Mycenaean Greek

most ancient attested form of the Greek language from the 16th to 12th centuries BC

Key facts

Native to: Mycenean Greece
Region: Southern Balkans / Crete
Era: 16th–12th century BC
Language family: Indo-European Hellenic Greek (disputed) Achaean Mycenaean Greek
Writing system: Linear B
Iso 639 3: gmy
Glottolog: myce1242

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Image: Linear B Musée archéologique de Mycènes.jpg

Sources (4)

Article

Mycenaean Greek is the earliest attested form of the Greek language. It was spoken on the Greek mainland and Crete in Mycenaean Greece (16th to 12th centuries BC). The language is preserved in inscriptions in Linear B, a script first attested on Crete before the 14th century BC. Most inscriptions are on clay tablets found in Knossos, in central Crete, as well as in Pylos, in the southwest of the Peloponnese. Other tablets have been found at Mycenae itself, Tiryns and Thebes and at Chania, in Western Crete. The language is named after Mycenae, one of the major centres of Mycenaean Greece.

The tablets long remained undeciphered, and many languages were suggested for them, until Michael Ventris, building on the extensive work of Alice Kober, deciphered the script in 1952.