Linear A has about fifty signs that are similar to those in Linear B. About 80% of the signs in Linear A are unique. Using the knowledge from Linear B to read Linear A produces text which cannot be read. The language used has been called "Eteocretan". It does not seem to be related to any known language. Today, about 70 characters (probably representing syllables) are known. The meaning of about 100 ideographic characters is known. These are combined with the syllables. Also, there are a few numerals whose value is known.
Most texts seem to be lists. A few are probably short dedications, as they are found on libations. So far, no long texts have been found. Straight lines, such as those used for Linear A, are not very practical to use on clay tables. For this reasons, most writing was probably done on other things, such as papyrus or parchment. The problem with these materials is that they do not last as long as clay does. For this reason, most writing on papyrus and parchment has probably been lost.
Thetford Hoard
The Thetford Hoard, or Thetford Treasure, is a hoard of Romano-British metalwork found at Gallows Hill, near Thetford in Norfolk, in November 1979. It is now in the British Museum.
Dating from the mid- to late-4th century AD, this hoard is a collection of thirty-three silver spoons and three silver strainers, twenty-two gold finger rings, four gold bracelets, four necklace pendants, five gold chain necklaces and two pairs of necklace-clasps, a gold amulet designed as a pendant, an unmounted engraved gem, four beads (one emerald and three of glass), and a gold belt-buckle decorated with a dancing satyr. A small cylindrical lidded box made from shale also belonged to the hoard.
The find was made under unfortunate circumstances. The site had been recently cleared for building work, and the finder was using a metal-detector without the knowledge and permission of the owners of the site. The discovery was made late on a November day, in failing light. The finder recovered the material in great haste, probably overlooking some small items, because he knew he had no legal right to search in that area. He did not, as the law requires, report his discovery to the authorities. Instead, he unwisely attempted to sell the objects he had found to private buyers.
By the time archaeologists learned of the find several months later, the place had been built over, which made proper archaeological investigation impossible. It was not even possible to question the finder about the circumstances: by the time the material arrived at the British Museum for study, he was terminally ill, and he died about a month later, in July 1980.
There were persistent rumours that the treasure originally included coins, and probably the group as we see it now is incomplete. The full account of the circumstances of the discovery is told in the standard catalogue.
Linear B
Linear B is an ancient script, used to write Mycenaean Greek, as the oldest known form of Ancient Greek. This was proved by Michael Ventris in the early 1950s. Linear B came before the Greek alphabet by several centuries.
The script is based on Linear A, a script which cannot be read today. The oldest texts written in Linear B date from about 1450 BC. Linear B was found mainly in the palace archives at Knossos, Cydonia, Pylos, Thebes and Mycenae. The writing of Linear B language disappeared with the fall of the Mycenaean civilization.
There are about 87 signs in Linear B that represent syllables. In addition, there are many ideographic signs: These represent objects or commodities. They do not represent sounds, and are never used as word signs in writing a sentence.
Linear B seems to have only been used for administration. In all the thousands of clay tablets, a relatively small number of different "hands" (or writers) have been detected: 45 in Pylos (west coast of the Peloponnese, in southern Greece) and 66 in Knossos (Crete). The script may have only been used by a guild of professional scribes. These scribes worked at the different palaces: when the palaces were destroyed, the script disappeared.
Bijbehara
Bijbehara () is a town in Anantnag District, Jammu and Kashmir, India.
Cretan hieroglyphs
Cretan heiroglyphs is a writing system, used in Crete from about the 20th to the 15th century BC. It is undeciphered, so it cannot be read today. For most of its history, it was used together with Linear A. Most symbols are pictograms, for some symbols, experts do not agree on what they represent. Most of the corpus consists of short inscriptions on seal stones, and clay tablets. The texts are usually very short, they are inscriptions on seals, and markers on clay tablets. There are three items that are noticeably different: A stone called Malia altar stone, the Phaistos Disc and the Arkalochori Axe. The exact relation of these items to the rest of the corpus is unknown.
In total, there are 137 symbols. 96 seem to be words, or part of words. 32 are probably Logograms. 9 seem to represent fractions. There are four numerals, standing for 1, 10, 100 and 1000. One symbol is used to separate words, like a hyphen, another looks like a cross, and probably stands for the beginning of the text. The writing is probably syllabic.
Clay tablet
Clay tablets were a medium used for writing. They were common in the Fertile Crescent, from about the 5th millennium BC. A clay tablet is a more or less flat surface made of clay. Using a stylus, symbols were pressed into the soft clay. It is possible to correct errors on the tablet. The tablet was then baked until dry and hard, either by leaving it out in the sun, or in a fire. Sun-baked tablets could be moistened and recycled. The ones that survived thousands of years were baked in fire.
They were used by the Sumerian civilisation in Mesopotamia.
Cuneiform was the first writing used on clay tablets. The system was used by several civilizations who spoke several different languages.
Lewis chessmen
The Lewis Chessmen, or Uig Chessmen, are 78 12th-century chess pieces, most of which are carved in walrus ivory. The hoard was discovered in 1831 on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. They may be some of the few complete, surviving medieval chess sets. They are owned and exhibited by the British Museum in London, which has 67 of the original pieces, and the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, which has the remaining 11 pieces.
The pieces are figurative, like modern sets, and unlike the abstract Arabic pieces. The set has made the transition to European figures, which lasts to the present day. In particular, the arrival of a female figure is a departure from the Indo-Arabic game, and the figure of a bishop is also significant.
The chessmen were probably made in Norway, perhaps by craftsmen in Trondheim, in the 12th century, although some scholars have suggested other sources in the Nordic countries.
During that period the Outer Hebrides, and many other Scottish islands, were ruled by Norway.
There is a broken queen piece in a similar style from an excavation of the archbishop's palace, similar carving in Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, the excavation in Trondheim of a kite-shaped shield similar to shields on some of the pieces and a king piece of similar design found on Hitra Island, near the mouth of Trondheim Fjord. Woolf has said that the armour worn by the chess figures includes "perfect" reproductions of armour worn at the time in Norway.
Another suggestion is that the chessmen originated in Iceland. It is not possible to decide between Norway and Iceland on the evidence available, and the date of the set is also somewhat uncertain.