Mycenaean Civilization: Translation of Linear B Tablets

This report provides an overview of the translation and analysis of Linear B tablets, focusing on their significance in understanding the Mycenaean civilization. The report begins with an introduction to the Aegean Bronze Age and the discovery of Linear B tablets, particularly at Knossos and Pylos. It then details the decipherment process by Michael Ventris, revealing the tablets to be an early form of Greek. The report further explores the contents of the tablets, which primarily consist of economic documents detailing land ownership, taxation, and administrative practices. Analysis of the tablets provides insight into the complex societal structures of the Mycenaean period, including the distribution of power, the roles of women, and the agrarian focus of the society. Ideograms found in the tablets, depicting commodities, animals, and food, are also discussed, highlighting the agricultural and cultivation-centric lifestyle of the early Grecian civilization. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of Linear B tablets in providing linguistic and historical insights into the development of the Greek language and the structural underpinnings of ancient Grecian society.

Translation of Linear B Tablets
Translation of the Linear B tablets
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

Translation of Linear B Tablets
Introduction
The Aegean civilization is the generic term of the Bronze Age civilizations which
developed in Greece around the Aegean sea. There are three distinct and communicating
geographic locations which are considered under this term, which are, the island of Crete, the
Cyclades islands, and the Greek mainland. The discussion here is centred around the
Mycenaean civilization which spreads to Crete, the place of discovery of the first Linear B
tablets. The language used in the tablet, which was later discovered to be an archaic form of
Greek, was used 500 years prior to Homer and was written in a more abbreviated form.
History of Linear B tablets
Excavation of Linear B tablets dates back to as early as 1900 when the clay tablets
inscribed in this system of writing was unearthed at the sites of Knossos, Crete. Subsequent
discoveries were also made on mainland Greece at the sites of Mycenae and Pylos.
Linear B is the system of writing that the Mycenaean Greeks used during the Late Bronze
Period, presumed to be sometime between the mid 1400 to 1200 BCE. Even after their
excavation, the contents of the Linear B tablets remained largely unreadable for quite some
time. It was the renowned British Architect Michael Ventris who announced on a BBC radio
programme in 1952 that he had successfully deciphered Linear B and found the tablets to
possess documentation of the earliest surviving Greek language.
The term ‘Linear’ has been attributed because of the linear structure of the inscriptions
whereas ‘B’ differentiates the tablets from the Linear A script that was discovered on Crete.
It is assumed that the tablets were only used for temporary storage of information and were
later re-moulded and remade into new tablets.

Translation of Linear B Tablets
Deciphering and analysing Linear B tablets.
After the decipherment of the Linear B tablets, they were found to be economic
documents. They consisted of information regarding land ownership and taxation. They were
Mycenaean accounting documents and provided indications that information was being
exchanged between the central administrative centre (which was known as the ‘palace’) and the
common masses.
Analysis of Linear B tablets provide insight into various societal aspects that were
prevalent in their timeline, a few of which are discussed as follows -
Advanced societal structure
Complexity in societal organization was found to be a key aspect of the documentations.
Land holding information was found on Linear B tablet PY Ep 704, which was excavated from
the main land site of Pylos (Nikoloudis 295-303). These documents talk about leasing out land to
individual or groups of people. The tablet contained multiple entries in a specific order – name of
the landholder, his/her occupational title, kind of plot he or she holds, and numerical figure
which could be the amount of seeds grains that could be sown in that particular land, used as a
unit of measurement of land area.
Further land holding documents pertaining to the E series were also discovered stored in the
Archives section in the Palace of Pylos. This was taken as an indicator that taxation was in
practice and the records were kept as an expectation of tax returns from those who held and used
the lands, especially in the form of agricultural produce.

Translation of Linear B Tablets
Distribution of power
Tablet PY Ep 704 is probably the most important piece of evidence found for the
Mycenaean civilization. It also shows the similarities between the Mycenaean vocabulary and
the later form of Greek. Instances are the commonality in verbs, terms relating to state
organizations, and more, signifying an existence of a hierarchy of power.
From tablet PY Ep 704, we get to know that women held some power in their hand to
own lands (Santos 239-241). These women were priestesses. There was intermingling of three
major bureaucratic powers: the religious by the priestess, the damos or the local land
administrator, and the palace (Tracy 115-132). Multiple evidences suggest on women being
treated with higher power in certain aspects of society than men (Shelmerdine 262-263).
The term ‘damos’ is seen as the predecessor of the later word ‘demos’ which referred to a
larger body of people and was more inclusive in nature (Nikoloudis 295-303). Instead, the
Mycenaean period deemed the word to mean administrators or a localised group of landowners,
signifying the necessity for administration in terms of dealing out or distributing land. So much
significance on land and land related activities show the priority that the early Mycenaean
society placed on agriculture.
Agrarian societal structure.
Linear B consists of ideograms which are representations of commodities, animals,
people, and foodstuffs and so on. In fact, one tablet from Knossos, KN Sc 225, had a pictorial
depiction of what was agreed to be a horse. KN Co 906 also had pictorial depictions of different
types of animals. Most of the pictograms in the tablets held references to animals commonly

Translation of Linear B Tablets
used for agriculture like bulls, rams, pigs and cows; and they even held information about the
number of these animals that were in possession indicating a record clearly meant for the
purpose of agricultural use.
Certain words in Tablet PY Ep 704 pertain to concepts of everyday terminology like
‘family’, ‘clothing’, ‘food’ especially referring to honey and cheese (Nikoloudis 295-303). These
are indicators that early Grecian civilization was focussed around agriculture and a cultivation
centric lifestyle. Besides there are mentions of raw material that were processed to make finished
products. These include many inventory items such as vessels, chariot equipment, animals,
garments, food and drink.
Conclusion
Linear B tablets provide a significant insight into the structural and functional
underpinnings of ancient Grecian society. They also provide linguistic insights into the
developments of languages from a pictorial sense to that of a more concrete structure and rule
based system. These tablets thus need to be revered with awe and need to be preserved as an
important part of the growth of this world as a whole.

Translation of Linear B Tablets
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