Linear B

File:Linear B (Mycenaean Greek) NAMA Tablette 7671.jpg

Tablet with writing in Linear B script

Linear B is an ancient script that was used to write Mycenaean Greek, the oldest known form of Ancient Greek, as has been proved by Michael Ventris in the early 1950s. Linear B came before the Greek alphabet by several centuries.

The script is based on Linear A, a script that cannot be read today. The oldest texts written in Linear B date from about 1450 BC. Linear B was found mainly in the palace archives at Knossos, Cydonia, Pylos, Thebes and Mycenae. The writing of Linear B language disappeared with the fall of the Mycenaean civilization.

There are about 87 signs in Linear B that represent syllables. In addition, there are many ideographic signs that represent objects or commodities. They do not represent sounds and are never used as word signs in writing a sentence.

Linear B seems to have been used only for administration. In the thousands of clay tablets, a relatively small number of different "hands" (or writers) have been detected: 45 in Pylos (on west coast of the Peloponnese, in southern Greece) and 66 in Knossos (Crete). The script may have been used only by a guild of professional scribes, who worked at the different palaces. When the palaces were destroyed, the script was forgotten.

Linear B Media

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  Linear B syllable A

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  Linear B syllable E

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  Linear B syllable I

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  Linear B syllable O

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  Linear B syllable U

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  Linear B syllable DA

• Linear B syllable DE

• Linear B syllable DI

• Linear B syllable DO

• Linear B syllable DU