Il filo della (dis)continuità: il logogramma lana tra Minoico e Miceneo. Analisi paleografica di un’eredità culturale

This paper aims to give an overview on the Mycenaean logogram B145/lana 𐂝, indicating “wool” in administrative documents, inherited in Linear B (LB) from the Minoan A559 𐛢, a Linear A (LA) monogram. This inheritance presents both aspects of continuity, such as in overall shape and function, and discontinuity, in particular in the way the sign works inside the texts and the way it is perceived and written by the scribes. Furthermore, the reading of the Minoan monogram A559 𐛢, ma+ru, has been interpreted as the substrate source behind the Greek term μαλλός. The ambiguity of the central section of B145/lana 𐂝 (readable as “ro” or “re”) has even led to the idea of a Greek graphic adaptation of the lexical loan. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to examine the attestations of the sign in the two Linear scripts and, through a palaeographical analysis of B145/lana 𐂝, to observe how this cultural inheritance was received and transformed by the Mycenaean society.