What 𐂼 means
Scholars read it as gear for holding an oar in place.
The earliest known surviving record is Knossos tablet KN U 736, dated LM IIIA2, a phase of the Late Bronze Age. It lists *181 ten times beside e-to-ro-qa-ta, a Linear B spelling read as “ship-builder.” Another Knossos tablet, M 757, records the sign in a similar setting. The count and neighboring word support an object reading in palace bookkeeping.
Linear B adapted Linear A’s use of ideograms: signs that stand for objects or ideas. As of 2026, no specific Linear A sign is identified as B181’s ancestor.
Why is *181 a number rather than a word?
It is a scholarly catalogue number, not a spoken syllable.
The label identifies the sign in modern study; it does not give the character a pronunciation or a settled translation. In a transcription of the tablet, *181 identifies the sign independently of any proposed object gloss.
A specialist sign from Bronze Age bookkeeping; its archaeological meaning needs context.
Call the oar strap a likely identification, not a settled translation.
Don't confuse it with
4Questions people ask
1Why does 𐂼 show as a box?
Your font may lack the character. As of 2026, Noto Sans Linear B lists coverage for Linear B Ideograms; choose a font with that coverage to see the sign.
How to type 𐂼
𐂼\100BCCodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.