Writing in Bronze Age Crete : 'Minoan' Linear A / Ester Salgarella.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Salgarella, Ester, author.

Series:

Cambridge elements. Elements of writing in the ancient world

Cambridge elements. Elements in writing in the ancient world

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bronze age--Greece--Crete.

Bronze age.

Inscriptions, Linear A--Greece--Crete.

Inscriptions, Linear A.

Writing--Greece--Crete--To 1500.

Writing.

Greece.

Greece--Crete.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations (some color), maps.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2025.

Summary:

The Bronze Age Aegean and Cyprus were home to a plethora of scripts, including Cretan Hieroglyphic, Linear A and Linear B, Cypro-Minoan and Cypro-Syllabic. This Element is dedicated to the conventionally named 'Minoan' Linear A script, used on Crete and the Aegean islands during the Middle and Late Bronze Age (ca. 1800-1450 BCE). Linear A is still undeciphered, and the language it encodes ('Minoan') thus remains elusive. Notwithstanding, scholars have been able to extract a good amount of information from Linear A inscriptions and their contexts of use. Current ongoing research, integrating the materiality of script with linguistic analysis, offers a cutting-edge approach with promising results. This Element considers Linear A within an investigative framework as well as narrative, shedding light on a number of burning questions in the field, often the subject of intense academic debate.

Contents:

Defining the (un)definable: what is Linear A?

A tale of life and death: what is the lifespan of Linear A?

The Linear A corpus: where is Linear A found?

Drawing lines: what does Linear A look like?

Of clay and stone (and else): where does Linear A appear?

(Beyond) accounting: what was Linear A used for?

‘Elementary, my dear Watson’: what do we know from reading Linear A?

Speaking in riddles: which language does Linear A encode?

More unresolved mysteries: what do we not have in Linear A?

Current and future pathways of research: what’s next?

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (Cambridge Core, viewed on May 21, 2026).

Other Format:

Print version: Salgarella, Ester. Writing in Bronze Age Crete.

ISBN:

9781009520034

1009520032

9781009520041

1009520040

OCLC:

1522006582

Publisher Number:

CIPO000240295

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license