Linear B, the official script of the Mycenaean palaces, first appeared in Knossos at the end of the First Palatial period. It is associated with the Mycenaean conquest of Crete in c. 1450 BC.

Examples of Linear B are much more numerous than Linear A and hieroglyphic examples. It consists of 87 signs, which can be divided into three categories: syllabaries, ideograms and numbers. The syllabaries served as phonetic signs while the ideograms represented meaning schematically. Signs for numbers and measurements separate, usually accompanying ideograms to indicate quantity.

All Linear B texts were inscribed on clay tablets and kept in the palace archives. The content of these tablets was of a purely administrative nature, and concerned the recording of the goods in the palace stores and the movement of people in palace territory. To date there is no evidence on the use of Linear B in other text types. Nevertheless, references made to the origin of the exchangeable goods and to circles of craftsmen mention place-names and the names of people and gods, and shed light on interesting aspects of social organization and religion in the Palatial period.

What is interesting is that while the administrative staff kept detailed inventories what and how much was produced and traded, they did not provide for the recording of international exchanges and imported goods. A likely explanation is that such information was recorded more high=grade materials than clay, such as papyrus and parchment, which have not survived.
Inscriptions on amphoras (usually indicating contents and origin) are further examples of Linear B. Cretan amphoras have been found in regions a long way from Crete, such as the palace of the Theban Cadmea, which testifies to close commercial links between the important centres of the Mycenaean world.