A clay tablet containing the oldest Mycenaean inscription was found in the vicinity of the present Greek village of Ikleina in the ancient Messenian nome.
This inscription dates back to 1450-1350. BC. and is made in Linear B in one of the adverbs of the ancient Greek language. The plate has very small dimensions: its width is 4 cm, and its height does not exceed 2.5 cm.
A group of archaeologists managed to find a palace dating back to the Mycenaean era. The building had huge walls, a rising terrace, paintings preserved on the walls, in addition, the palace had a surprisingly advanced sewage system. However, the found small tablet amazed archaeologists the most. According to all the historical data available to date, this tablet should not have been there.
Until recently, it was believed that the Mycenaean tablets did not exist at that time. In addition, all the Mycenaean tablets found were found only in large palace complexes. The earliest Mycenaean tablet, excluding the present find, was also found in the Mycenaean palace. Iklaina then quickly lost its independence and became a satellite city of the megalopolis Pylos, in which Nestor ruled.
The Mycenaean nobility and their servants used Linear B in household work. The plate from Iklaina contains symbols that form a verb that refers to production.
Such tablets with inscriptions were not particularly valuable at that time. Therefore, they were simply dried in the sun, and not burned, then thrown away after a short use. Until our time, such tablets reached only one way - when the palace burned, the tablets in the garbage burned and became more durable