🤯 Did You Know (click to read)
Some Linear B tablets recorded supplies for a single palace event, showing the level of administrative detail controlled by scribes.
Linear B was the administrative script of Mycenaean palaces, recording trade, taxation, and labor. Scribes formed an elite group, mastering both reading and writing. Training was intensive and knowledge transfer restricted. Outsiders could observe tablets but not understand the encoded records. Guilds controlled the flow of economic and political information. Their secrecy ensured accuracy and prevented misuse of administrative power. Scribes held social influence disproportionate to their number. The script itself was both a tool and a guarded symbol of authority. Literacy became a strategic instrument in governance.
💥 Impact (click to read)
Control over writing shaped Mycenaean administration and social hierarchy. Knowledge restriction gave scribes leverage over rulers and laborers alike. Public compliance depended on understanding mediated by the literate elite. Secrecy ensured continuity and prevented errors or fraud. The social prestige of scribes reflected their hidden knowledge. Written records reinforced centralized power.
This early bureaucracy illustrates the enduring importance of information control. Hidden literacy safeguarded economic, political, and cultural stability. Modern parallels include specialized bureaucracies controlling sensitive data. The Linear B scribes show that knowledge, when restricted, becomes a tool of societal influence. Control over communication channels shapes civilization. Literacy itself was a guarded weapon.
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