23VI53
 
	In addition to you and me, the following are at present 
actively engaged in juggling with the Linear B phonetic values 
or in looking at the language from the viewpoint of comparative 
philology:-
	John Chadwick at Cambridge,
	Prof. L. R. Palmer, 1 Canterbury Square, Oxford
		(with undergraduate George Huxley, Magdalen College)
	Arne Furumark, S:t Johannesgatan 24, Uppsala 
		(with Gudmund Björck) 
	Ernst Sittig at Tübingen .

Myres seems to look at our work encouragingly, but would probably
be the last person to suggest an active collaboration with us for the 
future.
	Having had the first draft of phonetic values from me, I 
don't think any of them are in a position, or likely (except perhaps 
Furumark) to rush into print with a wholesale book on the tablets. 
While there's no reason why any of us shouldn't write articles 
about whatever aspect of the problem we like, or on which we have 
made a contribution, I think there's a lot to be said for writing 
a joint book (or at least an agreed summary of joint results)(mino-
rity views included), provided that no irreducible differences of 
opinion have meanwhile arisen.
	If you think that this is a possible idea, I would be very 
glad to have your comments on the way in which one might begin to 
prepare the ground in advance; and I will discuss it with the others.
	Even if a team of more than 3 proves impracticable, I 
think that Chadwick and I would find it very difficult to write 
anything ourselves without your collaboration on problems of text, 
ideograms etc.
	At the present moment the most useful form of preparation 
seems to be the circulation, for comment, of contributions to the 
up-to-date state of the

1) glossary, including personal names 
2) syllabic grid
3) meaning of the ideograms

(on the signary and the text, the ball seems entirely in your court).
	The most thorny question is to what extent everyone might 
want their own identifications logged up to them, and how this 
invidious scoring, if required, should be filed, and presented in 
published form. To some extent a division of labour could be 
effected (and a charge of exploitation avoided) if sections of the 
book were put in final form by different people.
	I'm getting ready to move into our new house (I'll send 
you a note of the new address when it happens), and this is taking
a fair amount of time.
	One thing I may do, while waiting for more tablets, is to 
look more closely at the ideograms (on which I am sure you have 
many ideas of your own), both from the point of view of the archaeo-
logical evidence, and also the analogy of contemporary tablets, 
particularly the Nuzi ones (general discussion in Starr, NUZI vol. I, 
pp 528-544, "Epigraphic evidences of material culture"). There's 
a close parallel to the upper lines of the Knossos CHARIOT tablets, 
apparently lists of obscure objects with the materials from which they 
are made, in the similar descriptions of charioteers' equipment
at Nuzi (where a lot of the incomprehensible words are Hurrian terms);
in the reference to parts of the equipment which are missing (cf
_-_-_?); and in the counting of articles of chariot equipment
in pairs, istennuty, (if Furumark and I are right in suggesting that
_- may mean "pair" ( _-_-_-_-_-_ ?) and _ "single" ( _-_-_-_-_-_ ?).
	I also enclose the drawing of one of our slides. The compari-
son of frequencies are really not properly comparable, but it seemed 
necessary to make some use of the statistical material.

	With best wishes,
		Michael Ventris