Linear A

Published January 11, 2012

Linear A (1800-1450 BC) is the designation given to one of two scripts used by the Minoans. Although Linear B, which has been deciphered, is similar to Linear A, there have been many failed attempts to decipher it, variously linking it to the Greek, Etruscan, Tyrhennian, Anatolian or Persian^(d)languages. The most exotic suggestion that I have encountered is that Linear A is related to Japanese^(l).

However, there is some evidence that a writing system was in use in Greece as far back as the sixth millennium BC, which was not adopted from the Phoenicians^(h).

Patrick Archer moved further east for a solution, claiming that Linear A is possibly related to Chinese pictographs! Gretchen Leonhardt^(m) also sought a solution in the East, offering a proto-Japanese origin for the script, a theory refuted by Yurii Mosenkis^(j), who promotes Minoan Linear A as proto-Greek. Mosenkis has published a number of papers on the Academia.edu relating to Linear A^(k)(q).

Another of the many exotic solutions was offered by the American, Stuart Harris, who identified the language as being related to Finnish^(a)(f)(g). Harris also quotes the controversial Oera Linda Book as evidence that the Cretans spoke Finnish ^(e). He follows Felice Vinci in identifying the Baltic as the source of much of Greek culture including Homer’s epics^(b), in which connection they both locate Troy in Finland.

So far, no single translation theory has gained general acceptance.

Nevertheless, I have always been surprised that the British who managed to unravel the workings of the German Enigma Machine during World War II have failed to decipher Linear A, even though today’s supercomputers are so far ahead of what Alan Turing had to work with, Linear A remains undecoded!

In 2018, Brent Davis, one of the leading experts on Bronze Age Aegean scripts and languages published a paper in which “based on a close statistical analysis, shows that the while both the Phaistos Disc and Linear A are undeciphered writing systems, he can demonstrate that the both are, with a high degree of certainty, encode the same language!”⁽ⁱ⁾

Material quantity was another advantage that Michael Ventris had in deciphering Linear B. There were 20,000 examples of Linear B signs occurring in inscriptions, compared to just 7,000 examples of Linear A signs, which Davis notes “is about three-to-four A4 pages worth. Mathematicians tell us that if we are to crack Linear A, we’ll need something like 10,000 to 12,000 examples of signs, which means we aren’t that far away, – but it all depends on archaeology. Discoveries are still being made, so I’m optimistic, but what we really need to find is a palace archive, which is where we are likely to find enough Linear A to finally decipher it.”^(p)

In an article by Ashley Cowie, he highlighted the work of Professor Silvia Ferrara of Rome’s Sapienza University and her recent decipherment of Linear A numerical fractions using new computational models along with traditional methods⁽ⁿ⁾.

In 2021 Dr Ester Salgarella published her latest investigations into the genetic relationship between Linear A and Linear B, which should assist with the eventual decipherment of the former.^(o)

In 2022, Mark Cook, a forensic accountant, took a fresh look at Linear A and concluded “The Linear A Tablets are partially complete accounting records so an accountant reviewing them makes sense”. His approach to deciphering Linear A is revealed in his book Rewriting History: The decipherment of Linear A ^[2075]. A review by Zeta Xekalaki is available^(r).>Cook has now produced three YouTube videos in support of his method of decipherment^(s)(t)(u).<

^(a) https://www.migration-diffusion.info/article.php?subject=linguistics&id=281

^(b) https://www.migration-diffusion.info/article.php?subject=linguistics&id=301

^(c) https://patrickofatlantis.com/

^(d) Sinking Atlantis | Full Episode | Secrets of the Dead | PBS (archive.org)

^(e) https://www.migration-diffusion.info/article.php?year=2011&id=279

^(f) https://www.migration-diffusion.info/article.php?year=2011&id=282

^(g) https://www.migration-diffusion.info/article.php?year=2011&id=283

^(h) Greek Writing System Spans Millennia and Did Not Originate From the Phoenicians – HistoryDisclosure.com (archive.org)

⁽ⁱ⁾ https://gath.wordpress.com/2019/01/30/brent-davis-on-the-languages-of-the-phaistos-disc-and-linear-a/

^(j)Gretchen Leonhardt is up against some stiff competition from Urii Mosenkis concerning her so-called proto-Japanese origins of Minoan Linear A | Minoan Linear A, Linear B, Knossos & Mycenae (archive.org)

^(k) https://www.academia.edu/31443689/Researchers_of_Greek_Linear_A

^(l)https://atlantipedia.ie/samples/archive-3930-2/