Linear B Ideogram B259

As of 2026-09-14, its historical referent has no secure identification.

In the Linear B sign inventory, B259 is the catalogue label attached to this sign.

A 2015 proposal compared the glyph with an archer seal and suggested “bow and arrow.” The proposal itself called B259 undeciphered, so that weapon name is a hypothesis, not a confirmed reading.

How did Linear B ideograms work?

They marked things in administrative records.

The earliest surviving Linear B documents belong to palace record-keeping around 1450 BCE. Linear B wrote Mycenaean Greek in administrative records from Crete and mainland Greece; its ideogram conventions drew on the older Linear A script.

An ideogram is a sign that marks a person, good, offering, delivery, or quantity instead of spelling a word’s sounds. It could sit beside or join syllabic signs that qualified its reading, so the record’s context matters more than a modern guess from the outline.

What does 𐃝 mean when someone sends it?

Treat it as a Linear B reference until the sender gives context.

The sender may be pointing to the script, showing an obscure character, or referring to the bow-and-arrow proposal. Ask what they intended before assigning the sign a meaning.

Its outline is drawn by the font, so a different design on screen does not by itself make it a different sign or reading.