Glossary Society, writing and trade
Arcado-Cypriot
Also called: Arcado-Cypriot Greek
The group of ancient Greek dialects shared by Arcadia in the Peloponnese and by Cyprus, and the form of Greek written in the Cypriot Syllabary.
Arcadian and Cypriot Greek share features found in no other Greek dialect, although landlocked Arcadia lies hundreds of miles from Cyprus. The standard explanation is that both descend from a form of Greek spoken in the Late Bronze Age Peloponnese, close to the language of the Linear B tablets. Migrants carried it to Cyprus around the end of the Bronze Age, while on the mainland it survived in the Arcadian mountains.
The dialect is one of the strongest pieces of evidence that Greek speakers really did settle on Cyprus, since pottery and burial customs alone give a less clear picture. See writing and literacy and the Mycenaeans and Cyprus.
Full entry: Writing and Literacy in Ancient Cyprus
Related terms
- Linear B
The syllabic script of the Mycenaean palaces, used to write an early form of Greek on clay tablets and deciphered by Michael Ventris in 1952.
- Syllabary
A writing system whose signs each stand for a whole syllable, such as ka, pe or to.
- Obelos
A long metal roasting spit, often found in sets in rich Iron Age tombs (plural obeloi); the Greek coin name obol derives from it.
- Aegean
The sea between Greece and Turkey and the lands around it, including Crete, the Cyclades and mainland Greece, home of the Minoans and Mycenaeans.