Linear B script
Escritura lineal B (griego micénico)
- Date
- c. 1450 BCE · confidence high
- Place
- Knossos, Crete and Pylos, Greece
- Credited to
- Mycenaean scribes, based on Minoan Linear A
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
A syllabary of about 90 signs plus logograms and numerals, adapted from the (still undeciphered) Minoan Linear A to write Greek. Used exclusively for palace inventories, it is the earliest written form of a European language.
Linear A (c. 1800 BCE) and the Phaistos Disc (c. 1700 BCE) remain undeciphered; Cretan hieroglyphs (c. 2000 BCE) are probably an independent invention stimulated by Egypt.
What it led to
- The Mycenaean palace economy documented in detail: rations, herds, chariots, bronze and enslaved women recorded down to the last item
- Proof that the Mycenaeans spoke Greek (Ventris's decipherment, 1952), rewriting Greek protohistory
- Total loss of writing with the collapse of 1200 BCE and a 'Dark Age' until the adoption of the Phoenician alphabet
Built on
Made possible
- Cypriot syllabary
- Palace inventory