Linear B Vessel B216

It marks a vessel; the specific kind comes from context.

In the transcription of Pylos tablet PY Tn 316, AUR (the sign for gold) comes before *216VAS, with the numeral 1 after it. That order records one gold vessel. Archaeological comparisons identify the pictured vessel as a handleless, cone-shaped bowl on a tall stem—a chalice-like drinking cup.

How old is the Linear B tradition?

It belongs to a Bronze Age Aegean writing tradition.

Linear A predates Linear B; Linear B adapted some signs from the earlier script to write Mycenaean Greek. The wider Linear B record spans roughly c. 1400–1200 BCE, and the earliest archives are at Knossos. The B216 example discussed here appears on the Pylos tablet Tn 316, dated LH IIIB2.

The modern catalog number B216 follows the Wingspread convention for naming Linear B ideograms; it is not an ancient word.

Why is it read as a chalice here?

The tablet’s setting supports the narrower reading.

Linear B tablets were working records for palace administrations, listing goods, amounts, and movements. On Tn 316, vessel signs and counts appear among precious gifts for deities. That setting supports “chalice-like” for this entry, not a general religious meaning for 𐃯.