The Undeciphered Aegean Scripts
Linguistic Investigations into the Languages They Encode

Constitutes a significant advance along the road to the decipherment of all five of the undeciphered Bronze Age Aegean scripts.

Brent Davis (Author)

9781009562348, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 April 2026

530 pages, 50 b/w illus. 5 maps 200 tables
24.4 x 17 x 2.9 cm, 1.143 kg

The decipherment of Linear B, an early form of Greek used by the Myceneans, by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick has long been celebrated. But five other scripts from the Bronze-Age Aegean remain undeciphered. In this book, Brent Davis provides a thorough introduction to these scripts and uses statistical techniques drawn from linguistics to provide insights into the languages lying behind them. He deals most extensively with the script of the Minoan civilization on Crete (“Linear A”), whose decipherment remains one of the Holy Grails of archaeology. He discusses linguistic topics in clear language and explains linguistic terms in a comprehensive glossary. The book also includes all data on which the various analyses of the scripts are based. It will therefore be of great interest and use not just to experts in the undeciphered Aegean scripts, but to novices and aficionados of decipherment as well.

Introduction
1. Overview of the Aegean scripts
Part I. Linguistic Analysis of Linear A: 2. Evidence relevant to the character of the language that Linear A encodes
3. Linear A phonology
4. Linear A morphology
5. Linear A syntax and orthography
Part II. Syllabotactic Analyses of The Aegean Scripts: 6. Syllabotactic analysis: a new methodology for investigating the languages behind the undeciphered Aegean scripts
7. Syllabotactic analysis of Linear A
8. Syllabotactic analysis of the Phaistos disk script against Linear A
9. Syllabotactic analysis of Cretan Hieroglyphic against Linear A
10. Syllabotactic analysis of Cypro-Minoan
11. Syllabotactic analysis of Eteocypriot and Linear A against Cypro-Minoan
Epilogue.

Subject Areas: Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1]