Linear B Cloth Sign

It marks cloth or textile goods in Linear B.

Palace scribes used this B159 logogram in administrative records for textile goods. A nearby number could state quantity, while an added syllabic sign could narrow the item. The base sign labels a category; it does not spell the spoken word for “cloth.”

Where did the Linear B cloth sign come from?

Its written lineage runs through older Aegean textile signs.

Textile signs in Cretan Hieroglyphic, an earlier writing system used on Crete, are dated c. 1900–1650 BCE; proposed precursor *163 is dated to c. 1650 BCE, though that direct link is debated. Linear A sign AB 54, documented c. 1800–1450 BCE, is commonly treated as the palaeographic ancestor of Linear B *159/TELA. Here, “palaeographic” means an earlier written form from which a later form developed.

Linear B’s textile-sign corpus belongs to c. 1450–1200 BCE. Together, these signs support an evolving sign family across Aegean writing traditions, rather than a one-off invention.

Why is the exact textile reading debated?

The base sign is broad; an inserted syllable sign narrows it.

In Linear B, *159/TELA is an umbrella label for textiles. Inserting a syllabogram—a sign for a syllable—creates the ligature TELA+TE, transcribed as te-pa. Specialists use the broad label without needing to settle which particular object the ligature names. The specific item has been argued to be a carpet, then more cautiously a heavy textile or garment; royal and ritual contexts support the latter readings, but the exact item remains debated.

One proposed source for the sign’s shape is a rectangular cloth hanging from a loom whose threads were held taut by weights. The short strokes might represent threads, loom weights, or scribal convention; these are interpretations of its design, not settled readings.