Linear B

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.^[1] Linear B came before the Greek alphabet by several centuries.

Tablet with writing in Linear B script

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.^[2] Linear B was found mainly in the palace archives at Knossos, Cydonia,^[3] Pylos, Thebes and Mycenae.^[4] 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).^[5] 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.