Linear B Ideogram B189

Its object meaning remains disputed. B189 is a modern catalogue label for the sign, not a translated word. The number avoids choosing among disputed readings. Older transcription guides group *189 under RECT/RECTAGONUM, a label meaning “rectangle,” but that is a classification, not a secure translation.

A proposal published in 2019 identifies it as a plaque made from flattened horn. It points to a Pylos tablet where the sign follows a Linear B word translated as “hornworker,” plus records of small quantities allocated to high-status recipients. That supports a proposal, not a settled reading; use “horn plaque” only with that qualification.

Where was B189 used?

In Bronze Age palace records that tracked goods and allocations. B189 appears at Pylos (tablet Un 1482) and Mycenae (tablet Ue 611). Linear B tablets date to ca. 1450 to 1150 BCE. Scribes placed ideograms—signs for things rather than spoken syllables—beside quantities and surrounding text to record goods and materials.

Linear B shares an ideographic practice and some generic signs with Linear A, an earlier Aegean writing system, but those script-level links do not establish B189’s individual ancestor. The later Cypriot syllabary is another related Aegean tradition used to write Greek; that connection does not make B189 a Cypriot letter.

How should I transcribe B189?

Use B189 as a label; mark any object reading as a proposal. On a tablet, the ideogram sits in an object or commodity slot and is read with quantities; it does not spell a spoken syllable. In the Pylos passage, describe it as a proposed horn plaque if that is the interpretation you intend.

Analyses discuss a KE element within B189’s form. That does not make the whole sign the separate syllabic sign KE.