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

Linear B tablets, bull horn symbols, and goddess figurines found at Mycenaean sites like Pylos attest to the impact of Minoan culture.

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

“Syllabic” Linear B had many logograms, and “logographic” Egyptian hieroglyphs included many syllabic signs as well as a virtual alphabet of individual letters for each consonant.

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