A Window into Ancient Greece
The discovery of the Linear B alphabet in 1900 by the renowned archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans during his excavations at the legendary Palace of Knossos sparked excitement among archaeologists and linguists. It was first deciphered by the English architect Michael Ventris in 1952, resulting in a better understanding of the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations that once thrived in the Aegean region.
The Linear B alphabet approximately consists of 87 characters, each with a specific phonetic value, and over 100 ideographic signs. The script was primarily used for administrative and accounting purposes, with clay tablets being used to record information such as inventories, contracts, and lists of goods and services.
Thanks to the Linear B alphabet, historians have gained important insights into the economy, politics, and social structures of ancient Greek civilizations. It has helped us understand trade practices, religious customs, and even the names of rulers and gods of that time.
Today, we can still marvel at the fascination of the Linear B alphabet. It offers us the opportunity to feel a connection with people who wrote the same characters thousands of years ago. It is a reminder of the richness and complexity of our human history and the eternal quest for knowledge.
While there are still special characters and undeciphered symbols, the back of the Archaia T-shirt features a syllable chart. Each syllable begins with a consonant and is combined with a vowel (above), except for the top row. The chart can be read as follows: a, e, i, o, u, da, de, di, do, du... and so on.