@jeremybaker.nz

Excited that my collection of books about Mycenaean Linear B and Pylos is now complete. Linear B was the late Bronze Age (c1300–1170 BCE) writing system used by Mycenaean Greek palace kingdoms to record people, obligations and transactions within those kingdoms. It is the earliest form of European writing, subsequently lost after the late Bronze Age collapse (c1177BC).

Linear B was famously deciphered by Michael Ventris, a British Architect, in 1956. This opened up a whole new window on the late Bronze Age world. Amazingly new insights and discoveries continue to be made 70 years later.

The collection now includes:
- Documents in Mycenaean Greek (Ventris & Chadwick, 1956) - the original publication which shared the decipherment with the world. I’m delighted to have an first edition of this.
- Documents in Mycenaean Greek (2nd Edition) (Ventris & Chadwick, 1973) - expanded version published by John Chadwick after Ventris’s untimely death in 1956.
- The New Documents in Mycenaean Greek - Volume 1 and 2 (John Killen (editor) 2024) - includes updated scholarship on Linear B over period from 1973 to today.
- The Palace of Nestor at Pylos in Western Messenia: Volume IV - the Inscribed Documents - Parts 1 and 2 (Bennett, Melena, Nakassis et al 2025) - A full reproduction and transcription of all of the Linear B tablets found at Pylos. The first time these have all been published.
- The Kingdom of Pylos - Warrior Princes of Mycenaean Greece (Stocker, Lyons, Davis & Militsi-Kechagia 2025) - overview of early and middle Bronze archeology of the Kingdom of Pylos. Accompanied an exhibition at the Getty and Hellenic National Museum 2026.
- Individuals and Society in Mycenaean Pylos (Nakassis 2013) - Innovative prosographic analysis of the names found on the tables of Pylos, identifying which relate to the same individuals.
- A Companion to Linear B - Mycenaean Texts and their World (Duhoux & Davies, 2008 - 2014) - 3 Volumes. A series of academic essays on analysis of the Linear B texts found at Pylos, Knossos and other sites.
- The Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age (Cynthia Shelmerdine (editor) 2008) - provides context for the Linear B texts and late Bronze Age Mycenaean Greece.
- The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean (Eric Cline (editor) 2010) - complimentary overview of Aegean Bronze Age.
- The Man Who Deciphered Linear B - the story of Michael Ventris (Andrew Robinson 2002) - story of the decipherment, strongly focused on Michael Ventris.
- The Riddle of the Labyrinth (Margalit Fox 2014) - provides a broader analysis of solving the riddle of Linear B, including the key contribution of Alice Kober, who sadly died in 1950 before full decipherment was achieved.

For more information, see my Library catalog for “Mycenaean”.