The Mycenaean World by John Chadwick

This book lives at the edge of history and pre-history and underscores the great challenges for the historian who tries to venture before the advent of extensive written records.

Although Linear B, the script used by the Minoans and the Mycenaeans, was deciphered in 1952, this book, published in 1976, is necessarily filled with conjecture and educated guesses.

Linear B in this context provides a very incomplete picture because the language it conveys is an ancient form of Greek, not perfectly understood itself.  

Also, the Linear B writing which has been uncovered only presents the very recent documentation.  Apparently short-term records were recorded originally on clay tablets (to which we have access), then transferred to a "better" material (paper, papyrus, hide?) for long-term keeping.  In a sad twist of fate, the "better" materials disappeared far earlier than the clay tablets.

Another challenge is that the majority of the tablets came from palace records at Pylos and Knossos.  Royal records provide important insight, but far from a total picture of Mycenaean civilization as a whole.

In other words, we have a very incomplete, short-term, record of Mycenaean civilization, from the perspective of royal houses, void of everyday life.

Given these limitations I skimmed many sections of the book, rather than giving a close read to pages filled with heavy speculation.

Interestingly this situation provides insight into how historians think and work as they struggle mightily to paint a picture from such incomplete documentation.

And it feels good to know that I'm going back to the very beginning of Greek history.