Greek Palaeography1
A short exercusion into Greek Palaeography shows that before the advent of Vellum MSS (manuscripts) writing was done on stones or hard surfaces and on papyrus. Two genres of scripts were used: bookhand majuscule based mainly on a straight ductus except where the shape of the letter required a curve; such curve was generally an inclined straight segment rather than a soft curve. A typical example is the Greek letter Σ, sigma or Ω, omega. Another type of bookhand script was a curved script much later called Uncial, by St. Jerome (340-420AD). The former became increasingly the domain of Epigraphy whereas the latter became the preferred script for writing on soft materials such as papyrus with reed and ink; both scripts were majuscule. The other type of script was cursive which was almost always used for general handwriting and very seldom for formal literary documents on papyrus.
The arrival of vellum MSS added more lustre and focus to the script giving rise to more well defined and distinctive style of book hand. The majuscule Uncial, which had become a popular book hand from around the I century AD, was redefined with more harmonious curves and, beginning with the IX century AD, a cursive bookhand was derived from the earlier informal cursive. This is likely to have been influenced by the development of Carolingian in Latin Palaeography, itself derived from the Roman miniscule.
So far as I can ascertain during the period when vellum was used as the soft medium there are no early artefacts of Greek documents written in official cursive scripts, but there are many in Latin. In short, the general character of Greek writing, whether literary or non-literary, used on vellum documents was Uncial.
The style of the cursive bookhand found on papyri is affected by three phases according to the prevailing government of that period: 1) The Ptolemies, 2) The Romans and 3) the Byzantine.
The second earliest existing papyrus MSS is that of Persae written by Timotheus of Miletus during his lifetime, 446BC-357BC; the date of this copy is given as 325BC. Below is my own palaeographic transliteration:
ΛΑΙΜΟΤΟΜΩΙΤΙΣΑΠΟΙΣΕΤΑΙΕΝΘΑΔΕΜΗΣΤΟΡΙΣΙΔΑΡΩΙΗΚΑΤΑ
ΚΙΜΟΤΑΚΕΙΣΝΑΥΣΙΦΟΡΟΙΑΥΡΑΙΝΥΚΤΙΠΑΓΕΙΒΟΡΕΑΔΙΑΡΑΙΣΟΝ
ΤΑΙΠΕΡΙΓAΡΚΛΥΔΩΝΑΓΡΙΟΣΑΝΕΡΡΗΞΕΝΑΠΑΓΓΥΙΩΝΕΙΔΟΣ
ΥΦΑΝΤΟΝΕΝΘΑΚΕΙΣΟΜΑΙΟΙΚΤΡΟΣΟΡΝΙΘΩΝΕΘΝΕΣΙΝΩΜΟ
ΒΡΩΣΙΘΟΙΝΑ
ΤΟΙΑΔΕΟΔΥΡΟΜΕΝΟΙΚΑΤΕΔΑΚΡΥΟΝΕΠΕΙΔΕΤΙΣΛΑΒΩΝΑΓΟΙ
ΠΟΛΥΒΟΤΩΝΚΕΛΑΙΝΑΝΣΙΚΗΤΟΡΑΟΡΦΑΝΟΝΜΑΧΑΝΣΙΔΑΡΟ
ΚΩΠΟΣΕΛΛΑΝΑΓΕΙΚΟΜΗΣΕΠΙΣΠΑΣΑΣΟΔΑΜΦΙΓΟΝΑΣΙ
ΠΕΡΙΠΛΕΚΕΙΣΕΛΙΣΣΕΤΟΕΛΛΑΔΙΕΜΠΛΕΚΩΝΑΣΙΑΔΙΦΩΝΑΙ
ΔΙΑΤΟΡΟΝΣΦΡΑΓΙΔΑΘΡΑΥΩΝΣΤΟΜΑΤΟΣΙΑΟΝΑΓΛΩΣΣΑΝ
As usual there are no spaces between words; spaces were only added during the Middle Ages AD, hence to understand the text it is assumed that the reader knows the language well, in fact, very well. While I am familiar with the Greek alphabet and some grammatical rules my knowledge of vocabulary and syntax of Classical Greek is still too poor to attempt a separation and faithful translation. Hence, for the separation of words I rely on that reported in the book referenced below, and for the translation you have to wait until my knowledge of Classical Greek improves! The book assumes that the reader knows ancient Greek well enough to translate the text on the fly; hence no translation was provided.
Transliteration is a pedantic job but its great benefit is that it enables the person doing the transliteration to actually get into the mindset of the scribe thus providing a more intimate understanding of the calligraphic aspects of the alphabet, the text, the scribe's own skills and his thinking.
What is relevant here is that in the IV century BC the evidence deduced from this MSS suggests that:
The Greek alphabet for book hand purposes was fully developed as a majuscule only type of alphabet.
That it is most likely that the same format was used for the writings of the post-Socratic period.
That its format clearly derives from an epigraphic model adapted for writing on a soft medium such as papyrus.
That the scribe was very knowledgeable at his job and wrote the text speedily and not bothering too much with calligraphic exactness.
That he used a pointed reed.
That the two vertical strokes of the letter P were not symmetrical as we represent it today, but the right-hand-side stroke was shorter than the left-hand-side.
That the letter "O" tended to be square whereas the letter omega was a kind of segmented scribble like shorthand type.
That the letter B had a tendency to be longer than the other letters; a precursor of the cursive beta.
That the letter "phi" was shaped like the much later miniscule form, and this, again, reinforces what I said in point 3 above.
WRITING IN THE TIMES OF HOMER
In preparation
At the time of the Trojan War the prevailing type of writing was Linear B. A number of so-called Mycenean Tablets (from Mycenae, Crete and Pylos) have been found inscribed with Linear B writing, an early form of Greek writing. They provide a wealth of recorded information about people, trades, agriculture, animals, etc. Linear B was deciphered in 1951-1953 by Michael George Francis Ventris (1922–1956), an English architect and Classical scholar and John Chadwick (1920–1998), an English linguist and Classical scholar.
In 1958 an Italian scholar (A. Fanfani) compiled all this information into groups to categorize trades, produce, animals, etc. I have reworked this data to form a set of hierarchical slides: CLICK ON THE NAVIGATION TOOLSBAR FOR CHANGING SLIDE
NOTE: 15 SLIDES UNDER PREPARATION (working on quality of slides and hyperlinking)
LINEAR B GROUPINGS
If you look closely into the Products slide you will see that Poultry, or domestic fowl in general, is absent. Dos this mean that during the Mycenean period there was no rearing and consumption of fowl meat? Did they eat no eggs? Please go to the page Flora and Fauna
1:- E.M. Thompson, Greek & Latin Palaeography, Clarendon Press, 1912.