What is Linear B?
Q: What is Linear B?
A: Linear B is an ancient script used to write Mycenaean Greek, which was the oldest known form of Ancient Greek. It predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries and dates back to around 1450 BC.
Q: How many signs are in Linear B?
A: There are about 87 syllabic signs and many ideographic signs in Linear B. The ideographic signs represent objects or commodities but do not represent sounds, and they are never used as word signs in writing a sentence.
Q: What was Linear B mainly used for?
A: Linear B seems to have only been used for administration purposes, such as keeping records of taxes and other transactions.
Q: Where were most of the texts written in Linear B found?
A: Most of the texts written in Linear B were found mainly in palace archives at Knossos, Cydonia, Pylos, Thebes and Mycenae.
Q: When did the use of Linear B language disappear?
A: The use of the Linear B language disappeared with the fall of the Mycenaean civilization.
Q: How many different writers have been detected using this script?
A: In all the thousands of clay tablets that have been discovered so far, a relatively small number of different "hands" (or writers) have been detected - 45 from Pylos (west coast of Peloponnese) and 66 from Knossos (Crete).
Q: Who may have used this script?
A:It appears that this script may have only been used by a guild of professional scribes who worked at various palaces; when these palaces were destroyed, so too was the script lost forever.
