Linear B Monogram B247 Dipte

It abbreviates a material word, usually glossed as hide or leather.

The monogram combines two Linear B syllable signs, conventionally transcribed as “di” and “pte”; together they begin di-pte-ra, a reconstructed Mycenaean Greek word. Scholars usually gloss the word as worked animal hide or leather, though parchment remains possible.

B247 survives on two tablet fragments from Knossos, catalogued as KN U 8210 and KN U (formerly X) 9740. A quantity line in KN U 8210 is read as eleven hides; the other fragment preserves the sign in a broken line. This account context ties the monogram to counted material.

why was 𐃒 made?

To shorten a material term in palace accounts.

In the Late Bronze Age, Linear B served palace archives that tracked goods, people, and quantities. A monogram packs syllable signs into one mark; B247 stands in for a material entry instead of drawing the object.

Linear B adapted earlier writing from the Aegean—the islands and coasts around Greece—especially Linear A, to record the Greek used by the Mycenaeans. The surviving Knossos records place B247 in that administrative system but do not date when this monogram first appeared.

what does 𐃒 mean when someone sends it?

It points to the Linear B sign; the sender’s intent needs context.

They may be referring to Linear B or showing the character itself. The tablet’s material gloss explains an ancient record, not why a modern sender used the sign; ask what they mean.