On Aegean spices: decipherment prospects on Linear A and B spice-related signs

Abstract The Mycenaean palaces of the last phases of the Late Bronze Age were productive centres focused on few, if flourishing, industries. One such industry was that of perfumed oil, especially in the centre at Pylos, Messenia. The productive process, recorded on tablets written in the Linear B script, is particularly terse. Moreover, some ingredients, recorded via logograms and monograms, remain undeciphered. Here we propose some new readings of these commodities, drawing comparisons from Linear A, one of the scripts used in Minoan Crete. The case studies presented here, and their interpretations, shed light on the level of attention paid by the palatial administrators to orthographic practices geared towards the clear and unambiguous rendering of logograms. This in turn reinforces the idea that the Linear B script, if unsuited to writing the complexities of the Greek language, was a functional tool to precise and explicit readings of commodities.