The first Linear B tablets were found by Evans in Knossos, many more by Blegen in Pylos in 1939 and progressively in all Mycenaean centres. Crete had three writing types Hieroglyphic, Linear A being more widespread, still undeciphered, and Linear B which descends from Linear A and appeared in mainland Greece around 1400 BC. After many endeavours, it has been deciphered in 1952 revealing a syllabic script for an early stage of Greek language. The debate of concordance between the Knossos and the Pylos tablets followed and is still alive. The inscribed clay tablets, simply dried, were baked by the fires that destroyed the palaces and thus preserved. They are administrative documents mostly inventory or tax statements teaching us a lot about Mycenaean life, palatial system, social hierarchy but no literature or history.

explains what emoji are, the significance of their name and how they operate as a form of writing system - but a very different one from other established writing systems. It explains the distinction between standardised and non-standardised emoji (i.e. stickers) and how the standardised set work both from a technological and a semiotic perspective. In doing so it introduces the concepts of pictographic, ideographic and logographic writing.