Knossos palace in Crete. Credit: Cayambe / Wikimedia Commons The ivory object, provisionally identified as a scepter or ritual staff, features an engraved inscription in the Linear A script on all its ...

The Minoan Civilization of Crete, often hailed as Europe’s first literate society, left behind a strange writing system that continues to mystify modern scholars, remaining an unsolved enigma to ...

This ancient script has remained unsolved for over a century In 1908, an archaeologist in Crete discovered a small clay disk bearing unknown symbols. Now known as the Phaistos disk, it remains a ...

Given the power and prominence of King Minos in the legendary history of Crete, it was easy to assume that this ...

The Minoan civilization was not known as such, since it is a modern term. What was the ancient name for the Minoans?

Through extensively cross-referencing later hieroglyphics such as the Minoan Linear A and Mycenean Linear B, the scientists have now been able to build a phonetic translation of the script. Only ...

The script developed out of a Minoan Linear A script that was used by the palatial civilization that flourished on the island of Crete from 1850 to 1450 B.C.