Linear A
Writing systemWikipedia
38
MENTIONS
10
EPISODES
10
PODCASTS
Search complete. 38 mentions across 10 episodes found for "Linear A".
Sep 19, 2026
Donald KaganHOST
One, because he couldn't figure out what they were, he called one linear, meaning it's a linear script A and linear B, because he could tell by careful analysis that they were different and he could tell which pieces belonged to which.
Donald KaganHOST
Linear A is earlier and it is associated, it is clearly the language used by the Minoan kings at Knossos and other places.
Donald KaganHOST
Linear B resembles linear A, but it is clearly different and later, and one reason we know that, we know it mostly from stratigraphy, but we can also tell because it's a much simpler script, but by no means simple.
Donald KaganHOST
These are not alphabets.
Donald KaganHOST
These are syllabaries.
Donald KaganHOST
Every symbol represents a syllable, in other words, typically two letters rather than one.
Donald KaganHOST
That's a nice step over having loads and loads and loads of symbols representing lots of things, which is true more of linear A than linear B. but it's still we're talking about something approaching 60 symbols in a syllabary.
Donald KaganHOST
When you think about how hard it is to learn to read when you're only using 26 symbols and how few Americans do learn to read, I keep reading in the paper, it's not an easy thing.
John HagedornHOST
They never made it out.
John HagedornHOST
The tablets record inventory lists, ritual calendars, and a single logogram that repeats with unusual frequency, one that scholars will spend years arguing refers to a specific, officiate title, a title that simply stops appearing in the Linear A record after a certain point.
John HagedornHOST
No death notice.
John HagedornHOST
No successor named.
John HagedornHOST
Twin serpents coil around her bare arms, cold and deliberate as old gods.
John HagedornHOST
A crown of gilded poppies rests in her dark hair.
John HagedornHOST
She is the keeper of the linear A tablets, the voice the great goddess uses when she wishes to speak to mortal ears.
John HagedornHOST
She is the highest sacred authority in the most sophisticated civilization that Bronze Age Europe has ever produced.
Elyse WellesGUEST
I've never actually... put that together but you're completely right and i that really is that's really meaningful thank you for saying that um but the songs they started with my fairy tradition training as the sounds that and this is this is classic like wicca originating witchcraft they're they're tied to the chakras but i will say the chakras are also energy centers we find in greece like the serpentine flow of energy we find them at the same points so they don't have names I think they do, but we don't know them because we have a lot of Mycenaean tablets, like over 7000 that come from mainland Greece.
Elyse WellesGUEST
And then there are Minoan Linear A tablets and scripts that we also haven't translated.
Elyse WellesGUEST
Both of these have not been translated.
Elyse WellesGUEST
So there's a lot of mystery in there that I think will be answered because there's also a lot of archaeology that's starting to support different things.
Aidan MattisHOST
It was two weeks ago.
Aidan MattisHOST
I did it on Lost Civilizations, Tartaria, the Hittites, the Andes River Valley, whatever the hell was going on with Linear A script in the Minoan period.
Aidan MattisHOST
And as I was doing the research for that and then as I was coming around more towards getting research ready for other stuff, I fell down a rabbit hole.
Aidan MattisHOST
And I just got way back into the Atlantis thing and all of the Younger Dryas impact stuff.
speaker_2NARRATOR
The signs are pictographic, recognisable images of people, animals, plants and objects, but their meaning is unknown.
speaker_2NARRATOR
The second script, called Linear A, is a syllabic writing system used for administrative records.
speaker_2NARRATOR
It appears on clay tablets, the kind of records that bureaucracies produce – inventories, accounts, receipts, offerings lists.
speaker_2NARRATOR
Linear A has been found at nearly every major Minoan site confirming that it was widely used across the island.
speaker_2NARRATOR
Linear A is the sealed door.
speaker_2NARRATOR
It has never been deciphered.
speaker_2NARRATOR
We have roughly 1,500 examples – clay tablets, offering tables, pottery inscriptions, stone libation vessels – but the language they record is unknown.
speaker_2NARRATOR
It is not related to any identified language family with any degree of certainty.
Paul GreenhalghHOST
And these have become known.
Paul GreenhalghHOST
There was one group which we've labelled the Linear A tablets with a range of hieroglyphs and then later Linear B, another body of these things.
Paul GreenhalghHOST
Now, clearly what's interesting for Evans and for wide numbers of archaeologists at this stage is what language are these hieroglyphs in? Yeah.
Paul GreenhalghHOST
We never really have sorted out Linear A.
Paul GreenhalghHOST
And as far as I know, looking at recent research, we still don't know what Linear A was.
Paul GreenhalghHOST
But there's a strong suggestion that Linear A tablets are not in Greek.
Paul GreenhalghHOST
They're very early and they're older than Linear B.
Paul GreenhalghHOST
But there's a broad hint, and this seems to me to be in the recent literature of consensus, they're probably not Greek.
Angela WeislGUEST
... to a lot of people who haven't seen it.
Angela WeislGUEST
And his reference to Linear A and the thing about they're gonna have to sing because nobody's-
Elizabeth RedwineGUEST
Mm-hmm
Angela WeislGUEST
... gonna be able to write anymore, about the Mycenaeans-
JakeHOST
I forget the name of where they borrowed it from, but they used it in their language.
JakeHOST
So that's why it's Linear B, not Linear A.
JakeHOST
However, after the Bronze Age collapse, this writing system would not be discovered again until I think like 1900.
JakeHOST
So as far as Homer was concerned...
Scott AlexanderHOST
Hat tip double unplussed.
Scott AlexanderHOST
Engineer Tom DiMino claims to have cracked Linear A, the writing system of ancient Crete.
Scott AlexanderHOST
The markets are sceptical.
Scott AlexanderHOST
Here's a manifold screenshot.
Scott AlexanderHOST
Will Linear A, Minoan script language, be deciphered by the end of 2026? It's currently showing a 6% chance.
Scott AlexanderHOST
47.
Scott AlexanderHOST
If persona selection underlies alignment, why is it hard to get AIs to be honest? Tell them they're Fred Rogers, Immanuel Kant, or Ned Stark, end quote.
Agent BlackveilHOST
Last month, they read an entire scroll.
Agent BlackveilHOST
Linear A is an ancient language that has never been read.
Agent BlackveilHOST
The Indus Valley script has never been read.
Agent BlackveilHOST
There are thousands of years of human writing that nobody alive can open.