Linear B is an ancient writing script used by ancient Greek civilization Mycenae from 1600 BC to about 1100 BC. Tablets containing the script were unearthed by Sir Arthur Evans. However the script was not translated till 1953. The task to decipher Linear B was undertaken by Michael Ventris. The story of translation is that Michel Ventris although being an architect had an ardent interest in linguistics. He planned to translate the script with the help of John Chadwick, who was an expert in early Greek history and linguistics. As they uncovered the mystery of the language, it proved to be consisting of a decimal system and the language used vertical lines to separate the words.
The language does not seem to be widespread as the discovered tablets appear to be written by a very few hands. Moreover, Linear B has its connections with the older Greek languages and the language that evolved after Linear B. The language itself is based upon 87 syllables and large number of figures to depict commodities like animals etc. These were part of the writing but were not used to make the voice of some word. For numerology and writing a number the number system used consists of beginning with highest power of ten and then lower powers like if we want to write 1457, it would be written as a symbol for 1000 then four symbols to show 400 then 5 symbols for 50 and then seven horizontal lines for 7.
Michael Ventris won, “Order of British Empire” for his work to decipher the language. For those who want a detail on the translating efforts I would refer John Chadwick’s book “The Decipherment of Linear B”. The book is published by Cambridge University Press.
Linear B
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