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posted by janrinok on Thursday May 19 2022, @05:24PM   Printer-friendly
from the something-to-write-home-about dept.

https://greekreporter.com/2022/04/20/minoan-language-linear-a-linear-b/

The Minoan language known as "Linear A" may finally be deciphered with the help of the internet which can be used to uncover previously-hidden links to the much-better understood Linear B language. Linear B developed later in the prehistoric period.

The puzzle of Linear A has tormented linguists for many decades, as they attempted to link it somehow to Linear B, which was translated successfully for the first time in the 1950s. Linear B was used on the Greek mainland and Crete 50-150 years later than Linear A.

Understanding the link between them and decoding the secrets of Linear A would allow experts to paint a much more complete picture of Minoan civilization going back as far as 1,800 BC.

Linear A, which was used by the Minoans during the Bronze Age, exists on at least 1,400 known inscriptions made on clay tablets. The language has baffled the world's top archaeologists and linguistic experts for many years.

Professor Tim Whitmarsh, the A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture and Fellow of St. John's, had high praise for Salgarella's work and said that "cracking Linear B was a huge post-war triumph for Classics, but Linear A has remained elusive."

"Dr. Salgarella has demonstrated that Linear B is closely related to its mysterious and previously illegible predecessor. She has brought us one step closer to understanding it. It's an extraordinary piece of detective work," praises Whitmarsh.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @06:43PM (16 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @06:43PM (#1246350)

    Butter
    Milk
    Eggs
    Brocoli
    Onions...

    Just a shopping list

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by RamiK on Thursday May 19 2022, @06:53PM (4 children)

    by RamiK (1813) on Thursday May 19 2022, @06:53PM (#1246358)

    ...Eggs...

    Eine halbe Tasse Staubzucker
    Ein Viertel Teeloffel Salz
    Eine Messerspitze turkisches Haschisch
    Ein halbes Pfund Butter
    Ein Teeloffel Vanillenzucker
    Ein halbes Pfund Mehl
    Einhundertfunfzig Gramm gemahlene Nusse
    Ein wenig extra Staubzucker
    ... und keine Eier!!!

    --
    compiling...
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @09:24PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @09:24PM (#1246393)

      Your uncle's favorite recipe?

    • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday May 20 2022, @09:49PM (1 child)

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday May 20 2022, @09:49PM (#1246713) Journal

      Thanks for the link. I hadn't heard of that band before, but like their music. It reminds me a little of the KMFDM we used to listen to in college.

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.
      • (Score: 2) by RamiK on Saturday May 21 2022, @12:05PM

        by RamiK (1813) on Saturday May 21 2022, @12:05PM (#1246818)

        It's a very poor representative of Tool's music. Basically, it's Tool's satire of certain Rammstein fans being completely clueless to just how sentimental and progressive Lindemann's lyrical content is and missing the whole point of Neue Deutsche Härte. Anyhow, you know Tool from their popular tunes like Sober [youtube.com] and you're also likely familiar with Rammstein from Du Hast [youtube.com].

        reminds me a little of the KMFDM

        Just the industrial instrumentation. Otherwise, it's metal vs. rock / hard rock. But yeah, there's common origins, influences and cross pollination going around for sure.

        Anyhow, Tool has a new album on the way and Rammstein/Lindemann is active in general with band/solo albums coming out every couple of years or so so they're not quite Minoan-level script worthy :D

        --
        compiling...
  • (Score: 4, Informative) by zocalo on Thursday May 19 2022, @07:34PM (2 children)

    by zocalo (302) on Thursday May 19 2022, @07:34PM (#1246367)
    Funnily enough, a lot of the tablets containing the examples of Linear B used to decipher it were not far from being just that. They turned out to be tallies of things like livestock or people, often associated with placenames, and the repetition of the latter was the crack that was used to not only decipher the language but also to get a pretty good handle on what it might have sounded like.
    --
    UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 20 2022, @03:55AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 20 2022, @03:55AM (#1246489)

      turned out to be tallies of things like livestock or people, often associated with placenames

      Ah, so they were ancient punch cards then? I would love to see the machine that ran them

      • (Score: 2) by driverless on Friday May 20 2022, @01:13PM

        by driverless (4770) on Friday May 20 2022, @01:13PM (#1246558)

        turned out to be tallies of things like livestock or people, often associated with placenames

        Ah, so they were ancient punch cards then? I would love to see the machine that ran them

        Here you go [wikipedia.org].

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @10:23PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 19 2022, @10:23PM (#1246404)

    Terra Atlantus

  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday May 19 2022, @10:24PM

    by Gaaark (41) on Thursday May 19 2022, @10:24PM (#1246405) Journal

    Pound pastrami, can kraut, six bagels--bring home for Emma

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
  • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday May 20 2022, @03:32AM (2 children)

    by Reziac (2489) on Friday May 20 2022, @03:32AM (#1246483) Homepage

    Probably more like

    Cain is taxed two sheep
    Abel is taxed one bushel of wheat
    Moses is taxed one barrel of beer

    Yeah, not fair to Cain. Life was already hard!

    --
    And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
    • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday May 20 2022, @09:51PM (1 child)

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday May 20 2022, @09:51PM (#1246714) Journal

      Nah, Moses got the short end of the stick. Give up a barrel of beer? Hmm, mind if he passes it through his kidneys first?

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.
      • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday May 20 2022, @10:37PM

        by Reziac (2489) on Friday May 20 2022, @10:37PM (#1246724) Homepage

        LOL, so that's where Paddy got the idea...

        --
        And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
  • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Friday May 20 2022, @11:27AM (2 children)

    by Thexalon (636) on Friday May 20 2022, @11:27AM (#1246540)

    That sort of thing is in fact pretty common: It seems like the primary early use of writing was accounting and later contracts, as in "Person A owes Person B 500 sheep", that sort of thing. It took a while for anyone to think of using that technology for leisure and entertainment purposes, because it costs money to hire a decent scribe and nobody wants to do that just to write down a good story, especially if they can make a buck telling that story to audiences.

    A good parallel for the modern age is to think about what information was typically being stored in computer systems from, say, 1970-1995 when computing storage was difficult and fairly expensive, versus what's being stored now when magnetic drives storing gigabytes are relatively cheap.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 20 2022, @03:50PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 20 2022, @03:50PM (#1246602)

      Low quality porn, and high quality porn?

      • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday May 20 2022, @09:53PM

        by Phoenix666 (552) on Friday May 20 2022, @09:53PM (#1246716) Journal

        You jest, but that is often what it was. I remember reading about an ancient inscription that was discovered on a boulder on top of a Greek isle not too long ago. It read (I'm paraphrasing): "Dmitri boned Phil here."

        --
        Washington DC delenda est.