GCSE Classical Civilisation · The Homeric World · 2.5 · Revision
Linear B
The palace records of the Mycenaeans, the earliest written Greek: what they say, how they survived, and why they matter.
Linear B
At a glance
At a glance
Linear B is the script the Mycenaeans used to keep palace records, and it is the earliest written Greek
the tablets are clay, found mainly at Pylos and Knossos, and survived only by accident
the key object is the tripod tablet from Pylos
What Linear B is
The script, and how the tablets survived
What Linear B is
an older script, Linear A, is still undeciphered; Linear B is a later script used to write an early form of Greek
it uses two kinds of sign: syllables (a single sound such as “ti” or “po”) and ideograms (small pictures of the item, such as a tripod or a chariot)
it is found at the major palaces, with over 1,000 tablets at Pylos and even more at Knossos; different handwriting suggests up to 100 scribes worked in the archive rooms at Knossos
How the tablets survived
the tablets were damp clay, inscribed with a sharp tool and left to harden in the sun, meant to last only a few months before they cracked and crumbled
they survived for 3,000 years purely by luck: the palaces burned down, and the fires baked the clay hard, as if in a kiln
so the tablets are a snapshot of the palace's final months, much as Pompeii froze a moment in AD 79
The tripod tablet
Prescribed source · Palace of Pylos
The tripod tablet (no. 641) · Linear B on clay
Prescribed source
Object
Linear B tablet showing the word “tripod” in syllabic and ideogram form (no. 641)
Date
13th century BC
Material
clay
From
archive room, Palace of Pylos
Now in
National Archaeological Museum, Athens
Significance
shows syllables and ideograms, including the word for tripod (ti-ri-po-de) and a picture of a tripod
What it shows
it lists tripod cauldrons, wine jars and goblets: a typical palace inventory
most tablets are lists like this, kept as records of goods in the palace or transactions made
Other evidence
The wider Linear B archive
the thousands of other tablets from Pylos and Knossos record almost everything: lists of sheep and wool, rations and workers (including women and children), and offerings to the gods
the Pylos “rower” and coastal-watch tablets seem to prepare against a seaborne attack, perhaps in the palace's final days
together they show a palace that counted and controlled the whole economy
Why the tablets matter
Our only writing from this world
What they tell us
they are our only written evidence from the period: without them we would know almost nothing about how the cities were run
they prove the Mycenaeans spoke an early form of Greek; before decipherment, scholars assumed the later Greeks had wiped the language out
they name early Greek gods (Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Hermes, Artemis), and some words pass into later Greek, such as tiripode to tripod and kuruso to chrusos (gold)
the script was famously deciphered by Michael Ventris in 1952
Limits: they are dry inventories, so they tell us about administration and the economy, with little about beliefs, feelings or events
Link to Homer
this is the clearest place the evidence and Homer disagree: his heroes cannot read or write (the one mention of writing, the “deadly signs” of Iliad 6, is treated as strange)
the careful palace bureaucracy of the tablets is a world the poems know nothing about
yet the tablets also confirm Homer: they are written in Greek and name gods he knows, so these really were the Greeks of his stories
A pile of accidentally fire-baked shopping lists is, astonishingly, our only writing from this world — and enough to prove that the Mycenaeans were Greeks.
Exam focus
Practice questions
Short answer & explain
Describe what is recorded on the tripod tablet. [short answer]
Explain how the Linear B tablets survived for 3,000 years. [explain]
Source usefulness
How useful are the Linear B tablets as evidence for the Mycenaean world? [source usefulness]
Flashcards
5 cards — click to flip, use arrows to move through
