What 𐂴 means
Honeycomb leads, but the reading is unsettled. Some scholars interpret 𐂴 as a vessel; others leave it unidentified. B142 is proposed for beeswax, so assigning that reading to 𐂴 swaps the two signs’ proposed roles.
Some tablet entries join 𐂴 with the syllabic spelling KE-RO₂ in a ligature, a combined written form. It may relate to the ancient Greek word κηρίον for wax or honeycomb, supporting a beekeeping interpretation without settling which commodity the records name.
Where did Linear B come from, and what was 𐂴 for?
It grew from Linear A and served palace accounts. Linear B developed from an earlier writing tradition, then changed as it was adapted to write Mycenaean Greek. The oldest accepted group of Linear B texts comes from Knossos in the late 15th or early 14th century BCE.
Officials used Linear B for palace bookkeeping, recording commodities, deliveries, and inventories on clay tablets, labels, and nodules. B172 appears to mark an item in these accounts, but its precise identification remains debated.
Specialist and archival; without a Linear B context, it needs a gloss.
Calling 𐂴 beeswax swaps it with 𐂜, the proposed beeswax sign.
Part of the collection
Who writes 𐂴
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Combination ideas
1Questions people ask
1Why does 𐂴 show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
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How to type or find 𐂴
- Also called
- B172 · *172
- Search it as
- B172 honeycomb · B172 beeswax · KE-RO₂ · B142 · wax · kerion
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
𐂴\100B4Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.