A Bronze Age cryptographic challenge
On the island of Crete, archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans uncovered the first evidence of the Minoan writing system in 1900. He named it "Linear A" because its characters were made of simple lines inscribed in clay. This script was used by the Minoan civilization from approximately 1850 to 1450 BCE. Over 1,400 inscriptions have been found, on clay tablets and on stone offering tables, jewelry, and bronze and gold axes. These artifacts are concentrated at major Minoan palace sites like Knossos, Phaistos, and Hagia Triada.
Linear A is a logosyllabic script, meaning it includes signs for syllables as well as logograms representing whole words or concepts. The script has a core group of about 90 syllabic signs. The total number of unique signs, including variants and logograms, is over 300. Most inscriptions are short and appear to be administrative records—inventories of goods like olive oil, grain, and wine. Longer inscriptions, often found on stone libation vessels in mountain peak sanctuaries, are likely religious in nature. Despite its administrative and religious use for four centuries, the language of Linear A remains unknown and the script is undeciphered.
The shadow of a successor
The puzzle of Linear A is complicated by its relationship to another script, Linear B. Around 1600 BCE, Mycenaean Greeks adapted Linear A to write their own early form of Greek. This new script, Linear B, shares many symbols with the earlier script; about 70% of Linear A signs also appear in Linear B. In 1952, Michael Ventris successfully deciphered Linear B, a breakthrough that allowed scholars to read the administrative records of Mycenaean palaces.
This decipherment created a logical but frustrating path for cracking Linear A. Linguists attempted to apply the known phonetic values from Linear B to the shared symbols in Linear A. The results have been unreadable. The underlying language is not Greek, nor does it appear to be related to any known language family. The small number of surviving inscriptions—totaling only about 7,800 signs in all—has insufficient data for statistical analysis or pattern recognition. Without a bilingual text similar to the Rosetta Stone, the Minoan language recorded by Linear A may remain silent forever. The script fell out of use around 1450 BCE, replaced entirely by Linear B as Mycenaean influence grew.