Linear B is a writing system that used symbols to represent syllables. It was used to write Mycenaean Greek, the earliest known form of the Greek language. This writing system was used before the Greek alphabet. The oldest examples are from about 1450 BC. It was based on an earlier system called Linear A, which has not been fully understood. Linear A may have been used to write the Minoan language, just as the later Cypriot syllabary was used to write Greek. Linear B was mostly found in palace records at places like Knossos, Kydonia, Pylos, Thebes, and Mycenae. It stopped being used after the Mycenaean civilization fell during the Late Bronze Age collapse. The time that followed, called the Greek Dark Ages, has no evidence of writing.
Linear B was solved in 1952 by Michael Ventris, an English architect and self-taught linguist. His work was based on research by Alice Kober, an American classicist. Linear B is the only Bronze Age Aegean script that has been deciphered. Other scripts, like Linear A, Cypro-Minoan, and Cretan hieroglyphic, remain unreadable.
Linear B uses about 87 symbols that represent syllables and more than 100 symbols that represent objects or items. These symbols, called ideograms, do not represent sounds and are not used as words in sentences.
Most Linear B texts were used for administrative purposes, especially at Mycenaean palace sites. Many clay tablets were written by a small number of scribes: 45 in Pylos (on the west coast of the Peloponnese in southern Greece) and 66 in Knossos (on Crete). Linear B symbols also appeared on trade items like amphorae. After the palaces were destroyed, the script was no longer used.
Script
Linear B has about 200 symbols, divided into syllabic symbols with sound values and ideograms with meaning values. The naming and shapes of these symbols were standardized through a series of international meetings starting in Paris in 1956. After the third meeting in 1961 at the Wingspread Conference Center in Racine, Wisconsin, a standard proposed mainly by Emmett L. Bennett, Jr. became known as the Wingspread Convention. This standard was later adopted by the Comité International Permanent des Études Mycéniennes (CIPEM: Permanent International Committee of Mycenaean Studies), which became affiliated with UNESCO in 1970. Meetings continue: the 13th occurred in 2010 in Paris.
Many symbols in Linear B are similar to those in Linear A. However, Linear A uses an unknown language, and it is unclear if similar symbols had the same sound values.
A grid created during the decipherment of Linear B by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick shows how syllabic symbols represent sounds. (Note that "q" represents labialized velar stops [ɡʷ, kʷ, kʷʰ], not the uvular stop of the IPA, while "j" represents the IPA voiced palatal approximant [j], similar to the letter "y" in English words like "yes" and "yoke".)
Initial consonants are in the leftmost column; vowels are in the top row beneath the title. The sound that a symbol might represent is listed next to the symbol, along with Bennett’s identifying number for the symbol (marked with an asterisk, as used by Ventris and Chadwick). If the sound of a symbol is uncertain, Bennett’s number is used to identify it. Symbols on tablets and sealings often vary from each other and from the representations in the grid. The reasons for these variations and possible differences in meaning are still being studied.
In addition to the grid, the first edition of Documents in Mycenaean Greek included other symbols called "homophones" because they looked similar to other syllables and were transcribed that way. For example, pa 2 and pa 3 were thought to sound like pa. Many of these were corrected in the second edition, which stated, "It may be taken as axiomatic that there are no true homophones." The unconfirmed identifications of 34 and 35 as ai 2 and ai 3 were removed, and pa 2 became qa.
Some symbol values remain unknown because there is not enough evidence about them. Note that 34 and 35 are mirror images of each other, but it is not clear if this visual relationship reflects a sound relationship.
CIPEM inherited the authority to decide which symbols are "confirmed" and how to officially represent different symbol categories. In editions of Mycenaean texts, symbols whose values are not confirmed by CIPEM are always written as numbers with an asterisk (e.g., *64). CIPEM also assigns numerical identifiers, and until this happens, new symbols (or unclear symbols) are written as a bullet point in square brackets: [•].
Symbols are approximations, as each can represent about 70 different sound combinations based on rules and conventions. The grid shows a system of monosyllabic symbols of the type V/CV. The 14 or so special values tested the limits of the grid model, but Chadwick concluded that syllabic symbols can still be considered monosyllabic.
Possible exceptions include the two diphthongs, 𐁀 (ai) and 𐁁 (au), as in 𐁀 𐀓 𐀠 𐀴 𐀍 (ai-ku-pi-ti-jo, Aiguptios) and 𐁁 𐀐 𐀷 (au-ke-wa, Augewās). A diphthong is two vowels combined into one sound and might be typed as just V. For example, 𐁉 (rai) in 𐀁 𐁉 𐀺 (e-rai-wo, elaiwon) is of the type CV. Diphthongs are otherwise treated as two monosyllables: 𐀀 𐀫 𐀄 𐀨 (a-ro-u-ra, arourans). Vowel lengths and accents are not marked.
Symbols like 𐁌 (Twe), 𐁍 (two), 𐁃 (dwe), 𐁄 (dwo), 𐁅 (nwa), and possibly 𐁘 (swi) and 𐁙 (swa) may start with labialized consonants, not two consonants, even though they may alternate with two-symbol forms. Similarly, 𐁈 (rya), 𐁊 (ryo), and 𐁋 (tya) begin with palatalized consonants, not two consonants.
Some consonants are not written but are understood to be present, such as word-initial s- and -w before a consonant, as in pe-ma (sperma). The symbol pe, usually representing "pe" in the grid, is here used for "sper." This followed established rules. Syllable-final -l, -m, -n, -r, and -s are also not written, and only word-final velars are noted with plene writing: a-to-ro-qo (anthrōq os). Here, a, usually representing a vowel, is used as "an" and could also represent "al," "am," "ar," etc.
In cases of clusters of two or three consonants, some are not written but are understood to be present.
Archives
Inscriptions in Linear B have been found on tablets, stirrup jars, and other objects. Two types of tablets have been discovered: "palm-leaf" shaped tablets, with writing along the long side, and larger "page" shaped tablets, divided into multiple lines. "Palm-leaf" tablets usually record one transaction, while "page" tablets summarize several transactions.
Inscriptions are sorted and grouped based on where they were found during excavations.
Another 170 Linear B inscriptions have been found on various vessels, bringing the total to about 6,058 known inscriptions. Most vessel markings come from Inscribed Stirrup Jars, which were mostly found at Thebes, Mycenae, Tiryns, and Khania.
For many years, scholars have worked to piece together tablet fragments, making the tablets and their information more complete while reducing the total number of tablets.
The oldest Linear B tablets may be those from the Room of Chariot Tablets at Knossos, dating to the second half of the 15th century BC. The Kafkania pebble, though from an earlier time, is not genuine. The earliest mainland inscription is a clay tablet found at Iklaina, dating to between 1400 and 1350 BC.
Tablets are divided into groups based on the most common symbol used. For example, the E group deals with grain (gra). The X group includes tablets with no symbols, the W group includes labels and sealings, and the Z group includes inscribed objects that are not tablets. If a subgroup can be identified based on shape, vocabulary, format, or writing style, it is marked with a lowercase letter (e.g., the Er group).
An amber seal with Linear B symbols was found in 2000 near Kranzberg, southern Germany. Its authenticity is debated.
The Aegean region contributed many early Greek words related to daily life, such as terms for tools and common items. The sequence and spread of Cretan hieroglyphs, Linear A, and Linear B—three distinct writing systems used in Bronze Age Crete, the Aegean islands, and mainland Greece—are summarized as follows:
The main archives for Linear B are linked to stages of Late Minoan and Helladic pottery.
Sixteen tablets found at the Megaron in Pylos are thought to date to LHIIIA.
The Knossos archive was dated by Arthur Evans to around 1400 BC, when a fire destroyed the palace and preserved the clay tablets. He placed this event in the LM II period. This view changed when Carl Blegen excavated Pylos in 1939 and found Linear B tablets. These were burned during a fire that destroyed Pylos around 1200 BC, at the end of LHIIIB. After Linear B was deciphered by Michael Ventris in 1952, questions arose about Evans’s dating. Blegen noted similarities between 1200 BC Pylos and 1400 BC Knossos and suggested reexamining the Knossos evidence.
Investigations later found problems with Evans’s records. His assistant, Duncan Mackenzie, had kept notes that did not match Evans’s reports. Disagreements also existed about the tablet locations and layers. The results were published in On the Knossos Tablets, which included two works: Leonard Robert Palmer’s The Find-Places of the Knossos Tablets and John Boardman’s The Date of the Knossos Tablets, representing Blegen’s and Evans’s views. This debate became known as the "Palmer–Boardman dispute." No resolution has been widely accepted.
Major cities and palaces used Linear B to record the distribution of goods such as wool, sheep, and grain, often given to religious groups. Some tablets also mention military matters.
Like cuneiform tablets, many Linear B tablets were preserved when the buildings they were stored in burned, baking them and keeping them intact.
Discovery and decipherment
The Greeks from the historical period could not read Linear B, but some ancient writers mentioned its symbols. For example, Plutarch wrote about Spartan king Agesilaus II (r. 400–360 BC) sending a bronze tablet with "many letters marvellously old, for nothing could be made of them" to Egyptian priests, hoping they could understand the symbols.
British archaeologist Arthur Evans, who worked at the Ashmolean Museum, received a sealstone from Crete in 1886. Greville Chester gave it to him, and the stone had writing Evans thought was Mycenaean. Heinrich Schliemann had seen similar signs before but did not clearly recognize them as writing. In his major work on Mycenae, he wrote, "of combinations of signs resembling inscriptions I have hitherto only found three or four …." In 1893, Evans bought more sealstones in Athens and confirmed they came from Crete. The next year, he noticed the same script on other items in the Ashmolean. In 1894, he traveled to Crete to search for the script. At Knossos, he saw a double axe symbol on a wall and believed it was connected to the writing. Later, he found more stones used as amulets by Cretan women, called γαλόπετρες "milk-stones," thought to help with breast milk production.
Starting in 1894, Evans wrote about the signs in The Journal of Hellenic Studies. His first article was titled "Primitive Pictographs and a Prae-Phoenician Script from Crete." In these writings, he separated "pictographic writing" from "a linear system of writing." He did not clearly define these terms, causing confusion later. In 1898, he wrote, "These linear forms indeed consist of simple geometrical figures which unlike the more complicated pictorial class were little susceptible to modification," and "That the linear or quasi-alphabetic signs … were in the main ultimately derived from the rudely scratched line pictures belonging to the infancy of art can hardly be doubted."
Meanwhile, Evans worked to buy land at Knossos. He created the Cretan Exploration Fund, using only his own money at first. By 1896, the fund had purchased one-fourth of Kephala Hill, where the ruins were located. However, he could not get an excavation permit from the Ottoman government. He returned to Britain. In January 1897, the Christian population of Crete rebelled against the Ottoman Empire. The last Ottoman troops left the island in December 1898. That year, Evans and his friends completed buying the site, with more fund contributors. In 1899, a new Cretan Republic was formed. Once he received permission, excavation began on 23 March 1900.
According to Evans's report to the British School at Athens, on 5 April 1900, workers found the first large group of Linear B tablets in a wooden box inside a terracotta bathtub. More caches were later found, including over 350 tablets in the Room of the Chariot Tablets. The tablets were 4.5 cm to 19.5 cm long and 1.2 cm to 7.2 cm wide. They had horizontal lines where text was written in about 70 characters. In his earliest report, Evans noted, "a certain number of quasi-pictorial characters also occur which seem to have an ideographic or determinative meaning."
Excavation ended by 2 June 1900. Evans reported that only a small number of tablets were fully preserved. Damage occurred due to rain, crumbling, and workers discarding them. A report to the Royal Anthropological Institute in September 1900 began using terms like "palace of Knossos" and "palace of Minos." The tablets were now called a "linear script," different from "hieroglyphic or conventionalized pictographic script." The linear script had characters that were "of a free, upright, European character" and "seem to have been for the most part syllabic." Evans again mentioned ideographic characters: "a certain number are unquestionably ideographic or determinative."
After 1900, Evans focused on excavations at Knossos and studied tablets, planning a book called Scripta Minoa. A year before its first volume was published, he hinted that the linear script might actually be two different scripts.
In Scripta Minoa I (1909), Evans wrote that the discovery of the Phaistos Disc in 1908 led him to delay the book’s publication so he could include the disc. He also added unpublished tablets from Hagia Triada, written in a "Class A" linear script. The Knossos tablets were of "Class B," which Evans may have only seen in other locations. He described differences between the scripts as "type" or "form of script," such as how characters were shaped. For example, he noted that "the clay documents belonging to Class A show a certain approximation in their forms to those presenting the hieroglyphic inscriptions … the system of numerals is also in some respects intermediate between that of the hieroglyphic documents and that of the linear Class B." The first volume covered "the Hieroglyphic and Primitive Linear Classes" in three parts: "pre-Phoenician Scripts of Crete," "Pictorial Script," and "the Phaistos Disk." Plans for additional volumes on Linear A and B were made, but Evans ran out of time. He became involved in war and politics in the Balkans. When he returned to Knossos, completing the palace excavations took priority. His major work, Palace of Minos (1935), included descriptions of tablets. He died in 1941, shortly after Nazi forces invaded Crete.
The Knossos tablets remained in the museum at Irakleion, Crete, where many were missing. The second volume of Scripta Minoa contained notes by Evans and materials from Clarendon Press. In 1939, Carl Blegen discovered the Pylos Tablets, increasing pressure to finish Scripta Minoa II. After Evans’s death, Alice Kober, an assistant to John Myres, encouraged Myres to return from retirement to complete the work. Emmett L. Bennett, Jr., added more transcriptions. The second volume was published in 195
Unicode
Linear B was included in the Unicode Standard in April 2003 when version 4.0 was released.
The Unicode block for the Linear B Syllabary covers the range U+10000–U+1007F. The Unicode block for the Linear B Ideograms covers the range U+10080–U+100FF. The Unicode block for the related Aegean Numbers covers the range U+10100–U+1013F.
Many fonts support the characters used in Linear B.