Linear B Vessel Ideogram B211

It marks a container, but scholarship has not settled its exact form. Linear B ideograms label goods rather than spell their sounds. Scholars call this vessel sign *211; drawings survive in two forms, *211(a) and *211(b), and it is unclear whether both show the same kind of vessel.

Linear B developed from Linear A, an earlier script, and used ideograms alongside syllabic signs in Bronze Age palace records. The earliest Linear B archive evidence at Knossos dates to Late Minoan II–IIIA1; sign *211 itself appears on the Knossos tablet Fs 8, dated Late Minoan IIIA2. Fs 8 lists commodities for recipients, and the setting is probably a religious offering.

Is Linear B vessel B211 a rhyton?

Possibly; “rhyton” is a proposal, not a settled reading. The *211(b) drawing has been compared with pear-shaped and amphora-like vessels. Its PO addition may abbreviate a Mycenaean Greek word for a pouring vessel, which supports the idea that it represents a rhyton.

An offering list does not prove ritual use. Rhyta could serve practical or ceremonial purposes; comparisons between Cretan and mainland examples caution against assigning one purpose to every vessel of this form. Treat “rhyton” as a proposal based on shape and context, not a recovered ancient word.