Linear A

Linear A is an undeciphered writing system used mainly on Minoan Crete during the second millennium BCE. Its signs represent both syllables and, in some cases, objects or quantities.

Linear B: A script used to write an early form of Greek in Mycenaean palace administration. Its decipherment revealed how much of Linear A’s sign system could be read without identifying its language.
Linear A corpus: The surviving inscriptions written in Linear A, found on clay tablets, sealings, and other objects. The corpus is the direct evidence used to identify signs and recurring text patterns.
Minoan civilization: The Bronze Age society centered on Crete, known for palace complexes, trade, and distinctive material culture. Linear A is closely associated with the administrative and ritual life of Minoan Crete.
Decipherment: The process of determining the sounds or meanings represented by an unknown writing system. Linear A remains undeciphered because its inscriptions do not provide a secure bilingual key.
Minoan language: The unknown language or languages recorded by Linear A inscriptions. The script’s signs are partly readable, but the language they encode remains unidentified.
Aegean numeral system: A system of signs used in Aegean writing to record numbers and quantities. Numeral signs can be recognized in Linear A records even when their words remain unread.
Knossos: A major Bronze Age palace center on Crete, occupied from the Neolithic period into the late Bronze Age. Knossos yielded substantial Linear A evidence within a major Minoan administrative center.
Bilingual inscription: An inscription that presents equivalent text in two languages or writing systems. No confirmed Linear A bilingual has supplied the kind of direct key that helped decipher other scripts.
Aegean scripts: Writing systems used around the Bronze Age Aegean, including Cretan and mainland Greek scripts. Linear A belongs to a regional sequence of scripts that includes both deciphered and undeciphered systems.
Linear A signary: The catalog of distinct signs identified in Linear A inscriptions. Comparing sign forms across inscriptions is a first step toward establishing a stable inventory.

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