Missing sheep: On the meaning and wider significance of 0 in knossos sheep records

The Annual of the British School at Athens

Volumn 94, Issue , 1999, Pages 145-166

  Halstead, Paul ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 85009636640     PISSN: 00682454     EISSN: 20452403     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0068245400000551     Document Type: Article

References (86)

1. J. T. Killen, ‘The textile industries at Pylos and Knossos’. in T. G. Palaima and C. W. Shelmerdine (eds), Pylos Comes Alive (New York, 1984), 49-63 id., ‘The Linear B tablets and the Mycenaean economy’, in A. Morpurgo Davies and Y. Duhoux (eds). Linear B: A 1984 Survey (Louvain-la-Neuve, 1985), 241-305.
2. J. T. Killen, ‘The wool industry of Crete in the Late Bronze Age’. BSA 59 (1964). 1-15 : J.-P. Olivier, ‘La série Dn de Cnossos’, SMEA 2 (1967), 71-93 id., ‘KN: Da-Dg’. in J.-P. Olivier and T. G. Palaima (eds), Texts, Tablets and Scribes (Minos, supp. vol. 10; Salamanca, 1988). 219-67.
3. Killen 1964 (n. 3); P. Halstead, ‘Lost sheep? On the Linear B evidence for breeding flocks at Mycenaean Knossos and Pylos’, Minos. 25-26 (1993), 343-65 (= Halstead 1993 a).
4. Killen 1964 (n. 3).
5. Set Dk(2) comprises 26 texts by scribal hand 119 and one-text (Dk[2] 8403) which is only tentatively assigned to hand 119. Of the former: 14 include a reference to ku-ta-to: a further eight refer to the collector da-mi-ni-jo, who is almost exclusively associated with this toponym in the Da-Dg texts (Olivier 1988 [11. 3], 252); Dk(2) 1491 has no preserved toponym or collector name, but cites the herder wa-du-na-ro, who recurs on De 1118 in association with both ku-ta-to and da-mi-ni-jo; the three remaining texts have no preserved names.
6. Killen 1964 (n. 3), 13 n. 63b: Halstead 1993 a (n. 4): id., ‘Banking on livestock: indirect storage in Greek agriculture’. Bulletin on Sumerian Agriculture, 7 (1993), 63-75 (= Halstead 1993 b)
7. Killen 1964 (n. 3): id., ‘Records of sheep and goats at Mycenaean Knossos and Pylos’. Bulletin on Sumerian Agriculture, 7 (1993), 209-18 (= Killen 1993 a)
8. That the D texts are not records of tribute to the palace (M. Ventris and J. Chadwick, Documents in Mycenaean Greek (Cambridge. 1956)); was effectively demonstrated by Killen 1964 (n. 3). An annual tribute of 80,000 100,000 adult sheep, including more than 65,000 wethers, requires the existence of more than 130,000 breeding ewes (assuming an optimistic 100% lambing rate and an even sex ratio among lambs). The wethers were at least two years old, being distinguished from lambs and yearlings (J. T. Killen. ‘Some adjuncts to the SHEEP ideogram on Knossos tablets’. Eranos, 61 (1963). 69-93). so an annual tribute of 65,000 + wethers would imply that at least 65,000+ male yearlings and 65,000+ first-year male lambs were concurrently being raised for future payments. Wit the addition of ewe lambs to restock breeding flocks and with allowance for sterility in breeding ewes and natura mortality in mortality in ewes, lambs and wether, a population of at least 500,000 sheep is implied―well in exces of a recent total for central Crete closer to 300,000 (Killen 1985 (n. 2 283 n. 37). The lack of any texts recording the basis of which such hypothetical tribute was calculated is also consistent with Killen's contention that the Da-Dg text are flock census records.
9. (Killen 1993 a (n. 8).
10. e.g. Halstead 1993 b in, 7-69.
11. Killen 1993 a (n. 8), 211.
12. Killen.
13. Killen 1963 (n. 9); id. 1993 a (n. 8).
14. In the texts under discussion, pe probably refers to sheep roughly in the middle of their second year.
15. Olivier 1988 (n. 3), 264.
16. Killen 1993 a (n.8).
17. Id. 1964 (n. 3), 5.
18. M. R. Jarman, ‘Human influence on the development of the Cretan mammalian fauna’, in D. S. Reese (ed.), Pleistocene and Holocen Fauna of Crete and its First Settlers (Madison, 1996), 211-29.
19. Inter alia, a 4% mortality rate among wethers would imply an impossible average life expectancy, after drafting into the wool flocks probably at the age of 2 years (n. 9), of 25 years!
20. e.g. J. K. Campbell, Honour, family, and Patronage (Oxford, 1964): H. A. Koster. The Ecology of Pastoralism in Relation to Changing Patterns of Land Use in the Northest Peloponnese (PhD thesis. University of Pennsylvania. 1977 : V. Nitsiakos. A Vlach Pastoral Community in Greece: the Effects of its Incorporation into the National Economy and Society (Ph.D. thesis. University of Cambridge. 1985).
21. Olivier 1967 (n. 3). 82-3 n. 21.
22. This argument would collapse if the Da-Dg census took place shortly after flocks were issued to herders, especially if the intervening period was characterized by mild temperatures and good-quality pasture. The fact that some flock records include deficits. however, which are not reflected in a reduced wool target (Killen 1964 (n. 3; 10. perhaps indicates that the Da-Dg census was intended to monitor the return of stock to the palace at or towards the end of the herding contract.
23. Cf. C. R. W. Spedding, Sheep Production and Grazing Management (2nd edn.; London, 1970), 197 MAFF, Sheep Breeding and Management (Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries Bulletin 166; London, 1956), 49.
24. Halstead 1993 a (n. 4), 362 fig. 1. For example, of the 82 Db texts (J. T. Killen and J.-P. Olivier, The Knossos Tablets (fifth edn.; Minos, supp. vol. 11; Salamanca, 1989), 74-82), which comprise only wethers and ewes, wethers predominate in 66 flocks and ewes in six. while two flocks have equal numbers and six are too incomplete to be assessed.
25. Again, of 76 Db texts sufficiently complete for analysis (This argument would collapse if the Da-Dg census took place shortly after flocks were issued to herders, especially if the intervening period was characterized by mild temperatures and good-quality pasture.): the addition of odd numbers of wethers and ewes makes up a multiple of 50 (usually a multiple of 100) in 61 flocks and a multiple of 10 (but not 50) in a further 7 flocks; the addition of wethers and ewes which are already multiples of ten rounds these up to multiples of 50 in two out of three flocks; the addition of 50 wethers and 50 ewes rounds two flocks up to 100; addition produces an odd number in only three flocks (Db 1110: 190 wethers + 5 ewes = 195; Db 1250: 99 + 7 = 106; Db 7164: 100 + 11 [?] = 111[?]).
26. Olivier 1988 (n. 3), 260-4.
27. Killen and Olivier 1989, (n. 26).
28. The fragmentary Dv texts contain at least 39 references to yearling, old. or deficit sheep. of which at least 18 are associated with ewes and perhaps as many as 15 with wethers only. On the other hand, isolated references to wethers are also very common (far commoner than references to ewes) and so these fragments would, at worst, moderate rather than undermine the strong association indicated by TABLE 2 between mixed wether+ewe flocks and yearlings. old sheep and deficit sheep. In fact, the frequency of wether-only flocks has been underestimated by the erroneous classification of three Da-type texts as (Oliver 1988 (n. 3), 259).
29. Yearlings occur in odd numbers in 38 flocks (78%) and multiples of ten in 11 flocks (22%); the figures for old sheep are 50 flocks (93%) and 4 flocks (7%), and for deficit sheep 38 flocks (62%) and 23 flocks (38%). There is an element of subjectivity in the decision (based on Killen and Olivier 1989 (n. 26)) as to whether an individual figure is complete enough to he classifiable in this way. but the predominance of odd numbers is unambiguous.
30. Killen 1964 (n. 3).
31. L. Godart, ‘Les ressources des palais mycéniens de Cnossos et Pylos’, Ét. Cl. 45 (1977). 31-42.
32. P. Halstead, ‘Linear B evidence for the management of sheep breeding at Knossos: production targets and deficits in the KN Dl(1) and Do sets’. Minos, 31-2 (1999).
33. Ostensibly (TABLE 2 b), 124 out of 363 flocks contained only wethers and examination of the Dv fragments also makes clear that the abundance of wether-only flocks is not an artefact of preservation (n. 30).
34. Alternatively, it might be argued that the Da and Db-Dg texts were written at different times: the former at the beginning of the herding year to record the issuing of sheep by the palace; the latter towards the end of the year to monitor the return of these sheep to the palace. Provided the earlier Da records were discarded as soon as the corresponding Db-Dg texts were written, this hypothesis would still be compatible with the good correspondence between these individual flock records and the Dn totalling texts (Olivier 1967 [n. 3]: id. 1988 [n. 3]). On the other hand, the fact that Da flocks tend to be larger than Db-Dg flocks (below) does not support the seasonal interpretation. The two groups of texts also have similar proportions of collector and non-collector flocks (Appendix 1) and a similar range of toponyms (Olivier 1988 (n. 3)). so there is no administrative logic behind such a seasonal division. If accepted, however, this hypothesis would actually strengthen the argument that herders drafted ewes. yearlings, and old sheep into palatial wool flocks to replace deficit wethers.
35. Killen 1993 a (n. 8), 211.
36. e.g. Campbell 1964 (n. 22); Koster 1977 (n. 22).
37. Erasures may be similarly linked to the delivery of yearlings in place of missing lambs and ewes in the Dl(I) set (Halstead 1999 (n. 34)).
38. J. T. Killen, ‘Thebes sealings, Knossos tablets and Mycenaean state banquets’, BICS 39 (1994), 67-84.
39. e.g. 100 o sheep in De 1109; 50 o sheep in Dc 1303, De 1301. and De 1648; 50 pe sheep in De 1117.
40. Cf. Killen 1964 (n. 3), 9 n. 49.
41. Cf. M. Ryder, ‘Sheep and goat husbandry with particular reference to textile fibre and milk production’, Bulletin on Sumerian Agriculture, 7 1993:, 9-32.
42. Killen 1964 (n. 3).
43. e.g. MAFF 1956 (n. 25), 49-50.
44. Halstead 1993 a (n. 4), 361 n. 39.
45. J. Bennet, ‘The structure of the Linear B administration at Knossos’, AJA 89 (1985), 231 49, at p. 242 10.2307/504327.
46. Halstead 1999 (n. 34).
47. Halstead.
48. E. Vardaki pers. comm.: Y. Hamilakis pers. comm.
49. M. L. Ryder, Sheep and Man (London. 1983). 696.
50. Id., pers. comm.
51. P. Halstead, field notes.
52. Id., ‘Mortality models and milking: problems of uniformitarianism. optimally and equifinality reconsidered’. Anthropozoologica, 27, 1998.
53. P. de Fidio, ‘Mycènes et Prochc-Orient, ou le théorème des modèles’, in J.-P. Olivier (ed.), Mykenaïka: actes du 9e colloque internationale sur les textes mycéniens et égéens (BCH supp. 25: Paris, 1992), 173-96; P Haistead, ‘Agriculture in the bronze age Aegean: towards a model of palatial economy’, in B. Wells (ed.), Agriculture in Ancient Greece (Stockholm, 1992), 105-16; J. T. Killen, ‘The role of the state in wheat and olive production m Mycenaean Crete’, Aevum: rassegna di scienze storiche linguistiche e filologtche (in press).
54. P. Halstead, field notes.
55. S. Payne, ‘Kill-off patterns in sheep and goats: the mandibles from Asvan Kale’, Anat. Stud. 23 (1973), 281-303 10.2307/3642547 : P. Haistead 1998 (n. 55).
56. P. Halstead, field notes.
57. V. Geist, Mountain Sheep (Chicago, 1971). 254 : Ryder 1993 (n. 44).
58. Cf. MAFF 1956 (n. 25), 52.
59. J. T. Killen, ‘The oxen's names on the Knossos Ch tablets’. Minos, 27-8 (1993), 101-7 (= Killen 1993 b)
60. Killen 1985 (n. 2); A. Morpurgo Davies, ‘Terminology of power and terminology of work in Greek and Linear B’, in E. Risch and H. Mühlestein (eds), Colloquium Mycenaeum (Neuchâtel, 1979), 87-108.
61. P. Halstead, ‘Pastoralism or household herding? Problems of scale and specialization in early Greek animal husbandry’, World Archaeology, 28 (1996), 20-42 10.1080/00438243.1996.9980329.
62. P. Halstead 1993 a (n. 4).
63. Cf. Killen 1993 a (n. 8), 212.
64. J. T. Killen, ‘Administering a Mycenaean kingdom: some taxing problems’. BICS 41 (1996), 147-8; P. Halstead, ‘Towards a model of Mycenaean palatial mobilization’, in M. Galaty and W. Parkinson (eds), Rethinking Mycenaean Palaces (Los Angeles, in press).
65. S. Hiller, ‘Dependent personnel in Mycenaean texts’, in M. Heltzer and E. Lipinski (eds), Society and Economy in the Eastern Mediterranean (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 23; Louvain-la-Neuve, 1988), 53-68, at p. 61; E. D. Foster, ‘The flax impost at Pylos and Mycenaean landholding’. Minos, 17 (1981), 67-121, at pp. 98-106.
66. e.g. J. T. Killen, ‘PY An I’, Minos, 18 (1983), 71-9.
67. Killen 1993 a (n. 8), 215-6.
68. e.g. Halstead 1992 (n. 56).
69. Killen 1993 b (n. 62); id., ‘A-ma e-pi-ke-re’, Minos, 29-30 (1995), 329-33: id. in press (n. 56): de Fidio 1992 (n. 56); Halstead 1992 (n. 56).
70. There were something like 80,000 wool sheep and there are hints that one wool sheep in three or more may have been replaced annually (above).
71. Killen 1994 (n. 40).
72. J. Moody, ‘The Minoan palace as a prestige artefact’, in R. Hägg and N. Marinatos (eds), The Function of the Minoan Palaces (Stockholm, 1987), 235-41; J. C. Wright, ‘Empty cups and empty jugs: the social role of wine in Minoan and Mycenaean societies’, in P. E. McGovern. S. J. Fleming, and S. H. Katz (eds), The Origins and History of Wine (Philadelphia, 1993), 287-309 Y. Hamilakis, ‘Wine, oil and the dialectics of power in bronze age Crete: a review of the evidence’, OJA 15 (1996), 1-32.
73. Halstead 1993 b (n. 7).
74. Olivier 1967 (n. 3).
75. J. T. Killen, ‘Linear B a-ko-ra-ja/-jo’, in A. Morpurgo Davies and W. Meid (eds), Studies in Greek, Italic and Indo-European Linguistics Offered to L. R. Palmer (Innsbruck, 1976), 117-25; id. 1984 in. 2); id., ‘Epigraphy and interpretation in Knossos WOMAN and CLOTH records’, in Olivier and Palaima 1988 (n. 3), 167-83.
76. L. Godart, ‘Les tablettes de la série Co de Cnossos’. Minos, 12 (1971), 418-24; id. 1977 (n. 33); id., ‘Les collecteurs dans le monde égéeii’, in Olivier 1992 (n. 56), 257-83; Killen 1976 (n. 79); Halstead 1993 a (n. 4).
77. Killen 1994 (n. 4).
78. Killen and Olivier 1989 (n. 26).
79. Olivier 1988 (n. 3).
80. Halslead 1999 (n. 34).
81. Olivier 1988 (n. 3), 235-9.
82. Olivier.
83. Olivier.
84. Olivier 1967 (n. 3); id., ‘La série Dn de Cnossos reconsidérée’. Minos, 13 (1972). 22-8; id. 1988 (n. 3).
85. Olivier 1967 (n. 3).
86. Olivier 1988 (n. 3), 264.