Lost Sheep? On the Linear B Evidence for Breeding Flocks at Knossos and Pylos

Abstract

In the surviving corpus of Linear B inscriptions, records relating to sheep form the largest single component, while the production of wool and manufacture of woolen textiles are by far the best documented areas of palatial farming and craft activity. The great majority of the sheep records were concerned with the administration of flocks which in some sense belonged to the palaces and provided the raw material for palatial textile workers (Killen 1963; 1964; 1984; in press).