He pulled up the image file of the two sets of two matching tablets. He had them organized with the Linear B tablets on the left and the Linear A ones on the right. Displayed that way, they certainly looked similar. He pointed to the two-word line. “That says one cow in Mycenean. On the right, it says one cow in Minoan. And yes, I have checked this on other tablets. Every time that word appears, it seems to mean one or single or other variations of one unit. The other appears as a multiple version on many tablets. The syntax of Linear A appears to be more Semitic than Greek, but with a Greek admixture. Sort of like comparing French and English. Anyway, every time that word appears on the Linear A tablets, it matches the Mycenean word for cows in a similar position on the matching Mycenean tablet.” He paused here to see how she would react.

Professor Rawlins studied the images on the screen and turned her head slightly to study Jason before returning her attention to the screen. “And is that all you have translated?”

Jason shook his head. “I, um, well, I got so engrossed in the whole thing I sort of translated pretty much all of them.”

She glanced up in startlement. “All ten?”

“Well, yeah. And then I did a whole lot of tablets that have been posted on the net. I could translate all of them, despite lacking the matching Mycenean tablets, which made it a lot harder, and there are still a bunch of words I can’t work out, but overall, yeah, I can translate pretty much any Linear A tablet to a fair extent.” He stood up straight and crossed his arms, waiting to be shot down.

The Professor raised her eyebrows and looked at the images on the screen.

“You have really translated both these tablets?”

“Yes, Professor. If you scroll further down the page, you will see a translation of both tablets.”

She studied his translation for a few moments before sitting back for a second, then turned to Jason.

“And you think you can translate pretty much any Linear A tablet?”

Oooh. She was going to test him. All right, in for a penny.

“Yes, Professor. Allowing for words that I have not previously met and for which the meaning cannot be derived by the context, of course. But essentially, yes.”

She leaned back, looked at him, shook her head, then turned to her computer. She called up some website and then some page and crooked her finger at him to come closer. On the screen was a tablet, yes, Linear A.

“Two different noted scholars have each published translations of this tablet. Unsurprisingly there are differences between the two. What can you see?”

Jason leaned forward, and the Professor moved aside. He looked around the desk.

“Can I borrow a piece of paper and a pen?” he asked. Professor Rawlins frowned but quickly produced a pen and then a paper pad from a drawer in her desk. Jason ran through the tablet silently, mouthing the words as he translated the tablet. There were only a few words that weren’t obvious, but he made a show of hesitating here and there and seemingly having to think about this word or that as he worked through the tablet. Finally, he finished and stood back. Professor Rawlins just looked at him for a minute.