Origin c. 1800 to 1450 BCE, Minoan Crete
Linear A is the writing system used by the Minoan civilization of Bronze Age Crete from roughly 1800 to 1450 BCE, recorded mainly on clay tablets and used chiefly for administrative and religious dedicatory inscriptions. It remains largely undeciphered because the underlying Minoan language is unknown, and it is the direct ancestor script that Mycenaean Greek scribes later adapted, with substantial changes, into Linear B to write an early form of Greek, making the relationship between the two scripts one of the central threads of Aegean epigraphy.
Facts
Origins
Origin Periodc. 1800 to 1450 BCE, Minoan Crete 1 Place of OriginCrete, the centre of Minoan civilization. 2 Historical OriginUsed by the Minoan civilization; unlike the related Linear B, Linear A has not been deciphered, and the language it records remains unidentified. 2 Identity
Script TypeSyllabary (undeciphered): believed syllabic on the model of its descendant Linear B, though the underlying Minoan language is unknown. 1 Script type (class) Connections
Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2024s.v. Linear AView the Source 2. The Decipherment of Linear B
John Chadwick, Cambridge University Press, 1958
Linear A (Wikipedia)
In Group: Aegean Script Family (Scripts and Alphabets), Lead sentence, classQuote, In Group: Aegean Script Family (Scripts and Alphabets), Lead sentence, class
Linear A is a writing system that was used by the Minoans of Crete from 1800 BC to 1450 BC.
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