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.

---

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

---

Etymology

Origin of Linear B

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Linear B

The Linear B tablets indicate that the ruler of these palaces was known as the Wanax or “lord,” the same word used to describe the heroic kings of the Iliad.

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 was adapted by the Mycenaean Greeks from Linear A, used by the Minoans.

From New York Times ● Nov. 6, 2017

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

From National Geographic ● Oct. 27, 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