Linear B

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Linear B is a script that was used for writing Mycenaean, an early form of Greek. It predated the Greek alphabet by several centuries and 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 application of Linear B was largely confined to administrative contexts. It is theorised that the script was used only by a caste of professional scribes whose native language was Minoan, not Greek. For example, logogram-abbreviations used in the Linear B texts are often irreconcilable with known Greek words but clearly identifiable with those of Linear A texts, and the orthography of Linear B texts was also very badly suited to the Greek language. This may be the reason why Linear B was quickly forgotten after the collapse of the Mycenaean palaces.

The script

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

Syllabic signs

Recognised signs of shape V, CV
	-a		-e		-i		-o		-u
	𐀀	a *08	𐀁	e *38	𐀂	i *28	𐀃	o *61	𐀄	u *10
d-	𐀅	da *01	𐀆	de *45	𐀇	di *07	𐀈	do *14	𐀉	du *51
j-	𐀊	ja *57	𐀋	je *46			𐀍	jo *36
k-	𐀏	ka *77	𐀐	ke *44	𐀑	ki *67	𐀒	ko *70	𐀓	ku *81
m-	𐀔	ma *80	𐀕	me *13	𐀖	mi *73	𐀗	mo *15	𐀘	mu *23
n-	𐀙	na *06	𐀚	ne *24	𐀛	ni *30	𐀜	no *52	𐀝	nu *55
p-	𐀞	pa *03	𐀟	pe *72	𐀠	pi *39	𐀡	po *11	𐀢	pu *50
q-	𐀣	qa *16	𐀤	qe *78	𐀥	qi *21	𐀦	qo *32
r-	𐀨	ra *60	𐀩	re *27	𐀪	ri *53	𐀫	ro *02	𐀬	ru *26
s-	𐀭	sa *31	𐀮	se *09	𐀯	si *41	𐀰	so *12	𐀱	su *58
t-	𐀲	ta *59	𐀳	te *04	𐀴	ti *37	𐀵	to *05	𐀶	tu *69
w-	𐀷	wa *54	𐀸	we *75	𐀹	wi *40	𐀺	wo *42
z-	𐀼	za *17	𐀽	ze *74			𐀿	zo *20

Additional Signs
Grapheme	𐁐	𐁑	𐁒	𐁀	𐁆	𐁊	𐁓	𐁁	𐁔	𐁅	𐁕	𐁖	𐁇	𐁗	𐁘	𐀎	𐁋	𐁉	𐁃	𐁈	𐁙	𐁚	𐁛	𐁂	𐁜	𐁌	𐁝	𐁄	𐁍
Transcription	*18	*19	*22	a2	pu2	ra3	*34	a3	*47	nwa	*49	*56	pte	*63	*64	*65	ta2	ro2	dwe	ra2	*79	*82	*83	au	*86	twe	*89	dwo	two
Numerical value	*18	*19	*22	*25	*29	*33	*34	*43	*47	*48	*49	*56	*62	*63	*64	*65	*66	*68	*71	*76	*79	*82	*83	*75	*86	*87	*89	*90	*91

The transcriptions of the recognised signs are approximations: each may be used used to represent a variety of distinct combinations of sounds. 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, though there are exceptions (there is a separate d-series for voiced dentals, and aspiration can be marked by alternatives such as a₂).

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 ι (e.g. -a-jo for -αῖος; a-te-mi-ti-jo for Ἀρτεμιτιος).

The r-series includes both the /r/ and /l/ phonemes.

The "q"-series is used for the labiovelars resulting from Proto-Indo-European /kʷ/, /gʷ/, and /gʷʰ/, the latter being devoiced to /kʷʰ/ in Proto-Greek.

Of the additional syllabic signs in the second table:

• Some signs do not follow the simple V/CV typological model, such as au, dwo.
• Some signs alternate with a 'core' sign, such as a₃ and pu₂. Their phonetic value may or many not fit the CV model, but the use of a subscript denotes that these are true variants, i.e. the version without the subscript is always an option for the scribe (as opposed to, e.g. dwe, which is not written de₂, because it alternates with du-we).

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: [•].

Ideograms

Linear B also uses a number of logograms, which are informally referred to as ideograms. These ideograms express:

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

They are never used mid-sentence; rather, they occupy the same sort of position as a currency mark in modern orthography. 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. However, 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.

The numerical references for the ideograms was originally 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; 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 relevant Latin words, are used where the meanings are known and agreed. Unicode (as of version 5.0) encodes 123 Linear B ideograms.

glyph	codepoint	Bennett	CIPEM	meaning
people and animals
𐂀	U+10080	100A	VIR	man
𐂁	U+10081	102 A	MUL	woman
𐂂	U+10082	104 Cn	CERV	deer
𐂃	U+10083	105 Ca	EQU	equid
𐂄	U+10084	105b Ca	EQUf	mare
𐂅	U+10085	105a Ca	EQUm	stallion
𐂆	U+10086	106b C-D	OVISf	ewe
𐀥	U+10025	*21	OVIS	sheep
𐂇	U+10087	106a C-D	OVISm	ram
𐂈	U+10088	107b C-Mc	CAPf	nanny goat
𐂉	U+10089	107a C	CAPm	billy goat
𐁒	U+10052	*22	CAP	goat
𐂊	U+1008A	108b C	SUSf	sow
𐂋	U+1008B	108a C	SUSm	boar
𐁂	U+10042	*85 C	SUS	pig
𐂌	U+1008C	109b C	BOSf	cow
𐂍	U+1008D	109a C	BOSm	bull
𐀘	U+10018	*23	BOS	ox
units of measurement
		110		volume
		111		volume
		112		dry
		113		liquid
		114		weight
		115		weight
		116		weight
		117		weight
		118	L	talent
by dry measure
𐂎	U+1008E	120 E-F	GRA	wheat
𐂏	U+1008F	121 F	HORD	barley
𐂐	U+10090	122 F-U	OLIV	olive
𐂑	U+10091	123 G-Un	AROM	spice
		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
weapons
𐃆	U+100C6	230 R	JAC	spear
𐃇	U+100C7	231 R	SAG	arrow
𐃈	U+100C8	232 Ta	*232	double axe?
𐃉	U+100C9	233 Ra	PUG	sword
chariots
𐃌	U+100cc	240 Sc	BIG	wheeled chariot
𐃍	U+100CD	241 Sd Se	CUR	wheel-less chariot
𐃎	U+100CE	242 Sf Sg	CAPS	chariot frame
𐃏	U+100CF	243 Sa So	ROTA	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, judging by impressions left in the clay from the weaving of the baskets. When the buildings in which they were housed were destroyed by fires, many of the tablets were then fired.

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 Mycenaean Greek.

Ventris' discovery was of immense 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.

Unicode

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

See also

• Aegean civilization
• Linear A
• Linear C
• Trojan script

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.
• 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

• 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

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