Chapter 6

Thera!

Knossos was amazing. And he didn’t mind the much-derided re-construction either. At least the reconstruction gave you some idea of what the place may have looked like. It was sacrilege to say such things openly, of course, at least amongst archaeologists and academics, but he still felt it was better than just a lot of dusty ruins composed of lines of rock barely ankle high like so many Roman ruins. His address to the symposium, carefully prepared with the help of Professor Rawlins and the Head of School, Professor Jones, didn’t come out as stilted as he was afraid it would sound. He had very little experience speaking in public apart from a couple of presentations he did of parts of his first Thesis, and those had been to just a few academics and students at the university. Naturally, he was very nervous and stiff at the start, but he soon relaxed as he got into the spirit of the story, and it appeared to go over well. More importantly, there were no stuff-ups with the accompanying slides and illustrations on the big screen!

On the other hand, it was intimidating to find himself plagued by a collection of noted academics at the formal dinner after a long day of presentations by various speakers. He found it felt very strange being treated like a fellow academic by many of the senior people at the conference. Such an attitude was not universal, though, as several of those who spoke to him did so in a rather derisive manner, while others barely acknowledged his existence. Still, there were plenty of academics present who were friendly to him and genuinely interested in his now much-rehearsed story of how he made the breakthrough. At least no one seemed to doubt the story was true, which was good!

The majority of those present were Greek or people who could speak Greek. He discovered that while he understood Mycenean Greek, modern Greek was not the same as ancient Mycenean Greek. That was despite the fact that modern Greek grew out of classical Greek, which in turn was a descendant of Mycenean Greek. With people speaking modern Greek in his near vicinity, he was soon able to pick up the modern version of the language. It became easier and easier to follow what they were saying and even start replying. He had no doubt that this rapid lucidity with modern Greek was thanks to the spell Urasmian had thrown on him, which seemed to be working just fine! In fact, he became so proficient with the language that he was at some pains to hide his sudden fluency. Given his halting, obviously very limited ability with the language at the start of the day, it could raise too many questions if he was seen talking like a native by the end of the day.

Urasmian’s spell had obviously kept on working, given how his understanding of language had improved dramatically in a very short time, and he couldn’t help but spend time thinking about how great it would be if he could become a magician himself. Worry about that later, he thought to himself and went back to listening to other people’s conversations. He was surprised to discover just how many of the locals thought he had simply gotten lucky and that one of them should have been the one to make the breakthrough. This chagrin was especially obvious from one of the chaps from the University of Athens who had been on the dig. He was the most indignant about Jason making the connection between the two sets of tablets but was very careful to be polite and charming when speaking to Jason in English! Ah, the joys of academic politics. Just like congress, only not so loud!

The chance that there would be a find of two sets of tablets detailing the same things was pure serendipity, but it gave him the means to hide what he was actually doing. And more fool him, he was dropping his thesis after he had spent two and half years of struggling to come up with either positive proof or even clear dis-proof of his original thesis argument that Mycenean invaders had taken over the Minoan administration, adopting their alphabet and spreading it to the mainland cities like Mycenae only after the occupation. After close to eighty thousand words and hundreds of hours of study, he was going to start a new thesis! Sigh.

In the event, he didn’t find it hard to write about his find at all, detailing the supposed steps he followed to make the breakthrough and the implications of the closeness of the two texts. The words flowed and flowed. He compared his translations of other Linear A tablets with the attempted translations and drew up detailed charts showing how his translation always gave readable and consistent results where others didn’t. Chapters on syntax, trying very hard to show a consistent evolution rather than the magically generated jump courtesy of Urasmian.

In the next two months, he did more typing than he’d done in the previous two years, but in the end, his new thesis was done and was submitted for review. His defense of his new thesis proved to be easy as the two scholars were too enthusiastic over his breakthrough to try very hard. Then, after many corrections and several subtle changes, the thesis was finally accepted, and in due course, he was awarded his Doctorate in Minoan studies. And then the furor that filled the academic journals about his breakthrough also filled his days and even his nights, given the international nature of the discussion. Five different offers to print his thesis!

Throughout the period, he had become so focused on getting the new thesis done that he lost track of the others and where they were up to with their own studies. He found he worked best at home in isolation when doing the type, type, type thing, so didn’t see much of them anyway, and they didn’t really grasp what he was doing until the graduation ceremony. There were actually two journalists from archaeology magazines there wanting photos and interviews! Franny had gone back to France after finishing her thesis but had returned barely in time for the graduation ceremony with her parents. Even the boyfriend turned up for the ceremony. Jason’s mother came to support him, but his father was interstate and couldn’t get back, which was disappointing. But hey, life was like that.

Franny’s parents were nice, and even the boyfriend seemed bemused by the journo’s wanting a piece of Jason. Photos and notes were also taken for the University Journal that was published monthly, and he even got a small article on the local TV channel news site, although not their actual TV news. In the following weeks, he spent most of the time responding to emails and phone calls from academics worldwide. In the third week after receiving his doctorate, he received an invitation to speak at a conference on Minoan affairs at Knossos in Crete! Oh, man! And then he realized he would be only a short hop from Santorini. I wonder if that plant still grows there? He thought to himself. He considered that thought at length. Oooh!

“Right.” She said in a flat tone of voice that Jason couldn’t decide about.

He felt she was either offering contmptuous dismissal, or she was too surprised to know how to respond. She pulled up another page that presumably had the two translations by the noted scholars. She read through them quickly, comparing his as she went, and then sat back and stared into space for a moment. She turned to face him.

“You were saying the words as you translated them, weren’t you?”

Jason spluttered. He hadn’t realized it was that obvious.

“Um. Sort of. The, um, the Myceneans copied the Minoan alphabet, sort of, and it seemed to me that the sounds are sort of similar. But I think Linear A is more guttural. Very Slavic or Russian in style. Anyway, that’s neither here nor there. How did I do with the translation?”

The Professor smiled. “The same as one of them here and the other there and completely different in a couple of spots, plus you translated pretty much the whole thing, including the lines they hadn’t managed to do much with. Hmm. I need to think about this.” She glanced up at him. “You were pretty sure of your translation despite how quickly you did it. You hesitated a bit in places, but that should have taken you hours, not a few minutes. Is this tablet one you studied before?”

“No, Professor. I have never seen that one before. I, well, I have just found that the language has sunk in. Mycenean too.” He hesitated and then decided he needed to add some misdirection or something. “It’s been a bit like unraveling one of the phrase puzzles, you know, like on a TV quiz. It’s all sort of vague until you get enough consonants and vowels, and then suddenly, the whole phrase is as clear as day. I think the Mycenean language has been a bit like that for me and now the Linear A as well.” He shrugged.

“I see.” She shook her head and didn’t look like she believed him. “I am not sure what is going on, but what do you want to do?”

She’d clearly decided to leave his unexpected translation skill to another time. Jason relaxed a bit. He hadn’t realized quite how tense he had been waiting for her response to his discovery.

“I thought that I could change my thesis to a study of Linear A and that I could publish the two sets of tablets and the translation of the Linear A ones alongside the Linear B tablets and make some comparisons and also point out the Semitic influence in the Minoan language.”

She considered this for a few moments and then smiled.

“Yes. We can do that. But first, we will need to get permission from the Archaeologists on the dig, plus probably their Faculty’s head. All that could take a while.”

Jason nodded in understanding. He did have some idea of the paperwork that would be involved.

“Will you help me?”

She smiled. “Of course. That is what a supervisor is for. Right. So, this is what we had best do first….”

Two hours later, they had sent numerous emails and worked out an outline for the new thesis. Finally escaping, he staggered down to the Refectory for a badly needed cup of coffee. When he finally made it up to the study room, most of the others had their heads down in whatever they were studying and barely nodded acknowledgment of his presence. He was bursting with his news, and they all pretty much ignored him! All right. See if he cared! He would ignore them right back. He found he was now badly scattered in his head and couldn’t study properly with the thought that he could publish the first translation of Linear A! If, in fact, he could offer a complete breakthrough with the language, he would have to be careful not to be seen to know too much. The result of the spell Urasmian had thrown on him had to be explained away by more rational means!

Sorry – no post this week – been in hospital and not well – hopefully normal transmission will resume next week
Taroniah at Bay is at the editor – I was hoping we’d get it out this month but otherwise early August.
Kyron the Rescuer is being written.

Peter