Pick up a book on a language you've never learned. Read the first few pages. See if you can learn any aspect of this culture from the cover of the book. It's hard, isn't it?This is true until you learn to crack passwords.
Early Greek writing was not the present form of the Greek alphabet, but the long-lost linear script, a strange script. How did a cryptographer decipher a text when it was lost and relied solely on rigorous logical reasoning?
But what happens when you can't crack a password?What happens if you can't understand this new, unlearned language without a frame of reference?What happens when the book in your hand is unread and the content is forgotten?
This is the case of the transition line from linear A to linear B, an ancient script dating back to the Bronze Age, where the gods of ancient Greece were said to be walking on earth before Paris stole Helen from Troy.
The culture of the linear A writer is still very mysterious, as the language is barely deciphered.
Linear B, on the other hand, is a cousin language introduced by the man who destroyed the writer of linear A. Linear A and Linear B are valuable for any scholarly study related to the Early Bronze Age, a period when ** was at its peak, palace-like communities and kingdoms reigned supreme, and warfare (as far as scholars know) was at an all-time low. So, how much do we know about the many examples of each script that have been discovered?
Linear A inscribed on a stele found in Akrotiri, Santorini. (cc by-sa 3.0)
Bottom: Stone tablet inscribed with linear B text, excavated in the Mycenaean palace of Pylos. (cc by 2.0)
The second part is linear a, the unfathomable Minoan text.
The linear A-line text originates from Crete, which is located in the Mediterranean Sea and is part of modern Greece. However, in the heyday of the Bronze Age, Crete was independent of the mainland and the home of the Minoans. The Minoans were an ancient people, known for their seafaring style, images of peace rather than turmoil, and most importantly, they built religious sites for cattle and worshiped sacrifices in the form of bullfighting.
The Minoans created the first form of writing, which was advanced at the time, was called"Cretan hieroglyphs", which was later adapted to create a second written language, the more stylized and formal A-line script. Unfortunately, the comparison of the two writing systems ends there—in relation to the Minoans—because the written history of the Minoans remains shrouded in mystery, as the writing system has not yet been deciphered.
Archaeological Museum of Sitia, linear stele in the palace of Zaclos. (cc by 3.0)
B script corresponding to Mycenaean script
However, if compared to the Mycenaean script, the linear B, the linear A is even more puzzling.
The Mycenaeans invaded Crete and destroyed the Minoan civilization in a brutal war, and they appeared in ancient Greek history after the disappearance of the Minoans and before the collapse of the empires of the eastern Mediterranean in the 8th century BC. This collapse is often referred to as the Greek Dark Ages. In previous years, the linear A was considered the official script of the Minoan palace, and it is likely that the linear B served the same role in Mycenae.
Based on the similarities between the two cultures in archaeology and art history, it can be assumed that the Mycenaeans were influenced by the culture they plundered and conquered. In 1450 BC, the same period as the Mycenaean conquest of the Minoans, a linear script was no longer in use, so it is possible that the Mycenaeans borrowed the language of the Minoans to create their own literature, although the Mycenaeans opted for syllabic writing rather than symbolic writing.
The meaning that the text may express.
Both linear A and linear B are valuable assets of classical scholarship because they form the backbone of pre-Greek language and literature. Much of the deciphered linear script b deals with the ** and the economy, which allows scholars to determine the extent of the Mycenaean ** and thus their ability to control the sea ** routes. It has also been hypothesized that the Mycenaeans did indeed replace the Minoans (based on the art history of the Minoans as well as the art history and literary evidence of the Egyptians), and it appears that the Mycenaeans eventually controlled most of the ancient economic waterways, just as the Minoans once controlled. The decipherment of Line A will not only provide us with valuable information about Minoan culture, but also how the Mycenaeans stolen, borrowed, or absorbed Minoan traditions and ** and incorporated them into their own culture.
The famous Minoan frescoes in the Palace of Knossos are now in the Heraklion Museum (public domain).
The key to Minoan historyspoon
Scholars of ancient languages have established that while linear b and linear a share some symbols, linear b was the precursor to ancient Greek (Attica Greek, etc.), which eventually evolved into what is now the modern Greek language.
Linear B was deciphered in the fifties of the last century, and a large number of account letters can be translated, allowing scholars to make some progress in decoding the Minoan language (because of the similarities between the two), but not enough to translate linear A.
In fact, current scholarship suggests that linear A is more likely to be Anatolian (Anatolian is present-day Turkey), Phoenician (present-day North Africa), or even a language of Iranian descent. It was agreed that a script was most likely Indo-European;The problem that plagues archaeologists and linguists is that it may have developed from **. Since the Minoans overlapped with the various political systems of the Hittite Empire, the New Kingdom of Egypt, and Troy, any of these theories could be key to the roots of the Minoan language. Whichever claim is true will eventually reveal the secrets of Minoan culture and, just as importantly, the Minoan view of the decline of its empire.
The story of how to decipher the line b.
Inscription: Clay tablet with linear B characters from 1450-1375 BC, Knossos (CC BY 20）)