Encyclopedia > Linear A

  Article Content

Linear A

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

While the related writing named Linear B was deciphered in the 1950s by Michael Ventris as representing an ancient form of Greek, Linear A remained unsolved.

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, and corresponds to a period in Cretan history prior to a series of invasions by Mycenean Greeks[?] some time around 1400 BC.

As the Minoan language is lost to the modern day, it is unknown whether or not this 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.



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Michael Barrymore

... Barrymore Michael Barrymore, born 4 May 1952, is a British comedian famous for his variety shows. This article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by fixing ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 23.1 ms