Linear B Vessel Sign B305

A vessel category, not a named pot.

B305 is a modern scholarly index label for one Linear B vessel ideogram; specialist sign lists also write it as 305VAS. As of 2026, the evidence does not securely identify one particular vessel. Treat it as an item category, not a direct translation such as “jar” or “amphora.”

In surviving entries, the ideogram can follow a written item and sit beside a numeral. That placement tells you what is being counted, not how to pronounce the sign. Some entries spell the item's name phonetically, so read the words and quantity together.

why did linear b records use vessel signs?

They served palace accounting.

Linear B adapted the older Linear A writing tradition to record Mycenaean Greek and retained some of its ideographic practice. Its surviving clay tablets are mainly administrative lists of commodities and goods entering or leaving palace stores. Vessel ideograms mark item categories; numerals record counts.

The earliest surviving group of Linear B tablets is associated with Knossos's Room of Chariot Tablets, around the late 15th or early 14th century BCE. Later records come from Crete and mainland Greece; this dates surviving evidence for the script, not B305's first use. The later Greek alphabet is not a direct continuation of Linear B.

is b305 a picture of one exact vessel?

No exact vessel is securely identified as of 2026.

The Unicode chart marks B305's shape as only partly known as of 2026. A font may draw the glyph clearly without settling the shape of one particular ancient vessel.