Introduction
What Is Linear B?
The Decipherment Links
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INTRODUCTION
In the year 1900, the British anthropologist Arthur Evans began excavations on Crete at the palace of Knossos. While exploring and restoring the ruins, he
discovered stone tablets that were covered with a previously unknown writing system.
Evans worked hard for the rest of his life to decipher these writing systems but he
passed away before he achieved success. However, he did manage to realize that the
tablets had not one writing system, but two distinct writing systems, which are known
as Linear A and Linear B.
Although the meaning of Linear A remains a mystery to this day, Linear B has been successfully deciphered. Using the theory that Linear B was a syllabary, Michael Ventris managed to piece together words on the Linear B tablets, effectively breaking the code of the ancient script.
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