Question #bd751
1 Answer
The Mycenaeans never really developed a culture of widespread literacy, particularly as Linear B was too complex to learn and too limited for full expression.
Explanation:
The Mycenaeans and Minoans left two writing forms behind them, Linear A and Linear B. Linear B has some 200 different symbols, many of which have a number of different meanings. It would have been difficult to learn, and certainly was difficult to use as well as largely being limited to record keeping and inventories. While the Mycenaean and Minoans undoubtedly had many myths and stories, their writing style really did not lend itself to capturing the elements of literature.
Some time between 1200 and 1100, the sophisticated trading networks of the Eastern Mediterranean collapsed in a few years; and -- particularly in Greece -- a Dark Age is manifested in the archaeology. However, the literature (even from Syria, Mesopotamia and Egypt) gives few details other than of an end to trade and an influx of refugees from the North.
In any event, it is clear that a lot of communities in Greece were suddenly abandoned -- often as a result of violence. The specialists who would have known how to use Linear B had no employers, no purpose, and -- probably -- very little training.
As Greece started to emerge from this apparent Dark Age in the 900s, a lot of Greeks picked up on the much more elegant and simple Phoenician phoenetic alphabit, and Linear B was forgotten.
