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| Linear B - the early form of Greek writing |
Writing is a clear indicator that a society is civilised, so it is no surprise that the Greeks had a form of writing as early as 1400BC, during the Mycenaean period. This symbolic writing, called Linear B, was uncovered by Sir Arthur Evans when he excavated the Palace of Knossos on Crete in the early 20th century, but it was only in 1952 that British architect Michael Ventris deciphered it.
Linear B, however, was clumsy and complicated. The real revolution came c.775BC when the Greeks adopted the alphabet used by Phoenician traders. Whereas the old system needed a symbol per syllable, the new alphabet of between 24 and 26 letters used a symbol for each sound, allowing them to build unlimited numbers of words from just a few characters.
Literacy caught on surprisingly quickly. By 600BC – just 175 years later – most male citizens could read and write. The Greek alphabet was so successful that it was later adopted by the Etruscans and the Romans and evolved into the alphabet we use in English today.
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