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Linear B
Type	Syllabic with additional logographic signs
Languages	Mycenaean
Time period
Parent systems	Perhaps Linear A Linear B
Unicode range	U+10000–U+1007F syllabic signs U+10080–U+100FF logograms
ISO 15924	Linb
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Linear B is a script that was used for writing Mycenaean, an early form of Greek. It predated the Greek alphabet by several centuries: it seems to have died out with the fall of Mycenaean civilization; the intervening period, in which there is no evidence of the use of writing, is known as the Greek Dark Ages.

The script appears to be related to Linear A, an undeciphered earlier script used for writing the Minoan language, and the later Cypriot syllabary; derivation from another writing system is held to be the reason for its poor compliance with the phonemic principle. It is partly syllabic, with additional logographic signs that are "determinative", or "designational" (yielding "classes", and "types"). As such, it rather resembles modern Japanese writing in graphemic structure.

The script

Linear B has roughly 200 signs, divided into syllabic signs with phonetic values and logograms (or ideograms) with semantic values.

History of the Greek language (see also: Greek alphabet)

Proto-Greek (c. 2000 BC)

Mycenaean (c. 1600–1100 BC)

Ancient Greek (c. 800–300 BC) Dialects: Aeolic, Arcadocypriot, Attic-Ionic, Doric, Pamphylian; Homeric Greek. Possible dialect: Macedonian.

Koine Greek (from c. 300 BC)

Medieval Greek (c. 330–1453)

Modern Greek (from 1453) Dialects: Cappadocian, Cretan, Cypriot, Demotic, Griko, Katharevousa, Pontic, Tsakonian, Yevanic

Syllabic signs

	-a	-e	-i	-o	-u
	�� a	�� e	�� i	�� o	�� u
d-	�� da	�� de	�� di	�� do	�� du
j-	�� ja	�� je		�� jo	�� ju
k-	�� ka	�� ke	�� ki	�� ko	�� ku
m-	�� ma	�� me	�� mi	�� mo	�� mu
n-	�� na	�� ne	�� ni	�� no	�� nu
p-	�� pa	�� pe	�� pi	�� po	�� pu
q-	�� qa	�� qe	�� qi	�� qo
r-	�� ra	�� re	�� ri	�� ro	�� ru
s-	�� sa	�� se	�� si	�� so	�� su
t-	�� ta	�� te	�� ti	�� to	�� tu
w-	�� wa	�� we	�� wi	�� wo
z-	�� za	�� ze		�� zo

The names of these signs are only roughly phonetical, since most are used to represent a whole class of syllables each, see Mycenaean language. Note that "j" represents the semivowel equivalent to English "y", and is used as a glide (e.g. -a-jo for -αῖος), the "r" characters were used to write both the /r/ and /l/ phonemes, and the "q" series is used for Proto-Indo-European /kʷ/, /gʷ/, and /gʷʰ/, the latter being devoiced to /kʷʰ/ in Proto-Greek. There are some additional syllabic signs, the values of some of which are unknown, disputed, or infrequent. They are referred to either by a number, or by some hypothetical phonetic approximation, for example 64, a₂, a₃, au, nwa, pu₂, etc.

The writing system is apparently an offshoot of Linear A, which, having been apparently designed to write the Minoan language, did not fit the sounds of Greek too well. The Myceneans who used the syllabary had to work around this, until several hundred years later, when the first Greek alphabet was developed.

Ideograms

Due to the nature of the texts preserved, ideographic representations of items counted are very frequent. Not all of their values are known, and their pronunciation is, at best, the object of educated guessing. The ideograms represent concepts such as MAN, WOMAN, COW, BULL, OIL, WINE, CLOTH, GOLD, BRONZE etc. There are several dozen signs representing various kinds of pots and vessels. (Example: tripod, for ti-ri-po-de, followed by the logogram for "3-footed pot".)

The numerical references for the ideograms was devised by Ventris and Bennett, divided into functional groups corresponding to the breakdown in Bennett's index. These groups are numbered beginning 100, 110, 120 etc., with some provision of spare numbers for future additions. Unicode (as of version 5.0) encodes 123 Linear B ideograms.

glyph	codepoint	Bennett	meaning
people and animals
�?	U+10080	100A	man
�?	U+10081	102 A	woman
�?	U+10082	104 Cn	deer
�?	U+10083	105 Ca	equid
�?	U+10084	105b Ca	mare
�?	U+10085	105a Ca	stallion
�?	U+10086	106b C-D	ewe
�?	U+10025	*21	sheep
		*75	yearling?
�?	U+10087	106a C-D	ram
�?	U+10088	107b C-Mc	nanny goat
�?	U+10089	107a C	billy goat
�?	U+10052	*22	goat
�?	U+1008A	108b C	sow
�?	U+1008B	108a C	boar
�?	U+10042	*85 C	pig
�?	U+1008C	109b C	cow
�?	U+1008D	109a C	bull
�?	U+10018	*23	ox
units of measurement
		110	volume
		111	volume
		112	dry
		113	liquid
		114	weight
		115	weight
		116	weight
		117	weight
		118	talent
by dry measure
�?	U+1008E	120 E-F	wheat
�?	U+1008F	121 F	barley
�?	U+10090	122 F-U	olive
�?	U+10091	123 G-Un	spice
		124 G	cyperus
�?	U+10092	125 F	cyperus?
		126 F	cyperus+ku
�?	U+10093	127 Un	fruit?
�?	U+10094	128 G	safflower
weapons
�?	U+100C6	230 R	spear
�?	U+100C7	231 R	arrow
�?	U+100C8	232 Ta	double axe?
�?	U+100C9	233 Ra	sword
chariots
�?	U+100cc	240 Sc	wheeled chariot
�?	U+100CD	241 Sd Se	wheel-less chariot
�?	U+100CE	242 Sf Sg	chariot frame
�?	U+100CF	243 Sa So	wheel

Archives

Corpus

The tablets are classified by the location of their excavation.

• KN Knossos: ca. 4360 tablets (not counting finds of Linear A, etc)
• PY Pylos : 1087 tablets
• TH Thebes: 99 tablets + 238 published in 2002.
• MY Mycenae: 73 tablets
• TI Tiryns: 27 tablets.
• KH Chania: 4 tablets
• another 170 inscriptions in Linear B were found on vessels.

The publication of the Thebes tablets (L. Godart and A. Sacconi, 2002) was long anticipated, and their actual content was rather disappointing compared to what had been hinted at by the editors in the previous years.

If it is genuine, the Kafkania pebble, dated to the 17th century BC, would be the oldest known Mycenean inscription, and hence the earliest preserved testimony of the Greek language.

Chronology

According to Cynthia Shelmerdine (as summarised in "Where Do We Go From Here?"), the main archives for Linear B are associated with these stages of Late Minoan and Helladic pottery:

LM II:

• Knossos, Room of the Chariot Tablets

LM IIIA2 or IIIB:

• Knossos, main archive

LM IIIB:

• Chania, tablet Sq 1, also 6659 and KH 3 (possibly Linear B)

end LH/LM IIIB1:

• Chania, tablets Ar 3, Gq 5, X 6
• Mycenae, tablets from Oil Merchant group of houses
• Thebes, Ug tablets and Wu sealings

end LH IIIB2:

• Mycenae, tablets from the Citadel
• Tiryns, all tablets
• Thebes, Of tablets and new Pelopidou Street deposit
• Pylos, all but five tablets

LM III is equivalent to LH III from a chronological perspective.

Majority opinion dates the main archive of Knossos to LM IIIA:2 (the 14th century BC).

"LM" IIIB's material culture represents Cretan alternatives to LH ware, and is not homogenous (and since it was not controlled by Knossos, it is retains the title "Minoan" only as shorthand).

As for LH IIIB: it likely begins in the 1310s or 1300s BC, after Mursilis II's sack of Miletus; it ends around 1200 BC.

Contents

The major cities and palaces used Linear B for records of disbursements of goods. Wool, sheep, and grain were some common items, often given to groups of religious people and also to groups of "men watching the coastline".

The tablets were kept in groups in baskets on shelves. When some of the palaces burned in large-scale fires precipitated by earthquakes or volcanic events (see Knossos), the fires made "fired-clay tablets" of a portion of the tablets found. Impressions of the basket weaving have been left in the clay.

Decipherment

The first clay tablet at Knossos was discovered by the British archaeologist Arthur Evans on March 31, 1900 and on April 6 he discovered a significant hoard of tablets (measuring 5x10 inches).

The convention for numbering the symbols still in use today was first devised by US Professor Emmett Bennett, who, by 1950, had deciphered the metrical system. He was also an early proponent of the idea that Linear A and B represented different languages.

Michael Ventris and John Chadwick performed the bulk of their decipherment of Linear B between 1951 and 1953. At first, Ventris chose his own numbering system, and agreed with Evans' hypothesis that Linear B was not Greek, however later switched back to Bennett's system, and ultimately reached the conclusion that Linear B was indeed an early form of Greek.

Before their work, Alice Kober had studied Linear B and had managed to construct grids, linking symbols that seemed to have a strong grammatical relationship. Kober had noticed that a number of Linear B words had common roots and suffixes. This led her to believe that Linear B represented an inflected language, with nouns changing their endings depending on their case. However, some characters in the middle of the words seemed to correspond with neither a root nor a suffix. Because this effect was found in other, known languages, Kober surmised that the odd characters were bridging syllables, with the beginning of the syllable belonging to the root and the end belonging to the suffix. This was a reasonable assumption, since Linear B had far too many characters to be considered alphabetic and far too few characters to be logographic; therefore, each character should represent a syllable.

Using the knowledge that certain characters shared the same beginning or ending sounds, Kober built a table similar to the one above; her untimely death at age 43 in 1950 prevented her from possibly taking the final step or see others do it, namely to link the characters to actual phonetics.

Based on her work, and after making some inspired assumptions, Ventris was able to figure out the pronunciation of the syllables. The deciphering of Linear B proved that it was a written form of Greek, to the amazement of Ventris himself, but also in direct contradiction to the general scientific views of the times. Chadwick, an expert in historical Greek, helped Ventris decipher the text and rebuild the vocabulary and grammar of ancient Cretan Greek.

Ventris' discovery was of immense significance, because he actually showed that a Greek-speaking Minoan-Mycenaean culture existed on Crete. The large majority of Linear B tablets were inventories and bureaucratic documents, with large tables of numbers and sums. This helped historians analyze the structure of ancient Minoan civilization.

Unicode

Linear B is assigned Unicode range 10000–1007F for syllabograms and 10080–100FF for ideograms.

Linear B Syllabary / Ideograms Unicode.org chart Syllabary / Ideograms (PDF)
U+	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A	B	C	D	E	F
10000	𐀀	𐀁	𐀂	𐀃	𐀄	𐀅	𐀆	𐀇	𐀈	𐀉	𐀊	𐀋	𐀌	𐀍	𐀎	𐀏
10010	𐀐	𐀑	𐀒	𐀓	𐀔	𐀕	𐀖	𐀗	𐀘	𐀙	𐀚	𐀛	𐀜	𐀝	𐀞	𐀟
10020	𐀠	𐀡	𐀢	𐀣	𐀤	𐀥	𐀦	𐀧	𐀨	𐀩	𐀪	𐀫	𐀬	𐀭	𐀮	𐀯
10030	𐀰	𐀱	𐀲	𐀳	𐀴	𐀵	𐀶	𐀷	𐀸	𐀹	𐀺	𐀻	𐀼	𐀽	𐀾	𐀿
10040	𐁀	𐁁	𐁂	𐁃	𐁄	𐁅	𐁆	𐁇	𐁈	𐁉	𐁊	𐁋	𐁌	𐁍	𐁎	𐁏
10050	𐁐	𐁑	𐁒	𐁓	𐁔	𐁕	𐁖	𐁗	𐁘	𐁙	𐁚	𐁛	𐁜	𐁝	𐁞	𐁟
10060	𐁠	𐁡	𐁢	𐁣	𐁤	𐁥	𐁦	𐁧	𐁨	𐁩	𐁪	𐁫	𐁬	𐁭	𐁮	𐁯
10070	𐁰	𐁱	𐁲	𐁳	𐁴	𐁵	𐁶	𐁷	𐁸	𐁹	𐁺	𐁻	𐁼	𐁽	𐁾	𐁿
10080	𐂀	𐂁	𐂂	𐂃	𐂄	𐂅	𐂆	𐂇	𐂈	𐂉	𐂊	𐂋	𐂌	𐂍	𐂎	𐂏
10090	𐂐	𐂑	𐂒	𐂓	𐂔	𐂕	𐂖	𐂗	𐂘	𐂙	𐂚	𐂛	𐂜	𐂝	𐂞	𐂟
100A0	𐂠	𐂡	𐂢	𐂣	𐂤	𐂥	𐂦	𐂧	𐂨	𐂩	𐂪	𐂫	𐂬	𐂭	𐂮	𐂯
100B0	𐂰	𐂱	𐂲	𐂳	𐂴	𐂵	𐂶	𐂷	𐂸	𐂹	𐂺	𐂻	𐂼	𐂽	𐂾	𐂿
100C0	𐃀	𐃁	𐃂	𐃃	𐃄	𐃅	𐃆	𐃇	𐃈	𐃉	𐃊	𐃋	𐃌	𐃍	𐃎	𐃏
100D0	𐃐	𐃑	𐃒	𐃓	𐃔	𐃕	𐃖	𐃗	𐃘	𐃙	𐃚	𐃛	𐃜	𐃝	𐃞	𐃟
100E0	𐃠	𐃡	𐃢	𐃣	𐃤	𐃥	𐃦	𐃧	𐃨	𐃩	𐃪	𐃫	𐃬	𐃭	𐃮	𐃯
100F0	𐃰	𐃱	𐃲	𐃳	𐃴	𐃵	𐃶	𐃷	𐃸	𐃹	𐃺	𐃻	𐃼	𐃽	𐃾	𐃿

See also

• Aegean civilization
• Linear A
• Linear C

Further reading

• Chadwick, John (1958). The Decipherment of Linear B. Second edition (1990). Cambridge UP. ISBN 0-521-39830-4. 
• Chadwick, John (1987). Linear B and Related Scripts; "Reading the Past". Third impression (1997). University of California Press/British Museum. ISBN 0-520-06019-9.  has the Enkomi clay tablet, circa 1500 BCE., examples of Linear B tablets, and translated, the basic Linear B syllabary, the Cypriot syllabary and discussions thereof, and short sections on Linear A, and the Phaistos Disk.
• Chadwick, John (1976). The Mycenaean World. Cambridge UP. ISBN 0-521-29037-6. 
• Levin, Saul (1964). The Linear B Decipherment Controversy Re-examined. State University of New York Press. OCLC 288842. 
• Robinson, Andrew (1995). The Story of Writing. Paperback edition (1999). Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-28156-4.  Chapter 6, Linear B, pp 108-119: discusses Arthur Evans, his work, the Cypriot clues, the syllabary, Alice Kober, the "Grid", and a sample tablet transliterated, and translated into English.
• Ventris, Michael and Chadwick, John (1956). Documents in Mycenaean Greek. Second edition (1974). Cambridge UP. ISBN 0-521-08558-6. 
• Singh, Simon (2000). The Code Book. Anchor. ISBN 0-385-49532-3.  for a general outline of the Linear B deciphering story, from Schliemman to Chadwick.
• Ventris, Michael (1988). Work notes on Minoan language research and other unedited papers. Edizioni dell'Ateneo 1988 Roma. 

External links

• Linear B at the Open Directory Project
• Greek-Language.com: The Linear B Syllabary
• Dartmouth: The Prehistoric Archaeology of the Aegean, The Linear B Tablets and Mycenaean Organization
• UT-Austin: Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory (PASP)
• AncientScripts.com: Linear B
• Linear B at Omniglot
• Unicode code pages for the Linear B syllabary and logograms, including sample glyphs.
• Unicode Linear B Syllabary TrueType fonts (some also include ideograms)
• Free, but incomplete, non-unicode Linear B TrueType font among other ancient fonts.
• Markos Gavalas, MYCENAEAN (Linear B) - ENGLISH Dictionary (explorecrete.com)
• DAIDALIKA - Scripts and Languages of Minoan and Mycenaean Crete