Editing Linear B (section)

== Archives ==

=== Corpus ===
Inscriptions in Linear B have been found on tablets, [[stirrup jar]]s and other objects; they are catalogued and classified by, inter alia, the location of the excavation they were found in.
{| class="wikitable"
! Prefix !! Location !! Number of items and/or notes
|-
| align="center" |'''ARM''' || [[Armeni_(archaeological_site)|Armeni]] || 1 stirrup jar.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tzedakis |first1=Yannis |last2=Kolivaki |first2=Vicky |editor-last1=Tzedakis |editor-first1=Yannis |editor-last2=Martlew |editor-first2=Holley |editor-last3=Arnott |editor-first3=Robert |date=2018 |chapter=Background and History of Excavation |title=The Late Minoan III Necropolis of Armenoi |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2227961808 |url-access=subscription |volume=1: Introduction and Background |location=Philadelphia, PA |publisher=INSTAP Academic Press |page=1 |isbn=9781623034191 |access-date=30 April 2022|id={{ProQuest|2227961808}} }}</ref>
|-
| align="center" |'''DIM''' or '''IOL'''<ref>{{cite book |last1=Del Freo |first1=Maurizio |editor-last1=Del Freo |editor-first1=Maurizio |editor-last2=Perna |editor-first2=Massimo |date=2016 |chapter=Classificazione dei documenti e regole di trascrizione |title=Manuale di Epigrafia Micenea: Introduzione allo studio dei testi in lineare B |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KtTUDQAAQBAJ |volume=1 |location=Padova, Italy |publisher=Libreria Universitaria |page=247 |isbn=9788862927161 |access-date=30 April 2022}}</ref> || [[Dimini]] || 1 [[kylix]] shard and 1 stone (possibly a weight).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Adrimi-Sismani |first1= Vasso |last2=Godart |first2=Louis |year=2005 |title=Les Inscriptions en Linéaire B de Dimini/Iolkos et leur contexte archéologique |journal=Annuario della Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni Italiane in Oriente |volume=83 |issue=1 |pages=46–69 |url=https://www.scuoladiatene.it/dal-2001-al-2010/2005-1.html |access-date=30 April 2022}}</ref>
|-
| align="center" |'''EL''' || [[Eleusis]] || 1 stirrup jar.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cosmopoulos |first1=Michael B. |date=2015 |title=Bronze Age Eleusis and the Origins of the Eleusinian Mysteries |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511820700 |url-access=subscription |publisher=Cambridge UP |page=123 |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511820700 |isbn=9780511820700 |access-date=5 May 2022}}</ref>
|-
| align="center" |'''GL''' || [[Gla]] || 1 stirrup jar bearing either an inscription or a [[potter's mark]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Zurbach |first=Julien |date=2006 |title=Les vases inscrits en Linéaire B: Tentative d'interprétation globale |journal=Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Athenische Abteilung |volume=121 |page=24}}</ref>
|-
| align="center" |'''HV''' || [[Agios Vasileios, Laconia|Agios Vasileios]]<br />(Xerocampion, [[Laconia]]) || 211 inscribed pieces, comprising ca. 115 tablets, 9 sealing nodules and 3 labels as of 21 September 2021.<ref>{{cite conference |url= https://www.bsa.ac.uk/videos/linear-b-administrative-documents-from-ayios-vasileios/|title= An Assemblage of Linear B Administrative Documents from Ayios Vasileios, Laconia|type= Virtual Lectures|first= Vassilis|last= Petrakis|orig-date= presented on 21 September 2021|conference= 15th Mycenological Colloquium|publisher= British School at Athens|access-date= 23 February 2022|at= 5:01 minutes in|publication-date= 17 November 2021|via= Youtube}}</ref>
|-
| align="center" |'''IK''' || [[Iklaina]] || 1 tablet.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cosmopoulos |first1=Michael B. |year=2019 |title=State Formation in Greece: Iklaina and the Unification of Mycenaean Pylos |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |publisher=[[The University of Chicago Press]] |volume=123 |issue=3 |page=358 |doi=10.3764/aja.123.3.0349 |s2cid=198037416 |url=https://doi.org/10.3764/aja.123.3.0349 |url-access=subscription |access-date=20 March 2022}}</ref>
|-
| align="center" |'''KH''' || [[Chania|Chania/Khania]] || ca. 8 tablets, 42 stirrup jars, {{not a typo|2 cups}} and a bowl.<ref>[https://tidsskrift.dk/pdia/article/download/19622/17243]Andreadaki-Vlasaki, Maria, and Erik Hallager, "New and unpublished Linear A and Linear B inscriptions from Khania", Proceedings of the Danish Institute at Athens 5, pp. 7-22, 2007</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hallager |first1=Erik |editor-last1=Hallager |editor-first1=Birgitta P. |editor-last2=Hallager |editor-first2=Erik |date=2011 |chapter=The Linear B Inscriptions and Potter's Marks |title=The Greek-Swedish Excavations at the Agia Aikaterini Square, Kastelli, Khania 1970–1987 and 2001 |url=https://ecsi.bokorder.se/en-GB/article/1934/the-greek-swedish-excavations-at-the-agia-aik |volume=4: The Late Minoan IIIB:1 and IIIA:2 Settlements |location=Stockholm |publisher=The Swedish Institute at Athens |pages=414–426 |isbn=9789179160609 |access-date=23 April 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Andreadaki-Vlazaki |first1=Maria |last2=Godart |first2=Louis |date=2014 |title=Three new Linear A and B tablets from Khania |url=https://www.academia.edu/49249376 |journal=Pasiphae: Rivista di filologia e antichità egee |volume=8 |pages=11–18 |access-date=23 April 2022}}</ref><ref>Godart, L., Andreadaki-Vlazaki, M., "A new Linear B tablet from Khania: KH X 8", pp. 37–42, 2022</ref>
|-
| align="center" |'''KN''' || [[Knossos]] || ca. 5500 fragments, comprising ca. 4158 tablets, 31 sealing nodules and 35 labels.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Melena |first1=José L. |last2=Firth |first2=Richard J. |date=2019 |title=The Knossos Tablets |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2227879530 |url-access=subscription |edition=6th |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |publisher=INSTAP Academic Press |pages=425–457, 481–679 |isbn=9781623034184 |access-date=16 April 2022|id={{ProQuest|2227879530}} }}</ref>
|-
| align="center" |'''KR''' || [[Kreusis]]<br />(Livadostra, [[Boeotia]]) || 1 stirrup jar.{{sfn|Zurbach|2006|pp=23–24}}
|-
| align="center" |'''MA''' || [[Malia (archaeological site)|Malia]] || 4 stirrup jars.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Driessen |first1=Jan |last2=Farnoux |first2=Alexandre |last3=Langohr |first3=Charlotte |editor-last1=Panagiotopoulos |editor-first1=Diamantis |editor-last2=Kaiser |editor-first2=Ivonne |editor-last3=Kouka |editor-first3=Ourania |date=2015 |chapter=Two More Linear B Inscribed Stirrup Jars from Malia |title=Ein Minoer im Exil: Festschrift für Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier |url=https://www.academia.edu/5221541 |location=Bonn, Germany |publisher=Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH |page=60 |isbn=9783774939714 |access-date=17 April 2022}}</ref>
|-
| align="center" |'''MAM''' || Mameloukou Cave<br />(Perivolia, [[Kissamos]]) || 1 stirrup jar.{{sfn|Zurbach|2006|pp=45-46}}
|-
| align="center" |'''MED''' || Medeon<br />([[Steiri]], Boeotia) || 1 ivory seal.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Marazzi |first1=Massimiliano |date=2009 |title=Il corpus delle iscrizioni in lineare B oggi: organizzazione e provenienze |url=http://www.libraweb.net/articoli.php?chiave=200933301&rivista=333 |journal=Pasiphae: Rivista di filologia e antichità egee |volume=3 |page=142 |access-date=13 May 2022}}</ref>
|-
| align="center" |'''MI''' || [[Midea (Argolid)|Midea]] || 4 sealing nodules and 4 stirrup jars.<ref>{{cite book |last=Demakopoulou |first=Katie |editor-last1=Schallin |editor-first1=Ann-Louise |editor-last2=Tournavitou |editor-first2=Iphiyenia |title=Mycenaeans Up to Date: The archaeology of the north-eastern Peloponnese – current concepts and new directions |location=Stockholm |publisher=Svenska Institutet i Athen |date=2015 |pages=193–194 |chapter=The Mycenaean Acropolis of Midea: New discoveries and new interpretations |isbn=9789179160630}}</ref>
|-
| align="center" |'''MY''' || [[Mycenae]] || 88 documents.<ref name=documents2024>{{cite book |last=Del Freo |first=Maurizio |editor-last=Killen |editor-first=John |translator-last=Rockenhaus |translator-first=Melanie |date=2024 |chapter=The Linear B Documents |title=The New Documents in Mycenaean Greek |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/new-documents-in-mycenaean-greek/49509DDFDB61F3FE1FA2C0E428ADCEAD |url-access=subscription |volume=1: Introductory Essays |publisher=Cambridge UP |page=218 |doi=10.1017/9781139029049 |isbn=9781139029049 |access-date=14 Oct 2024 }}</ref>
|-
| align="center" |'''OR''' || [[Orchomenus (Boeotia)|Orchomenos]] || 1 stirrup jar bearing either an inscription or pseudo-script.{{sfn|Zurbach|2006|pp=22–23}}
|-
| align="center" |'''PY''' || [[Pylos]] || ca. 1,026 tablets, 24 sealing nodules, 22 labels and 7 stirrup jars.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Montecchi |first1=Barbara |year=2020 |title=The Inscriptions in Linear B |department=review |journal=The Classical Review |publisher=Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association |volume=71 |issue=1 |page=17 |doi=10.1017/S0009840X20001900 |s2cid=232223668 |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009840X20001900 |url-access=subscription |access-date=20 March 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Judson |first1=Anna P. |year=2013 |title=The Linear B Inscribed Stirrup Jars |journal=Kadmos |publisher=De Gruyter |volume=52 |issue=1 |page=88 |doi=10.1515/kadmos-2013-0005 |s2cid=163791226 |url=https://doi.org/10.1515/kadmos-2013-0005 |url-access= |access-date=20 March 2022 }}</ref><ref>Melena, José L., "A new personal name in the Linear B tablets from Pylos", Kadmos, vol. 62, no. 1-2, pp. 33-42, 2023</ref>
|-
| align="center" |'''TH''' || [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]] || 368 documents.<ref name=documents2024 /> {{see also|Thebes tablets}}
|-
| align="center" |'''TI''' || [[Tiryns]] || 27 tablets and fragments, ca. 51 stirrup jars and a possibly inscribed [[skyphos]].<ref>Melena, J. L. and J.-P. Olivier. (1991). Tithemy: The Tablets and Nodules in Linear B from Tiryns, Thebes and Mycenae. Suplementos a Minos 12. Salamanca.</ref><ref>Olivier, Jean-Pierre. "Eighteen more fragments of linear B tablet from Tiryns." Archäologischer Anzeiger (1983): 413–426</ref>{{sfn|Zurbach|2006|pp=33–40}}
|-
| align="center" |'''VOL''' || Kastro-Palaia<br />([[Volos]]) || Two tablets found in 1950s excavations resurfaced in the early 2010s; a sketch depicts a third tablet.<ref>{{cite book |last=Janko |first=Richard |editor-last1=Giannakis |editor-first1=Georgios |editor-last2=Crespo |editor-first2=Emilio |editor-last3=Filos |editor-first3=Panagiotis |display-editors=1 |title=Studies in Ancient Greek Dialects: From Central Greece to the Black Sea |publisher=De Gruyter |date=2017 |page=107 |chapter=The Greek Dialects in the Palatial and Post-Palatial Late Bronze Age |isbn=9783110532135}}</ref>
|}
Another 170 inscriptions in Linear B have been found on various vessels, for a total of some 6,058 known inscriptions. The primary source of vessel markings are on Inscribed Stirrup Jars, with most found at Thebes, Mycenae, Tiryns, and Khania.<ref>Catling, H. W., et al., "The Linear B Inscribed Stirrup Jars and West Crete", The Annual of the British School at Athens, vol. 75, pp. 49–113, 1980</ref>

For several decades scholars have worked to join tablet fragments together, thus making the tablets and their information more complete while reducing their numbers as a whole.<ref>Owens, Gareth, "A Linear B Tablet at University College London", Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, no. 37, Wiley, pp. 95–98, 1990</ref>

The oldest Linear B tablets are probably those from the Room of Chariot Tablets at Knossos, and date to the latter half of the 15th century BC.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Scribes of the Room of the Chariot Tablets at Knossos|last=Driessen|first=Jan|publisher=Ediciones universidad de Salamanca|year=2000|location=Salamanca}}</ref> The [[Kafkania pebble]], though from an earlier context, is not genuine.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Palaima|first=Thomas G.|year=2003|title=OL Zh1: QVOSQVE TANDEM|journal=Minos|volume=38|pages=373–85}}</ref> The earliest inscription from the mainland is an inscribed clay tablet found at [[Iklaina]] dating to between 1400 and 1350 BC.<ref name=ng33011>{{cite news|url= https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/110330-oldest-writing-europe-tablet-greece-science-mycenae-greek/|title= Ancient Tablet Found: Oldest Readable Writing in Europe|first=Ker|last=Than|date=30 March 2011|publisher=[[National Geographic Society|National Geographic]]|access-date=1 April 2011}}</ref>

An amber seal incised with Linear B signs was found in 2000 at Bernstorf near [[Kranzberg]], southern [[Germany]], and is of much debated authenticity.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Harding |first1= Anthony |last2=Hughes-Brock |first2=Helen |year=2017 |title=Mycenaeans in Bavaria? Amber and gold from the Bronze Age site of Bernstorf |department=review |journal=Antiquity |publisher=Cambridge University Press |volume=91 |issue=359 |pages=1382–1385 |doi= 10.15184/aqy.2017.147 |s2cid= 164227841 |url=https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2017.147 |url-access=subscription |access-date=31 March 2022}}</ref>

=== Chronology ===
{{See also|Linear A#Chronology|l1=Chronology of Linear A}}

==== Timeline of Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean scripts ====
The Aegean is responsible for many of the early Greek language words that have to do with daily life such as words for tools and items that are seen every day.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Greek Art and Archaeology|last=Neer|first=Richard|publisher=Thames & Hudson|year=2012|isbn=978-0500288771|location=New York|pages=44}}</ref> 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 [[geography of Greece#Mainland|mainland Greece]] are summarized as follows:<ref name="Olivier 1986, 377f.">{{cite journal|last1=Olivier|first1=J.-P.|title=Cretan writing in the second millennium B.C.|journal=World Archaeology|date=February 1986|volume=17|issue=3|pages=377–389|doi=10.1080/00438243.1986.9979977|url=https://dipot.ulb.ac.be/dspace/bitstream/2013/248436/4/53a239ae-5319-44a5-b013-69ca027964b7.txt}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
! Writing system
! Geographical area
! Time span<ref group="note">Beginning date refers to first attestations, the assumed origins of all scripts lie further back in the past.</ref>
|-
|[[Cretan hieroglyphs]]
|[[Crete]]
|{{circa|2100}}–1700 BC
|-
|[[Linear A]]
|[[Crete]], [[Aegean Islands]] ([[Kea (island)|Kea]], [[Kythira]], [[Milos]], [[Santorini]]), and [[Laconia]]
|{{circa|1800}}–1450 BC<ref>{{cite book|last1=Daniels|last2=Bright|first1=Peter T.|first2=William|title=[[The World's Writing Systems]]|year=1996|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0-19-507993-0}}</ref>
|-
|Linear B
|Crete ([[Knossos]]), and mainland ([[Pylos]], [[Mycenae]], [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]], [[Tiryns]])
|{{circa|1425}}−1200 BC
|-
|}

====Timeline of Linear B====
The main archives for Linear B are associated with these stages of [[Helladic period|Late Minoan and Helladic pottery]]:<ref name="Cline1998">{{cite book|last=Shelmerdin|first=Cynthia W.|editor-last1=Cline|editor-first1=Eric H.|editor1-link=Eric H. Cline|editor2-last=Harris-Cline|editor2-first=Diane|url=https://www.academia.edu/2284473|title=The Aegean and the Orient in the Second Millennium: Proceedings of the 50th Anniversary Symposium, Cincinnati, 18–20 April 1997|series=Aegaeum|year=1998|publisher=Universite de Liege, Histoire de L'art Et Archeologie de la Grece Antiquei|chapter=Where Do We Go From Here? And How Can the Linear B Tablets Help Us Get There?}}  The table is heavily indebted to this chapter.</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
! 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]] || 1 tablet found in refuse pit<ref>Summer, Amanda. "The Birth of Bureaucracy." Archaeology, vol. 65, no. 4, Archaeological Institute of America, 2012, pp. 33–39</ref>
|-
| '''LM IIIA2'''<br />or<br />'''LM IIIB''' || 1370–1340 BC<br />or<br />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'''<ref group="note">LM III is equivalent to LH III from a chronological perspective.</ref> || || [[Chania]]<br />[[Mycenae]]<br />[[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]] || tablets Ar 3, Gq 5, X 6<br />tablets from Oil Merchant group of houses<br />Ug tablets and Wu sealings
|-
| '''LH IIIB2, end''' || || [[Mycenae]]<br />[[Tiryns]]<br />[[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]]<br />[[Pylos]] || tablets from the Citadel<br />all tablets<br />Of tablets and new Pelopidou Street deposit<br />all but five tablets
|}

Sixteen tablets found at the Megaron at Pylos are also thought to be dated to LHIIIA.<ref>Skelton, Christina. "Re-Examining the Pylos Megaron Tablets", KADMOS, vol. 48, no. 1-2, 2010, pp. 107–123</ref>

==== Controversy on the date of the Knossos tablets ====
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,<ref>{{cite book|last=Salomon|first=Marilyn J.|title=Great Cities of the World 3: Next Stop... Athens|publisher=The Symphonette Press|year=1974|page=15}}</ref> serious questions about Evans's 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's assistant, [[Duncan Mackenzie]], who had conducted the day-to-day excavations. There were discrepancies between the notes in the day books and Evans's 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''.<ref>{{cite book|first1=L.R.|last1=Palmer|first2=John|last2=Boardman|title=On the Knossos Tablets|location=Oxford|year=1963|publisher=Clarendon Press}}</ref> 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's views respectively. Consequently, the dispute was known for a time as "the Palmer–Boardman dispute". There has been no generally accepted resolution to it yet.

=== 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. A number of tablets also deal with military matters.<ref>Driessen, Jan, and Colin Macdonald. "Some Military Aspects of the Aegean in the Late Fifteenth and Early Fourteenth Centuries B.C." The Annual of the British School at Athens, vol. 79, [British School at Athens, Cambridge University Press], 1984, pp. 49–74</ref>

As is often the case with [[cuneiform]] tablets, when the buildings they were housed in were destroyed by fire many of the tablets were baked which preserved them.<ref>Hallager, Erik, Maria Vlasakis, and Birgitta P. Hallager, "New Linear B Tablets from Khania", pp. 61-87, 1992</ref>