Editing Linear B (section)

{{short description|Syllabic script used for writing Mycenaean Greek}}
{{Redirect|linear b|the JavaScript engine|linear b (script engine)}}
{{Distinguish|Linear Pottery culture}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2017}}
{{Infobox Writing system
|name=Linear B
|type=[[Syllabary]]
|typedesc=with additional [[ideogram]]s
|time= {{circa|1450}}–1200 BC
|status=Extinct
|languages=[[Mycenaean Greek]]
|fam1= [[Linear A]]
|sisters=[[Cypro-Minoan syllabary]]
|unicode = {{ublist |class=nowrap |[https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U10000.pdf U+10000–U+1007F] {{smaller |Syllabary}} |[https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U10080.pdf U+10080–U+100FF] {{smaller|Ideograms}}}}
|iso15924=Linb
|sample=NAMA Linear B tablet of Pylos.jpg
|imagesize=250px
}}
{{Contains special characters |special=[[Linear B Syllabary|Linear B Unicode characters]] |fix= Help:Multilingual_support#Linear B |characters=Linear B}}

'''Linear B''' is a [[syllabary|syllabic script]] that was used for writing in [[Mycenaean Greek]], the earliest [[Attested language|attested]] form of the [[Greek language]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Palaeolexicon - Mycenaean Greek and Linear B |url=https://www.palaeolexicon.com/Linear%20B |access-date=2024-06-21 |website=www.palaeolexicon.com}}</ref> The script predates the [[Greek alphabet]] by several centuries, the earliest known examples dating to around 1450 BC.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/newpenguindictio0000unse_f2q1/page/282/mode/2up? |title=The New Penguin Dictionary of Archaeology |publisher=Penguin |date=2004| pages=282|isbn=978-0-14-051447-6 }}</ref><ref>[https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/classics/news/professor-shelmerdine-s-exciting-mycenaean-find Professor Shelmerdine's Exciting Mycenaean Find], UT Austin 2 June 2011.</ref> It is adapted from the earlier [[Linear A]], an undeciphered script perhaps used for writing the [[Minoan language]], as is the later [[Cypriot syllabary]], which also recorded Greek. Linear B, found mainly in the [[Minoan palace|palace]] archives at [[Knossos]], [[Kydonia]],<ref>E. Hallager, M. Vlasakis, and B. P. Hallager, "The First Linear B Tablet(s) from Khania", Kadmos, 29 (1990). pp. 24–34</ref> [[Pylos]], [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]] and [[Mycenae]],<ref>{{cite book|last1= Wren|first1=Linnea Holmer|last2= Wren|first2=David J.|last3=Carter|first3=Janine M.|title=Perspectives on Western Art: Source Documents and Readings from the Ancient Near East Through the Middle Ages|year=1987|publisher=Harper & Row|isbn= 978-0-06-438942-6|page=55}}</ref> disappeared with the fall of [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean civilization]] during the [[Late Bronze Age collapse]]. The succeeding period, known as the [[Greek Dark Ages]], provides no evidence of the use of writing.

Linear B was deciphered in 1952 by English architect and self-taught linguist [[Michael Ventris]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/cracking-the-code-the-decipherment-of-linear-b-60-years-on |title=Cracking the code: the decipherment of Linear B 60 years on | publisher =Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge|date=13 October 2012|access-date=31 May 2017}}</ref> based on the research of American classicist [[Alice Kober]].<ref>{{cite book|first= Margalit|last=Fox|title= The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code|publisher=Ecco Press (Harper Collins) |year=2013|isbn= 978-0-06222883-3}}</ref> It is the only Bronze Age Aegean script to have been deciphered, with Linear A, [[Cypro-Minoan]], and [[Cretan hieroglyphs|Cretan hieroglyphic]] remaining unreadable.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Packard |first=David W. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1055287 |title=Minoan Linear A |date=1974 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=0-520-02580-6 |location=Berkeley |oclc=1055287}}</ref>

Linear B consists of around 87 syllabic signs and over 100 [[ideogram|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 texts appear to have been mostly confined to administrative contexts, mainly at Mycenaean palatial sites.<ref>[https://www.academia.edu/download/6416547/Bennet_AJA_1985.pdf]Bennet, John, "The structure of the Linear B administration at Knossos", American Journal of Archaeology 89.2, pp. 231-249, 1985</ref> In the handwriting of all the thousands of clay tablets, a relatively small number of scribes have been detected: 45 in [[Pylos]] (west coast of the [[Peloponnese]], in [[Southern Greece]]) and 66 in [[Knossos]] ([[Crete]]). The use of Linear B signs on trade objects like amphora was more widespread.<ref>{{cite book|first= J.T.|last=Hooker|title=Linear B: An Introduction|publisher=Bristol Classical Press UK|year=1980|isbn= 978-0-906515-69-3}}</ref> Once the palaces were destroyed, the script disappeared.<ref>Ventris and Chadwick 1973, p. 60.</ref>