Linear B is a syllabic script that was used for writing in Mycenaean Greek, the earliest attested form of the Greek language. The script predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries, the earliest known examples dating to around 1400 BC. It is adapted from the earlier Linear A, an undeciphered script potentially used for writing the Minoan language, as is the later Cypriot syllabary, which also recorded Greek. Linear B, found mainly in the palace archives at Knossos, Kydonia,Pylos, Thebes and Mycenae, disappeared with the fall of 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 | |
---|---|
Script type | with additional ideograms |
Time period | c.โ1400 BC โ 1200 BC |
Status | Extinct |
Direction | Left-to-rightย |
Languages | Mycenaean Greek |
Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Linear A
|
Sister systems | Cypro-Minoan syllabary |
ISO 15924 | |
ISO 15924 | Linb (401), โLinear B |
Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Linear B |
| |
Linear B was deciphered in 1952 by English architect and self-taught linguist Michael Ventris based on the research of American classicist Alice Kober. It is the only Bronze Age Aegean script to have been deciphered, with Linear A, Cypro-Minoan, and Cretan hieroglyphic remaining unreadable.
Linear B consists of around 87 syllabic signs and over 100 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 appears to have been confined to administrative contexts.[] In all the thousands of clay tablets, a relatively small number of different people's handwriting have been detected: 45 in Pylos (west coast of the Peloponnese, in Southern Greece) and 66 in Knossos (Crete). Once the palaces were destroyed, the script disappeared.
Script
Linear B has roughly 200 signs, divided into syllabic signs with phonetic values and ideograms with semantic values. The representations and naming of these signs have been standardized by a series of international colloquia starting in Paris in 1956. After the third meeting in 1961 at the in Racine, Wisconsin, a standard proposed primarily by Emmett L. Bennett, Jr. became known as the Wingspread Convention, which was adopted by a new organization, the Comitรฉ International Permanent des รtudes Mycรฉniennes (CIPEM: Permanent International Committee of Mycenaean Studies), affiliated in 1970 by the fifth colloquium with UNESCO. Colloquia continue: the 13th occurred in 2010 in Paris.
Many of the signs are identical or similar to those in Linear A; however, Linear A encodes an as yet unknown language, and it is uncertain whether similar signs had the same phonetic values.
Syllabic signs
The grid developed during decipherment by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick of phonetic values for syllabic signs is shown below. (Note that "q" represents the labialized velar stops [ษกสท, kสท, kสทสฐ], not the uvular stop of the IPA.)
Initial consonants are in the leftmost column; vowels are in the top row beneath the title. The transcription of the syllable, which may not have been pronounced that way, is listed next to the sign along with Bennett's identifying number for the sign preceded by an asterisk (as was Ventris' and Chadwick's convention). If the transcription of the sign remains uncertain, Bennett's number serves to identify the sign. The signs on the tablets and sealings often show considerable variation from each other and from the representations below. Discovery of the reasons for the variation and possible semantic differences is a topic of ongoing debate in Mycenaean studies.
Recognised signs of shape V, CV | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
-a | -e | -i | -o | -u | ||||||
๐ | a *08 | ๐ | e *38 | ๐ | i *28 | ๐ | o *61 | ๐ | u *10 | |
d- | ๐ | da *01 | ๐ | de *45 | ๐ | di *07 | ๐ | do *14 | ๐ | du *51 |
j- | ๐ | ja *57 | ๐ | je *46 | ๐ | jo *36 | ||||
k- | ๐ | ka *77 | ๐ | ke *44 | ๐ | ki *67 | ๐ | ko *70 | ๐ | ku *81 |
m- | ๐ | ma *80 | ๐ | me *13 | ๐ | mi *73 | ๐ | mo *15 | ๐ | mu *23 |
n- | ๐ | na *06 | ๐ | ne *24 | ๐ | ni *30 | ๐ | no *52 | ๐ | nu *55 |
p- | ๐ | pa *03 | ๐ | pe *72 | ๐ | pi *39 | ๐ก | po *11 | ๐ข | pu *50 |
q- | ๐ฃ | qa *16 | ๐ค | qe *78 | ๐ฅ | qi *21 | ๐ฆ | qo *32 | ||
r- | ๐จ | ra *60 | ๐ฉ | re *27 | ๐ช | ri *53 | ๐ซ | ro *02 | ๐ฌ | ru *26 |
s- | ๐ญ | sa *31 | ๐ฎ | se *09 | ๐ฏ | si *41 | ๐ฐ | so *12 | ๐ฑ | su *58 |
t- | ๐ฒ | ta *59 | ๐ณ | te *04 | ๐ด | ti *37 | ๐ต | to *05 | ๐ถ | tu *69 |
w- | ๐ท | wa *54 | ๐ธ | we *75 | ๐น | wi *40 | ๐บ | wo *42 | ||
z- | ๐ผ | za *17 | ๐ฝ | ze *74 | ๐ฟ | zo *20 |
Special and unknown signs
In addition to the grid, the first edition of Documents in Mycenaean Greek contained a number of other signs termed "homophones" because they appeared at that time to resemble the sounds of other syllables and were transcribed accordingly: pa2 and pa3 were presumed homophonous to pa. Many of these were identified by the second edition and are shown in the "special values" below. The second edition relates: "It may be taken as axiomatic that there are no true homophones." The unconfirmed identifications of *34 and *35 as ai2 and ai3 were removed. pa2 became qa.
Special values | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Character | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | |||||||||||||||
Transcription | a2 (ha) | a3 (ai) | au | dwe | dwo | nwa | pte | pu2 (phu) | ra2 (rya) | ra3 (rai) | ro2 (ryo) | ta2 (tya) | twe | two | |||||||||||||||
Bennett's number | *25 | *43 | *85 | *71 | *90 | *48 | *62 | *29 | *76 | *33 | *68 | *66 | *87 | *91 |
Other values remain unknown, mainly because of scarcity of evidence concerning them. Note that *34 and *35 are mirror images of each other, but whether this graphic relationship indicates a phonetic one remains unconfirmed.
Untranscribed and doubtful values | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Character | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ||||||||||||||
Transcription | *18 | *19 | *22 | *34 | *35 | *47 | *49 | pa3? | *63 | swi? | ju? | zu? | swa? | *83 | *86 | *89 | |||||||||||||
Bennett's number | *18 | *19 | *22 | *34 | *35 | *47 | *49 | *56 | *63 | *64 | *65 | *79 | *82 | *83 | *86 | *89 |
In recent times, CIPEM inherited the former authority of Bennett and the Wingspread convention in deciding what signs are "confirmed" and how to officially represent the various sign categories. In editions of Mycenaean texts, the signs whose values have 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: [โข].
Spelling and pronunciation
The signs are approximations, since each may be used to represent a variety of about 70 distinct combinations of sounds within rules and conventions. The grid presents a system of monosyllabic signs of the type V/CV. Clarification of the 14 or so special values tested the limits of the grid model, but Chadwick eventually concluded that even with the ramifications, the syllabic signs can unexceptionally be considered monosyllabic.
Possible exceptions, Chadwick goes on to explain, include the two diphthongs, ๐ย (ai) and ๐ย (au), as in ๐๐๐ ๐ด๐, ai-ku-pi-ti-jo, for Aiguptios (ฮแผฐฮณฯฯฯฮนฮฟฯ, "Egyptian") and ๐๐๐ท, au-ke-wa, for Augewฤs (ฮแฝฮณฮตฮฏฮฑฯ "Augeas"). However, a diphthong is by definition two vowels united into a single sound and therefore might be typed as just V. Thus ๐ย (rai), as in ๐๐๐บ,ย e-rai-wo, for elaiwon (แผฮปฮฑฮนฮฟฮฝ), is of the type CV. Diphthongs are otherwise treated as two monosyllables: ๐๐ซ๐๐จ, a-ro-u-ra, for arourans (accusative plural of แผฯฮฟฯ ฯฮฑฮน, "tamarisk trees"), of the types CV and V. Lengths of vowels and accents are not marked.
๐ย (Twe), ๐ย (two), ๐ย (dwe), ๐ย (dwo), ๐ ย (nwa) and the more doubtful ๐ย (swi) and ๐ย (swa) may be regarded as beginning with labialized consonants, rather than two consonants, even though they may alternate with a two-sign form: o-da-twe-ta and o-da-tu-we-ta for Odatwenta; a-si-wi-jo and a-swi-jo for Aswios (แผฯฮนฮฟฯ). Similarly, ๐ย (rya), ๐ย (ryo) and ๐ย (tya) begin with palatalized consonants rather than two consonants: -ti-ri-ja for -trja (-ฯฯฮนฮฑ).
The one sign Chadwick tags as the exception to the monosyllabic rule is ๐ย (pte), but this he attributes to a development pte<*pje as in kleptei<*klep-jei.
Linear B does not consistently distinguish between voiced and unvoiced stop consonants or and between aspirated and unaspirated stops, even though these distinctions are phonemic in Mycenaean Greek. (The exception is the dental series, where syllables starting with the voiced dental stop are written differently from syllables starting with the voiceless unaspirated or voiceless aspirated dental stop.) For example,pa-te is patฤr (ฯฮฑฯฮฎฯ), pa-si is phฤsi (ฯฮทฯฮฏ);,ko-ru is korus (ฮบฯฯฯ ฯ, "helmet"), ka-ra-we is grฤwes (plural of ฮณฯฮทฯฯ), ko-no is skhoinos ("rope"), to-so is tosos (ฯฯฯฮฟฯ or ฯฯฯฯฮฟฯ), to-ra-ke is thลrฤkes (plural of ฮธฯฯฮฑฮพ, "breastplate"). The exceptional d-series for voiced dentals is illustrated by do-ra for dลra (plural of ฮดแฟถฯฮฟฮฝ, "gift").
In some cases aspiration may be marked, but this is optional: pu-te for phutฤr ("planter", from ฯฯ ฯฮตฯฯ), but phu-te-re for phutฤres ("planters"). Initial /h/ may be marked only when followed by a, and only rarely: ha-te-ro for hateron (masculine แผ ฯฮตฯฮฟฯ), and yet a-ni-ja for hฤniai (แผฮฝฮฏฮฑฮน).
The q-series is used for syllables beginning with labialized velar consonants (see under Mycenaean Greek), a class of consonants that disappeared from classical Greek by regular phonetic change (becoming in various circumstances ฮฒ, ฯ, ฯ, or ฮด, ฯ, ฮธ). These consonants had various sources: inheritance from Proto-Indo-European, assimilation, borrowing of foreign words, especially names. In Mycenaean they are /kสท/, /gสท/, and rarely /kสทh/ in names and a few words:a-pi-qo-ro for amphiquoloi (แผฮผฯฮฏฯฮฟฮปฮฟฮน); qo-u-ko-ro for guoukoloi (ฮฒฮฟฯ ฮบฯฮปฮฟฮน, "cowherders"); qa-si-re-u for guasileus (ฮฒฮฑฯฮนฮปฮตฯฯ, "basileus", meaning in this period "court official or local chieftain"), -qo-i-ta for -ฯฯฮฝฯฮทฯ.
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 i: -a-jo for -ฮฑแฟฮฟฯ (-aios); a-te-mi-ti-jo for แผฯฯฮตฮผฮฏฯฮนฮฟฯ (Artemitios). The w-series similarly are semivowels used word-initially and intervocalically after a syllable ending in u: ku-wa-no for kuanos (ฮบฯฮฑฮฝฮฟฯ, "blue").
The r-series includes both the /r/ and /l/ phonemes: ti-ri-po for tripos (ฯฯฮฏฯฮฟฯ, i.e. ฯฯฮฏฯฮฟฯ ฯ) and tu-ri-so for Tulisos (ฮคฯ ฮปฮนฯฯฯ).
Some consonants in some contexts are not written (but are understood to be present), such as word-initial s- and -w before a consonant, as in pe-ma for sperma (ฯฯฮญฯฮผฮฑ, "seed"). The pe-, which was primarily used as its value pe of grid class CV, is here being used for sper-. This was not an innovative or exceptional use, but followed the stated rules. Syllable-final -l, -m, -n, -r and -s are also not written out, and only word-final velars are notated by plene writing: a-to-ro-qo for anthrลquos (แผฮฝฮธฯฯฯฮฟฯ, "human being, person"). Here a, being primarily of grid class V, is being used as an- and could be used for al, am, ar, and so on.
In the case of clusters of two or three consonants that do not follow the initial s- and -w rule or the double consonants: ฮพย (ks or x), ฯย (ps) and qus (which later did not exist in classical Greek), each consonant in the cluster is represented by a type CV sign that shares its consonant value: ko-no-so for Knลsos, or ku-ru-so for khrusos (ฯฯฯ ฯฯฯ, "gold"). The vowels of these signs have been called "empty", "null", "extra", "dead" and other terms by various writers as they represent no sound. There were rules though, that governed the selection of the "empty" vowel and therefore determined which sign was to be used. The vowel had to be the same as the one of the first syllable following the cluster or, if at the end of the word, preceding: ti-ri-po with ti- (instead of ta-, te- and so on) to match -ri-. A rare exception occurs in words formed from wa-na-ka, wanax (ฯฮฌฮฝฮฑฮพ, Homeric and Classical แผฮฝฮฑฮพ): wa-na-ka-te for wanaktei (dative), and wa-na-ka-te-ro for wanakteros, the adjectival form. This exception may not have applied to all contexts, as an example of wa-na-ka that follows standard rules has emerged in Agios Vasileios in Laconia. The text reads wa-na-ko-to (genitive) and is written on a sealing nodule dating to the late 14th or early 13th century, slightly earlier than other Linear B texts found on mainland Greece.
Ideograms
Linear B also uses a large number of ideograms. They express:
- the type of object concerned (e.g. a cow, wool, a spear),
- a unit of measure.
They have no phonetic value and are never used as word signs in writing a sentence, unlike Japanese kanji or Hittite cuneiform. Ideograms are typically at the end of a line before a number and appear to signify to which object the number applies. 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 sex.
The numerical references for the ideograms were originally devised by Ventris and Bennett and divided into functional groups corresponding to the breakdown of Bennett's index. The 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 Latin words that seemed relevant at the time, are used where the meanings are known and agreed. Unicode (as of version 5.0) encodes 123 Linearย B ideograms.
The ideograms are symbols, not pictures of the objects in question; for example, one tablet records a tripod with missing legs, but the ideogram used is of a tripod with three legs. In modern transcriptions of Linear B tablets, it is typically convenient to represent an ideogram by its Latin or English name or by an abbreviation of the Latin name. Ventris and Chadwick generally used English; Bennett, Latin. Neither the English nor the Latin can be relied upon as an accurate name of the object; in fact, the identification of some of the more obscure objects is a matter of exegesis.[]
Glyph | Code point | Bennett | CIPEM | English |
---|---|---|---|---|
People and animals | ||||
๐ | U+10080 | 100 A- | VIR vir | MAN |
๐ | U+10081 | 102 A- | MUL mulier | WOMAN |
๐ | U+10082 | 104 Cn | CERV cervus | DEER |
๐ | U+10083 | 105 Ca S- | EQU equus | HORSE |
๐ | U+10084 | 105 Ca | EQUf | mare |
๐ | U+10085 | 105 Ca | EQUm | stallion |
๐ฅ | U+10025 | 106 QI *21 | OVIS ovis | SHEEP |
๐ฅ | WE *75 | we-ka-ta Bous ergatฤs | "Adjunct to ox" (1973) | |
๐ | U+10086 | 106b C- D- | OVISf | EWE |
๐ | U+10087 | 106a C- D- | OVISm | RAM |
๐ | U+10052 | 107 RA *22 | CAP capra | GOAT |
๐ | U+10088 | 107b C- Mc | CAPf | SHE-GOAT |
๐ | U+10089 | 107a C- | CAPm | HE-GOAT |
๐ | U+10042 | 108 AU *85 C- | SUS sลซs | PIG |
๐ | U+1008A | 108b C- | SUSf | SOW |
๐ | U+1008B | 108a C- | SUSm | BOAR |
๐ | U+10018 | 109 MU *23 C- | BOS bลs | OX |
๐ | U+1008C | 109b C- | BOSf | COW |
๐ | U+1008D | 109a C- | BOSm | OX/BULL |
Units of measurement | ||||
๐ฟ | U+1013F | 110 | Z kotylai | Volume Cup |
๐พ | U+1013E | 111 | V khoinikes | Volume |
๐ผ | U+1013C | 112 | T | Dry |
๐ฝ | U+1013D | 113 | S | Liquid |
๐ป | U+1013B | 114 | Weight | |
*21 | Weight | |||
*2 | Weight | |||
๐บ | U+1013A | 115 | P | Weight |
๐น | U+10139 | 116 | N | Weight |
๐ธ | U+10138 | 117 | M dimnaion | Weight |
๐ท | U+10137 | 118 | L talanton | TALENT |
*72 G- | Bunch? | |||
*74 S- | Pair | |||
*15 S- | Single | |||
*61 | Deficit | |||
By dry measure | ||||
๐ | U+1008E | 120 E- F- | GRA grฤnum | WHEAT |
๐ | U+1008F | 121 F- | HORD hordeum | BARLEY |
๐ | U+10090 | 122 F- U- | OLIV olฤซva | OLIVES |
๐ | U+1001B | NI *30 F | FICUS | FIGS |
๐ | U+1000E | *65 | FARINA | FLOUR "some kind of grain" |
๐ | U+10091 | 123 G- Un | AROM arลma | CONDIMENT / SPICE |
KO *70 G- | Coriander | |||
๐ญ | U+1002D | SA *31 G- | Sesame | |
KU *81 G- | Cumin | |||
SE *9 G- | Celery | |||
MA *80 G- | Fennel | |||
124 G- | PYC | cyperus | ||
๐ | U+10092 | 125 F- | CYP | cyperus? |
126 F- | CYP+KU | cyperus+ku | ||
๐ | U+10093 | 127 Un | KAPO | fruit? |
๐ | U+10094 | 128 G- | KANAKO | safflower |
By liquid measure | ||||
๐ | U+10095 | 130 | OLE ลlฤum | oil |
๐ | U+10096 | 131 | VIN vinum | wine |
๐ | U+10098 | 133 | unguent | |
๐ | U+10099 | 135 | honey | |
By weight | ||||
By weight or in units | ||||
Counted in units | ||||
Vessels | ||||
๐ | U+100DF | 200 | sartฤgo | BOILING PAN |
๐ | U+100E0 | 201 | TRI tripลซs | TRIPOD CAULDRON |
๐ก | U+100E1 | 202 | pลculum | GOBLET? |
๐ข | U+100E2 | 203 | urceus | WINE JAR? |
๐ฃ | U+100E3 | 204 Ta | hirnea | EWER |
๐ค | U+100E4 | 205 K Tn | hirnula | JUG |
๐ฅ | U+100E5 | 206 | HYD hydria | HYDRIA |
๐ฆ | U+100E6 | 207 | TRIPOD AMPHORA | |
๐ง | U+100E7 | 208 | PAT patera | BOWL |
๐จ | U+100E8 | 209 | AMPH amphora | AMPHORA |
๐ฉ | U+100E9 | 210 | STIRRUP JAR | |
๐ช | U+100EA | 211 | WATER BOWL? | |
๐ซ | U+100EB | 212 | SIT situla | WATER JAR? |
๐ฌ | U+100EC | 213 | LANX lanx | COOKING BOWL |
Furniture | ||||
๐ | U+100C4 | 220 Ta | scamnum | FOOTSTOOL |
๐ | U+100C5 | 225 | ALV alveus | |
Weapons | ||||
๐ | U+100C6 | 230 R | HAS hasta | SPEAR |
๐ | U+100C7 | 231 R | SAG sagitta | ARROW |
๐ | U+100C8 | 232 Ta | *232 | AXE |
๐ | U+100C9 | 233 Ra | DAGGER | |
๐ | U+100CA | 234 | GLA gladius | SWORD |
Chariots | ||||
๐ | U+100CC | 240 Sc | BIG biga | WHEELED CHARIOT |
๐ | U+100CD | 241 Sd Se | CUR currus | WHEEL-LESS CHARIOT |
๐ | U+100CE | 242 Sf Sg | CAPS capsus | CHARIOT FRAME |
๐ | U+100CF | 243 Sa So | ROTA rota | WHEEL |
Sample text
Line | Mycenaean Greek (Linear B script) | Transcription | Transliteration |
---|---|---|---|
1 | ๐๐๐๐๐ธ๐๐๐ณ๐๐๐๐ฉ๐ท๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฉ๐บ๐ | mo-ni a-we-de te-a pe-re-wa-de-o-jo a-ki-re-wo | Monin aweyde Tสฐeha Pelewadeohyo Akสฐilฤwos |
2 | ๐๐ซ๐๐๐๐๐๐น๐๐๐๐๐บ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ณ๐๐ | o-ro-me-na ha=mu-wi-ja a-ka-wo a-ki-ja e-te-ke | olomenฤn, hฤ=murwia Akสฐaywoys algya etสฐฤke, |
3 | ๐ก๐ฉ๐ท๐๐๐๐ ๐ด๐๐๐ข๐ฑ๐๐๐๐น๐ ๐๐ก๐ซ๐๐๐ฎ๐ | po-re-wa=de i-pi-ti-mo pu-su-ka a-wi-da po-ro-ja-pe-se | polewas=de ipสฐtสฐimons psลซkสฐans Awidฤy proyapse |
4 | ๐๐ซ๐บ๐๐๐ต๐๐๐ธ๐ซ๐จ๐๐ณ๐๐๐๐๐ฏ๐ | e-ro-wo au-to=de we-ro-ra te-u-ke ku-si | hฤrลwลn, awtons=de welลra tewkสฐe kunsi |
5 | ๐๐บ๐๐๐ค๐๐๐ฏ๐๐๐บ๐๐๐๐ค๐ฉ๐๐ต๐๐ฆ๐จ๐ | o-wo-no-i=qe pa-si di-wo=de e-qe-re-e-to qo-ra | oywonoyhi=kสทe pansi, Diwos=de ekสทeleeto gสทลlฤ, |
6 | ๐๐๐ฐ๐๐๐๐๐ฒ๐ก๐ซ๐ท๐ฒ๐๐๐น๐๐๐ฒ๐ฒ๐๐๐ช๐ญ๐ณ๐ | e-ke-so-jo de taโpo-ro-wa-ta di-wi-a-i-ta-ta e-ri-sa-te | eks=hohyo dฤ tฤโprลwata dwiahistฤtฤn erisante |
7 | ๐๐ณ๐ฉ๐น๐ ๐ค๐๐ท๐๐๐๐๐๐ซ๐๐๐๐๐บ๐๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ | a-te-re-wi-da=qe wa-na-ka a-do-ro ka di-wo a-ki-re-u | Atrewidฤs=kสทe wanaks andrลn kas diwos Akสฐilews. |
8 | ๐ฅ๐ค๐๐๐ก๐ธ๐๐ณ๐๐๐๐ช๐๐๐๐ฑ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฒ๐ | qi=qe a=po-we te-o e-ri-de ku-su-ne-je-ke ma-ke-ta | Kสทis=kสทe ar=spสฐลwe tสฐehลn eridey ksuneyฤke makสฐestสฐay; |
9 | ๐จ๐ต๐บ๐๐๐๐๐บ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฃ๐ฏ๐ฉ๐น๐๐๐ซ๐ณ๐ | ra-to-wo ka di-wo u-jo jo=ko qa-si-re-wi ko-ro-te | Lฤtows kas Diwos huyos: yo=gor gสทasilฤwi kสฐolotสฐฤns |
10 | ๐๐บ๐๐๐๐๐ต๐ซ๐ต๐๐๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ต๐๐๐จ๐บ๐๐ | no-wo o-na to-ro-to o-se ka-ka o-re-ko-to=de ra-wo-i | noswon ona stroton orse kakฤn, olekonto=de lฤwoy, |
11 | ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ต๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ฎ๐๐๐ท๐ณ๐จ๐ | o-u=e-ne-ka to ku-ru-sa a-e-qi-ma-se a-wa-te-ra | oyu=eneka ton Kสฐrลซsฤn aekสทฤซmase arwฤtฤra |
12 | ๐๐ณ๐ฉ๐น๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฌ๐ณ๐๐ต๐ท๐๐๐ ๐๐ท๐๐๐๐บ๐ | a-te-re-wi-da jo=ko e-ru-te to-wa i-piโna-wa a-ka-wo | Atrewidฤs: yo=gor elutสฐe tสฐowans ipiโnฤwas Akสฐaywลn |
13 | ๐ฌ๐ฐ๐๐๐ค๐๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐จ๐๐ ๐ซ๐๐ฐ๐ค๐๐๐ ๐ท๐ฏ๐๐๐๐ฆ๐๐ | ru-so-me-no=qe tu-ka-ta-ra pi-ro-no-so=qe a-pi-wa-si-ja a-qo-na | lลซsomenos=kสทe tสฐugatra pสฐirลns=kสทe apirwasia akสทoyna, |
14 | ๐ด๐ก๐๐ฒ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฏ๐๐ธ๐๐ฆ๐ซ๐๐๐๐ก๐ซ๐๐ | ti-po-mo-ta e-ko i=ke-si we-ka-qo-ro-jo a-po-ro-no | stipสฐmota hekสฐons in=kสฐehrsi hwekagสทolohyo Apollลnos |
15 | ๐๐ฌ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ก๐ต๐ซ๐๐๐๐ช๐ฎ๐ต๐๐๐ฒ๐๐๐๐บ๐ | ku-ru-se-o o-na ka-po-to-ro ka ri-se-to pa-ta a-ka-wo | kสฐrลซseลy ona skฤptrลy, kas lisseto pantas Akสฐaywons, |
16 | ๐๐ณ๐ฉ๐น๐ ๐๐๐๐ช๐ฒ๐๐๐บ๐๐๐๐ต๐ฉ๐๐จ๐บ๐ | a-te-re-wi-da=de mo-ri-ta du-wo ko-me-to-re ra-wo | Atrewidฤ=de molista duwล, kosmฤtore lฤwลn: |
17 | ๐๐ณ๐ฉ๐น๐ ๐ค๐๐๐๐๐ซ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐บ๐ | a-te-re-wi-da=qe ka a-ro e-u-ka-na-mi-de a-ka-wo | Atrewidฤy=kสทe kas alloy ehuknฤmides Akสฐaywoy, |
18 | ๐๐๐๐๐ณ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฌ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ฒ๐๐๐๐ณ๐ | u-miโme te-o do-je o-ru-pi-ja do-ma-ta e-ko-te | umiโmen tสฐehoy doyen Olumpia dลmata hekสฐontes |
19 | ๐๐๐ ๐ญ๐๐ ๐ช๐๐๐๐๐ก๐ช๐๐๐๐๐๐บ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฒ๐ | e-ki=pi-sa pi-ri-a-mo-jo po-ri e-u=de wo-ka-de i-ke-ta | ek=pirsay Priamohyo polin, ehu=de woykade hikestสฐay: |
20 | ๐๐น๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐ณ๐๐ ๐จ๐๐ฒ๐๐๐๐ฆ๐๐๐๐๐ฒ๐ | pa-wi-da=de e-mo ru-sa-te pi-ra ta=de a-qo-na de-ke-ta | pawida=de emoy lusayte pสฐilฤn, ta=de akสทoyna dekestสฐay, |
21 | ๐๐ฟ๐๐๐๐๐บ๐๐๐๐๐ธ๐๐ฆ๐ซ๐๐๐ก๐ซ๐๐ | ja-zo-me-no di-wo u-jo we-ka-qo-ro a-po-ro-na | yazomenoy Diwos huyon hwekagสทolon Apollลna. |
22 | ๐๐ฒ๐๐ซ๐๐๐๐ณ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ญ๐๐๐๐บ๐ | e-taโa-roโme pa-te i-pi-u-pa-ma-sa a-ka-wo | Entสฐaโalloyโmen pantes ipihupสฐฤmฤsa Akสฐaywoy |
23 | ๐๐๐ฒ๐ค๐๐๐๐ฉ๐ท๐๐๐๐๐๐ซ๐ท๐๐๐๐ฒ๐๐๐ฆ๐๐ | ai-de-ta=qe i-je-re-wa ka a-ko-ro-wa de-ka-ta a-qo-na | aydestสฐay=kสทe iherฤwa kas aglowa dekstสฐay akสทoyna: |
24 | ๐๐จ๐๐๐๐ณ๐ฉ๐น๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ท๐๐๐ถ๐๐ | a-raโo-u-ka=te-re-wi-da a-ka-me-no-ni wa-de tu-mo | allaโoyuk=Atrewidฤy Agamemnoni hwande tสฐลซmลy, |
25 | ๐๐จ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ซ๐ณ๐ซ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ต๐๐๐ค๐ฉ๐ | a-raโka-ko a-pi-je ko-ro-te-ro=de i-piโmu-to e-qe-re | allaโkakลs apสฐiyฤ, kroteron=de ipiโmลซtสฐon ekสทelle: |
26 | ๐๐ณ๐๐๐ซ๐๐๐น๐จ๐๐๐๐๐ก๐จ๐๐๐ฏ๐๐๐๐๐ | me=te ke-ro ko-wi-ra e-ko po-raโna-u-si ki-ke-o | mฤ=te geron kowilฤys egล poraโnฤusi kikสฐฤล |
27 | ๐ธ๐๐๐ ๐ท๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐๐ธ๐๐๐ณ๐ซ๐๐๐ด๐๐๐๐ฒ๐ | we=nu da-wa-tu-no-ta we u-te-ro au-ti i-o-ta | wฤ=nลซn dwฤtunonta wฤ usteron autสฐis ihonta, |
28 | ๐๐๐ต๐๐๐๐๐ซ๐๐๐๐๐ก๐ต๐ซ๐๐๐๐ด๐๐๐๐ณ๐๐๐ | me=nu=to o-u=ko-ro-me-i ka-po-to-ro ka ti-pa-ma te-o-jo | mฤ=nลซ=toy oyu=kสฐroysmฤhi skaptron kas stipสฐma tสฐehohyo: |
29 | ๐ฒ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฌ๐ฐ๐๐ ๐ช๐๐๐๐๐๐จ๐๐๐๐ฏ๐ | ta=de e-ko o-u=ru-so pi-riโmi ka ke-ra i-pe-si | tฤn=de egล oyu=lลซsล: prinโmin kas gฤras ip=eysi |
30 | ๐๐๐ณ๐ซ๐๐๐๐บ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ค๐ซ๐ด๐๐๐ฒ๐จ๐ | a-me-te-ro i-ni=wo-ko i=na-ke-i qe-ro-ti pa-ta-ra | ameterลy ini=woykลy in=Argฤyi kสทฤlotสฐi patrฤs |
31 | ๐๐ฒ๐๐๐๐ก๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฉ๐๐๐๐ฏ๐๐บ๐ฏ๐๐ | i-ta-mi i-po-ko-me-na ka e-mo re-ko a-si-o-wo-si-ja | histฤmi ipoykสฐomenฤn kas emon lekสฐos ansiowosyan: |
32 | ๐๐จ๐๐ด๐๐๐๐๐๐ฉ๐ด๐ฝ๐๐ฒ๐ท๐บ๐ณ๐ซ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ | a-raโi-ti me=me e-re-ti-ze ta-wa-wo-te-ro o a-na ne-e-a | allฤโitสฐi mฤ=me eretสฐize twawoteros hลs ana nehฤay. |
33 | ๐๐๐๐ต๐๐๐๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐ซ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ณ๐ต๐๐๐ต๐ | oโe-pa-to e-dwe-se=de jo=ke-ro ka e-pi-te-to mu-to | Hลsโepสฐato, edweyse=de yo=gerลn kas epฤซtสฐeto mutสฐลy: |
34 | ๐ฃ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ก๐จ๐ด๐น๐๐๐ก๐ฌ๐ก๐ซ๐ก๐๐๐ฒ๐จ๐ญ๐ | qa=de a-ke-o po-raโti-wi-na po-ru=po-ro-po-jo ta-ra-sa | gสทa=de akฤon poraโtสฐwฤซna polu=pสฐloysbohyo tสฐalassฤs: |
35 | ๐ก๐ฉ๐ท๐๐๐๐ ๐ฒ๐๐๐๐๐๐ณ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ท๐ต๐๐๐๐จ๐๐ | po-re-wa=de i-pi-ta a-pa=ne-u-te ki-o e-a-wa-to jo=ke-ra-jo | polewa=de ipฤซta ap=anฤwtสฐe kฤซon earwato yo=gerayos |
36 | ๐๐ก๐ซ๐๐๐ท๐๐๐ฏ๐๐ต๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ณ๐๐๐จ๐ต๐๐ | a-po-ro-ni wa-na-ki-si to e-u-ko-mo te-ke ra-to-u | Apollลni wanaksi, ton ehukomos teke Lฤtow: |
37 | ๐๐ฌ๐ด๐๐๐๐๐๐ซ๐ต๐๐ญ๐๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ | ku-ru-ti=me-o a-ku-ro-to-ka-sa jo=ku-ru-sa a-pi-pi-pa-ka | klutสฐi=meo argurotokหขa, yos=Kสฐrลซsฤn ampสฐibibฤka |
38 | ๐๐จ๐ค๐๐๐น๐๐ณ๐๐๐ณ๐๐๐๐ค๐๐น๐ ๐๐ท๐๐ฎ๐๐ | ki-ra=qe di-wi-a-te-ha te-ne-do-jo=qe wi-pi wa-na-se-i | Killan=kสทe dwiatสฐehฤn Tenedohyo=kสทe wฤซpสฐi wanassehi, |
39 | ๐๐ณ๐๐๐๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐๐๐ช๐ธ๐ฒ๐๐๐ ๐๐บ๐๐๐ช๐๐ญ๐ | mi-te-u e=qo-qe=to ko-ri-we-ta i-piโna-wo e-ri-pa-sa | Sminthew ฤ=kสทokสทe=toy kสฐoriwenta ipiโnahwon eripsa, |
40 | ๐ธ๐๐๐๐๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐๐๐ฒ๐๐ ๐บ๐๐๐๐ช๐๐๐๐๐ท๐ | we e-de qo-qe-to ka-ta pi-wo-na me-ri-ja e-ka-wa | we ฤ=dฤ kสทokสทe=toy kata pฤซwona mฤria ekฤwa |
41 | ๐ฒ๐๐ซ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ต๐๐๐๐๐ซ๐๐๐๐๐ธ๐๐ | ta-u-ro-ne-de ai-ko to-de-mo ko-ro-ha-no e-we-do | taurลn=ฤde aygลn to=de=moy krลhannon eweldลr: |
42 | ๐ฅ๐ฎ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ฌ๐๐๐ต๐ฏ๐๐ค๐ฉ๐ฏ๐ | qi-se-ja da-na-jo e-ma da-ku-ru-a to-si qe-re-si | kสทฤซseyan Danayoy ema dakrua toysi gสทelessi. |
43 | ๐๐๐๐ต๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ต๐๐๐๐๐๐ฌ๐๐๐ก๐ฆ๐๐๐ก๐ซ๐ | oโe-pa-to e-u-ko-me-no to-jo=de e-ku-ru-e po-qo a-po-ro | Hosโepสฐato eukสฐomenos, tohyo=de eklue Pสฐoygสทos Apollลn, |
44 | ๐ฃ๐๐๐๐ฒ๐๐๐ฌ๐ก๐๐๐๐จ๐๐๐๐บ๐๐๐๐๐ | qa=de ka-ta o-ru-po-jo ko-ra-no ko-wo-me-no ke | gสทฤ=de kata Olumpohyo korannลn kสฐowomenos kฤr, |
45 | ๐ต๐๐ญ๐๐๐๐ฏ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ช๐ ๐๐ค๐๐ก๐ฉ๐ฒ๐จ๐ | to-ka-sa o-mo-si e-ko a-pi-ri-pi-ha=qe po-re-ta-ra | toksฤ ลmhoysi hekสฐon ampสฐiripสฐiha=kสทe pสฐoretrฤn: |
46 | ๐๐๐จ๐๐ญ๐๐๐๐ซ๐ต๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐บ๐๐๐๐ | e-ka-ra-ka-sa=de oโro-to i-piโo-mo ko-wo-me-no-jo | eklaลksan=de orโoystoy ipiโomhลn kสฐowomenohyo, |
47 | ๐๐ต๐๐๐๐๐ญ๐ต๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฏ๐๐ธ๐บ๐๐บ๐ | au-to-jo ki-ne-sa-to-jo jo=de e-e-je nu-ki-si we-wo-ko-wo | awtohyo kinฤsantohyo: yo=de eeye nuksi wewoykwลs. |
48 | ๐๐ฝ๐ต๐๐๐ ๐ฒ๐๐๐๐๐๐ณ๐๐๐บ๐๐๐ฒ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ | e-ze-to i-pi-ta a-pa-ne-u-te na-wo me-ta=de i-o e-je-ke | Hezeto ipฤซta apanฤwtสฐe nฤwลn, meta=de ihon eyฤke: |
49 | ๐๐๐๐๐๐จ๐๐๐๐๐ต๐๐๐๐ฉ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ | dwe-na=de ka-ra-ka ke-ne-to a-ku-re-o-ja pi-o-jo | dweynฤ=de klaลgฤ geneto argureohyo biohyo: |
50 | ๐๐ฉ๐ท๐๐๐ก๐ซ๐บ๐ต๐๐๐ก๐๐ต๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ | o-re-waโme po-ro-wo-to i-po-ke-to ka ku-na a-ko | orฤwasโmen prลwoton ipoykสฐeto kas kunฤs argons, |
51 | ๐๐ฒ๐๐๐ ๐ฒ๐๐๐ต๐๐๐ค๐ซ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ฃ๐ฉ๐ | au-ta i-pi-ta au-to-i qe-ro e-ki-pi-u-ke i-pi-je qa-re | awtar ipฤซta awtoyhi gสทelos hekสฐipiwkes ipiyฤs gสทalle: |
52 | ๐๐ธ๐๐๐๐ข๐ฉ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐บ๐ต๐๐ฒ๐๐๐ | ai-we-i=de pu-re ne-ku-o ka-wo-to ta-me-e | aywehi=de pลซres nekuลn kฤwyonto tสฐameyes. |
53 | ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ต๐ซ๐ต๐๐๐๐ต๐๐๐ธ๐จ๐๐ณ๐๐๐ | e-na-moโme o-naโto-ro-to o-ke-to ka-we-ra te-o-jo | Ennฤmorโmen onaโstroton oykสฐeto kawelฤ tสฐehohyo, |
54 | ๐ฒ๐๐๐๐ฒ๐๐๐๐๐จ๐๐๐๐ฉ๐ญ๐ต๐๐จ๐บ๐๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ | ta-iโde-ka-ta=de a-ko-ra=de ko-re-sa-to ra-wo a-ki-re-u | tฤhiโdekatฤy=de agorฤn=de kolesato lawon Akสฐilews: |
55 | ๐ต๐๐๐๐ ๐ค๐ฉ๐ฏ๐๐ณ๐๐๐ณ๐๐๐ฉ๐๐๐ฉ๐๐๐๐จ๐ | toโko i-piโqe-re-si te-ke te-ha re-u-ko-re-no e-ra | tลyโgor ipiโgสทresi tสฐฤke tสฐehฤ leukลlenos Hฤrฤ: |
56 | ๐๐๐ต๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐ซ๐๐๐๐๐ฒ๐๐บ๐จ๐ต๐ | ka-de-toโko da-na-jo jo-qi=ro twe-na-ko-ta wo-ra-to | kฤdetoโgor Danayลn, yokสทi=ro tสฐwenaskontas worฤto. |
57 | ๐ต๐๐๐ค๐๐๐๐๐ญ๐ต๐๐๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ค๐๐๐๐ต๐ | to=deโe-qeโo a-ke-sa-to o-ma-ke-re-e=qe ke-ne-to | Toy=deโekสทeyโลn agersatoy homagerees=kสทe genonto, |
58 | ๐ต๐ฏ๐๐๐๐๐ฒ๐๐๐๐๐ฒ๐๐๐ก๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ | to-si=de o-ni-ta-me-no me-ta-pa po-da o-ku a-ki-re-u | toysi=de onhistamenos metapสฐฤ podas ลkus Akสฐilews: |
59 | ๐๐ณ๐ฉ๐น๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฆ๐ช๐ก๐ซ๐๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐บ๐ | a-te-re-wi-daโnu a-me qo-ri-po-ro-ke-se-me-no o-wo | Atrewidฤโnลซn ahme kสทolimploลksmenลs oywล |
60 | ๐๐๐ญ๐๐ก๐๐ณ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฒ๐ท๐๐ต๐๐๐ข๐๐๐ | a-pa-saโa-po-no-te-se-e e=a-na ta-wa-no-to=ke pu-ko-me | apsโaponostฤsehen, ฤ=ana tสฐwanaton=ge pสฐugoymen, |
61 | ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ก๐ฉ๐๐ค๐๐ ๐๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐ซ๐๐๐๐๐บ๐ | e=de o-mo po-re-mo=qe da-ma-se-i ka ro-mo a-ka-wo | ฤ=dฤ homล polemos=kสทe damasey kas loymos Akสฐaywons |
62 | ๐๐จ๐๐๐๐๐ฅ๐๐๐๐ฏ๐๐ธ๐ฉ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฉ๐ท๐ | a-ra a-keโde-qi-na mo-si we-re-o-me e=i-je-re-wa | alla ageโdฤ=kสทina monsin wrฤomen ฤ=iherฤwa |
63 | ๐๐๐๐๐๐ซ๐ฆ๐ซ๐๐๐๐ค๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐บ๐๐ฏ๐ | e=ka o-ne-ro-qo-ro ka=ko=qe o-no e-ki-di-wo=e-si | ฤ=kas onerrokสทolon kas=gor=kสทe onor ek=Diwos=essi |
64 | ๐๐๐๐๐ธ๐ฆ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ต๐ฐ๐๐๐๐๐ญ๐ต๐๐ก๐ฆ๐๐๐ก๐ซ๐ | jo=a-na we-qo o=qi to-so e-ko-u-sa-to po-qo a-po-ro | yos=ana weykสทoy ho=kสทi tossos ekสฐowsato Pสฐoygสทos Apollลn |
65 | ๐๐ค๐๐ซ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ต๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ต๐ฃ๐ | e=qeโo-ro o=ke e-u-ka i-pi-me-pi-to e=de e-ka-to-qa | ฤ=kสทeโoro ho=ge ewkสฐฤs ipimempสฐitoy ฤ=de hekatomgสทฤs, |
66 | ๐๐๐๐ฆ๐๐บ๐๐๐๐๐ญ๐๐๐๐ค๐๐ค๐ฉ๐๐ | e=a-na=qo wo-no ki-ni-sa ai-ko=qe qe-re-o | ฤ=ana=kสทลs wornลn knฤซssฤs aygon=kสทe kสทeleyhลn |
67 | ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ต๐๐๐ฏ๐๐ญ๐๐๐๐๐๐ก๐ฉ๐๐๐๐๐๐ | qo-re-to a-si-a-sa a-mi a-poโre-ko a-mu-na | gสทลletoy ansiฤsas ahmi apoโleygon amลซnay. |
68 | ๐๐ต๐๐๐๐๐๐ธ๐ฆ๐๐๐ฒ๐๐ซ๐๐๐ฝ๐ต๐๐ต๐ฏ๐๐๐๐๐ฒ๐ | e=to jo=ke o=we-qo ka-taโo-ro i-ze-to to-si=de o-ne-ta | ฤ=toy yo=ge hos=weykสทลn kataโoro hizeto: toysi=de onestฤ |
69 | ๐๐๐๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ ๐๐๐บ๐๐ฆ๐ซ๐๐๐๐๐ช๐ต๐ | ka-ka te-to-ri-da o-wo-no-qo-ro o-kaโa-ri-to | Kalkสฐฤs Tสฐestoridฤs oywonokสทolลn hokสฐaโaristos, |
70 | ๐๐๐๐ธ๐น๐๐๐ฒ๐ค๐๐๐๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ค๐๐๐ฐ๐๐๐๐ก๐ซ๐ค๐๐๐๐ฒ๐ | jo e-we-wi-de ta=qe e-o-ta ta=qe e-so-me-na po-ro=qe e-o-ta | yos ewewidฤ tฤ=kสทe ehonta tฤ=kสทe essomena pro=kสทe ehonta, |
71 | ๐๐๐๐๐ฏ๐๐๐๐ญ๐ต๐๐๐๐บ๐๐น๐ช๐๐๐๐ | ka na-u-si ha-ka-sa-to a-ka-wo wi-ri-joโi-no | kas nฤusi hฤgฤsato Akสฐaywลn Wilionโinล |
72 | ๐๐๐๐น๐๐๐๐ต๐ฑ๐๐๐ฒ๐๐ต๐ก๐ฉ๐๐ก๐ฆ๐๐๐ก๐ซ๐ | ja di-wi-a mo-to-su-na ta to=po-re po-qo a-po-ro | yฤn dwia montosunฤn, tฤn toy=pore Pสฐoygสทos Apollลn: |
73 | ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ก๐ซ๐๐๐๐๐๐จ๐ญ๐ต๐๐๐๐๐ฒ๐ธ๐ค๐ | o=pi e-u=po-ro-ne-o a-ko-ra-sa-to ka me-ta-we=qe | ho=spสฐin ehu=pสฐroneลn agorฤsato kas metaweykสทe: |
74 | ๐๐๐๐๐ฉ๐๐๐๐ฉ๐๐๐๐๐ธ๐๐๐ ๐ฉ๐๐๐ณ๐ญ๐ฒ๐ | o a-ki-re-u ke-re-o=me di-we-i pi-re mu-te-sa-ta | ล Akสฐilew kelehoi=me Diwei pสฐile mลซtสฐฤsastสฐay |
75 | ๐๐๐๐๐ก๐ซ๐๐๐ธ๐๐ฒ๐ค๐ฉ๐ฒ๐๐๐ท๐๐๐ต๐ | mo-ni a-po-ro-no we-ka-ta-qe-re-ta-o wa-na-ko-to | monin Apollลnos hwekatagสทelatฤo wanaktos: |
76 | ๐ฆ๐๐๐๐๐๐ธ๐ฉ๐๐๐ถ๐๐๐๐ฑ๐ณ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฐ๐ | qoโko e-ko we-re-o tu=de ku-su-te-o ka=mo o-mo-so | kสทoyโgor egล werehล: tu=de ksun=tสฐฤho kas=moy omoson |
77 | ๐๐๐๐๐๐ก๐ซ๐ก๐ซ๐๐ธ๐ค๐ฏ๐๐๐๐๐ฏ๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ฎ๐๐ | e me=mo po-ro-po-ro we-qe-si ka ke-si a-re-ke-se-e | ฤ men=moy propสฐrลn wekสทesi kas kสฐehrsi areksehen: |
78 | ๐๐๐๐๐บ๐๐๐๐ ๐จ๐๐๐ซ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ต๐ | eโko o-wo-ma a-da-ra ko-ro-se-me jo me-ka pa-to | ฤโgor oywomay andra kสฐolลsemen, yos mega pantลn |
79 | ๐๐๐๐๐๐ณ๐๐๐๐๐ต๐ ๐ต๐ต๐๐๐๐บ๐ | a-ke-o ko-te-e ka to=pi-to-to a-ka-wo | Argฤลn korteey kas toy=pฤซtสฐontoy Akสฐaywoy: |
80 | ๐๐ฐ๐๐๐ฃ๐ฏ๐ฉ๐๐๐๐ค๐๐๐๐ฎ๐ต๐๐๐๐ช๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ | ke-soโko qa-si-re-u o=qe ko-u-se-to a-di-ri ke-re-i | kerssลsโgor gสทasilews ho=kสทe kสฐowsetoy andri kสฐerehi: |
81 | ๐๐๐๐๐ค๐๐๐ซ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฒ๐๐๐๐ฒ๐ ๐ค๐ฎ๐ | e=pe ko=qe ko-ro=ke ka au-ta-mo ka-ta-pi-qe-se | ฤ=per gor=kสทe kสฐolon=ge kas awtฤmor katapikสทsฤy, |
82 | ๐๐จ๐ค๐๐๐๐๐ต๐ ๐ณ๐๐๐๐๐๐ต๐๐๐๐จ๐๐ค๐ฉ๐ฎ๐ | a-ra=qe ka me-to-pi-te e-ke ko-to o-pa-ra qe-re-se | allฤ=kสทe kas metopitสฐen hekสฐey koton, opสฐra kสทelesฤy, |
83 | ๐๐ณ๐ณ๐ฏ๐๐ธ๐๐ฏ๐๐ถ๐๐๐ก๐ซ๐ฐ๐๐๐๐๐ญ๐บ๐ฎ๐๐ | i=te-te-si we-o-si tu=de po-ro-so e=me sa-wo-se-i | in=stฤtสฐesi hweoysi: tu=de pสฐrosoy ฤ=me sawลsehi. |
84 | ๐ต๐๐๐๐๐๐ฆ๐๐๐๐ก๐ซ๐ฎ๐๐๐ก๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ | to=de a-pa-me-qo-me-no po-ro-se-pa po-da o-ku a-ki-re-u | Ton=de apameygสทomenos prosepสฐฤ podas ลkus Akสฐilews |
85 | ๐ต๐ฎ๐ญ๐๐จ๐๐ธ๐๐ค๐๐ณ๐๐ก๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐๐ฅ๐๐บ๐ฒ๐ | to-se-saโmo-ra we-i-qe te-o-po-ro-pi-jo jo=qi wo-ta | tสฐorsฤsasโmola weykสทe tสฐehopropion yo=kสทi woystสฐa: |
86 | ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ก๐ซ๐๐๐๐ธ๐๐ ๐ซ๐๐ต๐ค๐๐ถ๐๐๐ | o-u=ma-ko a-po-ro-na di-we pi-ro to=qe tuโka-ka | oyu=ma=gor Apollลna diwey pสฐilon tลy=kสทe tuโKalkสฐฤn |
87 | ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ณ๐๐ก๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ | e-u-ko-me-no da-na-jo-i te-o-po-ro-pi-ja o-na-pa-ne-i | eukสฐomenos Danayoyhi tสฐehopropiฤns onapสฐannehi |
88 | ๐๐๐ฅ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฟ๐ต๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ต๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ | o-u=qi e-me-jo zo-to ka i-piโko-to-ni de-ko-me-no-jo | oyu=kสทis emeyo zลntos kas ipiโkสฐtสฐoni derkomenohyo |
89 | ๐ต๐๐น๐จ๐๐ก๐จ๐๐๐ ๐๐ฆ๐ฉ๐๐๐๐จ๐๐๐ก๐๐ฎ๐ | to=ko-wi-ra po-raโna-u-pi qo-re-ja ke-ra i-po-i-se | toy=kowilฤys poraโnฤupสฐi gสทorehyฤns kสฐehras ipoysey |
90 | ๐๐ฑ๐๐ต๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ธ๐ค๐๐ | ku-su-pa-to da-na-jo o-u=de e-na=ka-me-no-na we-qe-i | ksumpanton Danayลn oyu=de ฤn=Agamemnona weykสทฤhi |
91 | ๐๐๐๐ก๐ฉ๐บ๐๐๐ช๐ต๐๐๐๐บ๐๐๐๐๐ต๐๐๐๐ | joโnu po-re-wo a-ri-to a-ka-wo e-u-ke-to e-na | yosโnลซn polewon aristos Akสฐaywลn eukสฐetoy ฤsnay |
92 | ๐๐ฆ๐ค๐๐๐ต๐ฎ๐๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ด๐๐๐๐๐ | ka=qo-qeโde to-se-je-se ka e-au-da mo-ti a-mu-mo | kas=kสทokสทeโdฤ tสฐorseyese kas eawda montis amumลns: |
93 | ๐๐๐ค๐๐ซ๐๐๐๐๐๐ธ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ต๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ต๐ฃ๐ | o-u=qeโo-ro o=ke e-we-ka i-pi-me-pi-to o-u=de e-ka-to-qa | oyu=kสทeโoro ho=ge ewekสฐฤs ipimempสฐitoy oyu=de hekatomgสทฤs, |
94 | ๐๐จ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐จ๐ณ๐ซ๐๐ต๐๐๐ฅ๐๐ฎ๐๐๐๐๐๐ | a-ra e-ne-ka a-ra-te-ro to a-qi-ma-se a-ka-me-no | alla heneka arฤteros ton akสทimฤse Agamemnลn, |
95 | ๐๐๐๐๐๐ก๐ฌ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐จ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ญ๐ต๐๐๐ฆ๐๐ | o-u=de a-po-ru-se tu-ka-ta-ra ka o-u-ka=pe-de-ko-sa-to a-qo-na | oyu=de apoluse tสฐugatra kas oyuk=apedeksato akสทoyna, |
96 | ๐ฆ๐๐๐๐๐จ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ธ๐๐ฆ๐ซ๐๐๐๐ด๐๐๐ฎ๐ | qo=e-ne-kaโa-ra a-ka-ja e-do-ke we-ka-qo-ro=e-deโe-ti do-se | kสทo=nekaโara algya edลke hwekagสทolos=ฤdeโeti dลsey: |
97 | ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ก๐ซ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ธ๐๐๐๐ซ๐๐๐๐ก๐บ๐ฎ๐ | o-u=de o=ke po-ro da-na-jo-i a-we-ke-a ro-ko a-po-wo-se | oyu=de ho=ge pron Danayoyhi aweykea loygon apowลssey |
98 | ๐ก๐ซ๐๐๐๐ก๐๐ด๐ช๐๐ ๐ซ๐๐๐๐๐๐ธ๐ช๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ท๐ | po-ro=ke a-poโpa-ti-ri pi-ro do-me-na we-ri-ko-pi-da ko-wa | pron=ge apoโpatri pสฐilลy domenay welikopida korwฤn |
99 | ๐๐ฅ๐ช๐๐ฒ๐๐๐๐ฆ๐๐๐๐๐๐ค๐๐๐๐ฉ๐ท๐๐๐๐ต๐ฃ๐ | a-qi-ri-a-ta a-na-qo-no a-ke-e=qe i-je-re-wa e-ka-to-qa | akสทriatฤn anakสทoynon, agehen=kสทe iherฤwฤn hekatomgสทฤn |
100 | ๐๐๐ฌ๐ฎ๐๐ฆ๐ค๐๐๐๐๐๐จ๐ญ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ต๐ | eโku-ru-se qo-qe=a-na=mi i-ra-sa-me-no pi-pi-to-me | ensโKสฐrลซsen: kสทokสทe=ana=min hilasamenoy pipitสฐoymen. |
Archives
Corpus
Inscriptions in Linear B have been found on tablets, stirrup jars and other objects; they are catalogued and classified by, inter alia, the location of the excavation they were found in.
Prefix | Location | Number of items and/or notes |
---|---|---|
ARM | Armeni | 1 stirrup jar. |
DIM or IOL | Dimini | 1 kylix shard and 1 stone (possibly a weight). |
EL | Eleusis | 1 stirrup jar. |
GL | Gla | 1 stirrup jar bearing either an inscription or a potter's mark. |
HV | Agios Vasileios (Xerocampion, Laconia) | 211 inscribed pieces, comprising ca. 115 tablets, 9 sealing nodules and 3 labels as of 21 September 2021. |
IK | Iklaina | 1 tablet. |
KH | Chania | ca. 8 tablets, 42 stirrup jars, 2 cups and a bowl. |
KN | Knossos | ca. 5500 fragments, comprising ca. 4158 tablets, 31 sealing nodules and 35 labels. |
KR | Kreusis (Livadostra, Boeotia) | 1 stirrup jar. |
MA | Malia | 4 stirrup jars. |
MAM | Mameloukou Cave (Perivolia, Kissamos) | 1 stirrup jar. |
MED | Medeon (Steiri, Boeotia) | 1 ivory seal. |
MI | Midea | 4 sealing nodules and 4 stirrup jars. |
MY | Mycenae | 73 tablets |
OR | Orchomenos | 1 stirrup jar bearing either an inscription or pseudo-script. |
PY | Pylos | ca. 1,026 tablets, 24 sealing nodules, 22 labels and 7 stirrup jars. |
TH | Thebes | 99 tablets + 238 published in 2002 (L. Godart and A. Sacconi, 2002). |
TI | Tiryns | 27 tablets and fragments, ca. 51 stirrup jars and a possibly inscribed skyphos. |
VOL | Kastro-Palaia (Volos) | Two tablets found in 1950s excavations resurfaced in the early 2010s; a sketch depicts a third tablet. |
Another 170 inscriptions in Linear B have been found on various vessels, for a total of some 6,058 known inscriptions.
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.
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. The Kafkania pebble, though from an earlier context, is not genuine. The earliest inscription from the mainland is an inscribed clay tablet found at Iklaina dating to between 1400 and 1350 BC.
An amber seal incised with Linear B signs was found in 2000 by amateur archaeologists at Bernstorf near Kranzberg, southern Germany, and is of much debated authenticity.
Chronology
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. 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 (mainland Greece) are summarized as follows:
Writing system | Geographical area | Time span |
---|---|---|
Cretan hieroglyphs | Crete | c.โ2100โ1700 BC |
Linear A | Crete, Aegean Islands (Kea, Kythira, Milos, Santorini), and Laconia | c.โ1800โ1450 BC |
Linear B | Crete (Knossos), and mainland (Pylos, Mycenae, Thebes, Tiryns) | c.โ1425โ1200 BC |
Timeline of Linear B
The main archives for Linear B are associated with these stages of Late Minoan and Helladic pottery:
Relative date | Period dates | Location | Locale or tablet |
---|---|---|---|
LM II | 1425โ1390 BC | Knossos | Room of the Chariot Tablets |
LH IIIA1/early LH IIIA2 | 1400โ1370 BC | Iklaina | 1 tablet found in refuse pit |
LM IIIA2 or LM IIIB | 1370โ1340 BC or 1340โ1190 BC | Knossos | main archive |
LM IIIB | 1340โ1190 BC | Chania | tablets Sq 1, 6659, KH 3 (possibly Linear B) |
LH/LM IIIB1 end | Chania Mycenae Thebes | tablets Ar 3, Gq 5, X 6 tablets from Oil Merchant group of houses Ug tablets and Wu sealings | |
LH IIIB2, end | Mycenae Tiryns Thebes Pylos | tablets from the Citadel all tablets Of tablets and new Pelopidou Street deposit all but five tablets |
Sixteen tablets found at the Megaron at Pylos are also thought to be dated to LHIIIA.
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, 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. 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 PalmerโBoardman 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.
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.
Discovery and decipherment
Ancient Greece
The Greeks of the historical era were unable to decipher Linear B, but its ideograms are sometimes mentioned by ancient authors. For example, Plutarch gives an account of the Spartan king Agesilaus II (r. 400โ360 BC) sending a bronze tablet with "many letters marvellously old, for nothing could be made of them" to Egyptian priests in the hope they could understand them.
Arthur J. Evans's classification of scripts
The British archaeologist Arthur Evans, keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, was presented by Greville Chester in 1886 with a sealstone from Crete engraved with a writing he took to be Mycenaean.Heinrich Schliemann had encountered signs similar to these, but had never identified the signs clearly as writing, relating in his major work on Mycenae that "of combinations of signs resembling inscriptions I have hitherto only found three or four ...." In 1893 Evans purchased more sealstones in Athens, verifying from the antiquarian dealers that the stones came from Crete. During the next year he noticed the script on other artefacts in the Ashmolean. In 1894 he embarked for Crete in search of the script. Soon after arrival, at Knossos he saw the sign of the double axe on an excavated wall, considering this the source of the script. Subsequently, he found more stones from the various ruins being worn by Cretan women as amulets called ฮณฮฑฮปฯฯฮตฯฯฮตฯ "milk-stones", thought to encourage the production of breast milk.
Starting in 1894, Evans published his theories that the signs evidenced various phases in the development of a writing system in The Journal of Hellenic Studies, the first article being "Primitive Pictographs and a Prae-Phoenician Script from Crete". In these articles Evans distinguished between "pictographic writing" and "a linear system of writing". He did not explicitly define these terms, causing some confusion among subsequent writers concerning what he meant, but in 1898 he wrote "These linear forms indeed consist of simple geometrical figures which unlike the more complicated pictorial class were little susceptible to modification," and "That the linear or quasi-alphabetic signs ... were in the main ultimately derived from the rudely scratched line pictures belonging to the infancy of art can hardly be doubted."
Meanwhile, Evans began to negotiate for the land purchase of the Knossos site. He established the Cretan Exploration Fund, with only his own money at first, and by 1896 the fund had purchased one-fourth of Kephala Hill, on which the ruins were located, with first option to buy the rest. However, he could not obtain a firman excavation permit from the Ottoman government. He returned to Britain. In January 1897, the Christian population of Crete staged its final insurrection against the Ottoman Empire. The last Ottoman troops were ferried off the island by the British fleet on 5 December 1898. In that year also, Evans and his friends returned to complete purchase of the site. By this time, the Fund had other contributors as well. In 1899, the Constitution of a new Cretan Republic went into effect. Once Evans had received permission to excavate from the local authorities, excavation on the hill began on 23 March 1900.
According to Evans's report to the British School at Athens for that year, on 5 April, the excavators discovered the first large cache ever of Linear B tablets among the remains of a wooden box in a disused terracotta bathtub. Subsequently, caches turned up at multiple locations, including the Room of the Chariot Tablets, where over 350 pieces from four boxes were found. The tablets were 4.5ย cm (1.8ย in) to 19.5ย cm (7.7ย in) long by 1.2ย cm (0.47ย in) to 7.2ย cm (2.8ย in) wide and were scored with horizontal lines over which text was written in about 70 characters. Even in this earliest excavation report, Evans could tell that "a certain number of quasi-pictorial characters also occur which seem to have an ideographic or determinative meaning."
The excavation was over for that year by 2 June. Evans reported: "only a comparatively small proportion of the tablets were preserved in their entirety," the causes of destruction being rainfall through the roof of the storage room, crumbling of small pieces, and being thrown away by workmen who failed to identify them. A report on 6 September to the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland began to use some of the concepts characteristic of Evans's later thought: "palace of Knossos" and "palace of Minos". Appletons' Cyclopรฆdia of American Biography, 1900, notes that Evans took up Stillman's theme that the palace was the labyrinth of mythology in which the half-bovine son of King Minos lurked. In the report, the tablets are now called a "linear script" as opposed to the "hieroglyphic or conventionalized pictographic script". The linear script has characters that are "of a free, upright, European character" and "seem to have been for the most part syllabic". Evans reasserts the ideographic idea: "a certain number are unquestionably ideographic or determinative."
The years after 1900 were consumed by excavations at Knossos and the discovery and study by Evans of tablets, with a projected comprehensive work on Cretan scripts to be called Scripta Minoa. A year before the publication of volume I, he began to drop hints that he now believed the linear script was two scripts, to be presented in the forthcoming book.
In Scripta Minoa I, which appeared in 1909, he explained that the discovery of the Phaistos Disc in July 1908 had caused him to pull the book from the presses so that he could include the disk by permission, as it had not yet been published. On the next page he mentioned that he was also including by permission of Federico Halbherr of the Italian Mission in Crete unpublished tablets from Hagia Triada written in a linear script of "Class A". To what degree if any Halbherr was responsible for Evans's division of the "linear script" into "Class A" and "Class B" is not stated. The Knossos tablets were of Class B, so that Evans could have perceived Class A only in tablets from elsewhere, and so recently that he needed permission to include the examples.
Evans summarized the differences between the two scripts as "type" or "form of script;' that is, varieties in the formation and arrangement of the characters. For example, he says "the clay documents belonging to Class A show a certain approximation in their forms to those presenting the hieroglyphic inscriptions ... the system of numerals is also in some respects intermediate between that of the hieroglyphic documents and that of the linear Class B."[] The first volume covered "the Hieroglyphic and Primitive Linear Classes" in three parts: the "pre-Phoenician Scripts of Crete", the "Pictorial Script" and "the Phaistos Disk". One or two more volumes publishing the Linear A and Linear B tablets were planned, but Evans ran out of time; the project required more than one man could bring to it. For a good many of the years left to him, he was deeply enmeshed in war and politics in the Balkans. When he did return to Knossos, completion and publication of the palace excavations took priority. His greatest work, Palace of Minos, came out in 1935. It did include scattered descriptions of tablets. He died in 1941, soon after Nazi forces invaded Crete.
The Knossos tablets had remained in the museum at Irakleion, Crete, where many of them now were missing. The unpublished second volume consisted of notes by Evans and plates and fonts created by Clarendon Press. In 1939, Carl Blegen had uncovered the Pylos Tablets; pressure was mounting to finish Scripta Minoa II. After Evans's death, Alice Kober, assistant to John Myres and a major transcriber of the Knossos tablets, prompted Myres to come back from retirement and finish the work. Emmett L. Bennett, Jr. added more transcriptions. The second volume came out in 1952 with Evans cited as author and Myres as editor, just before the discovery that Linear B writes an early form of Greek. An impatient Ventris and Chadwick declared: "Two generations of scholars had been cheated of the opportunity to work constructively on the problem."
Early attempts
Despite the limited source materials, during this time there were efforts to decipher the newly discovered Cretan script. Australian classicist Florence Stawell published an interpretation of the Phaistos Disc in the April 1911 issue of The Burlington Magazine. She followed this with the book A Clue to the Cretan Scripts, published in 1931. Stawell declared all three Cretan script forms to represent early Homeric Greek, and offered her attempts at translations. Also in 1931, F. G. Gordon's Through Basque to Minoan was published by the Oxford University Press. Gordon attempted to prove a close link between the Basque language and Linear B, without lasting success.
In 1949, Bedลich Hroznรฝ published Les Inscriptions Crรฉtoises, Essai de dรฉchiffrement, a proposed decipherment of the Cretan scripts. Hrozny was internationally renowned as the translator of Hittite cuneiform decades previously. His Minoan translations into academic French, though, proved to be considerably subjective, and incorrect.
From the 1930s to 1950s there was correspondence between, and papers published by, various international academic figures. These included Johannes Sundwall, K. D. Ktistopoulos, Ernst Sittig and V. I. Georgiev. None of them succeeded with decipherment, yet they added to knowledge and debate.
Alice Kober's triplets
About the same time, Alice Kober studied Linear B and managed to construct grids, linking similar symbols in groups of threes. Kober 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 too few to be logographic; therefore, each character should represent a syllable. Kober's systematic approach allowed her to demonstrate the existence of three grammatical cases and identify several pairs of signs that shared vowels or consonants with one another.
Kober also showed that the two-symbol word for 'total' at the end of livestock and personnel lists, had a different symbol for gender. This gender change with one letter, usually a vowel, is most frequent in Indo-European languages. Kober had rejected any speculation on the language represented, preferring painstaking cataloguing and analysis of the actual symbols, though she did believe it likely that Linear A and Linear B represented different languages.
Emmett L. Bennett's transcription conventions
The convention for numbering the symbols still in use today was first devised by Emmett L. Bennett Jr. Working alongside fellow academic Alice Kober, by 1950 Bennett had deciphered the metrical system, based on his intensive study of Linear B tablets unearthed at Pylos. He concluded that those tablets contained exactly the same script as the Linear B found at Knossos, and he classified and assigned identification numbers to the Linear B signs as he prepared a publication on the Pylos tablets. Like Kober, Bennett was also an early proponent of the idea that Linear A and B represented different languages. His book The Pylos Tablets became a crucial resource for Michael Ventris, who later described it as "a wonderful piece of work".
Michael Ventris' identification as Greek
In 1935, the British School at Athens was celebrating its fiftieth anniversary with an exhibition at Burlington House, London. Among the speakers was Arthur Evans, then eighty-four years old. A teenage Michael Ventris was present in the audience. In 1940, the 18-year-old Ventris had an article Introducing the Minoan Language published in the American Journal of Archaeology.
After wartime service as a navigator with RAF Bomber Command, and a post-war year in Occupied Germany, he returned to civilian life, and completed qualification as an architect. Ventris continued with his interest in Linear B, corresponding with known scholars, who usually but not always replied.
Michael Ventris and John Chadwick performed the bulk of the decipherment of Linear B between 1951 and 1953. At first Ventris chose his own numbering method, but later switched to Bennett's system. His initial decipherment was achieved using Kober's classification tables, to which he applied his own theories. Some Linear B tablets had been discovered on the Greek mainland. Noticing that certain symbol combinations appeared only on the tablets found in Crete, he conjectured that these might be names of places on the island. This proved to be correct. Working with the symbols he could decipher from this, Ventris soon unlocked much text and determined that the underlying language of Linear B was in fact Greek. This contradicted general scientific views of the time, and indeed Ventris himself had previously agreed with Evans's hypothesis that Linear B was not Greek.
Ventris' discovery was of significance in demonstrating a Greek-speaking Minoan-Mycenaean culture on Crete, and thus presenting Greek in writing centuries earlier than had been previously accepted.
Chadwick, a university lecturer in Ancient Greek philology, helped Ventris develop his decipherment of the text and discover the vocabulary and grammar of Mycenaean Greek. He noted:
That any Linear B tablets are written in a language other than Greek still remains to be demonstrated; but that words and usages not exactly paralleled in later Greek occur is both certain and to be expected. But we must not resort to "non-Greek" whenever we come up against an insoluble problem.
The first edition of their book, Documents in Mycenaean Greek, was published in 1956, shortly after Ventris's death in an automobile accident.
The Ventris decipherment did not immediately meet with universal approval. Professor A. J. Beattie of Edinburgh published his doubts in the later 1950s. Saul Levin of the State University of New York considered that Linear B was partly Greek but with an earlier substrate, in his 1964 book The Linear B controversy reexamined. However over time the Ventris discovery has been generally accepted.
Unicode
Linear B was added to the Unicode Standard in April, 2003 with the release of version 4.0.
The Linear B Syllabary block is U+10000โU+1007F. The Linear B Ideograms block is U+10080โU+100FF. The Unicode block for the related Aegean Numbers is U+10100โU+1013F.
A variety of fonts encode Linear B.
Linear B Syllabary[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
ย | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F |
U+1000x | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | |
U+1001x | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ |
U+1002x | ๐ | ๐ก | ๐ข | ๐ฃ | ๐ค | ๐ฅ | ๐ฆ | ๐จ | ๐ฉ | ๐ช | ๐ซ | ๐ฌ | ๐ญ | ๐ฎ | ๐ฏ | |
U+1003x | ๐ฐ | ๐ฑ | ๐ฒ | ๐ณ | ๐ด | ๐ต | ๐ถ | ๐ท | ๐ธ | ๐น | ๐บ | ๐ผ | ๐ฝ | ๐ฟ | ||
U+1004x | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ||
U+1005x | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ||
U+1006x | ||||||||||||||||
U+1007x | ||||||||||||||||
Notes |
Linear B Ideograms[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
ย | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F |
U+1008x | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ |
U+1009x | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ |
U+100Ax | ๐ | ๐ก | ๐ข | ๐ฃ | ๐ค | ๐ฅ | ๐ฆ | ๐ง | ๐จ | ๐ฉ | ๐ช | ๐ซ | ๐ฌ | ๐ญ | ๐ฎ | ๐ฏ |
U+100Bx | ๐ฐ | ๐ฑ | ๐ฒ | ๐ณ | ๐ด | ๐ต | ๐ถ | ๐ท | ๐ธ | ๐น | ๐บ | ๐ป | ๐ผ | ๐ฝ | ๐พ | ๐ฟ |
U+100Cx | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ |
U+100Dx | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ |
U+100Ex | ๐ | ๐ก | ๐ข | ๐ฃ | ๐ค | ๐ฅ | ๐ฆ | ๐ง | ๐จ | ๐ฉ | ๐ช | ๐ซ | ๐ฌ | ๐ญ | ๐ฎ | ๐ฏ |
U+100Fx | ๐ฐ | ๐ฑ | ๐ฒ | ๐ณ | ๐ด | ๐ต | ๐ถ | ๐ท | ๐ธ | ๐น | ๐บ | |||||
Notes |
Aegean Numbers[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF) | ||||||||||||||||
ย | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F |
U+1010x | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ||||
U+1011x | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ | ๐ |
U+1012x | ๐ | ๐ก | ๐ข | ๐ฃ | ๐ค | ๐ฅ | ๐ฆ | ๐ง | ๐จ | ๐ฉ | ๐ช | ๐ซ | ๐ฌ | ๐ญ | ๐ฎ | ๐ฏ |
U+1013x | ๐ฐ | ๐ฑ | ๐ฒ | ๐ณ | ๐ท | ๐ธ | ๐น | ๐บ | ๐ป | ๐ผ | ๐ฝ | ๐พ | ๐ฟ | |||
Notes |
See also
- Aegean civilizations
- Aegean numerals
- Cypriot syllabary
- Cypro-Minoan syllabary
- Linear A
- Old European script
- Proto-Greek language
- PY Ta 641
- Trojan script
- The Riddle of the Labyrinth, a 2013 popular book detailing the decipherment of Linear B
Notes
- In the Unicode character names, Bennett's number has been rendered into a three-digit code by padding with initial zeros and preceding with a B (for "Linear B").
- In linguistics C and V in this type of context stand for consonant and vowel.
- Sign *89 is not listed in Ventris & Chadwick's (1973) tables, but it does appear in the appendix of Bennett (1964) as part of the Wingspread convention.
- Ventris and Chadwick use Roman characters for the reconstructed Mycenaean Greek and give the closest later literary word in Greek characters. Often the phonetics are the same, but equally as often the reconstructed words represent an earlier form. Here the classical Greek was formed by dropping the w and lengthening the e to ei.
- The w is dropped to form the classical Greek.
- Classical words typically have the ฮท of the Attic-Ionic dialect where Linear B represents the original ฮฑ.
- Double letters, as in Knossos, were never represented; one was dropped.
- Note that the codes do not represent all glyphs, only the major ones.
- Beginning date refers to first attestations, the assumed origins of all scripts lie further back in the past.
- LM III is equivalent to LH III from a chronological perspective.
References
Citations
- "Palaeolexicon - Mycenaean Greek and Linear B". www.palaeolexicon.com. Retrieved 21 June 2024.
- Professor Shelmerdine's Exciting Mycenaean Find, UT Austin Jun 2, 2011.
- E. Hallager, M. Vlasakis, and B. P. Hallager, "The First Linear B Tablet(s) from Khania", Kadmos, 29 (1990). pp. 24โ34
- Wren, Linnea Holmer; Wren, David J.; Carter, Janine M. (1987). Perspectives on Western Art: Source Documents and Readings from the Ancient Near East Through the Middle Ages. Harper & Row. p.ย 55. ISBNย .
- "Cracking the code: the decipherment of Linear B 60 years on". Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge. 13 October 2012. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
- Fox, Margalit (2013). The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code. Ecco Press (Harper Collins). ISBNย .
- Packard, David W. (1974). Minoan Linear A. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBNย . OCLCย 1055287.
- Hooker, J.T. (1980). Linear B: An Introduction. Bristol Classical Press UK. ISBNย .
- Ventris and Chadwick 1973, p. 60.
- Emmett L. Bennett Jr., "Mycenaean studiesย : proceedings of the Third International Colloquium for Mycenaean Studies held at 'Wingspread,' 4โ8 September 1961", University of Wisconsin Press (January 1, 1964)
- Ventris and Chadwick (1973), page 37, quotes Bennett: "where the same sign is used in both Linear A and B there is no guarantee that the same value is assigned to it."
- Ventris and Chadwick (1973), Fig. 4 on page 23 states the "Proposed values of the Mycenaean syllabary", which is mainly the same as the table included in this article. The "grid" from which it came, which was built up in "successive stages", is shown in Fig. 3 on page 20.
- Ventris and Chadwick (1973), Fig. 9 on page 41 states Bennett's numbers from 1 through 87 opposite the signs being numbered. The table includes variants from Knossos, Pylos, Mycenae and Thebes opposite the same numbers.
- Ventris and Chadwick (1973), page 385.
- Ventris and Chadwick (1973), pages 391โ392.
- KYRIAKIDIS, EVANGELOS. "PHONETIC ATTRIBUTIONS OF UNDECIPHERED CHARACTERS: THE CASE OF SIGN *56 IN LINEAR B." The Cambridge Classical Journal, vol. 53, Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 202โ28
- Ventris & Chadwick (1973), pages 385โ391.
- Ventris and Chadwick (1973), page 43.
- The examples in this section except where otherwise noted come from the Mycenaean Glossary of Ventris & Chadwick (1973).
- Ventris & Chadwick (1973), pages 388โ391.
- Ventris & Chadwick (1973), page 45. The authors use q instead of k: qu, gu and quh, following the use of q- in transcription.
- Ventris & Chadwick (1973), page 44.
- Petrakis, Vassilis P. (2016). "Addenda to "Writing the wanax: Spelling peculiarities of Linear B wa-na-ka and their possible implications"". Minos: Revista de Filologรญa Egea. 39: 407โ408. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
- Chadwick, John, The Decipherment of Linear B, 1958, p.ย 82.
- This table follows the numbering scheme worked out by Ventris and Bennett and presented in Ventris and Chadwick (1973) in the table of Figure 10, pages 50โ51. The superscript a refers to Bennett's "Editio a", "a hand from Pylos, of Class III". The superscript b refers to Bennett's "Editio b", "a hand of Knosses". The superscript c refers to Bennett's "Editio c", "a hand of Pylos, of Class I". The non-superscript letters represent the class of tablets, which precedes the individual tablet number; for example, Sa 787 is Tablet Number 787 of the class Sa, which concerns chariots and features the WHEEL ideogram.
- Figure 10 in Ventris and Chadwick (1973) states only the English names of the ideograms where they exist, but the Latin is given where it exists in Emmett L. Bennett Jr, ed. (1964). Mycenaean Studies: Proceedings of the Third International Colloquium for Mycenaean Studies Held at "Wingspread," 4โ8 September 1961. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. pp.ย 258โ259., "Ideogrammatum Scripturae Mycenaeae Transcriptio". The "m" and "f" superscript are male and female.
- Given in capital letters if it repeats Ventris and Chadwick (1973) Figure 10; otherwise, in lowercase. Note that not all the CIPEM glyphs appear in Figure 10.
- Ventris and Chadwick (1973) page 391: "100 MAN is now used for all forms of the ideogram, so that 101 and 103 are now suppressed."
- Ventris & Chadwick either edition do not follow the Wingspread Convention here but have 105a as a HE-ASS and 105c as a FOAL.
- The 1956 edition has "Kind of sheep".
- Chadwick (1976) page 105.
- "Double mina", Chadwick (1976) page 102.
- Ventris & Chadwick (1973) page 392.
- Ventris and Chadwick (1973) page 324 has a separate table.
- Wiseman 2010, p.ย 30-40.
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- Scripta Minoa I, page ix.
- Scripta Minoa I, page 36.
- Evans, Arthur J. (1952). Scripta Minoa: The Written Documents of Minoan Crete: With Special Reference to the Archives of Knossos. Vol.ย II: The Archives of Knossos: Clay Tablets Inscribed in Linear Script B Edited from Notes, and Supplemented by John L. Myres. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.
- Documents in Mycenaean Greek, page 11.
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- Chadwick, Decipherment pp30โ32
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- Pope, Maurice (2008). "The Decipherment of Linear B". In Duhoux, Yves; Davies, Anna Morpurgo (eds.). A Companion to Linear B: Mycenaean Texts and their World. Vol.ย 1. Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: Peeters. pp.ย 3โ11. ISBNย .
- [1] Kober, Alice E., "The Minoan Scripts: Fact and Theory.", American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 82โ103, 1948
- Robinson, (2002) p.71
- Fox, (2013) pp.107โ9
- Emmett L. Bennett Jr โ obituary โ Daily Telegraph, London, 23 January 2012
- [2] Thomas G Palaima, "Michael Ventris's Blueprint: Letters reveal how a British architect and two American scholars worked to decipher a Bronze Age script and read the earliest writings in western civilization", Discovery: Research and Scholarship at the University of Texas at Austin, 1993
- Robinson, pp32โ3
- Ventris, M. G. F., "Introducing the Minoan Language.", American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 44, no. 4, pp. 494โ520, 1940
- Chadwick, Decipherment 1961 Pelican edition pp. 47โ9
- Jacquetta Hawkes Dawn of the Gods 1972 Sphere Books pp. 49โ51
- Best, Jan G. P.; Woudhuizen, Fred C. (1989). Lost Languages from the Mediterranean. Brill Archive. ISBNย .
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- Judson, Anna P. (7 October 2021). "Aegean scripts in the digital age: a guide to fonts". It's All Greek To Me. Retrieved 20 August 2022.
Sources
- Carpenter, Rhys (1957). "Linear B", Phoenix, Vol.ย 11, No.ย 2 (Summer, 1957), pp.ย 47โ62.
- Chadwick, John (1990) [1958]. The Decipherment of Linear B (2ndย ed.). Cambridge UP. ISBNย .
- Chadwick, John (1976). The Mycenaean World. Cambridge UP. ISBNย .
- Chadwick, John (1987). Linear B and Related Scripts; "Reading the Past". Third impression (1997). University of California Press/British Museum. ISBNย . 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.
- Fox, Margalit (2013). The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code. Ecco. ISBNย .
- Forsdyke, John (1957). Greece before Homer, Ancient Chronology and Mythology. New York: Norton.
- Levin, Saul (1964). The Linear B Decipherment Controversy Re-examined. State University of New York Press. OCLCย 288842.
- McDorman, Richard E. (2010). Language and the Ancient Greeks and On the Decipherment of Linear B (A Pair of Essays). ISBNย .
- [3] T.G. Palaima, "Contiguities' in the Linear B Tablets from Pylos", in E. de Miro, L. Godart, A. Sacconi eds., Atti e memorie del secondo congresso interazionale di micenologia (Rome 1996) pp.ย 379โ396, 1996
- Palaima, Thomas G., "Unlocking the Secrets of Ancient Writing: The Parallel Lives of Michael Ventris and Linda Schele and the Decipherment of Mycenaean and Mayan Writing", University of Texas at Austin, Eleventh International Mycenological Colloquium, 2000.
- Robinson, Andrew (1995). The Story of Writing. Paperback edition (1999). Thames and Hudson. ISBNย . Chapter 6, Linear B, pp.ย 108โ119: discusses Arthur Evans, his work, the Cypriot clues, the syllabary, Alice Kober, the "Grid", and a sample tablet transliterated, and translated into English.
- Robinson, Andrew The Man Who Deciphered Linear B: the story of Michael Ventris (2002) Thames & Hudson ISBNย
- Singh, Simon (2000). The Code Book. Anchor. ISBNย . for a general outline of the Linear B deciphering story, from Schliemann to Chadwick.
- Ventris, Michael (1988). Work notes on Minoan language research and other unedited papers. Edizioni dell'Ateneo 1988 Roma.
- Ventris, Michael; Chadwick, John (1973). Documents in Mycenaean Greek (Secondย ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBNย .
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- Wiseman, Rob (2010). A Mycenaean Iliad: A linguistic reconstruction of the opening one hundred lines of the Iliad in Normal Mycenaean. London, United Kingdom.
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Further reading
- Bakker, Egbert J., ed. 2010. A companion to the Ancient Greek language. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBNย
- Bennett, E.L., "Names for Linear B Writing and for its Signs", Kadmos 2, pp. 98โ123, 1963
- Bennett, E.L., "Linear B Sematographic Signs", Minos Revista de filologรญa egea 1, pp. 55โ72, 1972
- Chadwick, John (1958). The decipherment of Linear B. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
- Christidis, Anastasios-Phoivos, ed. 2007. A history of Ancient Greek: From the beginnings to Late Antiquity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBNย
- Colvin, Stephen C. 2007. A historical Greek reader: Mycenaean to the koinรฉ. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBNย
- Fox, Margalit. "The Riddle of the Labyrinth". HarperCollins Publishers Inc. New York, NY.
- Freo, M. D., Nosch, M.-L., & Rougemont, F. (2010). "The Terminology of Textiles in the Linear B Tablets, including Some Considerations on Linear A Logograms and Abbreviations". In: C. Michel & M.-L. Nosch (Eds.). Textile Terminologies in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean from the Third to the First Millennnia BC (Vol. 8). Oxbow Books. pp.ย 338โ373. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1cfr985.21
- Godart, L., & Andreadaki-Vlazaki, M. (2022). A new Linear B tablet from Khania: KH X 8. A new Linear B tablet from Khania: KH X 8., pp.ย 37โ42
- Hooker, J. T. 1980. Linear B: An introduction. Bristol, UK: Bristol Classical Press.
- Horrocks, Geoffrey. 2010. Greek: A history of the language and its speakers. 2nd ed. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. ISBNย
- Judson, Anna P. 2020. "The Undeciphered Signs of Linear B: Interpretation and Scribal Practices". Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBNย
- [4] Judson, Anna P., "Learning to spell in Linear B: orthography and scribal training in Mycenaean Pylos." The Cambridge Classical Journal, 1โ31, 2022
- Morpurgo Davies, Anna, and Yves Duhoux, eds. 1985. Linear B: A 1984 survey. Louvain, Belgium: Peeters.
- โโโโ. 2008. A companion to Linear B: Mycenaean Greek texts and their world. Vol. 1. Louvain, Belgium: Peeters.
- Owens, Gareth. "WAS SE-TO-I-JA AT ARCHANES?", KADMOS, vol. 33, no. 1, 1994, pp.ย 22โ28
- Palaima, Thomas G. 1988. "The development of the Mycenaean writing system". In Texts, tablets and scribes. Edited by J. P. Olivier and T. G. Palaima, 269โ342. Suplementos a "Minos" 10. Salamanca, Spain: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientรญficas.
- Palmer, Leonard R. 1980. The Greek language. London: Faber & Faber. ISBNย .
- E. Salgarella, "Aegean Linear Script(s). Rethinking the Relationship Between Linear A and Linear", Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. ISBNย
- Srivatsan, Nikita, et al. "Neural Representation Learning for Scribal Hands of Linear B." International Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition. Springer, Cham, 2021
- Ventris, Michael, and John Chadwick. 1973. Documents in Mycenaean Greek. 2nd ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBNย
- Young, Douglas, "Is Linear B Deciphered?", Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics, vol. 4, no. 3, pp.ย 512โ42, 1965
External links
- Minoan Language Linear A Linked to Linear B in Groundbreaking Research โ Greek Reporter โ April 20, 2022
- Ager, Simon (1998โ2009). "Linear B". Omniglot. Retrieved 6 January 2009.
- "Google Noto Fonts: Beautiful and free fonts for all languages: Linear B".
- Aurora, Federico; Haug, Dag Trygve Truslew. "DฤMOS: Database of Mycenaean at Oslo". et al. University of Oslo.
- Fox, Margalit (11 May 2013). "Alice E. Kober, 43; Lost to History No More". New York Times. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
- Linear B at Curlie
- Linear B online transliterator
- Linear B Explorer
- McCreedy, David; Weiss, Mimi. "Gallery of Unicode Fonts: Linear B Syllabary". WAZU, Japan. Retrieved 11 January 2009.
- Palaeolexicon โ "Word study tool of Ancient languages, including Linear B". Palaeolexicon.com.
- Palaima, Thomas G.; Pope, Elizabeth I.; Reilly III, F. Kent (2000). The Parallel Lives of Michael Ventris and Linda Schele and the Decipherment of Mycenaean and Mayan Writing (PDF). Austin: University of Texas. ISBNย . Retrieved 13 January 2009.
- Raymoure, K.A. (2012). . Minoan Linear A & Mycenaean Linear B. Deaditerranean. Archived from the original on 18 March 2016.
- The Prehistoric Archaeology of the Aegean โ The Foundation of the Hellenic World at Dartmouth College
- Del Freo, Maurizio; Di Filippo, Francesco. "LiBER โ Linear B Electronic Resources Portal". Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, CNR.