Linear B Ideogram B146

Probably a textile sign for a linen garment; the reading is debated.

At Pylos, *146 is treated as a textile item entering palace administration; one study identifies it as a locally made linen garment received as tax. Some scholars connect it with we-a2-no, the Linear B spelling of a Mycenaean Greek word for a garment.

Other proposals include a textile object, hide or leather goods, or a monogram assembled from parts of two Linear B signs transcribed pte and we. Bennett found the hide/leather and monogram readings unpersuasive and preferred the neutral label *146. “Linen garment” is a working gloss, not a settled translation.

What records contain the B146 sign?

Palace archives at Knossos and Pylos preserve the sign.

Linear B developed from Linear A in the fifteenth century BCE. The scripts share much of their syllabary, but that relationship alone cannot show that B146 was copied from a particular Linear A sign.

Knossos preserves the earliest known Linear B archive, and forms identified as *146 or close variants occur there. At Pylos, tax and inventory/delivery records place it among textile entries. Textile scholarship groups it with *160 and *164 as related logographic forms.