Script used by the Mycenaeans after c1500 or 1450 BC and found on clay tablets in the palaces of both Crete and the Greek mainland. Linear B was deciphered in 1952 by Michael Ventris, who demonstrated that it was an early form of Greek. It is probable that when the Mycenaeans overran the Minoans they adopted the script used on Crete, Linear A (as yet undeciphered, but certainly not Greek) and adapted it for writing the Greek language. The most important collections of Linear B tablets come from Knossos on Crete and Pylos in southwest Greece. They consist in the main of accounts and inventories, which have thrown much light on the organization of the Mycenaean economy and the functioning of the state bureacracy.
The Macmillan dictionary of archaeology, Ruth D. Whitehouse, 1983Copied