in Eranos. As I have explained to him I think it is almost certain that we will get space in JHS next year but if by any chance this falls through we may be able to avail ourselves of your hospitality.” In the same letter he concludes with the following remark: “I am very happy to have the cooperation of yourself & your Uppsala colleagues.” Ventris’s research progressed quickly from the time of his September letter to Furumark, in which he still displayed some hesitancy. Although the initial news of Ventris’s work on the decipherment of Linear B was announced in a BBC programme on 1st July 1952,48 in November of the same year, Swedish daily newspapers Svenska Dagbladet, Dagens Nyheter and Expressen in a massive media coverage published the sensational news, a real scoop, relating to the breakthrough in the decipherment.49 The Svenska Dagbladet’s New York correspondent apparently

a wholesale book on the tablets.” 47 We thank Dr. Karin Westin Tikkanen, Dept. of Languages and Literatures, University of Gothenburg who will publish the Furumark correspondence for kindly making this unpublished letter available. 48 Stavrakakis 2014, 26. 49 ICS Box 3 MV 072. 2. On the first page of Svenska Dagbladet, Saturday, 22 November 1952 we read “Forskarbragd av språkgeni löser mångtusenåriga skriftgåtor” (Research triumph by a linguistic genius solves thousands of years old script riddles). The article in the daily Dagens Nyheter is titled “3.000 språkgåta uppklarad” (3000 year-old language riddle is solved). These were followed by the Stockholms-Tidningen by reporter Gunnar Kristiansson on Sunday, 23 November 1952 “Ler-tavlor ger nyckel till 5.000-årigt språk. Arkeologisk sensation” (Clay tablets provide the key to a 5000- year- old language. Archaeological sensation) (ICS Box 3 MV 075.7). November 26 in Expressen by the editor-in-chief Ivar Harrie, Kung Minos gåta (King Minos’ Riddle [ICS Box 3 MV 075.5]). In the Michael Ventris and Mycenaean Studies in Sweden and Denmark 801 contacted Emmett Bennett for a comment and Bennett is quoted in the article as stating that the riddle is not yet solved but that satisfactory progress had been made. The correspondent reflects that one almost received the impression that the professor (Bennett) was purposely evasive, thus putting a damper on the optimism and belittling the progress made.50 In this last comment, in our view, lies an interpretative bias perhaps simply with the aim of creating journalistic contention. These initial newspaper articles were followed in subsequent years by a vast media coverage, especially in Sweden, devoted to Ventris and the decipherment of the tablets, by journalists, as well as by both Furumark and Björck.51 Ventris’s reaction to at least one of the many Swedish press articles, (Dagens Nyheter on 22 November, see n. 52) we know from a letter to Björck, dated 5 December 1952. In it he states that it was not always possible to check that everything being printed was indeed true. In fact, Ventris here denies having said that he owed the solution of the Linear B problem to the butchers and the bakers (here Ventris makes reference to professions recorded in the tablets which include bakers but not butchers - annotation by authors).52 It would be the summer of 1953 before Ventris met Björck when the latter was on a trip to London and took the opportunity to meet with Ventris and John Chadwick.53 On this occasion, Björck likely forwarded Furumark’s proposal to make Ventris an honorary doctor of the University of Uppsala.54 This finally happened the following year. When Ventris arrived in Stockholm for the occasion at the end of April 1954, he was welcomed by the Swedish press. During this trip to Sweden he also gave an open lecture at the University

same newspaper on 27 November by reporter Brita Håkanson, “Språkgeniet som löste 3.000-årig gåta är arkitekt, korsordsfantast, hatar Latin” (The language genius who solved a 3000-year riddle is an architect, cross-word fanatic, hates Latin [ICS Box 3 MV 075.6]). The same day, 27 November, Dagens Nyheter’s London editorial office published “Taveltolkare språksnille, svenska lätt” (Tablet transcriber, linguistic genius, Swedish easy) (ICS Box 3 MV 075.4). 50 Article in the Swedish Daily Svenska Dagbladet 22 Nov. 1952 the title of which reads “Försiktig general om minosskriften” (Cautious general on the script of Minos). 51 In 1953: 7 May in Göteborgs Handels och Sjöfartstidning, by Ingemar Düring, professor of Classics at Gothenburg University (1945-1970), “En märklig forskarbragd” (A notable Triumph of Research). 30 June in Dagens Nyheter by Arne Furumark, “Michael Ventris och de egeiska lertavlorna” (Michael Ventris and the Aegean clay tablets) (ICS Box 3 MV 075.12). On 1 July 1953 by Arne Furumark, in Dagens Nyheter, “En forntidsvärld träder fram” (An ancient world emerges) (ICS Box 3 MV 075.13). 1954: Reference to a lecture on 21 March 1954 by Arne Furumark in the Swedish radio magazine Röster i Radio (ICS MV 075.25). On 22 April by Gudmund Björck in Svenska Dagbladet, “En saga om en saga” (A Tale of a Tale) (ICS Box 3 MV 075.32). 52 Hedlund 2003, 12. 53 Hedlund 2003, 12. 54 Hedlund 2003, 12. In the field of Mycenology this honour was also bestowed on Tom Palaima, Professor of Classics at the University of Texas, Austin, in 1994 by the Faculty of Humanities, University of Uppsala. 802 Hedvig Landenius Enegren and Marie-Louise Nosch of Gothenburg on 5 May (Fig. 6). 55 In Björck’s newspaper article (22 April 1954) we glean the personal characteristics of Michael Ventris as offered by Björck. He writes:

Fig. 6. Open lecture on 5 May 1954 by Michael Ventris at the Gothenburg College of Higher Education-later Gothenburg University- open lectures. Titled: The Archives in Greek from the Homeric Age of Heroes. The decipherment of the Mycenaean clay tablets from Knossos. (The lecture is held in English). Wednesday 5 May 1954 at 19.30 (precisely). Room 10. Slides. Free entrance. (ICS Box 3 MV 054 extract 3). Courtesy of the Institute of Classical Studies, London.

55 Hedlund 2003, 12, cf. Fig. 6. 28 April in Stockholms-Tidningen, “31-åriga språkgeniet hedersdoktor i Uppsala på 3000-åriga fårlistor” (31-year old Linguistic Genius honorary doctor at Uppsala on 3000- year Sheep Lists) (ICS MV 075.31). The open lecture held by Ventris in Gothenburg on 5 May is noted in an article in Göteborgsposten “Finns det inget annat så läser jag svenska” (If there nothing is else available then I read Swedish) (ICS Box 3 MV 075.33). 1955: “Sagokungen Minos var grek, okända bildspråket grekiska” (Legendary King Minos was Greek, the unknown picture-writing Greek (ICS Box 3 MV 075.44). Michael Ventris and Mycenaean Studies in Sweden and Denmark 803

“Since way back before his impending honorary doctorate at Uppsala University, Ventris the most collegial and least greedy of scientific treasure hunters, had among his stencilled work notes, sent out the crucial code, i.e. a table of the more talked about squiggles each compiled with its own Greek syllable”.56 Michael Ventris in Denmark Michael Ventris visited Copenhagen four times in his brief life. The first three times were to explore Danish modern architecture. The fourth and last time was in 1954 to attend the Second International Congress on Classical Studies. Shortly after WWII, in late 1945 and the first half of 1946, Ventris was stationed in Plön in Schleswig-Holstein with the British army.57 From the letters, it is not entirely clear what his assignment consisted of, since he is keener on writing to his wife about the architectural projects he conducts on the side, as well as about tennis matches, weather reports and friendships with other British military staff members. Letters to his wife and his typed diary notes of the years in Germany record that he is living the dull routines of military life in an all- male environment, learning about mechanics, exercising and reading, and that he is generally tired of the service life and slightly depressed.58 It seems that he undertook various administrative tasks for the British military. In a letter to his wife he states that his current office duties “consist largely in typing into shape the write-ups on the local university professors that I have been doing.”59 This suggests his involvement in denazification measures. There are also some hints to this work on Germans and their involvement in the Nazi regime in Ventris’s

56 Gudmund Björck in Svenska Dagbladet, “En saga om en saga” (A Tale of a Tale) (ICS Box 3 MV 075.32). Freely translated into English by the present authors. 57 Ventris wrote several letters to Lois, either hand-written or typed, and he also transformed the letter texts into typed diaries of his German and Danish life, usually dated a few days later. Ventris’s stay in the Control Commission in Plön is described in Robinson 2002, 47. For the British military government of Schleswig-Holstein under lieutenant General Sir Evelyn Barker, see Jürgensen 1998, 23-37. 58 Typed diary (ICS Box 1 MV 016, extract 01), Thursday 14 September 1945: “And such a bloody long wait ahead of all of us before we ever get back to civilian life.” Letter from MV to Lois, 28 January 1946 (Box 1). The letters also show that his interest in languages is intact: “I spend a certain amount of time learning various languages, with at present a bias towards Spanish”. He hopes soon to be released from his “present state of mental tongue-tiedness.” Ventris scorns himself and writes that he should read less and think more, listen less and speak more, laugh less and amuse more. “But my general frame of mind is pretty cloddish, and I spend more thought on how to do things than on doing them.” The letter contains quite a number of spelling and writing mistakes and seems to reflect his state of mind, being very tired of military service and longing to return home and resume civil life. 59 Ventris Archives ICS, Box 1, letter from MV dated Friday 7 June 1946. According to historian Karl- Christian Lammers, this was probably the professors at Kiel University where the Nazi movement had been particularly strong especially among professors of archaeology and law. On Kiel university during WWII, see Cornelissen & Mish 2009. 804 Hedvig Landenius Enegren and Marie-Louise Nosch typed diary of the period.60 Ventris had the occasion to travel briefly to Copenhagen in September 1945.61 He was in Copenhagen to escort an exchange of prisoners between Denmark and the British occupied zones of Germany. He describes Copenhagen airport (“a beautiful airport building”) and that he was “feeling quite intoxicated to be in a peacetime capital as it seems, and such a contrast to Germany. There’s only about 2 buildings damaged.” Ventris also describes the people of Copenhagen: “everyone looks contented and bourgeois – the men well built, plain but pleasant, the girls shockingly pretty.”62 He spent his days walking around, taking notes, photographing63 and looking for interesting modernist architecture. After spending years in destroyed and starving cities, he was clearly impressed with the rather untouched Scandinavia: “The city is very open and clean, and the suburbs are about the best I have seen: dotted around with modern housing layouts, and very well landscaped. But the building as a whole whether modern or not, has a fine charm and finesse about it, and splendid in detail. You hardly see poor lettering and there are some shop fronts that are really smashing.”64 The Guide to Modern Architecture of Western Europe – Copenhagen, Stockholm and London It seems that it was during this first brief trip to Copenhagen that Ventris conceived the idea of publishing a guidebook to modern architecture: “If you produced a Penguin Guide to the modern architecture in K[øbenhavn], you’d run into volumes. In fact now I come to think of it, I’ve never seen modern architecture before, in the sense of being a vernacular and not just an occasional freak.”65

60 ICS Box 1 MV 016, extract 01, Wednesday 5 September 1945: “the office work is getting quite busy: the number of Gestapo and SS seems to mount every day, and keeping tabs on what’s become of all of them is like emptying the sea with a sieve.” 61 ICS Box 1 MV 016 extract 01, typed diary dated 1 October 1945. His first visit to Copenhagen was 26- 30 September 1945. We owe this information to Dr. Olga Krzyszkowska, Institute of Classical Studies who found the documentation for Michael Ventris’s first visit to Copenhagen while preparing for our own visit to London on 13-14 April 2016. 62 ICS Archive box 1, MV 018: letter dated Friday evening 28 September 1945, from MV to Lois. Much of the content of this letter is repeated in his typed diary (MV 016, extract 01), dated 1 October. 63 A chart of his photographs dated 28.0.45 is preserved in ICS Box 1 MV 018, extract 02. It includes photographs of buildings in inner Copenhagen (Astoria Hotel), university buildings (Tandlægehøjskolen, Anatomisk Institut), Kastrup airport building, and private houses and flats in Ordrupvej. 64 ICS Box 1 MV 016 extract 01, typed diary dated 1October 1945. 65 ICS Archive Box 1 MV 018: letter dated Friday evening, 28 September 1945, from MV to Lois. Michael Ventris and Mycenaean Studies in Sweden and Denmark 805

In June 1946, Ventris and his wife met in Copenhagen and Stockholm for a vacation.66 Michael and Lois shared a keen interest in modernist architecture, and the technical notes from their visit to Stockholm are labelled “M & L V” (Michael and Lois Ventris), and “Stockholm Personalities and Organisations, 3 July 1946”. The notes are well organised charts of people, addresses, buildings and maps worth seeing in Stockholm and Denmark.67 During this time, he began to compile data on buildings in Stockholm for a Guide to Modern Architecture in Western Europe 1900 – 1950, Stockholm.68 He continued to do the same for Copenhagen and London.69 Buildings of architectural interest with respect to the modern movement are all listed. On a Stockholm map ‘in progress’ dated 15 July 1947, he even includes the social differences pertaining to various residential areas. Thus, the suburbs Nockeby and Djursholm are highlighted as having ‘Villas of the well-to-do’.70 Furthermore, he lists present use or property owner, gives the address and in a column titled How to get there from City Centre, the public transport possibilities with, even in some cases, the walking distance provided in meters! He also provides the architect’s name and the construction date of the buildings, as well as the external materials and structural systems used. In the final column, Notes, he states any additional comments. In the map key, for the buildings marked with a star, he offers upon request to provide more information and gives his home address in High Point, London. The guide incorporates folding instructions after use and even has an explanatory drawing to accompany them.71 Again, one is struck by the meticulous attention to detail which is the hallmark of Ventris’s persona. There is not, for instance, a single Swedish or Danish misspelling. The Swedish National Society of Swedish Architects in 1950 expressed interest in the Guide suggesting a collaboration with Ventris and queried as to the terms involved and if a reduction in price were possible.72

66 ICS Box 1: Telegrams from MV confirming the travel plans. Letter from MV of 7 June 1946, confirming the forthcoming visit. 67 ICS Box 1 MV 019. 68 AA Archives Ventris 2007 P:27. The map is dated 1 July 1950. 69 ICS Box 2 MV 035 extract 03; A letter from the Curator of the Museum of Modern Art, Philip Johnson and one from architect Philip Goodwin in New York on 1 May and 24 April respectively, 1950 (ICS Box 2 MV 037 extract 01; and MV 037 extract 04) show that he may have had in mind collaboration on something similar for Modern American architectural landmarks. 70 AA Archives 2007:P27. On this map is written “Situation as at 15 July 1947 First edition 23.7. Michael Ventris Oliver Cox Graeme Shankland”. A lecture on Ventris given by O. Cox at the AA on 30 October 1997, available on the AA website (http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/VIDEO/lecture.php?ID=2515) and on Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnqRHkzrH60), also mentions Ventris’s invention of what V. called a ‘perspektor’ as a well as a ‘dangelometer’ facilitating measuring in architectural drawing. 71 Fold back along centre and into 12” by 0” pleats, with title uppermost. (Archive Ventris Box 2007 P:27). 72 Letter to Ventris 4 October 1950 (ICS Box 2 MV 037 extract 07), see Fig. 7. We do not have his 806 Hedvig Landenius Enegren and Marie-Louise Nosch

Fig. 7. Letter to Ventris from the National Society of Swedish Architects (4 October 1950 expressing interest in the “Guide” and suggesting a collaboration with Ventris with queries as to the terms involved and if a reduction in price is possible. (ICS Box 2 MV 037.7). With permission from the Institute of Classical Studies, London.

In the early summer of 1947, he once again spent a few days in Copenhagen, this time on his way to Sweden together with his architect colleagues Oliver Cox and Graeme Shankland. During his stay in Copenhagen, he contacted the Danish Association of Architects and arranged for an extended visit later in the summer. He sent a few photos of some Copenhagen buildings in the city centre home to Lois in England. It seems that he later returned with Lois and their son for a vacation and study tour of more sites and buildings in Copenhagen.73 From his full notebooks and drawings, it appears that he visited a significant number of buildings.

response. 73 Letter, 4 June 1947 from MV to L (ICS Box 2 MV 023) (letter written in the train at night from Malmö and Stockholm): “The Dansk Arkitektforening were extremely helpful [secretary Ole Mogens LARSEN] and promised to fix us up a tour on the way back: also gave us and lent us good literature, especially a guide to all the modern buildings in Copenhagen”. Michael Ventris and Mycenaean Studies in Sweden and Denmark 807

The Copenhagen notes reveal that Ventris and Lois visited and photographed sites of renowned architects along Strandvejen, but also more modest apartment buildings such as Damsøhusene in Vanløse. In July 1949 Ventris annotated a large map of Copenhagen,74 with a very precise legend of major modernist monuments and houses in the area. The note in the left lower corner says in the typical spirit of collaboration: “The square grid corresponds to that on the map published by the Geodætisk Institut. Tram routes in thin line. Corrections & additions welcomed – Michael Ventris, 47 Highpoint, North Hill, Highgate, London N6, England. First edition: 16 July 1949.” As on the Stockholm map, the map for Copenhagen provides systematically listed monuments, their address, the grid number, the name of the architect and the year of construction, all in Ventris’s fine hand-writing. In a few places there are additions in another hand, perhaps from the correspondence with Danish architects. In the right hand column are check marks, probably for the places Ventris had visited. Concerning the Danish side of the Guide project, Ventris wrote on 10 June 1950 to architect Dan Fink who had expressed his willingness to cooperate on the Guide to Modern architecture in Europe. Ventris enclosed a copy of his Copenhagen map.75 In this letter, Ventris also informed Fink that he had access to the Danish journals of architecture, ARKITEKTEN uge- & månedshæfter. Concerning the London map, the architect office of C.S. Mardal, London, however, replied that the London list of buildings was far too long, suggesting that “it might be worthwhile to be far more ruthless and to shorten the list considerably”.76 The director of the Festival of Britain in 1951 wrote to Ventris on 11 January 1951 concerning the long list of London monuments, adding a few corrections, and pinpointing the dilemma: “If you are listing Modern architecture as history, then presumably the Tecton house at Bognor and Connell. Ward & Lucas’s villas at Amersham should be included. If you are listing Modern Architecture as good design, then under no circumstances, I should have thought, can such structure be included. Not only are they ugly, but some of them have since been mutilated by later additions. I see, however, no solution to your problem.”

74 The Copenhagen map is preserved in the Ventris Archives (ICS Box 2 MV 035, 3), along with a type- scripted long list of monuments for the London map (ICS Box 2 MV 036). 75 ICS Box 2, MV037. 76 Letter dated 29 December 1950, ICS Box 2, MV 037. 808 Hedvig Landenius Enegren and Marie-Louise Nosch

Fig. 8. Map of London (ICS Box 2 MV039, 1-4): Guide to Modern Architecture 1927-51 – LONDON Drawing by MV and colleagues. With permission from the Institute of Classical Studies, London.

The maps belong as mentioned to an ambitious idea Ventris had in 1949- 1950 to compile a Guide to Modern Architecture in Western Europe 1900–1950, especially with precise maps of Copenhagen, London and Stockholm.77 It is not entirely clear why Ventris abandoned the Guide project in 1950. Perhaps it had become too large a project to work on his own since Lois and his colleagues had lost interest in it. Perhaps he was discouraged by the sceptical responses of colleagues around the world. Perhaps his amateur project had been surpassed by larger institutional initiatives, such as the London-based 1950 Exhibition of Danish Architecture Today.78 Perhaps the Linear B studies had captured his

77 ICS Box 2, MV 037, see Fig.8 & 9. 78 In Ventris’s private archive we found the 1950 catalogue of the Exhibition of Danish Architecture Today, including significant monuments building, educational public buildings such as schools and Aarhus University, apartment buildings and communal housing (Bellahøj, Bispeparken, semi-detached houses in Husum, private villas, religious buildings (Mariebjerg crematorium in Gentofte and Adventkirken) Aarhus Town Hall and the broadcasting building in Copenhagen). Exhibition of Danish Architecture Today. Exhibition at the Royal Institute of British Architects, London 1950. This publication was Michael Ventris and Mycenaean Studies in Sweden and Denmark 809

Fig. 9. Map of Copenhagen (ICS Box 2 MV035, 3): Guide to Modern Architecture in Western Europe 1900-1950 – COPENHAGEN. With permission from the Institute of Classical Studies, London. interest anew, since we know that it was in 1950 that he circulated the Mid- Century report to his Mycenological colleagues. His methods were similar for architecture and Linear B: gather data from all involved experts, form a joint project and present data in a systematic and comprehensive manner. In the Michael Ventris Archives in the Institute of Classical Studies, London, some of Ventris’s private books are still kept, among them the tools for learning Danish and Swedish. Michael Ventris owned a Danish Reader where on the cover pages he wrote Michael Ventris ’45. Thus it is possible that he

actually the result of a collaboration between the Akademisk arkitektforening (The Association of Danish Architects qualified from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts) and the Royal Institute of British Architects, and was subsidized by the Danish Ministry of Labour and Housing. 810 Hedvig Landenius Enegren and Marie-Louise Nosch purchased it while stationed in Plön, Schleswig Holstein, or when travelling for a short trip to Copenhagen in the summer of 1945.79 He also owned an English- Swedish Dictionary, in which he wrote: Michael Ventris, Stockholm June 1946. This book was thus probably bought while visiting Stockholm with Lois in the summer of 1946.80 The preparations for the 2nd International Congress of Classical Studies in Copenhagen The Fédération internationale d’études classiques was founded after World War II and aimed at gathering all classicists in all countries with a classical tradition, including those from across the Iron Curtain. The correspondence and documentation related to the 2nd International Congress of Classical Studies in Copenhagen also clearly reflects the political situation of the 1950s.81 A strong ambition of the organisers was to convene scholars from Eastern Europe, and letters of invitation were sent to the academies of sciences in Moscow, Prague, and Warsaw. Much effort was put into inviting Russian colleagues, but with only limited success.82 In a summary of a preparatory meeting 9 November 1953 held with the Scandinavian members of the organising committee, it is noted that invitations extended to colleagues in Eastern Europe must be conducted with utmost caution.83 That the matter was indeed delicate is apparent from another concerned letter addressed by Carsten Høeg to the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, asking for assistance concerning the invitation of scholars from the Soviet Union.84 German colleagues from the Soviet sector, Johannes Irmscher and Ernst Hohl from Berlin and Friedrich Zucker from Jena needed a special letter of invitation and entry permit granted by the Danish immigration authorities sent to the Danish Military Mission in West Berlin.85 A fourth Berlin colleague, Franz Dornseiff, was granted entry permission to Denmark in mid-August 1954.86 The 2nd International Congress of Classical Studies was named the Madvig Congressus, to mark the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the

79 Stegman 1938. 80 Wenström & Nöjd 1941. 81 Høeg, correspondance with ICCS, 1954 and 1955. Kapsel 4. All letters mentioned below from or to Høeg come from this deposit of Høeg’s correspondence, now kept in the Royal Library, Copenhagen. 82 Two Russian scholars were invited, but cancelled in the last moment. Høeg corresponded during the summer of 1954 with the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and with the legation in Moscow (letter from Moscow, 14 June 1954), in order to put pressure on the Soviet authorities to issue travel permits. 83 “M.h.t indbydelse af enkeltpersoner ø. for jerntæppet udvises største forsigtighed.” 84 Letter dated 29 May 1954. 85 Letter from Hohl to Høeg dated 19 July 1954. 86 Letter from the Danish police to Høeg, stating that the permission was granted by the Danish Ministry of Justice and communicated by phone to the Danish military delegation in Berlin. The letters also require Høeg to pay the costs of 15 DKK for the phone calls! Michael Ventris and Mycenaean Studies in Sweden and Denmark 811

Danish philologist, Johan Nicolai Madvig (1804-1886).87 The 3 convenors were Carsten Høeg (1896-1961), professor of classical philology at the University of Copenhagen, Per Krarup (1906-1977), philologist, headmaster of the Østre Borgerdyd high school and director of the Danish Academy in Rome, and Poul Jørgen Riis (1910-2008), professor of archaeology at Aarhus University. In addition, there were some other Danish and foreign members of the organising committee: Giacomo Devoto (Firenze), Franz Blatt (Aarhus), Knud Friis Johansen, Poul Johannes Jensen and Vagn Poulsen (Copenhagen), Thomas Bertram Lonsdale Webster (London), Kurt Latte (Göttingen), Hans Peter L’Orange (Oslo), Harald Hagendahl (Gothenburg), and André-Jean Festugière (Paris). Moreover, the section on linguistics was planned in cooperation with Danish professor Louis Hjelmslev and the Cercle linguistique de Copenhague. The three Danish organisers were extremely ambitious and convened a multitude of scholars with a scientific scope that went well beyond classical studies. They wished to also include studies on how the classical tradition had determined thinking in 20th century western societies. In particular they attempted to invite the most renowned philosophers of the 1950s, Bertrand Russell, Karl Popper,88 Jean Paul Sartre, and Charles L. Stevenson, as well as internationally renowned scholars and honoratiores such as the theologian, physician and philosopher Albert Schweitzer, psychologist Jean Piaget, physicist and social science scholar Michael Polanyi,89 the philosopher and statesman and Vice-President of India, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan,90 Winston Churchill,91 the composer Stravinsky,92 and, with the support of the Ny Carlsberg Foundation, also the artist Picasso93; regrettably they all politely declined. The Danish King

87 Letter from Høeg to Franz Blatt in Aarhus dated 25 September 1951. 88 Letter from Popper to Høeg, dated May 21 1954. In a note below his polite refusal due to illness, Popper states: “On this point I agree almost entirely with Gilbert Murray (see e.g. his ‘Hellenism and the Modern world’), although there are a few points on which I should have liked to say something – on the rise of rationalism in Greece, and the way it makes a history of ideas possible. A remark in your letter indicated that, perhaps in view of my reputation as a critic of Plato, I am believed to be an anti-Hellenist. The precise opposite is the case. I believe that we owe everything to the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. And although I dared, in the spirit of rationalism, to disagree with Plato, I know of course that no other philosopher deserved to be compared with him.” 89 Suggested by Webster in letter to Høeg, 1 October 1953. 90 Letter dated 5 May 1945, from S. Radhakrishnan, “but at the moment I am busy with so many other things”. 91 Letter 27 May 1952 from Høeg to Churchill. Churchill had previously been awarded the honorary doctorate of the University of Copenhagen. Churchill answers and declined in a letter of 9 June 1952 (“Alas, I fear that the pressure of my commitments prevents me from doing as you ask in your letter, since I could not give to this task the time which it deserves. I am so sorry.”) 92 Summary of meeting 9 November 1953, of Scandinavian members of the organising committee: “Afbud fra Stravinsky og Picasso.” Letter from Høeg to Stravinsky, dated 26 June 1953. 93 Draft of letter from Høeg to Picasso, dated 26 May 1953, in which Høeg explains that a session is dedicated to portraits in classical art. “Personne sera plus qualifié que vous de parler de cette question. 812 Hedvig Landenius Enegren and Marie-Louise Nosch and ministers, too, were announced in the official programme as taking part in the congress dinner.94 Moreover, Høeg was an eminent expert in ancient music, and this may explain the special musical event of the conference. The Danish composer Herman D. Koppel was commissioned to compose a piece of music based on a passage from Seneca (De brevitate vitae). The piece was performed at the festive dinner in the University banquet hall by an orchestra, a soloist and the Copenhagen Boys Choir.95 Introducing Linear B to the international classicist community in Copenhagen It may have been Pierre Chantraine who first suggested inviting Ventris to Copenhagen. On a postcard to Høeg dated 19 November 1953 Chantraine wrote: “Ne serait-il pas bon au Congres de Copenhague de demander dans une séance hors programme à un des savants intéressés à la tentative de déchiffrement des tablettes de Pylos et autres lieux de donner le dernier état de la question ? simple question que je vous pose.” The original plan was to invite both Ventris and Chadwick. On 1 July 1953, Krarup wrote to Høeg giving him the names and addresses of both Ventris and Chadwick, and referring to them as the specialists in Cretan Mycenaean inscriptions. Professor T.B.L Webster (University College London), who was a member of the organising committee, wrote to Høeg in October 1953, with the following caveat: “I think I had better report to you a view which I heard from Oxford that Ventris is a very much better performer than Chadwick. Ventris is extremely modest and makes no excessive claims for his remarkable discovery, but Chadwick incensed them by claiming that everything was now solved. I have not heard Chadwick but I have talked to Ventris and took a very good view of him indeed.”96

Je ne pense pas en première ligne, évidemment, à votre portrait de Staline, dont pourtant le caractère presque symbolique et byzantin, est un fait extrêmement important et frappant, mais je pense avant tout à votre position centrale dans ce développement moderne qui a amené ce qu’on peut appeler la crise du portrait”. Høeg refers here to Picasso’s 1953 drawing representing Stalin who had recently died. 94 Unidentified letter to the vice-chancellor of the University of Copenhagen, 23 November 1953, and draft of Second Circular to congress participants dated 25/11 53. The Second Circular was sent out in 3450 copies. Summary of the meeting of the Scandinavian members of the organising committee, 9 November 1953. 95 Letters from Koppel to Høeg (dated 7 March 1954) and Høeg to Koppel (dated 4 March 1954). The working title of the piece was Århundredernes Sus, but Koppel did not like it and changed it to Immortalitas Mortalium (op. 58). 96 Letter from Webster to Høeg (1 October 1953). This piece of information from Oxford may come from Leonard Palmer, and may stem from a discord between Palmer and Chadwick but this is purely Michael Ventris and Mycenaean Studies in Sweden and Denmark 813

Moreover, several Swedish colleagues were highly involved in the recent decipherment and acted quickly, by bestowing a honorary doctorate to Ventris in 1953 (see above), and especially Arne Furumark was active in this process as an ardent communicator of the decipherment in Swedish and Danish newspapers. Thus, the Danish congress organisers were at an early stage well informed of Ventris’ work, especially from their Swedish colleagues.97 Høeg wrote to Ventris inviting him to the Copenhagen Congress,98 and Ventris replied, first in English (Fig. 10),99 and in the following letter in almost

speculation. Webster also mentions Szemerenyi, at the time in exile in London, and suggests inviting him mentioning his excitement about Ventris’s discovery. 97 Riis wrote to Høeg 4 August 1953: “Jeg læste i går Furumarks artikel om de nye forsøg på tydning af den ægæiske skrift (i Information). Var det den Michael Ventris Du tænkte på som foredragsholder?” (Yesterday I read Furumark’s papers on the new attempts to decipher the Aegean script (in the newspaper Information). Was this the Michael Ventris you suggested as a speaker?). Krarup wrote to Høeg 16 August 1953, and reported that the Swedish colleagues, headed by Furumark, were very interested in the news about the decipherment: “Furumark holdt foredrag om det deroppe, og hvis tydningen af indskrifterne eller tavlerne fra Kreta og Pylos er så sikker som han synes at mene, er det jo virkelig også en sensation, som man ikke godt kan lade være at placere i første række på kongressen.” (Furumark gave a lecture about it up there, and if the decipherment of the inscriptions or tablets from Crete and Pylos is as certain as he seems to believe, then it is indeed a sensation that one should not avoid giving priority to at the congress). 98 Letter from Høeg dated 27 November 1953: “Dear Mr. Ventris, Next year in August the second Intern. Congress for Classical Studies will take place in Copenhagen. As you will see from the enclosed First Circular Letter this Congress is arranged in the English fashion, that is to say that the Preparatory Committee asks some scholars to speak on certain subjects which at the present time offer a special interest. In our provisional programme we have provided for one whole afternoon session for a discussion of the new aspects of the problems concerning the languages in prehistoric Greece, namely Thursday the 26. of August. It will, of course, be of special interest if you would be kind enough to come here and speak to us on your sensational discovery. We would like, of course, very much to see Mr. Chadwick among us too, but our main task is to have the general discussion introduced by scholars who are likely to represent various points of view and ways of approach. Therefore, we have decided to ask Prof. Sittig, Germany, and Prof. Ignatius Gelb, U.S.A. (as a specialist of the deciphering of oriental syllabic and ideogrammatic scripts) to speak after you. We hope intensely that you will be able to come, both personally, and because so many colleagues have said or written to me that we must make sure to have the opportunity of a full and many-sided discussion of the ‘Ventris-business’! And I will be very happy if you would give me your reply in a very near future. May I add, that we dispose of funds which will make it possible for us to cover your travel expenses. Yours sincerely, Høeg.” 99 Letter from Ventris to Høeg dated 16 December 1953: “Dear Professor Høeg, Thank you very much for your letter, & for your invitation to next August’s congress. I am sorry I have been slow in answering, but I am just in the process of planning my next summer’s movements. I have spoken to Chadwick about your suggestion of an afternoon devoted to a discussion of the Mycenaean language problem, & he is, of course, as keen as I am. Chadwick would like to come to Copenhagen himself, & would if necessary be glad to contribute a paper on the technical aspects of the language problems as appears from the Mycenaean tablets. The trouble is that we are both doing a certain amount of travelling during the year, & have to watch our rate of spending. You kindly mentioned the possibility of the Congress paying for travelling expenses: would it go as far as to both Chadwick’s & my journey together? Or – if funds would only run to one – would you like Chadwick to represent us both (he is an equal partner in the work)? Excuse me putting these preliminary questions, but it will help us make our definite plans. In any case, you can count on our support. Yours sincerely, Michael Ventris”. 814 Hedvig Landenius Enegren and Marie-Louise Nosch

Fig. 10. Letter from Ventris to Høeg dated 16 December 1953 perfect Danish.100 Although the invitation was also extended to Chadwick, Ventris was clearly the favourite speaker, and Høeg informed Ventris that

100 “19 North End, LONDON NW3 den 19.1.54 Hr. Professor Carsten Høeg. Mange tak for Deres venlige brev. Lad os altså sige, at jeg kommer til København i alle fald; og hvis Chadwick vil følge med, vi kan klare det senere på den måde De foreslåer. Jeg skriver igen om et par måneder. Jeg vedlaegger en lille artikel i ANTIQUITY; også en tegning af en ny tavle fra Pylos (1952), som vi skulle have behandlet der, men har ikke fået lov fra Prof. Blegen i tid. Får vi måske tilfaelde at anvende lysbilleder ved kongress-sessioner ? Det kan nemlig blive ganske vanskeligt at diskutera skrifterne uden illustrationer. Deres hengivne, Michael Ventris” (Dear Professor Carsten Høeg, many thanks for your kind letter. Let’s agree that I will in any case come to Copenhagen; and if Chadwick will come along, we can deal with it later in the way you suggest. I will write to you again in a few months. I attach here a brief paper from ANTIQUITY; also a drawing of a new tablet from Pylos (1952), which we should have dealt with there but did not receive the permission from Prof. Blegen in time. May we eventually use slides in the congress sessions? It may become rather difficult to discuss the scripts without slides. Yours sincerely, Michael Ventris). Michael Ventris and Mycenaean Studies in Sweden and Denmark 815

Fig. 11. Letter from Ventris to Høeg dated 4th August 1954, from Chios. Royal Library, Denmark they can only include Ventris’s name in the programme, not Chadwick’s,101 and they can only pay for Ventris, not for Chadwick.102 Ventris answers from Chios, where he was participating in an archaeological project, and informed the congress organisers that Chadwick could not attend the Copenhagen congress, “much though he would have liked to” (Fig. 11).103

101 Letter from Høeg to Ventris, 18 January 1954. “Dear Mr. Ventris, Thank you very much for your kind letter of Dec.16. I am very happy that you will introduce our Mycenean afternoon and I would very much appreciate, too, if Mr. Chadwick would come and take part in the discussion. But for reasons of ‘geographical distribution’ and similar points of view, to which our sponsor Unesco clings, and for good reasons, we are bound to inscribe only your name together with the names of Sittig and Gelb, and we cannot include Mr. Chadwick’s name in our printed programme. And this leads me to the second question: Unfortunately, we are not able to pay both Chadwick and you, but I think we can afford to pay you rather liberally, and that, if you wish, you can share the money and the surplus would not be frightfully big. Yours sincerely.” See also Robinson 2002, 137. 102 “ 16.7.54 Dear Dr. Ventris, First of all my sincere congratulation to your well-deserved doctorate! Then a more practical question, we have not received from you your form concerning the accommodation. I ask you to return the enclosed form as soon as possible. When you come to Copenhagen you will receive a sum which will cover your travelling expenses and a per diem for 7 days (presumably about 120 dollars in all). In your last letter you wrote that Chadwick possibly would come with you. In my reply to you I told you that we are not able to pay for you both, but you are quite free to dispose of the money which we give to you in such a way that Mr. Chadwick’s travel-expenses too can be partly paid. We very much wish Mr. Chadwick to come here, and I would be very grateful if you would let me know as soon as possible whether he is coming or not. For the case of his participation I send you an extra set of forms which Mr. Chadwick should fill in. Kind regards, yours sincerely.” 103 “British School of Archaeology, Excavations at Emporio, CHIOS. 816 Hedvig Landenius Enegren and Marie-Louise Nosch

The organisers nevertheless agreed that Ventris’ decipherment presentation should not stand alone; also opponents or scholars with a different method should have a voice,104 such as Ernst Sittig.105 It seems, though, that Høeg was already quite convinced of Ventris’s method.106 Ignatius Gelb was the Chicago expert on ancient syllabic scripts who also attended the congress. The Copenhagen Triumph, August 1954 In 1954 Michael Ventris returned to Copenhagen, this time invited to present the decipherment at the 2nd International Congress of Classical Studies. Danish newspapers reported in late August, 1954, on the upcoming congress and Ventris’ talk which was announced as the sensation of the entire congress already before the start of the event.107 Ventris was called “an Aladdin figure

4th August 54 Dear Professor Høeg, Thank you for your letter, which has taken some time to get forwarded on to me here. I enclose a form concerning accommodation – I was certain I had sent you all the forms at the beginning of April, & I am sorry if something went astray. I’m afraid that John Chadwick will be unable to come to Copenhagen in August, much though he would have liked to. I have had a very pleasant summer here, acting as surveyor to the expedition. I shall be leaving for Athens (en route for Denmark) next week. I look forward to the Congress & to the opportunity of meeting you. Yours sincerely Michael Ventris”. Ventris worked as architect on Sinclair Hood’s excavation in Emborio, Chios. See Robinson 2002, 134- 136, with Ventris’s drawing of the site. 104 Devoto wrote to Høeg 10.16.53: “Mes observations se bornent à : 1. Souligner l’importance de la discussion VENTRIS. Il est indispensable que soient présents ces trois spécialistes : SITTIG, TOVAR, et un de ces trois italiens, dans l’ordre PUGLIESE-CARRATELLI (PISA), ou MERIGGI (PAVIA) ou GUARDUCCI (ROMA).” 105 Letter from Sittig to Høeg dated 31 December 1953: “Sehr verehrter Kollege, Zunächst bitte ich Sie vielmals um Verzeihung wegen meines langen Schweigens; es war bedingt durch die ärztliche Behandlung meiner in Russland-Nord erworbenen Kriegsbeschädigung (…)”. 106 On 29 April 1954, Høeg wrote sarcastically to Lombard: “med hensyn til Ventris, kan jeg meddele Dem at både han selv og hans medarbejder Chadwick (tillige med Ernst Sittig og Ignatius Gelb) vil komme til stede og tale på kongressen; måske også bulgaren Georgiev, der naturligvis har fundet den helt rigtige løsning længe før Ventris!” (Concerning Ventris, I can inform you that both he and his colleague Chadwick (along with Ernst Sittig and Ignatius Gelb) will attend the congress and give a talk; perhaps also the Bulgarian Georgiev, who presumably has already found the right solution long before Ventris!”). 107 Social-Demokraten, 21. Aug. 1954: “For kongresdeltagerne vil det blive en stor oplevelse at mødes med den unge engelske forsker (nu svensk æresdoktor) Mr. M. Ventris, der vil holde en halv times foredrag om sin tydning af den gamle kretiske eller minoiske skrift, som indtil for et par år siden var en lukket verden. Dr. Ventris er egentlig ikke sprogforsker, og han har engang sagt, at han løste denne gordiske skriftgåde af mere » sportsmæssige « grunde – ganske som man løser en kryds og tværs-opgave. Men hans arbejde har været betydeligt vanskeligere og betragtes som en bedrift, en nøgle til 1000 års ukendt kulturhistorie i Middelhavet. Overraskende nok viste det sig, at det sprog Ventris tydede var en art » forhistorisk « græsk sprog.” (For the congress attendees, it will be a great experience to meet this young English scholar (now Swedish honorary doctor) Mr. M Ventris who will give half an hour’s lecture on Michael Ventris and Mycenaean Studies in Sweden and Denmark 817 in modern science of the humanities”.108 Also correspondents from British newspapers reported from the Madvig Congress: “The place of honour, however, has been accorded to Mr Michael Ventris’s decipherment of the “Minoan” Linear B script, which has prolonged the history of the Greek language for five hundred years and brought the household accounts of King Nestor into our ken. This is the only discovery, which has been accorded the whole of one afternoon. Mr Ventris himself will be addressing a foreign audience on this subject for the first time although, of course, the discovery is already well known and generally, if not quite universally, accepted. The discussion will be opened by one of the leading authorities in the history of writing, Professor Gelb, of Chicago. His own recent attempts to elucidate the relations between the different forms of writing invented in the lands bordering on the East Mediterranean during the second millennium B.C. will be of particular interest.”109 According to the conference archives, Ventris stayed in Copenhagen 23-30 August in student housing, “4 Maj Kollegiet” in Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, along with Webster (and wife), Hagendahl, L’Orange, and Sittig from Tübingen. Jacqueline de Romilly and husband stayed privately with the Høeg family and so did Kurt Latte and his wife. Danish reporters were fascinated by Ventris’s talk, by the impressive international congress taking place in their capital, and by the fact that it was

his decipherment of the Cretan or Minoan script which until a few years ago was completely unknown. Dr Ventris is actually not a linguist, and he once said that he solved this Gordian script knot from a kind of ‘sporty’ motivation, just like one would solve a cross-word puzzle. His task has been considerably more difficult and is considered an accomplishment, a key to 1000 years’ unknown cultural history in the Mediterranean. Surprisingly, it appeared that the language Ventris deciphered was a kind of ‘prehistoric’ Greek language). 108 ICS Box 3 MV 075.36, Danish newspaper Politiken, dated in pencil margin 21.8.54. Title: “Arkitekt løser ældgammel gaade”. Text begins: “Tyder lertavlerne fra kong Minos’ palads og chokerer verdens filologer – taler i næste uge paa Københavns Universitet. En Aladdin-skikkelse i moderen humanistisk videnskab kommer til København i næste uge. Det er en kun 31-årig engelsk arkitekt Michael Ventris, som i de sidste par aar først har chokeret al verdens arkæologer og filologer og dernæst har aftvunget dem deres dybeste beundring. Han har ved en metode, ingen andre har drømt om, løst et mystisk ældgammel sprogs gaade, og det medfører intet mindre end en revision af den tidligste græske historie.” “Deciphers clay tablets from King Minos’ palace and shocks philologists worldwide – speaks next week at the University of Copenhagen. An Aladdin-figure in modern humanities comes to Copenhagen next week. It is the only 31-year- old English architect Michael Ventris, who in the past years has shocked all the archaeologists and philologists of the world and then gained their profound respect. By using a method that nobody else had even dreamt of, he has solved the riddle of a mysterious age-old language, leading to nothing less than a revision of the earliest Greek history.) 109 The Manchester Guardian, 23 August 1954. 818 Hedvig Landenius Enegren and Marie-Louise Nosch allowed to speak Modern Greek in the congress sessions.110 The introduction of Greek as one of the official conference language may be due to the congress president Carsten Høeg’s extensive field work in Greece among the Sarakatsani tribes.111 Ventris gave the paper “The Decipherment of the Mycenaean Script” on Friday 28 August 1954.112 Ventris delivered his talk in Copenhagen in a clear and modest manner. According to his hand written manuscript, he introduced his talk in the following way: “Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen. I am very honoured to be invited to open this afternoon’s discussion on “the Languages of Prehistoric Greece”, but I must confess at the outset that, as far my own researches go, I can only report evidence for one language, & that – one that we already know (if my colleagues and I are right in believing the Minoan Linear B script to contain GREEK.) I must apologize, too, if many of you have already seen enough, or too much, of the lantern slides which I shall be showing this afternoon. It would be more exciting to discuss together the new tablets which have been found in Greece during the last 2 years – some of which are very interesting – but we must first allow the excavators to finish mending and cleaning them and to give them an official publication. But it may all the same provide a useful background to this afternoon’s discussion if I take a little time in illustrating what appears to be the most promising approach to the decipherment of the Linear B tablets – and if I may once more, as it were, parade our best exhibits in front of the jury.” The lecture was followed by a moment of incredulous silence before the colleagues rose and gave him a standing ovation. This important stage of

110 Høeg correspondence with ICCS, 1954 and 1995. Draft of second circular, dated 25 November 1953. MV 075.36, unidentified Danish newspaper, dated in pencil margin 21.8.54. “Ventris taler paa Københavns universitet paa fredag, men kongressen, der jo bærer Madvigs navn, begynder allerede paa mandag. Det er saa vidt vides den første international kongres, som tillader sine deltagere at tale og diskutere på græsk. Og der findes ingen tolke”. MV 075.37: unidentified Danish newspaper with news in English (News Service for Foreign Visitors: Todays’s News), dated 23 August 1954: “The conference is unique in that those taking part are permitted to speak Greek. There will be no interpreters.” 111 Høeg 1922-1923; Høeg & Varming 1993. 112 On a personal note, during the research for this paper, librarian Erik Petersen of the Danish Royal Library informed us that his wife, a granddaughter of Høeg, was born on 28 August 1954, and the family anecdote goes that she was born during Ventris’ talk. Indeed, Chantraine writes in a letter dated 24 September 1954: “j’espère que la petite fille vous donne déjà beaucoup de joie. En tout cas, elle aura de quoi tenir pour être gentille.” Michael Ventris and Mycenaean Studies in Sweden and Denmark 819

Fig. 12. Ventris’s handwritten manuscript for his talk in Copenhagen. Royal Library, Denmark (with permission from the Institute of Classical Studies, London). 820 Hedvig Landenius Enegren and Marie-Louise Nosch the decipherment history was later coined the “Copenhagen Triumph” in a review in The Sunday Times of Chadwick’s The Decipherment of Linear B.113 This expression refers to a passage in Chadwick’s book in which he reports on Ventris’s lecture in Copenhagen, and that by showing a specific highly illustrative slide (the tripod tablet) “the whole of the large audience broke into applause before he had said a word.”114 However, the decipherment still continued to be debated, and in the same session the classical philologist Ernst Sittig gave a more sceptical account of Ventris’s decipherment.115 In Germany it would take decades before the decipherment was accepted especially by classical philologists and ancient historians.116 After the Copenhagen Congress 1954-1956 Ventris’s lecture was a huge success, and reported extensively in the press, during and after the congress. The proceedings from Copenhagen were prepared in the following years. Ventris, in his typical modest and academic style, handed in a manuscript of only 204 words after the congress: Summary 2nd International Congress of Classical Studies. 27th August 1954, 3.00 p.m. “The Languages of prehistoric Greece”. Michael Ventris. The lecturer apologized for the fact that Chadwick’s and his researches did not throw any new light on any Aegean languages other than the Greek which we already know. With the aid of lantern slides he proposed to discuss the history of research briefly over the last 50 years, and to explain the way in which the language of the Knossos and Pylos tablets had been determined to be Greek. He described further work which is being done in various countries in pursuance of this research, and illustrated two new tablets found by Blegen in 1952-3. One of these, No 641, with its ‘tripods’ and ‘four-handled’ goblets, has been accepted by many as having the conclusiveness

113 Article and review by the historian Hugh Trevor-Roper, The Sunday Times, 7 September 1958. 114 Chadwick 1958, 88. This was also reported in the Danish press, the article “Sproggåden der løstes af et ungt geni” (Language riddle solved by a young genius), in the newspaper Social-Demokraten 26 August 1954, last paragraph: Dr Ventris høstede selvfølgelig et stærkt og varmt bifald fra den højlærde forsamling – ingen var i tvivl om, at man her stod over for et forskergeni.” (Dr Ventris was naturally given a warm and loud applause from the erudite audience – no one was in doubt that they were faced with a research genius) 115 Sittig 1957-58. 116 Nosch 2006 a and 2006 b. Michael Ventris and Mycenaean Studies in Sweden and Denmark 821

of a bilingual. He referred to still outstanding problems, such as the decipherment of Linear A; the position of the Cypriot inscriptions found at Enkomi; and the relevance of the new linguistic evidence to the Homeric problem. He referred also to the discovery of new tablets at Pylos in the summer of 1954, and of 10 very interesting ones at Mycenae at the same time. The publication of these, and of the Pylos tablets of 1952-53, would provide material for study by a large number of classical scholars. In the discussion afterwards, I only think I made one point worth noting: It has been objected that the occasional Mycenaean disyllabic signs, and the occasional omission of letters from the spelling, are irregularities not to be expected in the system. We have, however, only postulated these where there is clear evidence in the texts, i.e. where common words occur represented with alternative spellings of different length. [Handwritten:] Michael Ventris - excuse delay! However, Høeg was not content and insisted diplomatically that Ventris send a longer account of the decipherment.117 Ventris answered him in December 1954 on a postcard from the Alps: 4 Jan. 55, Dear prof. Høeg, Thank you for your letter. I am sorry that the synopsis of the lecture was too short. It was not due to false modesty or laziness, but to a rooted objection to wasting valuable paper on repeating stuff which

117 [Høeg to Ventris] 28 of December 1954: “My dear dr. Ventris, My secretary, Mr. Magnussen, shows me to-day a summary you have sent him. My dear dr. Ventris: you cannot possibly think that the poor congressists when receiving the Proceedings of the Congress should be deprived of the pleasure of reviving the memory of your lecture. At the opening session and at the closing one it was expressly stated that we want to print all the lectures in our Proceedings, and at almost all the other sessions the presidents asked the speakers to give or send their manuscripts to the secretariat. You know that it is an indisputable fact that your lecture was one of the most memorable events of the whole Congress, and it would be terribly sad not to be able to include the full text of it in our Proceedings which we hope will be an interesting book, not only for those who were present at the Congress, but also for other classical students who want to have a survey of the problems and discoveries which are particularly interesting in these years. If you have lost or destroyed your manuscript I ask you insistently to reconstruct it. If you are very short of time, you may record it on a tape; we will pay the tape and have made a type-written copy which we will send to you for corrections. We would welcome very much to receive from you material for a certain number of illustrations (maximum 12, blocks or phototypies). I am sorry to trouble you with this letter. I sincerely hope that it is only by an excess of modesty that you have not sent us the manuscript. My whole family (including Jørgen Varming and his family) (we played chamber-music in his house a few days ago and spoke about you) send you our best greetings for the New Year and I want to thank you once more for your willingness to come to Copenhagen and speak to us. Yours sincerely.” 822 Hedvig Landenius Enegren and Marie-Louise Nosch

is already contained in generally available publications, & also to the fact that my lecture was only delivered from a few rough notes. However, I will try & write out a considerably longer account for you when I get home at the end of next week. The snow is quite good here, but it’s fairly cold when the sun doesn’t shine. Best wishes for 1955 to you all Michael Ventris

Fig. 13. Ventris’s signature in his first submitted manuscript for the Proceedings. Royal Library, Denmark

Concluding observations In Denmark, Mycenaean studies attracted a few students in the decades after the decipherment, among whom the linguist Henrik Holmboe who wrote his master’s thesis on Nominal Inflection in the Language of the Linear B Texts, and for which he won the gold medal of the University of Aarhus in 1964. However, the subject never took root in Danish academia. The only two Danes working in the field today, Erik Hallager and the co-author of the present paper, Marie- Louise Nosch, have reached Mycenaean studies from alternative paths: Erik Hallager is trained in history and classical archaeology from Aarhus University where he also presented his Habilitation on The Minoan Roundel - and other Sealed Documents in the Neopalatial Linear A Administration, I-II, Liège 1996. He was the discoverer of the Khania Linear B tablets. Marie-Louise has had her entire university training from outside Denmark.118 She was trained in Linear B epigraphy when studying under Pierre Carlier in Nancy and Paris, Louis Godart in Naples, and Sigrid Deger-Jalkotzy and Oswald Panagl in Salzburg. In Sweden, Mycenaean studies and Aegean Archaeology continued to flourish in the 1960s and 1970s. Already in 1958 Oscar Landau, a pupil of Björck and Furumark, published his study on Mykenisch-Griechische Personennamen and in 1960 the classical philologist Ebbe Vilborg at the University of Gothenburg presented the first Mycenaean Grammar, A Tentative Grammar

118 Marie-Louise Nosch: On a personal note, I would like to say that my high school teacher in classical Greek, Jørgen Skot-Hansen (1934-2015), was present at the 1954 Copenhagen Congress, as a student of classical Greek. Many years later, he could still recall how all these international classists had been so surprised to meet a very young and completely unknown decipherer. My teacher’s exciting account of being present at the time of a real discovery gave me the first inspiration to study Linear B. Michael Ventris and Mycenaean Studies in Sweden and Denmark 823

Fig. 14. Ventris’s answer to Høeg in December 1954 (a postcard from the Alps). Royal Library, Denmark. of Mycenaean Greek.119 Vilborg later dedicated his scholarship to Latin and Esperanto.120 In 1973 Margareta Lindgren, a pupil of Furumark, published the prosopographical work, The People of Pylos. The other co-author of the present paper, Hedvig Landenius Enegren, continued the tradition of Linear B at Uppsala University, publishing in 2008 a prosopographical study of the Knossos material, The People of Knossos based on her PhD thesis with the said Margareta Lindgren as her supervisor.121 Swedish scholars focusing on Aegean archaeology include such prolific names as Robin Hägg, Carole Gillis, Berit Wells, Gullög Nordqvist. With regard to Cypriot Bronze Age archaeology, Paul Åström must also be mentioned. In the newspapers of the 1950s, the decipherment was described in a Cold War rhetoric, as a bomb, or even atomic bomb. Arne Furumark coined the message of the decipherment when he referred to Ventris sending him the

119 Vilborg 1960. Reviews by Collinge 1963 and Jones 1962. 120 He later became a high school teacher in Greek and Latin philology. He became a member of the Akademio de Esperanto. His works for Esperanto include: Lilla esperantoordboken 1958, Ordbok svenska-esperanto 1992 and for Latin: Norstedts Svensk-latinska ordbok 2001, Latinska citat: Dictum et scriptum latine 2004. He also published with regard to the Greek language Rena grekiskan. Klassiskt språk i modern tid. 2006, the first part of the title a pun on the difficulties of the language. 121 Lindgren 1973; Landenius Enegren 2008. 824 Hedvig Landenius Enegren and Marie-Louise Nosch

Experimental Mycenaean Vocabulary as “a bomb in my letterbox”.122 This bomb becomes a “humanistisk atombomb” in a paper by Furumark in the daily Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, June 30, 1953.123 In the review of Ventris and Chadwick’s, “Evidence for Greek dialect in the Mycenaean archives”, Arnaldo Momigliano refers to Furumark’s statement as an atomic bomb: “Poco dopo in un giornale svedese il Furumark parlava di una ‘bomba atomica’ fatta scoppiare con successo dal Ventris negli studi classici.”124 Again in a post-World War II perspective, we observe how Danish news reports describe Ventris as a code expert of the British army already in the autumn of 1953, and we see here emerging a mythical narrative of Ventris which apparently existed already in his lifetime,125 and continuing after his death.126

122 Hedlund 2003, 10; newspaper article in Dagens Nyheter June 30, 1953: “Michael Ventris och de egeiska lertavlorna” (Michael Ventris and the Aegean Clay Tablets) (ICS MV 075.12). 123 “För i dagarna ett år sedan föll en bomb ner i min brevlåda. Bomben bestod av en bunt stencilerade ark med överskriften *experimental Mycenaean Vocabulary. En svensk klassiker har kallat detta en ‘en humanistisk atombomb’” (“About a year ago today a bomb landed in my letterbox. The bomb was composed of a sheaf of stencilled papers with the heading Experimental Mycenaean Vocabulary. A Swedish classicist has called this ‘a humanistic atom bomb’”). Furumark’s paper was translated immediately into Danish and published by the daily newspaper Information, 1 August 1953, with the same quote “For et aarstid siden faldt en bombe ned i min brevkasse. Bomben bestod af et bundt duplikerede ark med overskriften ‘Experimental Mycenaean Vocabulary’ og afsenderen var arkitektren Michael Ventris i London. En svensk klassiker har kaldt dette en ‘humanistisk atombombe’”. 124 Momigliano 1954, 436. 125 ICS Box 3 MV 075.18. Danish daily newspaper Politiken, 11 October 1953, article by journalist Verner Forchhammer, “En skoledrengs hobby løste historisk gåde” (a schoolboy’s hobby solved history mystery). In this article, the use of code systems in wars is related to the task of deciphering ancient scripts but without describing Ventris as a code expert. MV 075.36, Danish newspaper Politiken, dated in pencil margin 21.8.54. “Så kommer krigen, og han bliver kodeekspert i hæren. Han lærer at tyde det gådefulde ud fra helt andre forudsætninger end filologerne og han glemmer stadig ikke tavlerne fra kong Minos’ palads.” MV 075.37: Danish newspaper Politiken with news in English (News Service for Foreign Visitors: Today’s News), dated August 23, 1954: “Among them is the 31-years-old English architect Michael Ventris. An army decoding expert during the war, he has surprised scholars by deciphering the tablets of Minos and discovering an early Greek language 700 years before Homer.” 126 In a biography of Carsten Høeg, especially focusing on his activities in the Danish resistance movement during WWII, Høeg’s daughter Mette Konow recalls the Copenhagen Congress and describes Ventris as a code breaker and trained as a boy scout; Konow 2005, 78: “I 1953 var der en stor klassikerkongres i København, Madvigkongressen. Der var mange sjove typer, de fleste var gamle mænd med flagrende skæg og dybsindige miner. Far, som aldrig var bange for at løbe en risiko, inviterede en ung arkitekt, Michael Ventris, fra England med. Han havde offentliggjort nogle teorier om tavlerne, fundet i paladserne i Knossos på Kreta. Han mente, at han som den første i verden havde tydet disse tavler, som havde voldt forskerne hovedbrud i mange år. Jeg husker tydeligt, da han kom som et friskt pust dagen efter kongressens start. Der var stor opstandelse, for det kunde da umuligt lykkes for en lægmand at finde ud af det, som krævede stor indsigt? Men Ventris var gammel spejder og havde dechifreret koder som barn, hvilket han havde fortsat med under krigen. Far var fyr og flamme. Nu ved enhver, der har været i Grækenland, at det var Ventris, der tydede den såkaldte »linear B-skrift«. Men på Madvigkongressen blev han mødt med stor skepsis. Få år efter døde han i en trafikulykke.” (In 1953 there was a classical congress in Copenhagen, the Madvig Congress. There were many odd characters attending, most of them old men with flowing beards and a serious attitude. Dad, who was never afraid to take risks, invited a young architect, Michael Ventris from England. He had published some Michael Ventris and Mycenaean Studies in Sweden and Denmark 825

The myth of his task as a code expert does not come from Ventris himself: in fact, in an interview with the Swedish newspaper Stockholms-Tidningen, 28 April 1954, Ventris stated that especially ancient code experts from the war had been deeply interested in the problem in the previous years, but “I believe I was the only one who had not previously been involved in such matters before”.127 Oliver Cox, in a memorial lecture on Michael Ventris many years later,128 remembered the months that he, Ventris and Shankland spent in Stockholm. He reflected on Ventris’s approach to architectural design. Ventris, Cox and Shankland together developed a philosophy of design, a methodical approach to design.129 Cox underlined that it was a joint operation comprising three core objectives: 1. “An architect should be a competent objective critic”. 2. “He should possess self-confidence and make imaginative jumps ahead of his knowledge of the problem…. there should be a controlled reaction between self-confidence and self-criticism”, and 3. “The objective at each stage should not be a simple conclusion but a series of alternatives…. the design thus proceeds by trial and error”. Cox stressed that it was likely that by applying these same three core objectives in his approach to decipherment, Ventris achieved his remarkable result. Ventris’s correspondence with Swedish and Danish colleagues demonstrates how he maintained his credo of modesty and collaboration, and how he would

new theories about the tablets found in the palaces of Knossos in Crete. He believed that he, as the first ever in the world, had deciphered these tablets, which had posed so many headaches to scholars for many years. I remember clearly how he arrived as a breath of fresh air on the day after the start of the congress. There was a great uproar because how could possibly be that a layman would solve what demanded such great knowledge? But Ventris used to be a boy scout and had as a young boy deciphered codes, a task he had continued undertaking during the war. Dad was enthusiastic. Now everyone who has been to Greece knows that it was Ventris who deciphered the so-called “linear B script”. But at the Madvig Congress he was met with great scepticism. A few years later, he died in a car crash.) 127 ICS Box 3 MV 075.31, Swedish newspaper Stockholms-Tidningen, 28 April 1954: “Det var också nästan bara gamla dechiffreringsexperter från kriget som kastade sig över problemet. Jag tror jag var den ende, som inte sysslat med sådant förut, utbrister mr Ventris utan att det egentligen faller honom in, att han därmed slagit en världselit också på ett annat område än det arkeologiskt-lingvistiska.” (”There were almost only old experts in deciphering from the war who keenly engaged with the problem. I believe I was the only one who had not previously been involved in such a matter before, exclaims Mr. Ventris, without it occurring to him that he had thus beaten a global elite also in an area other than the archaeological-linguistic.”) 128 O. Cox. AA Michael Ventris Memorial Lecture: The Man and The Architect. https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=LnqRHkzrH60 (accessed June 2016). 129 The article on philosophy of design was published in the AA PLAN magazine in the name of Cox, but in fact it was a joint effort. For Cox’s lecture Michael Ventris Memorial Lecture: The Man and The Architect see: http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/VIDEO/lecture.php?ID=2515. (accessed June 2016). 826 Hedvig Landenius Enegren and Marie-Louise Nosch always emphasise his partnership with colleagues, especially John Chadwick and Emmett Bennett. The letters from Scandinavian colleagues, and the news from the press suggest, on the contrary, a general wish to promote Ventris as the unique, lone and brilliant discoverer. It appears that already in 1953, large parts of academia were fascinated by Ventris and wished to keep a distance to Chadwick. Furumark’s eulogy to Ventris after the latter’s death in a road accident,130 in Dagens Nyheter September 12, 1956 again highlights Ventris’s exceptional qualities. Furumark wrote: “…He had an intellectual capacity that might have been frightening but for the fact that it was associated with such a charming being, with such disarming real humility”. “He had a fantastic ease for learning languages and spoke and wrote excellent Swedish. But more than that he had a scientific genius of such proportions that he in one tenth of the normal time, was able to acquire knowledge in Greek linguistics which put him on an equal standing with the main people in the field. “… His success was due to an outstandingly honed scientific methodology built on an exactitude found more closely in the natural sciences, and applied it to the analysis of the texts and their structure. There is nothing of what he has written that is in any way amateurish. He also presented his research conscientiously and in detail for every step of his work in the notes he sent during the years 1951-1952 to scholars in different countries. Many of which made the huge mistake of not even reading what he had to tell. During all of his scientific path he held the door open”.131 After Ventris’s death, his wife Lois had to deal with a Linear B legacy that was rather foreign to her. They had shared a professional interest in architecture, but Ventris’s fascination of Aegean scripts had not been shared, and probably even seemed as an impediment to their common interests and perhaps a source of conflict. The professor of Classical Greek at University College London and a friend of Michael Ventris, Tom Webster, wrote on 23 June 1958 to Lois that he had received several copies of the Copenhagen congress publication,132 and attached a list of 21 international colleagues (among whom Furumark) he believes would

130 In which he crashed into a lorry parked on the by-pass at Hatfield at the age of 34. According to his wife, Ventris suffered from night blindness which may have caused the accident. Newspaper article ICS Box 5 MV 080. Extract 7. 131 ICS MV 080.2. Translation by the authors. 132 Ventris 1957-58. Michael Ventris and Mycenaean Studies in Sweden and Denmark 827 be interested in receiving a copy. Lois Ventris replied on 25 June, accepting the list and adding 3 names of Ventris’s architecture friends: Robert Furneaux Jordan in the UK,133 his friend and architecture colleague Oliver Cox, and Danish engineer Jørgen Varming.134 Thus, to the very end, Ventris kept these two circles of interests and circles of friends. Primary sources Architectural Association Archives, London. Archives of the Architecture and Design Centre, Stockholm Archives of the private correspondence of Carsten Høeg, Royal Library, Copenhagen. PASP Archives - Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory Digital Repository, University of Texas at Austin, TX, USA. Ventris Papers, Institute of Classical Studies Archives, London.

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133 Educated at the AA in London. He worked as an architect and later became an academic, broadcaster and writer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Furneaux_Jordan. 134 https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B8rgen_Varming. Jørgen Varming was Carsten Høeg’s brother-in-law. 828 Hedvig Landenius Enegren and Marie-Louise Nosch

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