Nikos Samartzidis Collection: Linear B Paintings and Poetry

What Is Linear B?

What Is Linear B?

Linear B along with Linear A make up the ‘linear scripts’ used by Cretan and Mycenaean palace record-keepers. Its use has been recorded from approximately 1500 B.C. to 1200 B.C. In a 2006 presentation, PASP Director Dr. Thomas G. Palaima stated they are "a kind of picture writing known as Cretan hieroglyphic, because this style of writing reminded the earliest scholars of Egyptian hieroglyphs….”  The Cretan hieroglyphic scripts were no longer used by 1100 B.C. 

 

Rediscovery in 20th Century

The script was rediscovered in A.D. 1900 during the archaeological digs of Sir Arthur Evans on the island of Crete.  Since then, thousands of Linear B tablets have been recovered on Crete and on mainland Greece at the sites of Pylos, Mycenae, Thebes, among other spots. 

The tablets of Crete are located at the Heraklion Museum, where Nikos Samartzidis first encountered them in the late 1970s.

In 1952, Linear B was deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick with significant contributions by Alice Kober and Emmett Bennett, Jr.  Linear A remains undeciphered.

Interested in more? The Program in Aegean Scripts at UT-Austin houses the archival collections of the Linear B decipherers with their manuscripts, notes, correspondence. Some materials have been digitized and can be accessed from UT's online repository here.

Linear B Syllabary

Linear B has 87 syllabic signs and over 100 ideographic signs. Each sign represents a syllable that is either a pure vowel (like a, e, i, o, u) or a consonant and a vowel (like du, ko, ri).



Linear B is a very ancient form of the Greek language.  For Samartzidis, these characters are part of his homeland's language.
 

How can I read the paintings?

The Samartzidis paintings on Scalar are presented with translations into English and Greek. Mousing over the script presents the transliteration for each line of poetry. Hovering your mouse in the top right margins of the painting will reveal full texts in Linear B, modern Greek and an English translation.

You can decipher them too. The painting below is called Anodymene and spells out the words "Cyprus" and "Aphrodite" in Linear B. Each symbol corresponds to a syllable. Use the syllabary above to identify the symbols Samartzidis uses and start deciphering his poetry.



 
 

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