Just received an astonishing two-volume set which provides high quality photos and transcriptions of all the Linear B tablets excavated at the Late Bronze Age Mycenaean archeological site known as “The Palace of Nestor at Pylos”. These tablets were discovered in 1939; full excavation of the site took place from 1952 to 1966.

In the midst of this excavation in 1952, Michael Ventris achieved a breakthrough in the decoding and translation of Linear B, identifying the language of the tablets as an archaic form of Greek. He collaborated with John Chadwick on the first publication of documents on Linear B, including those from Pylos and Knossos.

Now, nearly 90 years after the first set of tablets were discovered, we now have a full description of them all available for study. At the same time, several set of new publications have been released on the interpretation of Linear B tablets.

It is an exciting time for anyone interested in this first surviving form of writing of any Indo-European language, providing an insight into the Aegean world c.BC1250.