The language of the Minoan people has remained an enigma for more than a century since their ancient civilization was discovered. The script that records it, known as Linear A, has long been thought to use the same sounds and symbols as its successor-Linear B. After Linear B was deciphered in 1952 by Michael Ventris, and was found to represent an archaic form of Greek, the language of the earlier Linear A script continued to defy all those attempting to read it. A recent insight regarding synonym-parallels in ancient Minoan texts has now illuminated their meaning for the first time. This book guides the reader through the Linear A decipherment process and provides English translations for many of the most important Minoan artifacts. So enter the labyrinth as Europe's first great civilization is finally given voice after three and a half thousand years, and discover how its people have actually been speaking to us all along.

The languages of the ancient world and the mysterious scripts, long undeciphered, in which they were encoded have represented one of the most intriguing problems of classical archaeology in modern times. This celebrated account of the decipherment of Linear B in the 1950s by Michael Ventris was written by his close collaborator in the momentous discovery. In revealing the secrets of Linear B it offers a valuable survey of late Minoan and Myceanean archaeology, uncovering fascinating details of the religion and economic history of an ancient civilisation.

Interdisciplinary examination of the transmission process of Linear A to Linear B script.

Thoroughly researched, Rodney Castleden's Minoans: Life in Bronze Age Crete here sues the results of recent research to produce a comprehensive new vision of the peoples of Minoan Crete. Since Sir Arthur Evans rediscovered the Minoans in the early 1900s, we have defined a series of cultural traits that make the ‘Minoan personality’: elegant, graceful and sophisticated, these nature lovers lived in harmony with their neighbours, while their fleets ruled the seas around Crete. This, at least, is the popular view of the Minoans. But how far does the later work of archaeologists in Crete support this view? Drawing on his experience of being actively involved in research on landscapes processes and prehistory for the last twenty years, Castleden writes clearly and accessibly to provide a text essential to the study of this fascinating subject.

Explains what is known about the ancient writing systems used by Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece.

The author identified the idiom written with Linear A as a language of agglutinative character. The Hurrian language appeared to be the best candidate from a linguistic and historical point of view. The predominantly Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni, with its vassal states in Syria such as Alala and Aleppo (alba in Hurrian, alab in Semitic), was the only great political and military power next to Egypt, contemporary with Minoan Linear A in Crete. Since Hurrians played a significant part in Minoan civilization, it appears preferable to explain the striking parallels between Hesiod?s Theogony and the Hurrian myths of?the Kingdom in Heaven? and?the Song of Ullikummi? through close contacts between Mycenaean Greeks and?Hurrian? Minoans in Crete during the Bronze Age than by later contacts of Greeks with the Near East and Asia Minor in historical times. The author also demonstrates that the parallels are not limited to the struggle between three generations of Gods: Hurrian Anu (Heaven), his son Kumarbi and grandson Tesub and Greek Ouranos (Heaven), his son Kronos and grandson Zeus.