What’s a sign? What’s in a sign? In the paper ‘Imagining Cretan scripts: the influence of visual motifs on the creation of script-signs in Bronze Age Crete’, Dr Ester Salgarella explores the processes of sign creation and their transmission among the scripts of Bronze Age Crete (ca. 1900-1200 BCE): Cretan Hieroglyphic, Linear A and Linear B.

.1      SUS ,  *516  , ma-di

.2      15  KI  10  qa-qa-

.3      -ru  6  KI  4  a-ri-su

.4      4  KI  1 ri-ru-ma 10

.5      ku-ro  30  KI  15[

Crete is hailed as the cradle of writing on European soil. Writing first emerged in the form of pictographic signs belonging to what is traditionally called the ‘Hieroglyphic’ tradition (ca. 1900-1600 BCE). Shortly afterwards, this was accompanied by a ‘Linear’ tradition, comprising first Linear A (ca. 1800-1450 BCE) and later Linear B (ca. 1400-1200 BCE). Cretan writing is understood to be an indigenous creation, whose origin was stimulated by existing examples of writing in the neighbouring regions (Egypt and the Levant). Typologically, Cretan scripts are logo-syllabaries, as they consist of a number of signs called ‘syllabograms’ representing open syllables (e.g. /a/, /pa/), and a number of picture signs called ‘logograms’ representing real-world referents (e.g. vessels, animals). A good number of signs are shared between the two traditions, implying that these three scripts are graphically related. However, the languages notated are very different: Linear B was developed from Linear A to write ‘Mycenaean’ Greek, while Linear A and Cretan Hieroglyphic write the poorly-understood Minoan language(s) and still remain undeciphered.

.1           de-u-ki-jo-jo       ‘me-no’
.2        di-ka-ta-jo  /  di-we    OLE    S   1
.3        da-da-re-jo-de            OLE    S   2
.4        pa-de                          OLE    S   1
.5        pa-si-te-o-i                 OLE         1
.6        qe-ra-si-ja                  OLE    S   1[
.7        a-mi-ni-so   , /    pa-si-te-o-i  S   1[
.8        e-ri-nu  ,                     OLE    V   3
.9        *47-da-de                   OLE    V   1
.10      a-ne-mo  , /  i-je-re-ja            V   4
.11                       vacat
.12      to-so       OLE   3     S   2     V   2

What sources did these scripts draw upon for the creation of script-signs? How does an ‘image’ become a ‘sign’? By exploring the interplay between image and script in early writing, and the ‘visual culture’ to which Cretan communities were exposed, it is possible to investigate modes of sign creation and transmission from a script to another. Taking a theoretical approach, Dr Salgarella puts forward an interpretative framework to examine such processes in the Cretan context. Particular attention is paid to the cognitive processes that are likely to have motivated the choice of a given image to be turned into a script-sign, and the phonetic value to be associated to a newly created sign. The role played by different iconographic media is also explored to establish a potential hierarchy of motif transferral from primary visual sources to secondary graphic contexts.

Given that script is part of the material culture production of a given community, is it possible that it followed similar cultural trends? Pottery decoration, pottery shapes, frescoes, glyptic, architectural features, the whole phenomenology of material culture associated with ‘artistic’ production is taken into account as a fertile arena for creating and lending that specific set of motifs selected to become script-signs. By dismantling the boundaries between ‘artistic’ production stricto sensu and writing, a deeper appreciation of the man-made visual context is reached with its dynamic interchange of motifs. With respect to script, once graphic sources have been identified, the examination of sign shapes can give us clues to a sign’s genesis and development, their proliferation, and arguably to why signs were allocated a specific phonetic value. In doing so, it is also possible to identify potential candidates for Minoan words that are likely to have been passed down to us hidden behind the stylised shapes of writing signs.

‘Imagining Cretan scripts: the influence of visual motifs on the creation of script-signs in Bronze Age Crete’ is out via FirstView in the Annual of the British School at Athens. The article is free to read until the end of November 2021.

1. Cretan Hieroglyphic seal impression (CMS II, 6 no. 179 = CHIC #131), Middle Minoan II, Crete (Mallia?). Courtesy of The Heidelberg Corpus of Minoan and Mycenaean Seals (CMS). Transnumeration of Cretan Hieroglyphic signs (top to bottom): 036-092
2. Linear A tablet (HT 118) from Haghia Triada, Crete, Late Minoan IB. Totalling (ku-ro = total) list of commodities (SUS = pigs, *516 unidentified) owed (KI[-ro] = deficit) to the palace. Drawing by the author after GORILA.
3. Linear B tablet (KN Fp 1) from Knossos, Crete, Late Minoan IIIA/B. Totalling list (to-so = total) of offerings of olive oil (OLEum) to deities and cultic places in the month of Deukos (de-u-ki-jo-jo me-no). Drawing by the author after CoMIK.