Mycenaean Takeover of Knossos and the Linear B Archives
- Date
- c. 1450 BCE
- Category
- Politics & governance
- Region
- Crete (Greece)
- Era
- Ancient Civilizations
- Significance
Around 1450 BCE many Minoan sites on Crete suffered destruction, and Knossos came under the control of Mycenaean Greeks, who administered the palace until its final destruction (conventionally c. 1375 BCE, though some scholars place it later).
The new rulers adapted the Minoan Linear A script to write their own Greek language, producing Linear B. The clay Linear B tablets at Knossos — over 4,000 fragments, accidentally fired and preserved in the palace's destruction — record sheep flocks, textiles, chariots, weapons, landholdings and offerings to deities, providing a detailed window onto Mycenaean palatial administration. Together with the larger archive at Pylos and tablets from Mycenae, Thebes and Tiryns, they constitute the earliest written records of the Greek language. Their decipherment as Greek by Michael Ventris in 1952 transformed understanding of the Bronze-Age Aegean and confirmed cultural and linguistic continuity into later Greek history.
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Empires active in c. 1450 BCE
- New Kingdom of Egypt1550 BCE – 1077 BCE
- Hittite Empire1650 BCE – 1178 BCE
- Shang Dynasty1600 BCE – 1046 BCE
- Mitanni1500 BCE – 1300 BCE
- Elamite Kingdom2700 BCE – 539 BCE
Related politics & governance events
- Building of the First Palace at Knossosc. 1900 BCE
- Amarna letters: cuneiform as the language of diplomacyc. 1360–1332 BCE
- Ahmose I expels the Hyksos and founds the New Kingdomc. 1550 BCE
- Code of Hammurabi inscribed on the basalt stelec. 1755 BCE
- Egyptian–Hittite peace treaty (the 'Eternal Treaty')c. 1259 BCE
- Duke of Zhou's Regency, the Fengjian System and Ritual Orderc. 1042–1036 BCE
Further reading
The wider story
The Classical World: An Epic History from Homer to Hadrian
Vivid narrative of the Greek and Roman worlds that shaped Europe.
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