In Word Signs, Syllables and Letters you met logograms, signs for whole things. Linear B uses more than a hundred of them, and they are the easiest signs on a tablet to spot: they stand alone, right before a number, and many look like what they mean.
🔑 Key idea
A logogram is a sign for a thing (man, woman, horse, tripod, wheat, wine) that stands before a number and says what is being counted. It is not read as part of a sentence; the words around it are spelled in syllable signs.
Some common logograms. Scholars write them with Latin abbreviations: VIR (man), MUL (woman), EQU (horse), GRA (wheat), OLE (oil), VIN (wine), AES (bronze), AUR (gold), LANA (wool), CUR (chariot); vessels by number with VAS.
Sign
Number
Written
Meaning
𐂀
*100
VIR
man
𐂁
*102
MUL
woman
𐂃
*105
EQU
horse
𐂎
*120
GRA
wheat
𐂕
*130
OLE
olive oil
𐂖
*131
VIN
wine
𐂚
*140
AES
bronze
𐂛
*141
AUR
gold
𐂝
*145
LANA
wool
𐃍
*241
CUR
chariot
𐃠
*201
*201VAS
tripod cauldron
𐃡
*202
*202VAS
cup (di-pa)
Words, the horse logogram and numbers. Tap the logogram to see what it is.
How scholars write logograms
In transliteration a logogram is written in capital letters, using a short Latin word: VIR for man, MUL for woman (from mulier), EQU for horse (equus), OVIS for sheep, GRA for wheat (granum). Vessels are written by their sign number with VAS ("vessel"): *201VAS is the tripod cauldron. The Latin is only a label scholars agreed on; the scribes never wrote Latin.
💡 Why it works
Why did the scribes need logograms if they could spell? Speed and clarity. A tablet is a list: the important facts are what and how many. A single sign for "horse" before a number can be read at a glance, by anyone, even without reading the words. And often the word and the logogram appear together: i-qo (horse), then the horse sign, then the number, so one checks the other. That double writing was a gift to Ventris's decipherment.
⚠️ Common mistake
Confusing logograms with syllable signs, or reading a logogram as a sound. A logogram tells you what is being counted; the words before it are spelled in syllables. Check: a sign that stands alone just before a number is almost always a logogram; signs that run together between dividers are a spelled word.
✏️ Worked example: Find the logogram
In the line 𐀴𐀪𐀡 𐃠 𐄇, which sign is the logogram?
The first three signs spell ti-ri-po, tripod.
The next sign stands alone right before the number.
It is the tripod cauldron, *201VAS.
Answer: The fourth sign, the tripod, *201VAS.
✏️ Worked example: What is counted?
A line ends with 𐂕𐄐𐄈. What is being counted?
The logogram is OLE, olive oil.
The number is 12 (one ten and two ones).
Answer: 12 measures of olive oil.
Practice
Pass with 3 right answers, the last 2 in a row. Each right answer earns 1 XP.
The Unicode Standard: Linear B Syllabary, Linear B Ideograms, Aegean Numbers and Linear A blocks (sign names and numbers), as shown in Wikipedia, "Linear B"
John Chadwick, The Decipherment of Linear B (Cambridge, 1958), as cited in Wikipedia, "Linear B"