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The Linear B Tablets and Mycenaean Social. Political, and Economic
Organization

The Nature and Use of the Linear B Script

Linear B is a principally syllabic script written with some 89
different signs which have been deciphered as representing both bare
vowels (i.e. a, e, i, o, u) and open syllables of the form
consonant+vowel (e.g. pa, pe, pi, po, pu). Closed syllables consisting
either of vowel+consonant or of consonant+vowel+consonant do not
occur. In addition to the syllabic signs there are over one hundred
ideograms (signs representing physical objects, numerals, measures of
weight and of liquid and dry volumes, and a variety of commodities).
Forty-five of the Linear B syllabic signs have close equivalents in
Linear A, while a further ten have more doubtful parallels in the
older script. There is therefore general scholarly consensus that
Linear B was derived from Linear A for the purpose of writing a
different, non-Minoan language which happens to have been deciphered
as an early form of Greek. It is still unknown where, when, why, by
whom, and under what circumstances the Linear B writing system was
devised for this purpose although several suggestions have been
proposed as solutions to each of these five fundamental questions.

Linear B, in the form of sign groups which form words as opposed to
isolated signs with a variety of possible significances, occurs in
only two forms of text. The first and most important consists of
tablets of unbaked clay which have survived due to the fact that they
were burned and hence crudely fired, usually in fires which destroyed
the buildings in which they have been found. These tablets are of two
principal types: long and thin "palm-leaf" tablets and rectangular
"page" tablets. The second form of Linear B text consists of painted
inscriptions on ceramic vessels, for the most part large, coarse
stirrup jars on whose shoulders between one and three words were
painted before the vessels were intentionally fired.

Tablets have been found only at palatial centers, whether on the
Mycenaean Mainland (Mycenae, Tiryns, Pylos, Thebes) or at non-Mainland
sites controlled by Mycenaean rulers (Knossos, Chania). In the case of
Pylos, Thebes, and Knossos, tablets were found in palace archives,
although at both Pylos and Knossos tablets have also been found in a
variety of contexts within the palaces other than special archive
rooms. At Mycenae, tablets have been found in burnt debris within the
[21]citadel, arguably fallen down the hillside from the palace on top
of the hill, but they have also been found in LH IIIB1 contexts in
houses outside the [22]citadel, houses which may conceivably have
belonged to merchants rather than to the king himself. At Tiryns,
tablets have been found only in debris on the slopes of the
[23]citadel; their original place of storage is uncertain. The only
major archives to have been discovered thus far where the material
preserved is sufficiently abundant for us to be able to attempt
reconstruction of major portions of the administrative system of a
Mycenaean kingdom are those at Pylos (1107 tablets written by 32
different scribes) and Knossos (3369 tablets written by 100 distinct
scribes).

In contrast, painted Linear B inscriptions have been found at both
palatial and non-palatial sites on both the Mainland and Crete: six or
more examples at the sites of Thebes, Mycenae, Tiryns, and Chania, and
between one and five examples at the sites of Orchomenos, Kreusis (in
southwestern Boeotia), Eleusis, Knossos, and the Mameloukas Cave (in
western Crete). A good number of these jars were made, and hence
painted, in West Crete in the Chania area during the LM IIIB period.
They indicate not only that Greek was spoken during this period in
western Crete but also that Chania was the capital of a Mycenaean
kingdom at this time. The concentration of inscribed stirrup jars in
Boeotia, the Argolid, and Crete is notable: of some 140 known jars of
this type, none have so far been found in the well-explored region of
Messenia (whose capital at Pylos has been extensively excavated) nor
have any been found in the Cyclades or in any area of the Peloponnese
outside of the Argolid.

THE DATE OF THE KNOWN LINEAR B TEXTS

The tablets from the [24]citadel of Mycenae and from Thebes, as well
as all but five of the over 1100 tablets from Pylos, are firmly dated
to the end of the 13th century B.C. by the burnt destruction contexts
in which they were found. The tablets from Tiryns probably date from
the same period, although they were found in wash deposits containing
later material. The tablets from the houses outside the walls at
Mycenae are earlier in date, although probably no more than fifty
years earlier. How much earlier than ca. 1250 B.C. a group of five odd
tablets from Pylos may be, three of which resemble Knossian Linear B
more closely in paleographic terms than they do Mainland Greek Linear
B, is uncertain. For many years, the tablets at Knossos were dated
within the period ca. 1425-1385 B.C. [end of LM II or ca. 1425 B.C.
(Evans); early LM IIIA2 or ca. 1385 B.C. (Popham)], but there is a
growing consensus that they are to be attributed not to the
destruction horizon of ca. 1385 B.C. at Knossos but rather to a
subsequent destruction of the site sometime in the mid- to later 13th
century, that is, to a period broadly contemporary with the Linear B
tablets from the Mainland. The most recent and perhaps most decisive
piece of evidence in favor of a later dating in the 13th century B.C.
for the Knossos tablets is the discovery of a pair of tablets at
Chania in a LM IIIB1 destruction context, one of which appears to have
been written by a scribal hand already known at Knossos. All of the
inscribed stirrup jars which come from well-dated contexts are datable
to the 13th century B.C. (LM/LH IIIIB) and these include an example
from Knossos itself. It is now beginning to appear that Linear B, both
on the Mainland and in Crete, is a phenomenon strictly of the 13th
century B.C. It is therefore becoming increasingly difficult to argue
that Linear B was created much if at all earlier than ca. 1350-1300
B.C. Theories that connect the beginning of Linear B with the
appearance of Mycenaeans at Knossos ca. 1450-1425 B.C. or with the
presence of Minoan artisans on the Greek Mainland at an even earlier
period ca. 1600-1500 B.C. (the era of the Shaft Grave burials at
Mycenae) may have to be abandoned as a result of the redating of the
Knossos tablets.

THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE DECIPHERMENT OF LINEAR B AS GREEK

Most Aegean prehistorians have accepted Ventris' decipherment of 1952,
but there are some notable exceptions (e.g. Sinclair Hood). The
grounds for continuing to reject the decipherment may be summarized as
follows:

(1) The "spelling rules" of Linear B are so complex that a given word
as "spelled" in Linear B may be interpreted (that is, transliterated
and spelled out in the modern Western European alphabet) in a large
number of different ways. It is therefore argued that the
interpretation of any one word is a largely subjective process. [For
the Linear B spelling rules, see M. Ventris and J. Chadwick, Documents
in Mycenaean Greek [2nd edition] (Cambridge 1973) 42-48].

(2) Even a "deciphered" Linear B text is often largely or completely
unintelligible because the Mycenaean Greek words have no cognates in
later Greek. The decipherers argue that such Mycenaean words dropped
out of the Greek language at some point between ca. 1200 and ca. 650
B.C. In a number of instances where such later Greek cognates do
exist, the Mycenaean Greek predecessor clearly means something rather
different, an indication, or so the skeptics argue, that the language
of Linear B is being forced to become Greek. In a number of cases
where words are unintelligible, their lack of "meaning" is explained
by the decipherers as being due to the fact that the word in question
is a proper name, either of a person or of a place. The skeptics argue
that this is a further instance of the decipherers' refusal to admit
that Linear B is in fact not Greek at all.

The decipherers point out that the clumsy spelling rules are a result
of the fact that Linear B is derived directly from Linear A, a writing
system designed for a non-Greek language. Features such as consonant
clusters, terminal -s, and distinctions between r and l , g and k, and
p and b, all of which occur in Greek, do not appear to have been
characteristic of this Minoan language, and hence cause bizarre
problems in the "spelling" of Greek words in the modified form of
Linear A (i.e. Linear B) which was used to write Greek.

THE MYCENAEAN SOCIAL ORDER

The following terms in Linear B refer to Mycenaean officials and form
the basis of our reconstruction of the Mycenaean social order:

WA-NA-KA [wanax]

Mentioned at both Pylos and Knossos, only one wanax appears to have
existed at either place. The use of wanax as an archaic form of the
normal word basileus for "king" in the Iliad and the evident
importance of this personage at Pylos justify the English translation
of "king" for WA-NA-KA. In some cases, wanax appears to be used in the
tablets as a divine title, but this does not necessarily imply that
the wanax was some sort of priest-king. Some tradesmen - a potter, a
fuller, and an armorer(?) - are referred to by the adjectival form
wanakteros and were therefore presumably in some sense in the "royal"
service. Some of the painted stirrup jars from Thebes, Eleusis,
Tiryns, and Chania are labelled in paint with the same adjective,
wanaktero. These jars, which are among those almost certainly made in
western Crete, presumably contained produce (wine or oil) from "royal"
vineyards or olive orchards. They are particularly significant as
indicating that there was a LM IIIB wanax of western Crete, presumably
one resident at the important site of Chania (Classical Kydonia,
Linear B KU-DO-NI-JA). The wanax of Pylos was a major landholder. It
has been suggested, on the basis of unfortunately inconclusive
evidence, that his name was Enkhelyawon (or something similar). There
is no archaeological evidence for the Iliad's King Nestor, nor is
Enkhelyawon recognizable among any of the Messenian heroes of
Classical saga and legend.

RA-WA-KE-TA [lawagetas]

Mentioned at both Pylos and Knossos, again only one such figure
appears to have existed at either place. At Pylos, he occurs second
after the wanax in a list of major landholders. As in the case of the
wanax, certain personnel are qualified with an adjectival form derived
from lawagetas, lawagesios. Etymology suggests that lawagetas
literally means "leader of the people" (laós + ágein). Parallels for
such a figure in Teutonic societies suggest that he may have been a
war leader. However, there is no solid evidence from Mycenaean
archaeology that he fulfilled such a function - he may have been a
crown-prince or something else altogether.

TE-RE-TA (telestas)

Such personnel are known at both Pylos and Knossos. The title telestas
occurs almost exclusively in texts dealing with land tenure. In the
list of landholders from Pylos referred to above, three telestai
appear who together hold as much land as the wanax and who, on
average, hold as much as the lawagetas. Telestai are numerous - we
know of fourteen at PA-KI-JA-NE in the Pylian kingdom and of at least
forty-five at Aptara in western Crete. It is far from clear exactly
what the function of a telestas was, but there are two major theories:

(1) Telestai were religious officials of some kind. PA-KI-JA-NE was a
cult center in the Pylian kingdom and the later Greek word tele has
religious connotations.

(2) Telestai were fief-holders, persons who held land from someone
(possibly the king) in return for services which they rendered to him.
The Greek word tele often has the meaning of "taxes" or "dues".

KA-MA-E-U [kamaeus(?)]

Although this title occurs at both Pylos and Knossos, at Knossos it
may be no more than a personal name. The term appears to describe a
form of landholder whose holding (kama-land) differs in some as yet
undetermined way from the holdings of the wanax, the lawagetas, and
the telestai which are called temenoi. The men who bear the title of
kamaeus appear to be humble and include a baker(?) and a "slave of the
god".

E-QE-TA [heqetas]

Heqetai are known from both Pylos and Knossos. In Classical Greek, the
equivalent word (hepetas) means nothing more than "companion,
follower". But Palmer and others have compared Mycenaean heqetas to
Homeric hetairos and translate the term in the sense of "companion to
the king" (compare Alexander the Great's hetairoi/companions, a select
group of royal comrades-in-arms, as well as the Latin word comes (also
meaning "companion") which became a military title in the later Roman
Empire and went on to give rise to such aristocratic titles as the
French comte and the English count). In the Linear B tablets, heqetai
are distinguished by the use of the patronymic following their names,
an otherwise rare way of identifying an individual in the tablets.
Heqetai appear in contexts dealing with bodies of troops (the
"watchers of the sea" in the O-KA series of tablets from Pylos) where
they seem to function as staff officers or possibly as liaison
officers to the king or central military authority. They are also
occasionally mentioned in contexts relating to land tenure. They may
have slaves and are distinguished by a particular kind of garment
(probably a cloak of some kind) and by a particular type of chariot
wheel. The implication that heqetai possessed chariots has led most
scholars to view them as a warrior caste of some kind, closely
attached to the wanax. The temptation to connect the heqetai as a
class with the occupants of the LM II-IIIA1 "Warrior Graves" at
Knossos has therefore been considerable, although the Linear B tablets
in which heqetai are mentioned probably all postdate the era of the
Knossian "Warrior Graves" by at least a century and perhaps by as much
as 175 years. A comparable chariot-borne warrior class known in
Akkadian as the mariyannu existed somewhat earlier in some Near
Eastern societies (e.g. among the Hurrians).

QA-SI-RE-U [quasileus = basileus]

Personnel bearing this title are known from Pylos, Knossos, and
Thebes. The connection of Linear B QA-SI-RE-U with Homeric basileus
meaning "king" is undeniable, but it is equally clear that the
Mycenaean quasileus was nothing more than some kind of chief or leader
of a small group, in one case a group of bronzesmiths. In some
contexts the quasileus may have been in charge of small, outlying
districts, in which case the metamorphosis from Mycenaean "village
headman" to Homeric "chieftain/king" would be explicable in view of
the chaotic conditions which followed the collapse first of Mycenaean
palatial civilization and then of Mycenaean civilization in a broader
sense during the period ca. 1200-1000 B.C. An extreme view held by
Palmer insists that QA-SI-RE-U and words derived from it never occur
in Mycenaean contexts not involving craftsmen in some way and
therefore that quasileus signifies nothing more than a man in charge
of an industrial or manufacturing unit.

KE-RO-SI-JA [geronsia]

Attested only at Pylos, this word in the single instance where it
occurs is associated with a man who is known from another context to
have been a quasileus. It is thus possible that the geronsia is a
council of elders presided over by a quasileus or chief, presumably a
local administrative council rather than a body with responsibilities
for any wider area, such as a province or the kingdom as a whole. The
Classical Greek equivalent attested in many different Greek
city-states is the gerousia or council of elders (gerontes).

DA-MO [damos]

In the Knossos and Pylos tablets, the damos is an entity which can
allocate landholdings. It is perhaps best translated as "village", an
English term which can refer either to the people of the community or
to the land held by that community. The Linear B evidence strongly
suggests that the damos is nothing more than a group of individual
landholders, that is, a collective landholding body. There is nothing
to suggest that the term also had political significance, as it came
to do in the Archaic and Classical periods with reference to the
"common people" (demos) as opposed to a hereditary nobility (aristoi;
gennetai).

MO-RO-QA [moiroqquas]

Attested at both Pylos and Knossos, this word is the title of a local
official whose importance is indicated by the fact that a man by the
name of Klymenos was at the same time MO-RO-QA, the commander of a
military unit, and a KO-RE-TE. Chadwick concludes that MO-RO-QA was a
rank rather than an office, but this need not have been so. There may
be some connection between this title and the Classical Greek word
moira meaning "share, portion", the MO-RO-QA being a "shareholder" of
some sort.

KO-RE-TE, PO-RO-KO-RE-TE [koreter, prokoreter]

Such officials are known at both Knossos and Pylos. The titles bear a
suspiciously close resemblance to the Latin terms curator and
procurator ("guardian" and "manager, imperial officer/governor"
respectively). The Linear B evidence suggests that the koreter was a
local official in charge of one of the sixteen major administrative
units within the Pylian kingdom, and the prokoreter was evidently his
deputy.

DO-E-RO, DO-E-RA [doeros, doera]

Such personnel are common at both Pylos and Knossos. Although the
later Greek cognates doulos and doule mean "male slave" and "female
slave" respectively, the Mycenaean Greek forms may have had a
significance closer to "servant, bondsman/bondswoman". Some DO-E-RO
are clearly the property of living individuals, while others are
described as being "of (= belonging to) a god/goddess". There is some
evidence that the children of parents of whom only one was a slave
were also slaves, a situation unlike that prevailing in Classical
Greece. Slaves of a divinity are the most common form at Pylos, but it
is possible that a "god's slave" had a status quite different from
that of other slaves, since s/he could have leases on land and appears
to have lived in much the same fashion as ordinary free persons.

CONCLUSIONS

If the decipherment of Linear B as an early form of Greek is accepted,
we may conclude that the Mycenaean social order features at least
some, and possibly all, of the following:

1. A king, the wanax.

2. A warrior caste, the heqetai.

3. A class of slaves or serfs, the doeroi and doerai.

4. Priests and priestesses of particular divinities (see following
handout on Mycenaean religion), as well as "slaves" of divinities.

5. A series of local administrative officials (koreter, prokoreter,
possibly also quasileus) and possibly local councils (geronsia).

A notable feature of the Linear B texts is the complex system of land
tenure which evidently existed in the Pylian kingdom. This system has
been argued by some to be at least partially feudal in nature (i.e. to
feature lands held from the king in return for services rendered to
him), but others have denied the existence of any evidence for
feudalism. Hutchinson has compared the Mycenaean economic system to
that typical of Medieval monasteries.

To judge from the known tablets, there appear to have been a number of
distinct kingdoms within Mycenaean Greece, all of which seem to have
been independent. In the Pylos texts, Pylos (or PU-RO in Linear B) is
clearly the capital of a Messenian kingdom and there is no mention of
any superior monarch or paramount king whom the wanax of Pylos
acknowledged as an overlord, in contrast with the existence of such a
figure in the person of Agamemnon of Mycenae in the Iliad. Within the
Argolid, we now have possible evidence for the existence of
independent Linear B archives at Mycenae and Tiryns, and it is thus
possible that these two sites may have been the capitals of
independent kingdoms. All other sites where Linear B tablets have been
found are normally considered to have been the capitals of independent
kingdoms (Pylos, Knossos, Thebes).
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References

http://projectsx.dartmouth.edu/classics/history/bronze_age/index.html