In the early 1900s on the island of Crete, British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans uncovered nearly 3,000 tablets inscribed with strange symbols. He thought these symbols represented the language spoken by Europe’s oldest civilization. Their meaning would elude scholars for 50 years.
1900 年代初期,在克里特島上, 英國考古學家亞瑟·埃文斯爵士 發現了近三千塊石板, 上面刻著奇怪的符號。 他以為這些符號代表 歐洲最古老的文明所說的語言。 這些符號的意思 讓學者困惑了 50 年。
Evans discovered these tablets amid the colorful frescoes and maze-like hallways of the palace of Knossos. He called the civilization Minoan— after the mythical Cretan ruler, King Minos. He thought the script, dubbed Linear B, represented the Minoan language, and scholars all over the world came up with their own theories. Was it the lost language of the Etruscans? Or perhaps it represented an early form of Basque?
埃文斯在克諾索斯宮殿 迷宮般的走廊上 和多彩的壁畫中發現這些石板。 他稱之為米諾斯文明—— 以傳說中的克里特統治者 米諾斯王所命名。 他以為這種書寫字母 (稱為線性文字 B) 代表了米諾斯的語言, 世界各地的學者提出自己的理論。 這是失落的伊特拉斯坎語言嗎? 或許它代表巴斯克語的早期形式?
The mystery intensified because Evans guarded the tablets closely–– only 200 of the inscriptions were published during his lifetime–– but he couldn’t decipher the script. However, he did make two accurate observations: the tablets were administrative records, and the script was a syllabary, where each symbol represented both a consonant and a vowel, mixed with characters that each represented a whole word.
因為埃文斯緊守著這些石板, 讓神秘感越來越強—— 在他一生中,只有 200 個碑銘被公開出來—— 但他無法破解這些書寫文字。 然而,他確實做了兩項正確的觀察: 石板是行政管理的記錄, 且這些書寫文字是音節文字, 每個符號代表著 一個子音和一個母音, 再混搭代表整個字詞的字符。
Evans worked on Linear B for three decades before a scholar from Brooklyn, New York, named Alice Kober set out to solve the mystery. Kober was a professor of Classics at Brooklyn College when few women held such positions. To help in her quest, she taught herself many languages–– knowledge she knew she would need to decipher Linear B. For the next two decades, she analyzed the symbols.
埃文斯花了三十年 研究線性文字 B, 接著,愛麗絲·科伯爾, 紐約布魯克林的學者, 打算要破解這個謎。 科伯爾是布魯克林大學的 古典學教授, 當時很少有女性擔任這類職位。 為了協助探索, 她自學了多種語言—— 她知道若要破解線性文字 B 就會需要這些知識。 她接下來花了二十年分析這些符號。
Working from the few available inscriptions, she recorded how often each symbol appeared. Then she recorded how frequently each symbol appeared next to another. She stored her findings on scrap paper in cigarette cartons because writing supplies were scarce during the Second World War.
只根據少數可取得的銘文, 她記錄下每個符號有多常出現。 接著,她記錄了每個符號 出現在彼此旁邊的頻率。 她把研究結果寫在廢紙上, 再放到煙盒裡, 因為二次大戰期間, 書寫用品十分稀少。
By analyzing these frequencies, she discovered that Linear B relied on word endings to give its sentences grammar. From this she began to build a chart of the relations between the signs, coming closer than anyone before to deciphering Linear B. But she died, probably of cancer, in 1950 at the age of 43.
透過分析這些頻率, 她發現線性文字 B 的句子文法 要看文字的結尾。 依此,她開始建立符號關係圖, 比任何人都更接近 破解線性文字 B。 但她在 1950 年過世, 可能死因是癌症, 享年 43 歲。
While Kober was analyzing the Knossos tablets, an architect named Michael Ventris was also working to crack Linear B. He had become obsessed with Linear B as a schoolboy after hearing Evans speak. He even worked on deciphering the script while serving in World War II.
當科伯爾在分析克諾索斯石板時, 建築師麥可·文特里斯 也致力於破解線性文字 B。 他在學生時代聽了埃文斯的談論, 從此就著迷於線性文字 B。 他連在二次大戰服役期間 都在破解這種書寫文字。
After the war, Ventris built on Kober’s grid using a newly published cache of Linear B inscriptions excavated from a different archeological site called Pylos, on mainland Greece. His real breakthrough came when he compared the tablets from Pylos with those from Knossos and saw that certain words appeared on tablets from one site but not the other. He wondered if those words represented the names of places specific to each location.
戰後,文特里斯把科伯爾的對照表 用在從希臘本島 另一考古地點皮洛斯 新近出土且公開的一系列 線性文字 B 刻文上。 當他把皮洛斯的石板 和克諾索斯的石板做比較後, 才出現了真正的突破, 發現有某些字詞只出現在 一處的石板上,另一處就沒有。 他懷疑那些字詞是否 代表地方的名稱, 專門指每個地點。
He knew that over centuries, place names tend to remain constant, and decided to compare Linear B to an ancient syllabary from the island of Cyprus. The Cypriot script was used hundreds of years after Linear B, but some of the symbols were similar— he wondered if the sounds would be similar, too. When Ventris plugged some of the sounds of the Cypriot syllabary into the Linear B inscriptions, he came up with the word Knossos, the name of the city where Evans had discovered his tablets. In a domino effect, Ventris unraveled Linear B, with each word revealing more clearly that the language of Linear B was not Minoan, but Greek.
他知道,數世紀以來, 地名通常都維持不變, 因此決定將線性文字 B 拿來 和賽普勒斯島嶼的 古老音節文字做比較。 賽普勒斯的書寫字母 比線性文字 B 遲幾百年, 但有些符號很類似—— 他在想,也許發音也會類似。 文特里斯把一些 賽普勒斯音節文字的發音 放到線性文字 B 的書寫字母中, 他得到了「克諾索斯」這個詞, 也就是埃文斯發現石板的 那個城市的名稱。 在骨牌效應之下, 文特里斯解開了線性文字 B, 了解越多字詞,就越清楚知道 線性文字 B 這種語言 不是米諾斯的,而是希臘的。
Ventris died in a car crash four years later, at the age of 34. But his discovery rewrote a chapter of history. Evans had insisted that the Minoans conquered the mainland Greeks, and that was why examples of Linear B were found on the mainland. But the discovery that Linear B represented Greek, and not Minoan, showed that the opposite had happened: mainland Greeks invaded Crete and adopted the Minoan script for their own language.
文特里斯四年後 在車禍中身亡,享年 34 歲。 但他的發現重寫了歷史的這一章。 埃文斯曾經堅持 米諾斯征服了希臘本島, 那就是為什麼在本島可以 找到線性文字 B 的例子。 但發現線性文字 B 代表希臘, 而不是米諾斯後, 表示發生的狀況完全相反: 希臘本島人入侵克里特, 把米諾斯的書寫字母 用在他們自己的語言上。
But the story isn’t over yet. The actual language of the Minoans, represented by another script called Linear A, has yet to be deciphered. It remains a mystery— at least for now.
但故事還沒完。 米諾斯的真正語言 是另一套書寫字母 「線性文字 A」, 它目前尚未被破解。 它依然還是個謎—— 至少目前是如此。