A Yuletide Discovery

This Christmas season, as it does so many, found me travelling, in my case back to Winnipeg and family.  Shortly after arrival, with my shopping done and some time to kill, I found myself wandering the halls of the Manitoba Museum.  On a bitterly cold day, the building was largely empty – a shame, of course, but so it goes in December.  I should not complain, though, for the staff took the opportunity to change some of the displays, and soon enough I was joined in pleasant conversation to the curator of their archaeological collection.  When I mentioned my background in Linear B and ancient scripts, a weird look came across her face, and before I could quite gather my wits I was being led through a warren of hallways to a storage room that clearly did not receive many visitors.

The curator was now talking excitedly, about something she’d found recently – not in the records, and unlike anything else they had – as she searched for the key to one of the drawers.  Finally she had it open, and called me over.  “It’s stored with some items brought back by a Hudson Bay Company surveyor in the 19th century – I’m not sure when we got it, but it wasn’t catalogued alongside them, so I can’t be sure if it truly belongs with them or not.  At first I thought it might have been something from the Franklin expedition – something someone had crafted, perhaps, idle entertainment… but it looks too much like writing, don’t you think?  And it doesn’t match any known scripts ever used in the Arctic; I’ve sent out some inquiries, but of course no one checks their email this time of year…”

I had, I must confess, rather stopped paying her my full attention at this point, for sitting in the drawer before me, fired and preserved so as to be as clear as on the day it was written, was a Linear B tablet.  How it should have come to be in the Arctic I have no idea – my initial suspicion was that it was another gift of Evans’ to some Canadian friend of his, but now I am not so sure.  I told her what I knew, and we passed the next couple of hours in excited conversation and autopsy of the tablet.  Photography, was, sadly, forbidden, but I was able to make a drawing I can share now.

The tablet is of the familiar page-shaped format, and of a strange consistency – it also seems that, rather than having been burned, it was frozen, though I cannot speak to the possible chemical processes involved.  The signs are, at any rate, highly legible.  There is nothing particularly confusing in the record, as least as Greek interpretations go, though I suspect the CERV logogram, which normally serves to indicate deer, may here play a different role.

.1 a-ko-to-i
.2 vacat
.3 do-ro-me-u CERV 1
.4 o-ke-ta CERV 1
.5 sa-ka-i-re-u CERV 1
.6 a-ro-pe-ka CERV 1
.7 ko-ma-ta CERV 1
.8 e-ro CERV 1
.9 po-ro-ta CERV 1
.10 ke-ra-u-no CERV 1

a-ko-to-i: This appears to be a second declension dative/locative of ἄρκτος, bear.  As theriomorphic deities are unknown in Linear B, it is unlikely that it indicates a dative of reference with offerings, so a location is more likely – perhaps “in the north” (cf. English arctic). do-ro-me-u CERV 1: this must be the nominative δρομεύς, runner, derived from the aorist stem of τρέχω.   While other lists of livestock generally list them by location, the nominatives and single animals in each case suggest this is closer to a personnel record, with the animals listed by named.  In this light, “runner” should be perhaps be translated more colloquially as “Dasher” vel sim. Considering the location given, and indeed the tablet’s find context, it is perhaps better to think of these as reindeer, native to more northern climes. o-ke-ta: likewise a name: perhaps ορχηστάς, “Dancer.” sa-ka-i-re-u: another nominative in -ευς.  It may perhaps be derived from σκαίρω, prance.  a-ro-pe-ka: this looks like ἀλώπεξ, fox.  Perhaps the animal’s name was “Foxy” (was its fur ruddy, or else the reindeer mischievous?) or, if female, we may guess “Vixen.”  ko-ma-ta: This seems transparently to be κοματάς (Att. κομητής), “hairy,” and the root of English comet (for its tail).  e-ro: it is hard to avoid a reading ἔρως here; it may have been a favourite.  A reference to Ἔρως (better known now as the Latin Cupid) is rather less likely.  po-ro-ta: Perhaps βροντά (Att. -ή), thunder; this would seem an unlikely name, but cf. the following. ke-ra-u-no: in light of po-ro-ta, βροντά, the reading κεραυνός, lightning, seems inevitable.

Assuming this reading is correct, the tablet therefore records that, in the “North,” there were eight reindeer, apparently highly favoured animals distinguished by highly individualized names.  The exact purpose of this record is unclear; perhaps it is their mere presence being recorded.  The number, eight, would of course suggest four yokes, though this should be in the context of four separate carts (sleds?); eight for one seems highly unlikely.  Perhaps this records the preparations for some expedition?  Further study, we may hope, will shed further light on this remarkable find.