Linear B

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Linear B
NAMA Linear B tablet of Pylos.jpg
Type Syllabary with additional ideograms
Languages Mycenaean Greek
Time period Late Bronze Age
Status Extinct
Parent systems
Linear A
  • Linear B
Sister systems Cypro-Minoan syllabary
ISO 15924 Linb, 401
Direction Left-to-right
Unicode alias Linear B
Unicode range U+10000–U+1007F syllabic signs
U+10080–U+100FF ideograms

Linear B is a syllabic script that was used for writing Mycenaean Greek, the earliest attested form of Greek. The script predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries. The oldest Mycenaean writing dates to about 1450 BC.[1] It is descended from the older Linear A, an undeciphered earlier script used for writing the Minoan language, as is the later Cypriot syllabary, which also recorded Greek. Linear B, found mainly in the palace archives at Knossos, Cydonia,[2] Pylos, Thebes and Mycenae,[3] disappeared with the fall of Mycenaean civilization during the Bronze Age Collapse. The succeeding period, known as the Greek Dark Ages, provides no evidence of the use of writing. It is also the only one of the three "Linears" to be deciphered, by young English linguist Michael Ventris.

Linear B consists of around 87 syllabic signs and over 100 ideographic signs. These ideograms or "signifying" signs symbolize objects or commodities. They have no phonetic value and are never used as word signs in writing a sentence.

The application of Linear B appears to have been confined to administrative contexts. In all the thousands of clay tablets, a relatively small number of different "hands" have been detected: 45 in Pylos (west coast of the Peloponnese, in southern Greece) and 66 in Knossos (Crete).[4] From this fact, it could be thought that the script was used by only a guild of professional scribes who served the central palaces. Once the palaces were destroyed, the script disappeared.

The script[edit]

Linear B has roughly 200 signs, divided into syllabic signs with phonetic values and ideograms with semantic values. The representations and naming of these signs have been standardized by a series of international colloquia starting with the first in Paris in 1956. After the third meeting in 1961 at the Wingspread Conference Center in Racine, Wisconsin, a standard proposed primarily by Emmett L. Bennett, Jr. (1918–2011), became known as the Wingspread Convention, which was adopted by a new organization, the Comité International Permanent des Études Mycéniennes (CIPEM), affiliated in 1970 by the fifth colloquium with UNESCO. Colloquia continue: the 13th occurred in 2010 in Paris.[5]

Many of the signs are identical or similar to those in Linear A; however, Linear A encoded is still an unknown language and it is uncertain that similar signs had similar phonetic values.[6]

Syllabic signs[edit]

The grid developed during decipherment by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick of phonetic values for syllabic signs is shown below.[7]

Read the initial consonant in the left-most column and the vowel from the top row beneath the title. The transcription of the syllable (it may not have been pronounced that way) is listed next to the sign along with Bennett's identifying number for the sign preceded by an asterisk (as was Ventris' and Chadwick's convention).[note 1] In cases where the transcription of the sign remains in doubt, Bennett's number serves to identify the sign.[8] The signs on the tablets and other ancient artefacts often show considerable variation from each other and from the representations below. Discovery of the reasons for the variation and possible semantic differences is a topic of ongoing debate in Mycenaean studies.

Recognised signs of shape V, CV[note 2]
-a -e -i -o -u
𐀀 Linear B Syllable B008 A.svg a


𐀁 Linear B Syllable B038 E.svg e


𐀂 Linear B Syllable B028 I.svg i


𐀃 Linear B Syllable B061 O.svg o


𐀄 Linear B Syllable B010 U.svg u


d- 𐀅 Linear B Syllable B001 DA.svg da


𐀆 Linear B Syllable B045 DE.svg de


𐀇 Linear B Syllable B007 DI.svg di


𐀈 Linear B Syllable B014 DO.svg do


𐀉 Linear B Syllable B051 DU.svg du


j- 𐀊 Linear B Syllable B057 JA.svg ja


𐀋 Linear B Syllable B046 JE.svg je


𐀍 Linear B Syllable B036 JO.svg jo


k- 𐀏 Linear B Syllable B077 KA.svg ka


𐀐 Linear B Syllable B044 KE.svg ke


𐀑 Linear B Syllable B067 KI.svg ki


𐀒 Linear B Syllable B070 KO.svg ko


𐀓 Linear B Syllable B081 KU.svg ku


m- 𐀔 Linear B Syllable B080 MA.svg ma


𐀕 Linear B Syllable B013 ME.svg me


𐀖 Linear B Syllable B073 MI.svg mi


𐀗 Linear B Syllable B015 MO.svg mo


𐀘 Linear B Syllable B023 MU.svg mu


n- 𐀙 Linear B Syllable B006 NA.svg na


𐀚 Linear B Syllable B024 NE.svg ne


𐀛 Linear B Syllable B030 NI.svg ni


𐀜 Linear B Syllable B052 NO.svg no


𐀝 Linear B Syllable B055 NU.svg nu


p- 𐀞 Linear B Syllable B003 PA.svg pa


𐀟 Linear B Syllable B072 PE.svg pe


𐀠 Linear B Syllable B039 PI.svg pi


𐀡 Linear B Syllable B011 PO.svg po


𐀢 Linear B Syllable B050 PU.svg pu


q- 𐀣 Linear B Syllable B016 QA.svg qa


𐀤 Linear B Syllable B078 QE.svg qe


𐀥 Linear B Syllable B021 QI.svg qi


𐀦 Linear B Syllable B032 QO.svg qo


r- 𐀨 Linear B Syllable B060 RA.svg ra


𐀩 Linear B Syllable B028 RE.svg re


𐀪 Linear B Syllable B053 RI.svg ri


𐀫 Linear B Syllable B002 RO.svg ro


𐀬 Linear B Syllable B026 RU.svg ru


s- 𐀭 Linear B Syllable B031 SA.svg sa


𐀮 Linear B Syllable B009 SE.svg se


𐀯 Linear B Syllable B041 SI.svg si


𐀰 Linear B Syllable B012 SO.svg so


𐀱 Linear B Syllable B058 SU.svg su


t- 𐀲 Linear B Syllable B059 TA.svg ta


𐀳 Linear B Syllable B004 TE.svg te


𐀴 Linear B Syllable B037 TI.svg ti


𐀵 Linear B Syllable B005 TO.svg to


𐀶 Linear B Syllable B069 TU.svg tu


w- 𐀷 Linear B Syllable B054 WA.svg wa


𐀸 Linear B Syllable B075 WE.svg we


𐀹 Linear B Syllable B040 WI.svg wi


𐀺 Linear B Syllable B042 WO.svg wo


z- 𐀼 Linear B Syllable B017 ZA.svg za


𐀽 Linear B Syllable B074 ZE.svg ze


𐀿 Linear B Syllable B020 ZO.svg zo


Special and unknown signs[edit]

In addition to the grid, the first edition of Documents contained a number of other signs termed "homophones" because they appeared at that time to resemble the sounds of other syllables and were transcribed accordingly: pa2 and pa3 were presumed homophonous to pa. Many of these were identified by the second edition and are shown in the "special values" below.[9] The second edition relates: "It may be taken as axiomatic that there are no true homophones." The unconfirmed identifications of *34 and *35 as ai2 and ai3 were removed. pa2 became qa.[10]

Special values
Character 𐁀 Linear B Syllable B025 A2.svg 𐁁 Linear B Syllable B043 A3.svg 𐁂 Linear B Syllable B085 AU.svg 𐁃 Linear B Syllable B071 DWE.svg 𐁄 Linear B Syllable B090 DWO.svg 𐁅 Linear B Syllable B048 NWA.svg 𐁇 Linear B Syllable B062 PTE.svg 𐁆 Linear B Syllable B029 PU2.svg 𐁈 Linear B Syllable B076 RA2.svg 𐁉 Linear B Syllable B033 RA3.svg 𐁊 Linear B Syllable B068 RO2.svg 𐁋 Linear B Syllable B066 TA2.svg 𐁌 Linear B Syllable B087 TWE.svg 𐁍 Linear B Syllable B091 TWO.svg
Transcription a2 (ha) a3 (ai) au dwe dwo nwa pte pu2 (phu) ra2 (rya) ra3 (rai) ro2 (ryo) ta2 (tya) twe two
Bennett's Number *25 *43 *85 *71 *90 *48 *62 *29 *76 *33 *68 *66 *87 *91

Other values remain unknown, mainly because of scarcity of evidence concerning them.[9][note 3] Note that *34 and *35 are mirror images of each other but whether this graphic relationship indicates a phonetic one remains unconfirmed.

Untranscribed and doubtful values
Character 𐁐
Linear B Symbol B018.svg
Linear B Symbol B019.svg
Linear B Symbol B022.svg
Linear B Symbol B034.svg
Linear B Symbol B047.svg
Linear B Symbol B049.svg
Linear B Symbol B056.svg
Linear B Symbol B063.svg
Linear B Symbol B064.svg
Linear B Syllable B065 JU.svg
Linear B Symbol B079.svg
Linear B Symbol B082.svg
Linear B Symbol B083.svg
Linear B Symbol B086.svg
Linear B Symbol B089.svg
Transcription *18 *19 *22 *34 *35 *47 *49 pa3? *63 swi? ju? zu? swa? *83 *86 *89
Bennett's Number *18 *19 *22 *34 *35 *47 *49 *56 *63 *64 *65 *79 *82 *83 *86 *89

In recent times, CIPEM inherited the former authority of Bennett and the Wingspread Convention in deciding what signs are "confirmed" and how to officially represent the various sign categories. In editions of Mycenaean texts, those signs whose value has not been confirmed by CIPEM are always transcribed as numbers preceded by an asterisk (e.g., *64). CIPEM also allocates the numerical identifiers, and until such allocation, new signs (or obscured or mutilated signs) are transcribed as a bullet-point enclosed in square brackets: [•].

Spelling and pronunciation[edit]

The signs are approximations―each may be used to represent a variety of about 70 distinct combinations of sounds, within rules and conventions. The grid presents a system of monosyllabic signs of the type V/CV. Clarification of the 14 or so special values tested the limits of the grid model, but Chadwick in the end concluded that even with the ramifications, the syllabic signs can unexceptionally be considered monosyllabic.[11]

Possible exceptions, Chadwick goes on to explain, include the two diphthongs, 𐁁 (ai) and 𐁂 (au), as in Ai-ku-pi-ti-jo for Aiguptios (Αἰγύπτιος) and Au-ke-wa for Augewās (Αὐγείας).[note 4] However a diphthong is by definition two vowels united into a single sound and therefore might be typed as just V. Thus 𐁉 (rai), as in e-rai-wo for elaiwon (ἔλαιον),[note 5] is of the type CV. Diphthongs are otherwise treated as two monosyllables: a-ro-u-ra for 'arourans' (accusative plural of ἄρουραι, "tamarisk trees"), of the types CV and V.[12] Lengths of vowels and accents are not marked.

𐁌 (Twe), 𐁍 (two), 𐁃 (dwe), 𐁄 (dwo), 𐁅 (nwa) and the more doubtful 𐁘 (swi) and 𐁚 (swa) may be regarded as beginning with labialized consonants, rather than two consonants, even though they may alternate with a two-sign form: O-da-twe-ta and O-da-tu-we-ta for Odatwenta; A-si-wi-jo and A-swi-jo for Aswios (Ἄσιος). Similarly, 𐁈 (rya), 𐁊 (ryo) and 𐁋 (tya) begin with palatalized consonants rather than two consonants: -ti-ri-ja or -ti-rya for -trya (-τρια).

The one sign Chadwick tags as the exception to the monosyllabic rule is 𐁇 (pte), but this he attributes to a development pte<*pje as in kleptei<*klep-yei.

Linear B does not consistently distinguish between voiced and unvoiced stops (except in the dental series) and between aspirated and unaspirated stops even when these distinctions are phonemic in Mycenaean Greek. For example,[13] pa-te is patēr (πατήρ), pa-si is phāsi (φησί.[note 6] p on the other hand never represents β: βασιλεύς ("king") is qa-si-re-u[note 7]); ko-ru is korus (κόρυς, "helmet"), ka-ra-we is grāwes (plural of γρηύς), ko-no is skhoinos ("rope"). Exceptionally, however, the dentals are represented by a t-series and a d-series for unvoiced and voiced: to-so for tosos (τόσος or τόσσος) but do-ra for dōra (plural of δῶρον, "gift"); however, to-ra-ke for thōrākes (plural of θώραξ, "breastplate"). In other cases aspiration can be marked but is optional: pu-te for phutēr ("planter", from φυτεύω), but phu-te-re for phutēres ("planters" ). Initial aspiration may be marked only in the case of initial a and rarely: ha-te-ro for hateron (masculine ἅτερος),[14] and yet a-ni-ja for hāniai (ἁνίαι).

The j-series represents the semivowel equivalent to English "y", and is used word-initially and as an intervocalic glide after a syllable ending in i: -a-jo for -αῖος (-aios); a-te-mi-ti-jo for Ἀρτεμίτιος (Artemitios). The w-series similarly are semivowels used word-initially and intervocalically after a syllable ending in u: ku-wa-no for kuanos (κύανος, "blue").[15]

The r-series includes both the /r/ and /l/ phonemes: ti-ri-po for tripos (τρίπος) and tu-ri-so for Tulisos (Τυλισός).

The q-series is used for monosyllables beginning with a class of consonants that disappeared from classical Greek by regular phonetic change: the labiovelars (see under Mycenaean Greek). These had entered the language from various sources: inheritance from Proto-Indo-European, assimilation, borrowing of foreign words, especially names. In Mycenaean they are /kʷ/, /gʷ/, and rarely /kʷh/ in names and a few words:[16] a-pi-qo-ro for amphiquoloi (ἀμφίπολοι); qo-u-ko-ro for guoukoloi (βουκόλοι. "cowherders"); -qo-i-ta for -φόντης.

Some consonants in some contexts are not written (but are understood): word-initial s- and -w before a consonant, as in pe-ma for sperma (σπέρμα, "seed"); syllable-final -l, -m, -n, -r, -s: a-to-ro-qo for anthrōquos (ἄνθρωπος, "human being, person"). In the first example, the pe-, which was primarily used as its value pe of grid class CV, is being used for sper-, not in that class. This was not an innovative or exceptional use, but followed the stated rules. Similarly, a, being primarily of grid class V, is being used as an- and could be used for al, am, ar, and so on.

Clusters of two or three consonants that do not follow the initial s- and w- rule or the double consonants: ξ (ks or x), ψ (ps) and qus (which later did not exist in classical Greek) were represented by the same number of signs of type CV as the cluster had consonants: ko-no-so for Knōsos,[note 8] ku-ru-so for khrusos (χρυσός, "gold"). The consonants were the same as in the cluster. The vowels so introduced have been called "empty", "null", "extra", "dead" and other terms by various writers as they represent no sound. The sign was not alphabetic: rules governed the selection of the vowel and therefore of the sign. The vowel had to be the same as the one of the first syllable following the cluster or if at the end of the word, preceding: ti-ri-po with ti- (instead of ta-, te- and so on) to match -ri-.


Linear B also uses a large number of ideograms. They express:

  • The type of object concerned (e.g. a cow, wool, a spear)
  • A unit of measure.

They are typically at the end of a line before a number and appear to signify the object the number applies to. Many of the values remain unknown or disputed. Some commodities such as cloth and containers are divided into many different categories represented by distinct ideograms. Livestock may be marked with respect to their sex.

The numerical references for the ideograms were originally devised by Ventris and Bennett, divided into functional groups corresponding to the breakdown of Bennett's index. These groups are numbered beginning 100, 110, 120 etc., with some provision of spare numbers for future additions; the official CIPEM numberings used today are based on Ventris and Bennett's numbering, with the provision that three or four letter codes (written in small capitals), based on Latin words that seemed relevant at the time, are used where the meanings are known and agreed. Unicode (as of version 5.0) encodes 123 Linear B ideograms.

The ideograms are symbols, not pictures of the objects in question - e.g. one tablet records a tripod with missing legs, but the ideogram used is of a tripod with three legs. In modern transcriptions of Linear B tablets, it is typically convenient to represent an ideogram by its Latin or English name or by an abbreviation of the Latin name. Ventris and Chadwick generally used English; Bennett, Latin. Neither the English nor the Latin can be relied upon as an accurate name of the object; in fact, the identification of some of the more obscure objects is a matter of exegesis.[17]

Glyph Codepoint[note 9] Bennett[18] CIPEM[19] English[20]
People and Animals
Linear B Ideogram B100 Man.svg U+10080 100[21] A- VIR
Linear B Ideogram B102 Woman.svg U+10081 102 A- MUL
Linear B Ideogram B104 Deer.svg U+10082 104 Cn CERV
𐂃 U+10083 105 Ca S- EQU
𐂄 U+10084 105 Ca EQUf mare[22]
𐂅 U+10085 105 Ca EQUm stallion
𐀥 U+10025 106
Bous ergatēs
"Adjunct to ox" (1973)[23]
𐂆 U+10086 106b C- D- OVISf EWE
𐂇 U+10087 106a C- D- OVISm RAM
𐁒 U+10052 107
𐂈 U+10088 107b C- Mc CAPf SHE-GOAT
𐂉 U+10089 107a C- CAPm HE-GOAT
𐁂 U+10042 108
*85 C-
𐂊 U+1008A 108b C- SUSf SOW
𐂋 U+1008B 108a C- SUSm BOAR
𐀘 U+10018 109
*23 C-
𐂌 U+1008C 109b C- BOSf COW
𐂍 U+1008D 109a C- BOSm OX/BULL
Units of Measurement
110 Z
111 V
112 T Dry
113 S Liquid
114 Weight
*21 Weight
*2 Weight
115 P Weight
116 N Weight
117 M
118 L
*72 G- Bunch?
*74 S- Pair
*15 S- Single
*61 Deficit
By Dry Measure
𐂎 U+1008E 120 E- F- GRA
𐂏 U+1008F 121 F- HORD
𐂐 U+10090 122 F- U- OLIV
𐀛 U+1001B NI
*30 F
𐀎 U+1000E *65 FARINA FLOUR
"some kind of grain"[26]
𐂑 U+10091 123 G- Un AROM
*70 G-
𐀭 U+1002D SA
*31 G-
*81 G-
*9 G-
*80 G-
124 G- PYC cyperus
𐂒 U+10092 125 F- CYP cyperus?
126 F- CYP+KU cyperus+ku
𐂓 U+10093 127 Un KAPO fruit?
𐂔 U+10094 128 G- KANAKO safflower
By liquid measure
By weight
By weight or in units
Counted in units
𐃟 U+100DF 200
𐃠 U+100E0 201 TRI
𐃡 U+100E1 202
𐃢 U+100E2 203
𐃣 U+100E3 204 Ta
𐃤 U+100E4 205 K Tn
𐃥 U+100E5 206 HYD
𐃧 U+100E7 208 PAT
𐃨 U+100E8 209 AMPH
𐃩 U+100E9 210 STIRRIP JAR
𐃪 U+100EA 211 WATER BOWL?
𐃫 U+100EB 212 SIT
𐃬 U+100EC 213 LANX
𐃄 U+100C4 220 Ta
𐃅 U+100C5 225 ALV
𐃆 U+100C6 230 R HAS
𐃇 U+100C7 231 R SAG
𐃈 U+100C8 232 Ta *232  ?
𐃉 U+100C9 233 Ra DAGGER
𐃊 U+100CA 234 GLA
𐃌 U+100CC 240 Sc BIG
𐃍 U+100CD 241 Sd Se CUR
𐃎 U+100CE 242 Sf Sg CAPS
𐃏 U+100CF 243 Sa So ROTA



The tablets are classified by the location of their excavation.

Location prefix Location Number of tablets
KN Knossos ca. 4,360 tablets (not counting finds of Linear A)
PY Pylos 1,087 tablets
TH Thebes 99 tablets + 238 published in 2002 (L. Godart and A. Sacconi, 2002;
MY Mycenae 73 tablets
TI Tiryns 27 tablets
KH Chania 4 tablets

Another 170 inscriptions in Linear B have been found on various vessels, for a total of some 6,058 known inscriptions.

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. Besides that, an inscribed clay tablet was found in Iklaina dating to between 1450 and 1350 B.C.[28]


Timeline of Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean scripts[edit]

The sequence and the geographical spread of Cretan hieroglyphs, Linear A, and Linear B, the three overlapping, but distinct, writing systems on Bronze Age Crete, the Aegean islands, and the Greek mainland are summarized as follows:[29]

Writing system Geographical area Time span[note 10]
Cretan Hieroglyphic Crete ca. 1625s−1500 BC
Linear A Aegean islands (Kea, Kythera, Melos, Thera), and Greek mainland (Laconia) ca. 18th century−1450 BC
Linear B Crete (Knossos), and mainland (Pylos, Mycenae, Thebes, Tiryns) ca. 1425s−1200 BC

Timeline of Linear B[edit]

The main archives for Linear B are associated with these stages of Late Minoan and Helladic pottery:[30]

Relative date Period dates Location Locale or tablet
LM II 1425-1390 BC Knossos Room of the Chariot Tablets
LH IIIA1/early LH IIIA2 1400-1370 BC Iklaina
1370-1340 BC
1340-1190 BC
Knossos main archive
LM IIIB 1340-1190 BC Chania tablets Sq 1, 6659, KH 3 (possibly Linear B)
LH/LM IIIB1 end[note 11] Chania
tablets Ar 3, Gq 5, X 6
tablets from Oil Merchant group of houses
Ug tablets and Wu sealings
LH IIIB2, end Mycenae
tablets from the Citadel
all tablets
Of tablets and new Pelopidou Street deposit
all but five tablets

Controversy on the date of the Knossos tablets[edit]

The Knossos archive was dated by Arthur Evans to the destruction by conflagration of about 1400 BC, which would have baked and preserved the clay tablets. He dated this event to the LM II period. This view stood until Carl Blegen excavated the site of ancient Pylos in 1939 and uncovered tablets inscribed in Linear B. They were fired in the conflagration that destroyed Pylos about 1200 BC, at the end of LHIIIB. With the decipherment of Linear B by Michael Ventris in 1952, serious questions about Evans' date began to be considered. Most notably, Blegen said that the inscribed stirrup jars, which are oil flasks with stirrup-shaped handles, imported from Crete around 1200 were of the same type as those dated by Evans to the destruction of 1400. Blegen found a number of similarities between 1200 BC Pylos and 1400 BC Knossos and suggested the Knossian evidence be reexamined, as he was sure of the 1200 Pylian date.

The examination uncovered a number of difficulties. The Knossos tablets had been found at various locations in the palace. Evans had not kept exact records. Recourse was had to the day books of Evans' assistant, Duncan Mackenzie, who had conducted the day-to-day excavations. There were discrepancies between the notes in the day books and Evans' excavation reports. Moreover, the two men had disagreed over the location and strata of the tablets. The results of the reinvestigation were eventually published by Palmer and Boardman, On the Knossos Tablets.[31] It contains 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' views respectively. Consequently, the dispute was known for a time as "the Palmer-Boardman dispute". There has been no generally accepted answer to it yet.


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 to groups of "men watching the coastline."

The tablets were kept in groups in baskets on shelves, judging by impressions left in the clay from the weaving of the baskets. When the buildings they were housed in were destroyed by fires, many of the tablets were fired.

Discovery and decipherment[edit]

Linear B tablet discovered by Arthur Evans

Arthur J. Evans' classification of scripts[edit]

The British archaeologist Arthur Evans, keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, was presented by Greville Chester in 1886 with a sealstone from Crete engraved with a writing he took to be Mycenaean.[32] Heinrich Schliemann had encountered signs similar to these, but had never identified the signs clearly as writing, relating in his major work on Mycenae that "of combinations of signs resembling inscriptions I have hitherto only found three or four ...."[33] In 1893 Evans purchased more sealstones while shopping in Athens. He verified from the antiquarian dealers that the stones came from Crete. During the next year he noticed the script on other artefacts in the Ashmolean. In 1894, he embarked for Crete in search of the script. Almost immediately on arrival, he jumped into a trench at Knossos and saw the sign of the double axe on a palace wall. He knew he had found the source of the script. Subsequently he found more stones being worn by Cretan women as amulets. They were called γαλόπετρες (galopetres, "milk-stones") and had come from the various ruins.

Starting in 1894, Evans published his theories that the signs evidenced various phases in the development of a writing system in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, the first article being "Primitive Pictographs and a Prae-Phoenician Script from Crete".[34] In these articles Evans distinguished between "pictographic writing" and "a linear system of writing." He did not explicitly define these terms, causing some confusion among subsequent writers concerning what he meant, but in 1898 he wrote[35] "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 began to negotiate for the purchase of Knossos. He established a special fund, the Cretan Exploration Fund, containing only his own money at first. By 1896, the fund had purchased 1/4 of Kephala Hill, on which the ruins were located, with first option to buy the rest. However, he could not obtain a firman, or permission to excavate, from the Ottoman government. He returned to Britain. In January 1897, the Christian population of Crete staged its final insurrection against the Ottoman Empire. The last Ottoman troops were ferried off the island by the British fleet on December 5, 1898.[36] In that year also, Evans and his friends returned to finish paying for the site. By this time, the Fund had other contributors as well.[37] In 1899, the Constitution of a new Cretan Republic went into effect. Once Arthur had received permission to excavate from the local authorities, excavation on the hill began on March 23, 1900.

According to Evans' report to the British School at Athens for that year,[38] on April 5, the excavators discovered the first large cache ever of Linear B tablets among the remains of a wooden box in a disused terracotta bathtub. Subsequently, caches turned up at multiple locations, including the Room of the Chariot Tablets, where over 350 pieces from four boxes were found. The tablets were 4.5 cm (1.8 in) to 19.5 cm (7.7 in) long by 1.2 cm (0.47 in) to 7.2 cm (2.8 in) wide and were scored with horizontal lines over which text was written in about 70 characters. Even in this earliest excavation report, Evans could tell that "...a certain number of quasi-pictorial characters also occur which seem to have an ideographic or determinative meaning."[38]

The excavation was over for that year by June 2. Evans reported: "only a comparatively small proportion of the tablets were preserved in their entirety,"[38] the causes of destruction being rainfall through the roof of the storage room, crumbling of small pieces, and being thrown away by workmen who failed to identify them. A report on September 6 to the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland[39] began to use some of the concepts characteristic of Evans' later thought: "palace of Knossos" and "palace of Minos." Appleton's for that year, 1900,[40] notes that Evans took up Stillman's theme that the palace was the labyrinth of mythology in which the half-bovine son of King Minos lurked. In the report, the tablets are now called a "linear script" as opposed to the "hieroglyphic or conventionalized pictographic script." The linear script has characters that are "of a free, upright, European character" and "seem to have been for the most part syllabic." Evans reasserts the ideographic idea: "a certain number are unquestionably ideographic or determinative."

The years after 1900 were consumed by excavations at Knossos and the discovery and study by Evans of tablets there and elsewhere, but nothing substantially new occurred. Evans planned a comprehensive work on Cretan scripts to be called Scripta Minoa. A year before the publication of volume I, he began to drop hints that he now believed the linear script was two scripts, to be presented in the forthcoming book.

In Scripta Minoa I,[41] which appeared in 1909, he explained that the discovery of the Phaistos Disk in July 1908, had caused him to pull the book from the presses so that he could include the disk by permission, as it had not yet been published. On the next page[42] he mentioned that he was also including by permission of Frederico Halbherr of the Italian Mission in Crete unpublished tablets from Haghia Triada written in a linear script of "Class A." To what degree if any Halbherr was responsible for Evans' division of the "linear script" into "Class A" and "Class B" is not stated. The Knossos tablets were of Class B, so that Evans could have perceived Class A only in tablets from elsewhere, and so recently that he needed permission to include the examples.

Evans summarized the differences between the two scripts as "type" or "form of script;' that is, varieties in the formation and arrangement of the characters. For example, he says "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."[43]

The first volume covered "the Hieroglyphic and Primitive Linear Classes" in three parts: the "pre-Phoenician Scripts of Crete", the "Pictorial Script" and "the Phaistos Disk." One or two more volumes publishing the Linear A and Linear B tablets were planned, but Evans ran out of time; the project required more than one man could bring to it. For a good many of the years left to him, he was deeply enmeshed in war and politics in the Balkans. When he did return to Knossos, completion and publication of the palace excavations took priority. His greatest work, Palace of Minos, came out in 1935. It did include scattered descriptions of tablets. His life was over in 1941, during additional turmoil in the eastern Mediterranean.

The Knossos tablets had remained in the museum at Irakleion, Crete, where many of them now were missing. The unpublished second volume consisted of notes by Evans and plates and fonts created by Clarendon Press. In 1939, Carl Blegen had uncovered the Pylos Tablets; pressure was mounting to finish Scripta Minoa II. After Evans' death, Alice Kober, assistant to John Myres and major transcriber of the Knossos tablets, prompted Myres to come back from retirement and finish the work. E.L. Bennett added more transcriptions. The second volume came out in 1952 with Evans cited as author and Myres as editor,[44] just before the discovery that Linear B writes an early form of Greek. An impatient Ventris and Chadwick declared: "Two generations of scholars had been cheated of the opportunity to work constructively on the problem."[45]

Emmett L. Bennett's transcription conventions[edit]

The convention for numbering the symbols still in use today was first devised by United States Professor Emmett L. Bennett, Jr.. Working alongside fellow academic Alice Kober, by 1950 Bennett had deciphered the metrical system, based on his intensive study of Linear B tablets unearthed at Pylos. He was also an early proponent of the idea that Linear A and B represented different languages. Bennett's book The Pylos Tablets became a crucial resource for Michael Ventris, who later described it as "a wonderful piece of work"[46]

Michael Ventris' identification as Greek[edit]

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 he later switched back to Bennett's system. His decipherment, however, would not have been possible without 180,000 cards with notations, created by Kober over several years. While Ventris ultimately made the final connections, Kober's body of work was an integral part of the final solution.

Based on Kober's work, and after making some assumptions, Ventris was able to deduce the pronunciation of the syllables. Some Linear B tablets had been discovered on the Greek mainland, and there was reason to believe that some of the chains of symbols he had encountered on the Cretan tablets were names. Noting that certain names appeared only in the Cretan texts, he made the guess that those names applied to cities on the island. This proved to be correct. Armed with the symbols he could decipher from this, Ventris soon unlocked much text and determined that the underlying language of Linear B was in fact Greek, in direct contradiction to the general scientific views of the times, and to Ventris' own hunch that it would turn out to be Etruscan.

Ventris' discovery was of some significance, because it demonstrated a Greek-speaking Minoan-Mycenaean culture on Crete, and presented Greek in writing some 600 years earlier than what was thought at the time.

In 1935, the British School at Athens was celebrating its fiftieth anniversary with an exhibition at Burlington House, London. Among the speakers was Sir Arthur Evans, then in his eighty-fourth year, and the teenager Michael Ventris was present in the audience.[47] John Chadwick, a student of historical Greek, helped Ventris decipher the text and discover the vocabulary and grammar of Mycenaean Greek.


Linear B was added to the Unicode Standard in April, 2003 with the release of version 4.0.

The Linear B Syllabary block is U+10000 ... U+1007F. The Linear B Ideograms block is U+10080 ... U+100FF. The Unicode block for the related Aegean Numbers is U+10100 ... U+1013F.

Linear B Syllabary[1] chart (PDF)
U+1000x 𐀀 𐀁 𐀂 𐀃 𐀄 𐀅 𐀆 𐀇 𐀈 𐀉 𐀊 𐀋 𐀍 𐀎 𐀏
U+1001x 𐀐 𐀑 𐀒 𐀓 𐀔 𐀕 𐀖 𐀗 𐀘 𐀙 𐀚 𐀛 𐀜 𐀝 𐀞 𐀟
U+1002x 𐀠 𐀡 𐀢 𐀣 𐀤 𐀥 𐀦 𐀨 𐀩 𐀪 𐀫 𐀬 𐀭 𐀮 𐀯
U+1003x 𐀰 𐀱 𐀲 𐀳 𐀴 𐀵 𐀶 𐀷 𐀸 𐀹 𐀺 𐀼 𐀽 𐀿
U+1004x 𐁀 𐁁 𐁂 𐁃 𐁄 𐁅 𐁆 𐁇 𐁈 𐁉 𐁊 𐁋 𐁌 𐁍
U+1005x 𐁐 𐁑 𐁒 𐁓 𐁔 𐁕 𐁖 𐁗 𐁘 𐁙 𐁚 𐁛 𐁜 𐁝
1.^ As of Unicode version 6.3
Linear B Ideograms[1] chart (PDF)
U+1008x 𐂀 𐂁 𐂂 𐂃 𐂄 𐂅 𐂆 𐂇 𐂈 𐂉 𐂊 𐂋 𐂌 𐂍 𐂎 𐂏
U+1009x 𐂐 𐂑 𐂒 𐂓 𐂔 𐂕 𐂖 𐂗 𐂘 𐂙 𐂚 𐂛 𐂜 𐂝 𐂞 𐂟
U+100Ax 𐂠 𐂡 𐂢 𐂣 𐂤 𐂥 𐂦 𐂧 𐂨 𐂩 𐂪 𐂫 𐂬 𐂭 𐂮 𐂯
U+100Bx 𐂰 𐂱 𐂲 𐂳 𐂴 𐂵 𐂶 𐂷 𐂸 𐂹 𐂺 𐂻 𐂼 𐂽 𐂾 𐂿
U+100Cx 𐃀 𐃁 𐃂 𐃃 𐃄 𐃅 𐃆 𐃇 𐃈 𐃉 𐃊 𐃋 𐃌 𐃍 𐃎 𐃏
U+100Dx 𐃐 𐃑 𐃒 𐃓 𐃔 𐃕 𐃖 𐃗 𐃘 𐃙 𐃚 𐃛 𐃜 𐃝 𐃞 𐃟
U+100Ex 𐃠 𐃡 𐃢 𐃣 𐃤 𐃥 𐃦 𐃧 𐃨 𐃩 𐃪 𐃫 𐃬 𐃭 𐃮 𐃯
U+100Fx 𐃰 𐃱 𐃲 𐃳 𐃴 𐃵 𐃶 𐃷 𐃸 𐃹 𐃺
1.^ As of Unicode version 6.3
Aegean Numbers[1] chart (PDF)
U+1010x 𐄀 𐄁 𐄂 𐄇 𐄈 𐄉 𐄊 𐄋 𐄌 𐄍 𐄎 𐄏
U+1011x 𐄐 𐄑 𐄒 𐄓 𐄔 𐄕 𐄖 𐄗 𐄘 𐄙 𐄚 𐄛 𐄜 𐄝 𐄞 𐄟
U+1012x 𐄠 𐄡 𐄢 𐄣 𐄤 𐄥 𐄦 𐄧 𐄨 𐄩 𐄪 𐄫 𐄬 𐄭 𐄮 𐄯
U+1013x 𐄰 𐄱 𐄲 𐄳 𐄷 𐄸 𐄹 𐄺 𐄻 𐄼 𐄽 𐄾 𐄿
1.^ As of Unicode version 6.3

See also[edit]


  1. ^ In the Unicode character names, Bennett's number has been rendered into a three-digit code by padding with initial zeros and preceding with a B (for "Linear B").
  2. ^ In linguistics C and V in this type of context stand for consonant and vowel.
  3. ^ Sign *89 is not listed in Ventris & Chadwick's (1973) tables but it does appear in the appendix of Bennett (1964) as part of the Wingspread convention.
  4. ^ Ventris and Chadwick use Roman characters for the reconstructed Mycenaean Greek and give the closest later literary word in Greek characters. Often the phonetics are the same, but equally as often the reconstructed words represent an earlier form. Here the classical Greek was formed by dropping the w and lengthening the e to ei.
  5. ^ The w is dropped to form the classical Greek.
  6. ^ Classical words typically have the η of the Attic-Ionic dialect where Linear B represents the original α.
  7. ^ Representing guasileus, the b coming from gu
  8. ^ Double letters, as in Knossos, were never represented; one was dropped.
  9. ^ Note that the codes do not represent all the glyphs, only the major ones.
  10. ^ Beginning date refers to first attestations, the assumed origins of all scripts lie further back in the past.
  11. ^ LM III is equivalent to LH III from a chronological perspective.


  1. ^ "New Linear B tablet found at Iklaina". Comité International Permanent des Études Mycéniennes, UNESCO. Retrieved 29 April 2012. 
  2. ^ Hogan, C. Michael (2008). "Cydonia". The Modern Antiquarian. Julian Cope. Retrieved 2009-01-12. 
  3. ^ Wren, Linnea Holmer; David J. Wren; Janine M. Carter (1986). Perspectives on Western Art: Source Documents and Readings from the Ancient Near East Through the Middle Ages. Westview Press. p. 55. ISBN 9780064301541. 
  4. ^ Hooker, J.T. (1980). Linear B: An Introduction. Bristol Classical Press UK. ISBN 0-906515-69-6. 
  5. ^ Palaima, T.G.; Josē L. Melena. "A Brief History of CIPEM". Comité International Permanent des Études Mycéniennes. Retrieved 2008-03-28. 
  6. ^ Ventris and Chadwick (1973), page 37, quotes Bennett: "where the same sign is used in both Linear A and B there is no guarantee that the same value is assigned to it."
  7. ^ Ventris and Chadwick (1973), Fig. 4 on page 23 states the "Proposed values of the Mycenaean syllabary", which is mainly the same as the table included in this article. The "grid" from which it came, which was built up in "successive stages", is shown in Fig. 3 on page 20.
  8. ^ Ventris and Chadwick (1973), Fig. 9 on page 41 states Bennett's numbers from 1 through 87 opposite the signs being numbered. The table includes variants from Knossos, Pylos, Mycenae and Thebes opposite the same numbers.
  9. ^ a b Ventris and Chadwick (1973), page 385.
  10. ^ Ventris and Chadwick (1973), pages 391-392.
  11. ^ Ventris & Chadwick (1973), pages 385-391.
  12. ^ Ventris and Chadwick (1973), page 43.
  13. ^ The examples in this section except where otherwise noted come from the Mycenaean Glossary of Ventris & Chadwick (1973).
  14. ^ Ventris & Chadwick (1973), pages 388-391.
  15. ^ Ventris & Chadwick (1973), page 44.
  16. ^ Ventris & Chadwick (1973), page 45. The authors use q instead of k: qu, gu and quh, following the use of q- in transcription.
  17. ^ Cf. Chadwick, John, The Decipherment of Linear B, 1958, p.82
  18. ^ This table follows the numbering scheme worked out by Ventris and Bennett and presented in Ventris and Chadwick (1973) in the table of Figure 10, pages 50-51. The superscript a refers to Bennett's "Editio a", "a hand from Pylos, of Class III." The superscript b refers to Bennett's "Editio b", "a hand of Knosses." The superscript c refers to Bennett's "Editio c", "a hand of Pylos, of Class I." The non-superscript letters represent the class of tablets, which precedes the individual tablet number; for example, Sa 787 is Tablet Number 787 of the class Sa, which concerns chariots and features the WHEEL ideogram.
  19. ^ Figure 10 in Ventris and Chadwick (1973) states only the English names of the ideograms where they exist, but the Latin is given where it exists in Bennett, Jr. Editor, Emmett L. (1964). Mycenaean Studies: Proceedings of the Third International Colloquium for Mycenaean Studies Held at "Wingspread," 4–8 September 1961. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 258–259, "Ideogrammatum Scripturae Mycenaeae Transcriptio".  The "m" and "f" superscript are male and female.
  20. ^ Given in capital letters if it repeats Ventris and Chadwick (1973) Figure 10; otherwise, in lowercase. Note that not all the CIPEM glyphs appear in Figure 10.
  21. ^ Ventris and Chadwick (1973) page 391: "100 MAN is now used for all forms of the ideogram, so that 101 and 103 are now suppressed."
  22. ^ Ventris & Chadwick either edition do not follow the Wingspread Convention here but have 105a as a HE-ASS and 105c as a FOAL.
  23. ^ The 1956 edition has "Kind of sheep"
  24. ^ Chadwick (1976) page 105.
  25. ^ "Double mina", Chadwick (1976) page 102.
  26. ^ Ventris & Chadwick (1973) page 392.
  27. ^ Ventris and Chadwick (1973) page 324 has a separate table.
  28. ^ "Ancient Tablet Found: Oldest Readable Writing in Europe". National Geographic. March 30, 2011. Retrieved April 1, 2011. 
  29. ^ Olivier, J.-P. (1986). "Cretan Writing in the Second Millennium B.C.". World Archaeology 17 (3): 377–389 (377f.). doi:10.1080/00438243.1986.9979977 
  30. ^ This table is heavily indebted to Shelmerdine, Cynthia. "Where Do We Go From Here? And How Can the Linear B Tablets Help Us Get There?" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-03-27. 
  31. ^ Palmer, L.R.; John Boardman (1963). On the Knossos Tablets. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 
  32. ^ Ventris & Chadwick 1973, p. 8.
  33. ^ Schliemann, Heinrich; William Ewart Gladstone (1880). Mycenæ. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 114. ISBN 0-405-09851-0. 
  34. ^ Evans, A.J. (1894). "Primitive Pictographs and a Prae-Phoenician Script, from Crete and the Peloponnese". Journal of Hellenic Studies 14: 270–372, 394. 
  35. ^ Evans, Arthur J. (1898). "Further Discoveries of Cretan and Aegean Script". Journal of Hellenic Studies XVII: 327–395. 
  36. ^ Clowes, William Laird; Clements Robert Markham; Alfred Thayer Mahan; Herbert Wrigley Wilson; Theodore Roosevelt; Leonard George Carr Laughton (1903). The Royal Navy VII. London: Sampson, Low, Marston and Company. pp. 444–448. ISBN 1-86176-017-5. 
  37. ^ Brown, Cynthia Ann (1983). Arthur Evans and the Palace of Minos (Ashmolean Museum Edition: illustrated ed.). Oxford: Ashmolean Museum. pp. 15–30. ISBN 9780900090929. 
  38. ^ a b c Evans, Arthur J. (1901). "Knossos: Summary Report of the Excavations in 1900: I The Palace". The Annual of the British School at Athens (VI: Session 1899-1900): 3–70. 
  39. ^ Evans, Arthur J. (1900). "Crete: Systems of Writing". Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. XXX (New Series, III) (90): 91–93. 
  40. ^ "Archaeology: Crete". Appletons' Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1900. Third Series, V; Whole Series, XI. 1901. pp. 25–28. 
  41. ^ Evans, Arthur J. (1909). Scripta Minoa: The Written Documents of Minoan Crete: With Special Reference to the Archives of Knossos. Volume I: The Hieroglyphic and Primitive Linear Classes with an Account of the Discovery of the Pre-Phoenician Scripts, their Place in Minoan Story and their Mediterranean Relations: with Plates, Tables and Figures in the Text. Oxford: The Clarendon Press. 
  42. ^ Scripta Minoa I, page ix.
  43. ^ Scripta Minoa I, page 36.
  44. ^ Evans, Arthur J. (1952). Scripta Minoa: The Written Documents of Minoan Crete: With Special Reference to the Archives of Knossos. Volume II: The Archives of Knossos: Clay Tablets Inscribed in Linear Script B Edited from Notes, and Supplemented by John L. Myres. Oxford: The Clarendon Press. 
  45. ^ Documents in Mycenaean Greek, page 11.
  46. ^ Emmett L. Bennett Jr - obituary - Daily Telegraph, London, 23 January 2012
  47. ^


External links[edit]