Linear B

E192255

ancient script syllabic script writing system

Linear B is an ancient syllabic script used to write Mycenaean Greek, making it the earliest known form of written Greek.

Try in SPARQL Jump to: Surface forms Statements Referenced by

All labels observed (8)

Label	Occurrences
Linear B canonical	14
Linear B Ideograms	2
Linear B Syllabary	2
Linear B (for Mycenaean Greek)	1
Linear B Ideograms block	1
Linear B Syllabary block	1
Linear B represents an early form of Greek	1
Linear B script	1

Statements (49)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	ancient script ⓘ syllabic script ⓘ writing system ⓘ
archaeologicalSite	Chania ⓘ Knossos ⓘ Mycenae and Tiryns ⓘ surface form: Mycenae Pylos ⓘ Thebes ⓘ Mycenae and Tiryns ⓘ surface form: Tiryns
associatedCivilization	Mycenaean civilization ⓘ
category	Bronze Age writing system ⓘ
decipheredBy	Michael Ventris ⓘ
deciphermentContributor	John Chadwick ⓘ
deciphermentMethod	structural analysis and comparison with Greek ⓘ
deciphermentYear	1952 ⓘ
derivedFrom	Linear A ⓘ
earliestAttestation	circa 1450 BCE ⓘ
earliestFormOf	written Greek ⓘ
geographicRegion	Aegean Sea region ⓘ surface form: Aegean region Crete ⓘ Peloponnese ⓘ Greek mainland ⓘ surface form: mainland Greece
hasSignType	logograms ⓘ numerals ⓘ syllabic signs ⓘ
hasUnicodeBlock	Linear B self-linksurface differs ⓘ surface form: Linear B Ideograms Linear B self-linksurface differs ⓘ surface form: Linear B Syllabary
influenced	study of Greek historical linguistics ⓘ
ISO15924Code	Linb ⓘ
languageWritten	Mycenaean Greek ⓘ
latestAttestation	circa 1200 BCE ⓘ
materialForm	clay tablets ⓘ inscribed stirrup jars ⓘ
notUsedFor	literary texts ⓘ
numberOfSyllabicSignsApprox	about 87 ⓘ
primaryUse	administrative records ⓘ economic records ⓘ
reasonForPreservation	accidental firing in palace destructions ⓘ
scriptContinuity	predecessorOfDebatedRelationTo ⓘ
scriptFamily	Cretan hieroglyphs ⓘ surface form: Aegean scripts
scriptUsageContext	palatial bureaucracy ⓘ
timePeriodUsed	circa 15th century BCE to 12th century BCE ⓘ
UnicodeRange	U+10000–U+1007F ⓘ U+10080–U+100FF ⓘ
usesScriptType	syllabary ⓘ
writingDirection	left-to-right ⓘ
writingMedium	wet clay impressed with stylus ⓘ
writingSystemFor	Mycenaean Greek ⓘ
writingSystemStatus	deciphered ⓘ

How these facts were elicited

The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.

Instruction

You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10.

# Requirements
- If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list.
- If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list.
- Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf".
- Do not get too wordy.
- Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.

Input

Subject: Linear B
Description of subject: Linear B is an ancient syllabic script used to write Mycenaean Greek, making it the earliest known form of written Greek.

Referenced by (23)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Mycenaean civilization → usesScript → Linear B ⓘ

Mycenaean civilization → writingSystem → Linear B ⓘ

Linear B inscriptions → writtenInScript → Linear B ⓘ

this entity surface form: Linear B script

Greek language → writingSystemUsedIn → Linear B ⓘ

this entity surface form: Linear B (for Mycenaean Greek)

Mycenaean Greek → writingSystem → Linear B ⓘ

Aegean Bronze Age → writingSystem → Linear B ⓘ

Knossos → associatedScript → Linear B ⓘ

Supplementary Multilingual Plane → contains → Linear B ⓘ

this entity surface form: Linear B Syllabary block

Supplementary Multilingual Plane → contains → Linear B ⓘ

this entity surface form: Linear B Ideograms block

Unicode 4.1 → addsBlock → Linear B ⓘ

this entity surface form: Linear B Syllabary

Unicode 4.1 → addsBlock → Linear B ⓘ

this entity surface form: Linear B Ideograms

Linear B → hasUnicodeBlock → Linear B self-linksurface differs ⓘ

this entity surface form: Linear B Syllabary

Linear B → hasUnicodeBlock → Linear B self-linksurface differs ⓘ

this entity surface form: Linear B Ideograms

lawagetas → usedInWritingSystem → Linear B ⓘ

Michael Ventris → studied → Linear B ⓘ

Michael Ventris → proved → Linear B ⓘ

this entity surface form: Linear B represents an early form of Greek

John Chadwick → workedOn → Linear B ⓘ

Linear A → successor → Linear B ⓘ

Linear A → influenced → Linear B ⓘ

Cretan hieroglyphs → chronologicallyPrecedes → Linear B ⓘ

Cretan hieroglyphs → relatedTo → Linear B ⓘ

Greek → earliestWritingSystem → Linear B ⓘ

subject surface form: Greek language

Achaean Greece → associatedWithScript → Linear B ⓘ