Linear A
undeciphered writing system from Crete
Linear A is a writing system that was used by the Minoans of Crete from 1800 BC to 1450 BC. Linear A was the primary script used in palace and religious writings of the Minoan civilization. It was succeeded by Linear B, which was used by the Mycenaeans to write an early form of Greek. It was discovered by the archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans in 1900. No texts in Linear A have yet been deciphered. Evans named the script "Linear" because its characters consisted simply of lines inscribed in clay, in contrast to the more pictographic characters in Cretan hieroglyphs that were used during the same period.
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Quotes
edit- It is quite possible to propose a hypothesis that the “Linear A” attested before some particular date in the 17th century BCE (i.e., between 1700 and 1600 BCE) may have had a significantly different linguistic base than the Linear A attested after that date.It would be quite difficult to refute such a hypothesis, since so little of the older Linear A exists, and that which does contains so few words and signs.
- G. Caveney, Evidence of Indo-Aryan dialect in 10 Minoan Linear A inscriptions and Minoan Indo-Aryan etymologies of 16 Greek words, 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.11588/ejvs.2022.1.19770
- The author concludes that the resemblances that can be plainly seen between the 10 Linear A inscriptions and the corresponding Sanskrit forms, words, and phrases presented and analyzed in this paper are much closer than could possibly be due to pure random chance coincidence alone.... If the resemblance were due to pure random chance coincidence alone, the Linear A words would not correspond with the Sanskrit forms as closely as they clearly do... But in the author’s view, it is clear that the language of the 10 Linear A inscriptions presented and analyzed in this paper must represent some dialect of an Indo-Aryan language.
- G. Caveney, Evidence of Indo-Aryan dialect in 10 Minoan Linear A inscriptions and Minoan Indo-Aryan etymologies of 16 Greek words, 2022. DOI: https://doi.org/10.11588/ejvs.2022.1.19770
