Undeciphered Scripts

By K. Kris Hirst, About.com Guide

Linear A is the undeciphered script of the Minoans (2200-1150 BC)—those ancestors of the Ancient Greeks who ruled over part of the Mediterranean and engendered many of the myths that the west clings to, like stories in Plato about Atlantis, and Ovid's Daedalus and Icarus, Ariadne and the Minotaur and of course, the legendary King Minos himself. Not that we know for sure that any of those events or people existed, of course.

The "legendary" aspect of the ancient Cretans, after all, only makes their language so intriguing a puzzle to be deciphered. Used between 1800-1450 BC, the language has about 7,000 characters, and although some have suggested it may be ancient Greek, it doesn't seem to fit any Greek lexicon.

This image is Sir Arthur Evans' transcription of the letters on the base of a cup—Linear A wasn't as a rule written in spirals.

• Linear A
• Minoan Civilization
• Linear A, John Younger
• Robinson, Andrew. 2009. Decoding antiquity: Eight scripts that still can't be read. New Scientist 2710: 27 May 2009.

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• Undeciphered Scripts
• Olmec Language - The Cascajal Block
• Undeciphered Minoan Script Linear A
• Khipu - South America's Undeciphered Script
• Undeciphered Indus Script

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