Linear A

Linear A is an undeciphered script used in ancient Crete. Its decipherment is one of the "holy grails" of ancient scripts.

Related Topics:
Undeciphered script - Crete - Decipherment - Holy grail

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A related script, Linear B, was deciphered in the 1950s by Michael Ventris as representing an ancient form of Greek.

Related Topics:
Linear B - 1950s - Michael Ventris - Greek

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Though the two scripts share many of the same symbols, using the syllables associated with Linear B in Linear A writings produces words that are unrelated to any known language. This language has been dubbed Minoan or Eteocretan, and corresponds to a period in Cretan history prior to a series of invasions by Mycenean Greeks around 1400 BC.

Related Topics:
Syllables - Language - Eteocretan - Cretan - History - Mycenean Greeks - 1400 BC

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As the Minoan language is lost to the modern day, it is unknown whether or not a given decipherment is the correct decipherment, or merely gibberish being generated by an incorrect mapping of symbols to sounds. Until further breakthroughs are made, the content of documents written in Linear A remains a mystery.

Related Topics:
Gibberish - Symbols - Sounds

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In 2001, the journal Ugarit-Forschungen, Band 32 http://www.ugarit-verlag.de/uf.htm http://www.eisenbrauns.com/wconnect/wc.dll?ebGate~EIS~~I~UF32 published the article "The First Inscription in Punic—Vowel Differences in Linear A and B" by Jan Best, claiming to demonstrate how and why Linear A notates an archaic form of Phoenician.

Related Topics:
2001 - Ugarit-Forschungen - Jan Best - Phoenician

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Around the same time, M. Tsikritsis, a Greek computer scientist and a text analysis specialist used a statistical and machine comparison of Linear A and Linear B symbols to conclude that Linear A was an early aeolic dialect of Greek, and essentially a form of Linear B with a variety of archaisms.

Related Topics:
Aeolic - Archaism

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