• DOI:10.1080/00438243.1986.9979977
• Corpus ID: 163509308

Cretan writing in the second millennium B.C.

@article{Olivier1986CretanWI,
  title={Cretan writing in the second millennium B.C.},
  author={Jean Pierre Olivier},
  journal={World Archaeology},
  year={1986},
  volume={17},
  pages={377-389}
}

• J. Olivier
• Published 1 February 1986
• History
• World Archaeology

Abstract Between the end of the third millennium and the beginning of the second, the Minoans invented and developed two original writing systems, conventionally known as ‘Cretan Hieroglyphic’ and ‘Linear A’. These related systems are syllabaries, each consisting of less than 100 signs; the languages which they record remain unidentified. Most of the documents which survive are clay tablets with economic texts on them. The latest texts we have date to around 1450. Linear B was developed from Linear A, probably sometime after the sixteenth century. It served to record the Greek dialect of the Mycenaeans who occupied Crete from 1450 to 1375 at least, and who remained on the Greek mainland until around 1200. It was first deciphered in 1952.’