Abstract
Comparative scholarship has not been brought to bear on dominant questions concerning the Linear B tablet writers. To remedy this, the thesis herein compares prevailing Near Eastern (and especially Western Periphery) scribal practices to Linear B writing practices. The comparison focuses on two such practices, conforming tablet content and function to particular formats and written participation in international diplomatic correspondences. Chapter One examines the E class Pylos tablets and establishes that they show attempts to assemble their unique legal language into specific groupings arranged by tablet shape. Chapter Two reconstructs diplomatic letter exchange and contextualizes those exchanges with references to possible Mycenaean participation in international diplomatic exchange, determining that though Mycenae participated in said exchanges it may have done so without the participation of its tablet writers. The findings indicate that Linear B tablets writers show early stages of participation in prevailing Near Eastern writing practices but not mature participation.