Minoan cryptanalysis: computational approaches to deciphering Linear A and assessing its connections with language families from the Mediterranean and the Black Sea areas
During the Bronze Age, the inhabitants of regions of Crete, mainland Greece, and Cyprus inscribed their languages using, among other scripts, a writing system called Linear A. These symbols, mainly characterized by combinations of lines, have, since their discovery, remained a mystery. Not only is t...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2024
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/178509 |
| _version_ | 1826116383484674048 |
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| author | Nepal, Aaradh Cacciafoco, Francesco Perono |
| author2 | School of Computer Science and Engineering |
| author_facet | School of Computer Science and Engineering Nepal, Aaradh Cacciafoco, Francesco Perono |
| author_sort | Nepal, Aaradh |
| collection | NTU |
| description | During the Bronze Age, the inhabitants of regions of Crete, mainland Greece, and Cyprus inscribed their languages using, among other scripts, a writing system called Linear A. These symbols, mainly characterized by combinations of lines, have, since their discovery, remained a mystery. Not only is the corpus very small, but it is challenging to link Minoan, the language behind Linear A, to any known language. Most decipherment attempts involve using the phonetic values of Linear B, a grammatological offspring of Linear A, to ‘read’ Linear A. However, this yields meaningless words. Recently, novel approaches to deciphering the script have emerged which involve a computational component. In this paper, two such approaches are combined to account for the biases involved in provisionally assigning Linear B phonetic values to Linear A and to shed more light on the possible connections of Linear A with other scripts and languages from the region. Additionally, the limitations inherent in such approaches are discussed. Firstly, a feature-based similarity measure is used to compare Linear A with the Carian Alphabet and the Cypriot Syllabary. A few Linear A symbols are matched with symbols from the Carian Alphabet and the Cypriot Syllabary. Finally, using the derived phonetic values, Linear A is compared with Ancient Egyptian, Luwian, Hittite, Proto-Celtic, and Uralic using a consonantal approach. Some possible word matches are identified from each language. |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T04:10:50Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/178509 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T04:10:50Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1785092024-06-28T15:35:45Z Minoan cryptanalysis: computational approaches to deciphering Linear A and assessing its connections with language families from the Mediterranean and the Black Sea areas Nepal, Aaradh Cacciafoco, Francesco Perono School of Computer Science and Engineering Computer and Information Science Linear A Cryptanalysis During the Bronze Age, the inhabitants of regions of Crete, mainland Greece, and Cyprus inscribed their languages using, among other scripts, a writing system called Linear A. These symbols, mainly characterized by combinations of lines, have, since their discovery, remained a mystery. Not only is the corpus very small, but it is challenging to link Minoan, the language behind Linear A, to any known language. Most decipherment attempts involve using the phonetic values of Linear B, a grammatological offspring of Linear A, to ‘read’ Linear A. However, this yields meaningless words. Recently, novel approaches to deciphering the script have emerged which involve a computational component. In this paper, two such approaches are combined to account for the biases involved in provisionally assigning Linear B phonetic values to Linear A and to shed more light on the possible connections of Linear A with other scripts and languages from the region. Additionally, the limitations inherent in such approaches are discussed. Firstly, a feature-based similarity measure is used to compare Linear A with the Carian Alphabet and the Cypriot Syllabary. A few Linear A symbols are matched with symbols from the Carian Alphabet and the Cypriot Syllabary. Finally, using the derived phonetic values, Linear A is compared with Ancient Egyptian, Luwian, Hittite, Proto-Celtic, and Uralic using a consonantal approach. Some possible word matches are identified from each language. Ministry of Education (MOE) Published version The tools and research developed for this paper were funded by a Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE) AcRF Tier 1 Research Grant (Grant Number 2017-T1-002-193—Principal Investigator: Dr Francesco Perono Cacciafoco), “Giving Voice to the Minoan People: The Decipherment of Linear A”, 2018–2021. 2024-06-25T01:14:28Z 2024-06-25T01:14:28Z 2024 Journal Article Nepal, A. & Cacciafoco, F. P. (2024). Minoan cryptanalysis: computational approaches to deciphering Linear A and assessing its connections with language families from the Mediterranean and the Black Sea areas. Information, 15(2), 73-. https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/info15020073 2078-2489 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/178509 10.3390/info15020073 2-s2.0-85185712627 2 15 73 en 2017-T1-002-193 Information © 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | Computer and Information Science Linear A Cryptanalysis Nepal, Aaradh Cacciafoco, Francesco Perono Minoan cryptanalysis: computational approaches to deciphering Linear A and assessing its connections with language families from the Mediterranean and the Black Sea areas |
| title | Minoan cryptanalysis: computational approaches to deciphering Linear A and assessing its connections with language families from the Mediterranean and the Black Sea areas |
| title_full | Minoan cryptanalysis: computational approaches to deciphering Linear A and assessing its connections with language families from the Mediterranean and the Black Sea areas |
| title_fullStr | Minoan cryptanalysis: computational approaches to deciphering Linear A and assessing its connections with language families from the Mediterranean and the Black Sea areas |
| title_full_unstemmed | Minoan cryptanalysis: computational approaches to deciphering Linear A and assessing its connections with language families from the Mediterranean and the Black Sea areas |
| title_short | Minoan cryptanalysis: computational approaches to deciphering Linear A and assessing its connections with language families from the Mediterranean and the Black Sea areas |
| title_sort | minoan cryptanalysis computational approaches to deciphering linear a and assessing its connections with language families from the mediterranean and the black sea areas |
| topic | Computer and Information Science Linear A Cryptanalysis |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/178509 |
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