Linear B

American  

noun

1. an ancient system of writing representing a very early form of Greek, deciphered by Michael Ventris chiefly from clay tablets found at Knossos on Crete and at Pylos.

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Linear B British  

noun

1. an ancient system of writing, apparently a modified form of Linear A, found on clay tablets and jars of the second millennium _bc The earliest excavated examples, dating from about 1400, came from Knossos, in Crete, but all the later finds are at Pylos and Mycenae on the Greek mainland, dating from the 14th–12th centuries. The script is generally accepted as being an early representation of Mycenaean Greek

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Etymology

Origin of Linear B

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

The Bronze Age culture that produced Linear B is called Mycenaean since the largest Bronze Age city in Greece was at Mycenae.

From Textbooks • Apr. 19, 2023

They brood over the story of Linear B, an ancient Greek script thought indecipherable until the 1950s.

From Slate • Sep. 1, 2021

Those texts led to the translation of Linear B, and confirmed the identity of Pylos.

From National Geographic • Oct. 27, 2015

Linear B, a script in which each symbol stands for a syllable, was later succeeded by the familiar Greek alphabet in which each symbol represents a single vowel or consonant.

From New York Times • Oct. 26, 2015

One-third of all Linear B tablets from the palace of Knossos are accountants’ records of sheep and wool, while an inordinate proportion of writing at the palace of Pylos consists of records of flax.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond