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Transcript
0:00 · hello we are here today to talk to Mark cook about his new book rewriting
0:06 · history the decipherment of linear a and a history of egypto cretan relations in
0:12 · the middle and late bronze ages in his bookmark claimed to have deciphered
0:17 · linear a a Bronze Age script that was previously undeciphered so Mark welcome hi Jerry thanks for
0:24 · having me so to start off with can you tell us what is or rather what was linear a and what was it used for well
0:31 · linear a was a Bronze Age script it was used on Crete and
0:38 · some of the Aegean Islands but mainly Crete from what the archeology tells us
0:43 · um again from the archeology it's believed it was used from the middle Bronze Age so around the year 1800 BC
0:51 · up until the late Bronze Age in the mid 15th century and then its use
0:59 · has been thought abruptly stopped it was succeeded by Linear B
1:04 · imaginatively titled both of these linear a linear B but it was um succeeded by Linear B an early form of
1:12 · Greek the first written form of Greek um but I mean one of the things that as we
1:19 · might discuss one of the things in my book is that actually I don't think linear a stopped being used quite like
1:25 · that I think it continued in parallel with Linear B for some time at least
1:30 · um as to what it was used for uh from the fines it's mainly administrative use
1:38 · um so this was used most of the fines there from clay tablets that were wet clay sort of
1:45 · mobile phone size broadly people would incise things in there they'd record
1:51 · things so it's counting things basically inventories
1:57 · and other similar things and you know they in size in the clay they'd use it
2:03 · write it down in the permanent record which would be on parchment or papyrus
2:08 · and then wipe down the clay and then they'd use it again um but what happened though is that the
2:13 · building that stored these clay tablets caught fire the building was destroyed
2:20 · and the tablets were fired in the process and presuming the permanent record was nearby that was also
2:25 · destroyed not that would have survived necessarily until now um but yeah the tablets were fired and like
2:32 · Pottery um had been preserved and you believe that you have deciphered it so in your
2:38 · book you conclude that linear a is Egyptian written in shorthand so talk us
2:44 · through that that's right um I think it's fair to say though that will surprise most if not all people who are
2:52 · familiar with this that's quite unexpected indeed it would be so tell us
2:57 · how you did it well I suppose there are two things really um firstly and it sounds obvious
3:04 · um follow the evidence you know um I try to approach this without any preconceptions
3:11 · um I didn't really want my views on the subjects be clouded by
3:17 · what other people had written they thought and
3:22 · at the end of the day it sort of struck me that yes some very clever people have looked
3:27 · at this um but they've all failed and they haven't deciphered it so I I should
3:35 · not put much sway in um or much stock in what they had to say
3:41 · I had to really look at this afresh secondly um
3:46 · and I suppose you and I know this from the the corporate world
3:52 · there's a problem the team gets together there's a brainstorming session um and no idea is is too stupid so when
4:00 · I and I must eventually had some pretty stupid ideas at the start of this but um when I
4:06 · approach this I tried not to Discount anything um
4:12 · to start with you know and that goes back to the evidence follow the evidence but you know cast The Net wide what
4:18 · might this be and and then see really where the evidence took you
4:23 · indeed indeed and I suppose as regards following the evidence
4:30 · um what has survived of linear a the majority of want to survive these these
4:36 · clay tablets this is this is accounting information something was being recorded and values were being recorded against
4:43 · those things um and it sort of struck me as odd that
4:49 · really those that have looked at this previously have been linguists
4:56 · writing saying whereas you know I don't think an accountant had ever looked at this uh
5:02 · and and that really struck me as is quite odd that makes sense I suppose irrespective of language one set of
5:09 · accounts in one language is a set of accounts in another right and that was a that was a big help
5:15 · um as I progressed certain things jumped out of me but
5:20 · it struck me when I I started off at the very start of this project that there
5:25 · were some fundamental questions that that couldn't be answered that actually were quite important so what was what
5:32 · was the thing on these clay tablets that had survived that was recorded in the greatest numbers
5:39 · um what might that therefore be I really really sort of fundamental questions that
5:45 · I mean maybe because I'm an accountant I looked at it that way but
5:50 · it seemed it seemed odd it just seemed odd that this this hadn't been tackled that way before as I
5:58 · say as I as I progressed with my analysis certain things jumped out at me and that led to where it led to
6:04 · um but but that was the start but for the purposes of this video um and you know you and I could talk
6:11 · about accounts and that would be quite boring I think for the viewer
6:16 · um I think going back to and I keep going back to follow the evidence
6:22 · um I think they're really three key pieces of evidence that
6:27 · um are really worth discussing now and setting the scene and that will really help people
6:34 · watching this the most of course of course so set the scene for us well first and foremost
6:40 · it's it's been observed and this is long-standing that linear a
6:45 · symbols look like hieroglyphs now um I want you to
6:52 · put that in the back of your mind as we're discussing the next thing
6:58 · um we'll come back to that in a moment but but that you know they look like hieroglyphs so that's the first thing
7:05 · next is a piece of evidence from Egypt it's called The Golden Bowl of general
7:11 · duty general duty was a general in the army of the Egyptian pharaoh
7:18 · sutmost III who ruled in the 15th century BC and the polls inscription as you can see
7:25 · it on the rim here says that he was governor of the islands in the midst of the sea
7:33 · these were the Aegean islands and included Crete so that's obviously quite
7:39 · an important piece of evidence and then thirdly and finally there's a tomb in Egypt of
7:47 · one of most III's viziers so one of his prime ministers
7:52 · that has paintings and captions recording cretan princes Chiefs that have heard of
8:00 · that most III's achievements and those would be his military conquests he conquered a large part of Syria and the
8:08 · Levant coming to Thanos III and asking to enter into a treaty relationship with him
8:17 · and we know that ultimately it was his General he became governor of
8:23 · Crete and the Aegean Islands certain of the Aegean Islands so I think this was a treaty of
8:28 · accession Crete and those islands in the Aegean namely those that had been the minoan
8:35 · empire became part of the Egyptian Empire and the picture
8:42 · here is of those Creed and Chiefs bringing
8:47 · their tribute and has this been appreciated before uh
8:52 · why would Crete have done this uh no no it hasn't and um I mean the first historian Herodotus
8:59 · he wrote in the 5th Century BC so a thousand years after the events we're
9:04 · talking about he refers to the Minoans losing their Fleet it was on taking part
9:11 · in an expedition and on the way back to Crete it was destroyed in a storm
9:16 · and I think after this the Minoans couldn't protect themselves from their neighbors
9:23 · so they had to seek the protection of Egypt and the treaty that they entered
9:29 · into they asked to enter into um and then they did enter into with the
9:36 · Egyptian king the Pharaohs that most III was a treaty of accession so the minoan Empire became
9:43 · part of the Egyptian Empire but so haven't historians put two and two
9:48 · together then I think I think the problem is to do with the evidence that has survived what is known of the
9:57 · military campaigns of something else III comes from a record that was inscribed on the walls
10:04 · of the Temple of Amun in Karnak in southern Egypt and they're very detailed but there's no
10:11 · there's no record of fatmost III conquering
10:17 · owning Crete and I and I think historians have
10:23 · taken this at face value and
10:28 · really need to consider this again I mean I I put forward my views in my book
10:36 · um I mean the obvious thing that jumps out is in the space where the Third campaign
10:43 · should be is a depiction of the Flora and Fauna of
10:48 · Syria um and you know this is this is a king who campaigns every year and all of a sudden
10:56 · you know there's this this is odd indeed well what I what I think happened here
11:03 · um rather than the Pharaoh having some sort of Gap year is that Egypt lost
11:09 · Crete later on um I actually think it was I thought most the third son a minute II who lost
11:17 · the island um early in his reign uh and whereas there was a record here
11:23 · of Crete and its submission to the Egyptian Empire um for the sake of
11:30 · amenitech II and his successes sensibilities I mean you couldn't you
11:35 · couldn't have on the wall the Crete had asked to become part of the Egyptian Empire and then it had been lost this
11:42 · was just the Future King could not have that I think the record was removed and the
11:49 · Flora and Fauna of Syria replaced it and you have this rather odd
11:55 · sort of it is not the Third campaign that was there originally and you have all these
12:01 · military campaigns with this very old that's called the botanical gardens it's
12:06 · not most the Third it's just entirely out of place okay so where does this all get us and how does
12:14 · that relate to linear a quite right back to back to linear a
12:20 · um but but let's just take stock of what what we've discussed so we know that for
12:25 · a period of time Crete was owned by Egypt and we know that a scripts in use at
12:32 · this time looked like hieroglyphs I I don't think it
12:38 · too far-fetched to consider that actually this could be a form of Egyptian
12:45 · and this is and that's why I wanted to run through that before we get into the nitty-gritty of
12:51 · um of linear a um I should say that linear a was used on Crete before
12:58 · this and that that muddies the waters somewhat the evidence is
13:06 · that it was mainly During the period that Egypt owned create the linear a was
13:12 · used but it was used before that I think you would expect that though I
13:17 · mean this is from the pattern of fines what has survived and I think you would expect
13:23 · linear AIDS have been used more when Egypt owned Crete because you know
13:29 · there's the organs of government there's the administration there's more records being created
13:34 · um so I I think that's understandable and you do see a peek in fines in this
13:40 · period when flat most III would have been King but 80 of the clay tablets
13:46 · but it was used before and I think what is happening there is that well we know Crete wasn't owned by Egypt so I think
13:53 · it's probably most logical to um conclude based on what we do know
14:00 · that these uh there were Egyptian expatriate
14:05 · Traders on the island and they used linear a
14:10 · now why would they use linear a and why would it be based on hieroglyphs because
14:16 · the day-to-day scripts in Egypt was hieratic that was the
14:22 · you know the script of Commerce what things would be written in day to day um hieroglyphs was
14:28 · for inscriptions on Temple walls such as we've discussed or for ceremonial inscriptions on scarabs
14:37 · um it was not day to day but I think think about where these Egyptians were
14:42 · they were overseas um in a territory that was not Egyptian and I think for that reason they chose a
14:51 · script that would have been less well known to the locals if any cretans had had any dealings with Egyptians
14:59 · I think it would have been hieratic that the cretans would have seen they wouldn't have seen hieroglyphs and yet the Egyptians were familiar with that so
15:05 · I think I think the Egyptians came up with a script that used hieroglyphs specifically so
15:12 · that the local cretans couldn't see in detail what was going on it kept them
15:18 · Beyond purview of the cretans
15:24 · and then of course as we've seen its use continued after Egypt became
15:32 · uh well Creeds became part of the Egyptian Empire and I suppose it goes back to uh
15:39 · old adage if it ain't broke don't fix it so you know the the Egyptians there used
15:45 · this overnight they've become colonists rather than expatriate Traders
15:50 · um they're just going to carry on doing the same old thing but they're also going to do some more
15:56 · stuff I assist in form part of the government the organs
16:02 · of government the administration okay so so that sets the scene but what
16:09 · is next regards linear a then well the next thing was to go back to the evidence and
16:15 · linear a we've we've already seen we've already said that it's characters they look like
16:21 · hieroglyphs so let's assume they are hieroglyphs what is written in linear is
16:28 · it self-evidently doesn't spell words in Egyptian so something else is going on here
16:34 · and some of the linear a characters are rotated versions of
16:40 · the hieroglyphs that they appear to be related to and this I think is really important
16:46 · because if you look at the later Thousand Years Later the Greco-Roman
16:51 · form of shorthand that came into use the letters that words were abbreviated
16:58 · to um could be rotated so I I think you know we have we have
17:05 · some very good evidence here that we are dealing with a form of shorthand
17:11 · and again has this been appreciated before again no I think because uh the dots
17:18 · hadn't been joined and in particular hadn't been appreciated that Egypt owned
17:23 · Crete for this period of time um it just hadn't been conceived that
17:28 · this could be Egyptian and as regards being shorthand as I said
17:33 · shorthand wasn't known for another thousand years so no so applying this
17:40 · later method of shorthand allows you to translate the tablets basically yes but
17:46 · with the slight Nuance that there needs to be some logic in the layout of the
17:53 · text so for example dates at the start um total labeled as such at the end
18:00 · where there's items recorded and values recorded against them
18:06 · um things that are in some instances labeled as male and in other instances
18:12 · not labeled as male therefore female you you can
18:18 · infer that that's an animal um but it's shorthand so I mean the analogy
18:25 · I use is a shopping list imagine your better half gives you a shopping list
18:31 · and it says a 10. or a could be apples or it could be short for avocados
18:40 · and I mean you would know what it stood for because you might have been given the
18:45 · list before and you might have got it wrong it means hold off and uh and therefore you know that a stands for
18:51 · apples but someone in three and a half thousand years when they see their shopping list written in shorthand
18:58 · um not even knowing it's a shopping list would would struggle so
19:05 · it's knowing the context is and inferring as much of the context as
19:10 · you can from the layout the logic of the layout is is important there are two
19:17 · examples that I I'm going to just give briefly for the viewers now both are
19:23 · dates appearing at the start of tablets just to demonstrate how this shorthand
19:29 · works and how we go from higher lists to linearail so first we look at tablet ht7a
19:37 · HT meaning that this was found at Hagia triada in the South Central of the
19:44 · island of Crete apologies for my no doubt very incorrect pronunciation
19:50 · and we have fourth month um and those are the two Egyptian words
19:55 · written in hieroglyphs there um now of course the hieroglyphs have been slightly modified to become linear
20:02 · a symbols as regards to the first word there horizontal lines elsewhere in the linear
20:10 · a corpus they used to count units of 10 and circles are used to count units of
20:16 · 100 so with the linear a symbol used to represent the word fourth
20:22 · the dashes of hieroglyphs z4b and z4b are put
20:28 · inside the circle of hieroglyph w24 to become the linear a symbol
20:37 · for the symbol representing the word month The Arc of the hieroglyph is
20:44 · horizontally compressed so that it becomes something of an inverted V with curved arms
20:50 · the point of this I think is so that it takes up less room horizontally
20:56 · and this is similar to the rotation of our other hieroglyphs that are rotated
21:02 · um again I think so that they took up less room horizontally so we have a common characteristic
21:09 · amongst many of the linear a symbols and how they're derived from
21:15 · their corresponding hieroglyphs um so why would why would this be I
21:21 · think this was probably because like our paper today the tablets were taller than they were
21:29 · wide whereas the buildings that hieroglyph hieroglyphs were used on were usually wider than they were tall
21:38 · anyway to get another example here we see tablet ht1a the first two symbols representing
21:46 · third month so here we see the same process where the ordinal but the word for month is
21:51 · different right that's right the Egyptians had a number of ways of writing the same words here the Scribe
21:58 · has abbreviated a different form of the same word and the Greco-Roman method of shorthand
22:04 · was one where a word could be abbreviated to the first the last or a distinctive
22:10 · letter from the middle of a word here he has chosen to do the last of these well
22:16 · that seems quite fiddly presumably the the word that was abbreviated and the
22:22 · aragath that it was abbreviated to was driven by the experience of the Scribe
22:29 · I think so um be that different departments within the institution that's creating
22:36 · um these records will be that different professional backgrounds that the Scribe or different geographical Origins it
22:42 · describes back in back in Egypt um here though we can we we can be certain
22:50 · I think that um these two tablets were written by two
22:55 · different scribes and I think that's important um because once you look at the Corpus
23:01 · as a whole I think you can infer the number of people working in within within that
23:07 · organization within that Institution and I think it was quite big I mean as I
23:13 · say in the book it's a it's an Egyptian temple um so yeah I think it I think it's quite
23:19 · big um a modern analogy would be from the world of accounting that we know
23:25 · um one accountant might say debtors and another accountant might say receivables and
23:32 · as you and I would know you can infer something of the the background of those
23:38 · two accountants as a result the differing background and I think I think we see the same thing
23:44 · affecting linear a here um we obviously know more about our own
23:50 · Society than Egyptian Society so what we can extrapolate from that is is less but
23:57 · nonetheless I think I think as I say this is this is what is what is evident in the linear a records
24:04 · yeah indeed we do but this is quite complex though um it was but this wasn't how I got my
24:12 · first break um there is one tablet that survives that is is
24:19 · really vital to all of this um and it's tablet ht123 a this tablet is important because
24:28 · using some logic and algebra we can work out the value of the fraction symbols
24:34 · used on the tablet and noting that one of those symbols is actually has a value
24:40 · of zero we can see that two categories of the items recorded appear in the ratio of
24:48 · four to one and and consistently do so this is really important because in the
24:55 · Linear B tablets this same ratio appears it appears when sheep well Rams and will
25:02 · respectively are recorded and for every four Rams that are recorded
25:09 · and it's Rams that are counted because they're a proxy for The Wider flock size which could be many hundreds of U's to
25:16 · one ram for every four Rams then the flock owner
25:22 · would owe a single unit of wool in tax I mean this this was a big unit of wall
25:29 · think like the size of a warehouse but that was how this tax was calculated
25:35 · this appears in Linear B and here it appears in linear a because even
25:42 · though the government of the island had changed from as it now turns out Egyptian to Greek
25:50 · the mechanics of the tax being levied did not and it's also important because from
25:56 · this mathematical relationship that's evident we can work out the meaning of the symbols representing Rams wool grand
26:05 · total New Year's Day the date that the tax was assessed and from this you can show if more was
26:13 · required after the dates that we just went through that this was shorthand by
26:19 · reference to the original words as they were written in hieroglyphs yeah I find
26:24 · that quite fascinating uh well for us accountants perhaps but um and hopefully for ancient historians too we sure we
26:32 · shall see yeah and I should say to viewers that chapter 2 of your book is available on a
26:39 · link below this video so that viewers can go through all of it in their own time that's right yes this is in chapter
26:46 · two of my book um most historians aren't forensic
26:52 · accountants um but I don't think they need to be now this this analysis has been done
26:58 · um and it's it's set out there it's merely a question of of you know following through the logic following
27:03 · through the algebra um for those that tackle it I think I
27:08 · hope uh it will be relatively straightforward yeah and I guess as a forensic
27:13 · accountant you had during this very long process a lot of aha moments
27:20 · but just finally maybe share with us something that was really
27:25 · great like you had this moment this is it
27:30 · um one thing that probably is interesting um though is that the institutions that created these tablets Egyptian temples
27:38 · um the evidence is as is set out in my book um the evidence from the tablets is that
27:45 · they acted very much in this period during the reign of that most the third as agents of the state so
27:53 · they were like in Egypt they were involved in um
27:58 · aspects of the administration of government so we see that with the tax records that are the the Rams
28:05 · the wall this is a this is a record of the taxes that are being paid and this is why there's an Egyptian temple
28:12 · um that is compiling those records um and one final thing however
28:20 · um and we've got some pictures on this and and this let's go back to the the evidence you know I've said it a few
28:26 · times always go back to the evidence and perhaps one of my
28:32 · favorite paintings of all time it's called the um flotilla fresco
28:37 · and it was found on the island of Santorini which is I think the closest at Gian Island to Crete
28:45 · and was part of the Milan Empire and
28:51 · archaeologists they found this this Fresco um
28:56 · and it sort of puzzled them as to what this this actually was so let's have a quick look so as I say I find this one
29:04 · of the most amazing pictures um and it's really interesting just how
29:09 · accurate it is um but surprisingly to date
29:15 · historians just haven't appreciated what this shows they haven't known the port
29:20 · of origin on the left-hand side then there's this flotillera ships going from left to right and they haven't
29:26 · identified the port on the right hand side um but the
29:32 · the evidence is here in the painting and it is pretty clear the port on the left
29:38 · the port of origin is the Egyptian Naval Base at Peru nepher in my best pronunciation apologies again
29:47 · um and here you can see a map of the island itself the port is on
29:54 · and then the branch of the Nile that's to its left and then the geographical features that
30:01 · surround it and you know these are all represented in this painting this this was someone
30:07 · who I mean this is not a view um necessarily this is perhaps drawn
30:14 · from a map um but this is this is someone who had knowledge of the geography of this port
30:24 · what perhaps is a view that could have been seen I think probably was um is the port on the right hand side
30:32 · the destination Port which is katsanvas which is the port of the minoan capital
30:38 · on Crete which was canossus as with perinifer and the geographical
30:44 · features surrounding that Port is portrayal
30:50 · clearly pointing to that being the port of origin legit the geography here
30:57 · um also guides us and if you look to the left hand side there are two buildings
31:03 · there's on the horizon on the hilltop and we're now in Hilltop sanctuary and
31:10 · then in front of it as a separate structure halfway up the hill there's a palace structure
31:17 · and they're in a they're in a direct line together so this Vista where could it have come
31:23 · from it's obviously offshore and I don't think it would have been a boat I think it would have been an
31:29 · island and the only place that you could see a
31:34 · Hilltop Sanctuary a minoan Hilltop Sanctuary with a minoan Palace in front of it leads out to sea
31:42 · to an island is the mount yuktas Hilltop sanctuary the
31:48 · Palace of canossus in front of it and off the coast the island of deer
31:55 · and if you'd have been on deer at this time looking to the right of that axis
32:01 · of Mount uttas and canossus looking to the right of that you would
32:06 · have seen the port of cats ambus but as nobody noticed this before
32:12 · no because of the floor and fauna in the painting which are from the Aegean people have thought both the origin and
32:19 · destination were in the Aegean but like the early paintings of the colony of New
32:24 · South Wales in Australia for example which were made to look like England
32:29 · to appeal to their Market audience back in England I think the same thing is
32:35 · happening here um also I think I think this is propaganda
32:41 · um showing the aegeans that they and the Egyptians were cut from the same cloth
32:46 · because the painting shows the Journey of that most III and I think it's here in the
32:53 · Central yellow or Golden Boat um coming to Crete to the minoan capsule at
33:01 · canossus to accept the minoan Empire's submission um to become part of the Egyptian Empire
33:08 · I mean if they if they took selfies in the late Bronze Age I mean this is it
33:14 · well thanks a lot mark this has been really fascinating and I wish you well with your book
33:20 · and just a reminder that chapter 2 of Mark's book is available in the link below in which Mark uses a detailed
33:28 · accounting analysis to prove that linear a is indeed Egyptian shorthand written
33:35 · in hieroglyphs and also some book reviews that have recently been
33:40 · published thanks for watching