> sheds light on how the ancient Minoan and Mycenaean elite<p>Mycenaeans are considered Greek.<p>Minoans generally not considered Greek.<p>Their script, Linear A, has never been deciphered, so we don’t actually know what language they spoke, but most linguists think it wasn’t Greek, based on how poorly Linear A’s signs map onto Greek phonetics when tested as they do successfully with Mycenaean Linear B.<p>Culturally the Minoans also look distinct from later Greek civilization. Different religious iconography (bull-leaping, goddess-centric imagery), different art style, no clear warrior-elite hierarchy the way Mycenaean and later Greek society had.
> Their script, Linear A, has never been deciphered<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48600107">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48600107</a>
That was only a blog post about a secret draft that has not been published, nor peer reviewed. Let's classify it as "unconfirmed".
I read it. The claim is still early and yet to be accepted.
Linear B also maps poorly to Greek as far as I know. It's clearly an adaption of a foreign script.
Linear B maps onto Greek quite well once you understand that it is a syllabary, not an alphabet. The fit is imperfect in specific, well-understood ways.<p>Once you correct for well-understood systematic gaps, though, the underlying grammar, vocabulary, and even some divine names (Poseidon, Zeus, Hera, Dionysus all show up) are recognizably continuous with classical Greek.
The actual paper doesn't claim that, it understands they are two distinct cultures but itn covers the georgaphical Greece in the title not cultural.<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305440326001524?via%3Dihub" rel="nofollow">https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03054...</a>
Except it does partially map into Greek, they had settlements on several Greek islands, influence on the Cyclades, and talk about similar Gods.<p>Even the cave where Zeus was allegedly born is on Crete.
Something about this feels very Tolkien-ish.<p>Nobody mention it to Peter Thiel, he doesn’t need any more ideas.
Speaking of myths, one explanation of the mysterious metal adamantine is that it was iron, forged from meteors.<p>To Bronze Age Greeks, lacking the ability to smelt iron, an iron weapon would have been surpassingly strong, sharp and rare.<p>Later, during the Iron Age, Adamantine got retconned into something else (like diamond).
In ancient times with no light pollution they could probably see and track meteorites falling. And it could have been easier to access to get those metals than mining.
Perhaps sometimes they saw it hit and went to find it? But the night is long and people should be indoors asleep near the fire and meteorites fall all around the clock anyway?<p>So perhaps they mostly just picked weird rocks up off the ground, as the Inuit did? When you spend time outside with the herds you probably notice unusual wrongs.
They go completely dark at a very high altitude. I feel like a bright sunny day would give you a better chance of seeing a falling rock, at least once it gets closer to the ground
If I get lucky in IPO land I'll have my eye on a Jaeger-LeCoultre watch with a meteorite dial, so I guess things have not changed all that much in the last 3500 years :P
They're still fashionable! ... or maybe I'm a geek.
My engagement ring contains meteorite, supposedly from the Gibeon Meteorite, although the fact that a single meteorite is a component advertised in <i>so many</i> rings makes me somewhat suspicious as to the quantity or authenticity. But it looks pretty, anyway.
The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibeon_(meteorite)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibeon_(meteorite)</a> is 26 tons, plus 100+ fragments in a strewn field of 10,000+ sq. miles.<p>It proves nothing - but from just 100kg, you could put 1/2 carat bits of meteorite in 1,000,000 rings.
I'm 100% certain that such rings grant superpowers determined by a cosmic RNG.
I wonder how many meteorites were laying around in the early days of humans caring about metal.
The opportunity for fraud is immense, unless the elite sourced their own meteorites.
Iron smelting had not been invented yet. Meteorites were the only readily available source of iron. Upon the invention of smelting all iron rings appear to be smelted.
How so? This was the Bronze Age; smelting iron ore wasn't really a thing yet, so meteoric iron was pretty much the only kind available.
> The opportunity for fraud is immense<p>At the time, not so much. It was called "The Bronze Age" and "The Iron age" came later. The names aren't random.<p>From the article:<p>> The use of meteoritic iron particularly stands out during the Bronze Age because of the lack of iron smelting at the time.<p>In other words, the main source of this special metal was when the Gods occasionally threw down a piece, in a column of fire.<p>See also in ancient Egypt:<p><a href="https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/museums/2013/09/01/23856/" rel="nofollow">https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/museums/2013/09/01/23856/</a><p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1296207417305356" rel="nofollow">https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S12962...</a>
I can't get past the Cloud<bleep> check. I guess the site/information is for G(r)eek elites only too.
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