es. In the Late Minoan periods
which follow, the linear script of Class A is superseded at Knossos
by another form, Class B. In other parts of the island, however,
Class A seems to have survived as a general form of writing much
longer than at Knossos. At Hagia Triada the very large deposits of
linear writing--larger, indeed, than the representation of Class A at
Knossos--belong to the First Late Minoan period, and are contemporary
with the wonderful work of the steatite vases and the fresco of the
hunting-cat; while at Phaestos the final catastrophe of the palace
took place at a time when the linear writing of Class A was still in
full use. At Zakro, Palaikastro, Gournia, and elsewhere, examples
of this script have been found, showing that it was prevalent,
at all events, throughout Central and Eastern Crete; and in all
cases it is associated with remains which belong to the close of
Middle Minoan III. and the beginnings of the Late Minoan period.
But it would appear that this form of writing was not confined to
Crete, but was more widely diffused. Traces of it, or of a script
very closely allied with it, have been found at Thera, while at
Phylakopi in Melos evidence has come to light of a whole series of
marks closely corresponding to the Cretan Class A. This would seem
to suggest what in itself is entirely probable, that the language
used in Minoan Crete was predominant, or at all events was understood
and largely used, throughout the AEgean area. The inscription on
the libation table found by Dr. Evans at the Dictaean Cave belongs
to this class, and also that upon the similar object found by Mr.
Currelly at Palaikastro.

[Illustration XXX: LATE MINOAN VASE FROM MYCENAE (_p_. 206)

Reproduced from _The Journal of Hellenic Studies_, by permission
of the Council of the Hellenic Society]

When, at the beginning of the Late Minoan period, the Palace of
Knossos was remodelled, another great change accompanied the
architectural one. This was the entire supersession of the linear
script, Class A, by another similar but independent form, which
has been named Class B. Somewhat remarkably, although the specimens
of the script discovered at the Palace of Knossos and its immediate
dependencies are far more numerous than those of Class A, the use
of Class B seems, so far as the evidence yet collected goes, to
have been entirely confined to Knossos. The beginning of the use
of this system may have been in the early part of the