Languages · Linear B · Tablets
Famous tablets
Read real Linear B tablets the way scholars do: find the word dividers, the logograms and the numbers first, then sound out the words sign by sign. Then look at Linear A and see how much, and how little, can be said.
How to read a line
- Find the pieces. Short upright strokes between signs are word dividers. A logogram, a picture-like sign for a thing, comes right before a number.
- Sound out the words. Look each syllable up in the sign grid and join them with hyphens: ti-ri-po.
- Undo the spelling. Supply the missing consonants and drop the empty vowels: ti-ri-po is tripos (later τρίπους), not “tiripo.” Remember that r is also l, and p is also b and ph.
- Put it together. Most lines say “this many of this thing,” often with a name or a place.
On each tablet below, tap a word, logogram or number to see what it is, and use the button to reveal the reading one layer at a time. Tablets marked “pattern” show how a kind of record is laid out; they are not one particular tablet.
The tripod tablet Linear B · Pylos
Found at Pylos in June 1952 and read in 1953, this palm-leaf tablet confirmed the decipherment: the words beside each pictured vessel describe it. Look for ti-ri-po-de beside the tripod and the cups with four, three and no handles.
Sign by sign: the first entry
ti-ri-po-de is a dual, “two tripods”: Greek still had a form for exactly two. ke-re-si-jo we-ke means “of Cretan make.” The meaning of a3-ke-u is unclear; it may be a name.
Gold vessels for the gods Linear B · Pylos
Three entries from a longer Pylos tablet (Tn 316) that sends gold vessels, and people, to the gods at their shrines. Zeus, Hera and Drimios, a son of Zeus who is otherwise almost unknown, are named.
Sign by sign: the first entry
di-we is the dative of Zeus’s name, “to Zeus.” AUR (gold) is written as a small logogram next to the vessel sign. Whether the man was a sacrifice or a servant given to the god is debated.
Horses and foals Linear B · Knossos · pattern
Knossos tablets count horses with the horse logogram, and the words beside it read as Greek: i-qo is hikkʷos, horse (later ἵππος), and po-ro is pōlos, foal.
A flock at Phaistos Linear B · Knossos · pattern
Hundreds of Knossos tablets keep track of sheep: a shepherd’s name, a place, the sheep logogram marked male or female, and a number. Here the place is pa-i-to, Phaistos, and the sign has the two short bars of a ram.
Sign by sign
A list and its total Linear A · Hagia Triada · pattern
Many Linear A tablets from Hagia Triada are lists of words and numbers that end with the word read ku-ro and the sum of the lines above it. Fractions appear too; J is one half.
What we can say
- The numbers add up, so ku-ro introduces the total; this meaning is widely accepted.
- The numerals and the half sign work like Linear B’s.
- The signs can be sounded out with the borrowed Linear B values.
What we cannot say
- What the listed words mean (names? goods? places?).
- What language ku-ro belongs to, or how it was really pronounced.
- The values of most fraction signs, beyond proposals.
The libation formula Linear A · sanctuaries · pattern
Stone offering tables from peak sanctuaries, like Mount Iouktas near Knossos, carry versions of one formula. Its words recur from site to site, in much the same order.
Sign by sign
What we can say
- The same words recur on many objects, such as a-sa-sa-ra-me (also ja-sa-sa-ra-me), i-pi-na-ma and si-ru-te.
- They appear on objects used in religious offerings.
What we cannot say
- What any of the words mean. Guesses that a-sa-sa-ra-me names a goddess are only guesses.
- Whether the borrowed sound values are right for these signs.