The mathematical values of Linear A fraction signs: Unravelling number enigmas on ancient Crete

EurekAlert! ^ | September 7, 2020 | Elsevier

[SunkenCiv]

The team first studied the rules that the signs followed on the clay tablets and other accounting documents. Two problems had so far complicated the decipherment of Linear A fractions. First, all documents containing sums of fractional values with a registered total were damaged or difficult to interpret, and second, they contradicted uses of certain signs, which suggest the system changed over time. Thus, the starting premise had to rely on documents concentrated to a specific period (ca. 1600-1450 BCE), when the numerical system was in coherent use across Crete.

To investigate the possible values of each fractional sign, the team excluded impossible outcomes with the aid of computational methods. Then all possible solutions - almost four million - were whittled down also comparing fractions that are common in the history of the world (e.g., typological data) and using statistical tests. Finally, the team applied other strategies that considered the completeness and coherence of the fractions as a system and in this way the best values were identified, with the least redundancies. The result, in this case, was a system whose lowest fraction is 1/60 and which shows the ability to represent most values of the type n/60.

The system of values suggested by the Bologna team has yielded further important implications.

The results explain how the Linear B script, adopted by the later Mycenaean Greek culture (ca. 1450-1200 BCE) from Linear A, reused some of these fractions to express units of measurement. The new results suggest that, for example, the Linear A sign for 1/10 was adapted to represent a capacity unit for measuring dry products which was, in turn, 1/10 of a larger unit. This explains a historical continuity of use from fractions to units of measurements across two different cultures.

[SunkenCiv]

On the left, the signs of the fractions in Linear A; on the right, one of the tablets analyzed.

Elsevier

[SunkenCiv]

[SteveH]

cracking any linear a at all represents a totally mindblowing accomplishment imho...

[SunkenCiv]

The Histories
by Herodotus
Book I -- Clio
tr by George Rawlinson

Now, of the above nations the Carians are a race who came into the mainland from the islands. In ancient times they were subjects of king Minos, and went by the name of Leleges, dwelling among the isles, and, so far as I have been able to push my inquiries, never liable to give tribute to any man. They served on board the ships of king Minos whenever he required; and thus, as he was a great conqueror and prospered in his wars, the Carians were in his day the most famous by far of all the nations of the earth. They likewise were the inventors of three things, the use of which was borrowed from them by the Greeks; they were the first to fasten crests on helmets and to put devices on shields, and they also invented handles for shields. In the earlier times shields were without handles, and their wearers managed them by the aid of a leathern thong, by which they were slung round the neck and left shoulder. Long after the time of Minos, the Carians were driven from the islands by the Ionians and Dorians, and so settled upon the mainland. The above is the account which the Cretans give of the Carians: the Carians themselves say very differently. They maintain that they are the aboriginal inhabitants of the part of the mainland where they now dwell, and never had any other name than that which they still bear; and in proof of this they show an ancient temple of Carian Jove in the country of the Mylasians, in which the Mysians and Lydians have the right of worshipping, as brother races to the Carians: for Lydus and Mysus, they say, were brothers of Car. These nations, therefore, have the aforesaid right; but such as are of a different race, even though they have come to use the Carian tongue, are excluded from this temple.

The Caunians, in my judgment, are aboriginals; but by their own account they came from Crete. In their language, either they have approximated to the Carians, or the Carians to them -- on this point I cannot speak with certainty. In their customs, however, they differ greatly from the Carians, and not only so, but from all other men. They think it a most honourable practice for friends or persons of the same age, whether they be men, women, or children, to meet together in large companies, for the purpose of drinking wine. Again, on one occasion they determined that they would no longer make use of the foreign temples which had been long established among them, but would worship their own old ancestral gods alone. Then their whole youth took arms, and striking the air with their spears, marched to the Calyndic frontier, declaring that they were driving out the foreign gods.

[SunkenCiv]

88. Shishak mentioned in the Ras Shamra texts is Thutmose IV.
89. The texts found in Ras Shamra are not of the fifteenth, but of the ninth century.
90. The close resemblance of the texts of Ras Shamra with diverse books of the Scriptures repudiates most of the assertions of the Bible criticism (late origin of the texts), as well as the modern theory about the Canaanite heritage in the Scriptures (early origin of the texts).
91. The theory that alphabetic writing was perfected in the sixteenth century cannot be supported by the Ras Shamra texts of the ninth century.
92. As the alphabetic writing of Hebrew in cuneiform of Ras Shamra is contemporaneous with the stela of Mesha written in Hebrew alphabetic characters, the alphabet most probably did not originate in Phoenicia but in Palestine.
93. The theory that the Ras Shamra texts contain mention of Ionians, and of their city Didyme, is correct, but it concerns the ninth century Ionians.
94. The Khar of the Egyptian and Ras Shamra texts were not Hurrites or Troglodytes, but Carians.
95. The statement by classical authors that the Carians migrated from Crete is corroborated by the name of Keret of the Ras Shamra texts.
96. The Khari (Cari) of the Scriptures were the Khar or Carians from Ras Shamra.
97. The Carian language is studied in the disguise of the Hurrian (or Hurrite) language. The reading of the cuneiform Khar can be helped by a comparative study of the Carian inscriptions in Greek letters found in Egypt.
98. The reading of Carian will contribute to the decipherment of the Cyprian and Cretan hieroglyphics and may aid in reconstructing the early history of the West.
99. The name of the city Ugarit (Ras Shamra) is probably the equivalent of Euagoras, the Carian-Ionian name of a number of Cyprian kings.
100. The name Nikmed of the Ras Shamra texts is the Ionian-Carian name Nikomed(es).
101. The city of Ras Shamra was destroyed in the days of the King Nikmed by Shalmanassar (in 856 B. C. E). Its destruction is recorded by Shalmanassar and the city is called “the city of Nikdem”. A proclamation telling about the expulsion of Nikmed, found in the city, refers to the same event.
102. It is highly probable that King Nikmed (Nikdem) fled to Greece, and that this man of learning there introduced alphabetic writing. Therefore, he might have been Cadmos of the Greek tradition.
103. Minoan inscriptions of the Mycenaean Age may comprise alphabetic writings following in principle the cuneiform alphabet of Ras Shamra Hebrew.
104. The vaults of the necropolis of Ras Shamra and similar vaults in Cyprus are contemporaneous, and not separated by six centuries.
105. The tombs of Enkomi on Cyprus, excavated by A. S. Murray in 1896, were correctly assigned by him to the eighth-seventh century.
106. The time table of the Minoan and Mycenean culture is distorted by almost six hundred years, because it is dependent upon the wrong Egyptian chronology.
107. No “Dark Age” of six centuries duration intervened in Greece between the Mycenaean Age and the Ionian Age of the seventh century.
108. The large buildings and fortifications of Mycenae and Tiryns in the Argive Plain date from the time of the Argive Tyrants, who lived in the eighth century.
109. The Heraion of Olympia was built in the “Mycenaean” age, in the first millennium
110. The so-called Mycenaean ware was mainly of Cypriote (Phoenician) manufacture. It dates from the tenth to the sixth century.
111. The so-called Geometric ware is not a later product than the Mycenaean ware; they were products of the same age.
112. The entire archaeology of the eastern Mediterranean, based upon the assumption that the Mycenaean culture belongs to the fifteenth-thirteenth centuries, is built upon a misleading principle.

Immanuel Velikovsky, "Theses for the Reconstruction of Ancient History", June 10, 1945

[SunkenCiv]

It's likely that one or more of the claimed decipherments is at least partially correct when it comes to Linear A. In "Lost Languages" Robinson suggests that the total sample of Linear A is too small to permit a decipherment. Sir Arthur Evans was certain that Linear B could not be Greek (due to the supposed and erroneous antiquity assigned to that culture) and refused to publish the relatively small body to surviving tablets (Evans lost the first batch of tablets he excavated due to, well, incompetence), dying (1941) before making any headway. Ventris' crack of Linear B (1950) found (tah-dah!) that it was Greek. Blegen's best-first-day-ever at Pylos (1939) had turned up a large archive of Linear B, published it, and broke Evans' grip.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z8jCeCj0gQ

[Quality_Not_Quantity]

Way to start the excerpt at the 6th paragraph. That isn’t fair to us Freeprs who are uninformed on a subject but are too intellectually lazy to even bother to skim the actual article.

[StAntKnee]

I get it. That excerpt is Joe Biden giving directions on how to get to his home in Delaware, but accidentally discussing a classic number enigma. (Can you even say enigma anymore?)

[BenLurkin]

Fascinating stuff. Here’s hoping for more success in reading Linear A.

[null and void]

I’m desperately seeking a brick maker here on FR. Anyone who makes bricks for a living or works for a company that does!

I have a novel idea that might be worth exploring, I need someone skilled in that art to help evaluate the technical feasibility, any contributions of techniques or implementation will earn a place on the inventors line of the patent.

Because it is a novel idea, and is probably patentable, you will need to sign a standard boilerplate NDA before we can talk.

At this point I need someone to invest a little time, materials and effort, not much. I expect the concept to drop seamlessly into normal brick making processes.

I need someone skilled in the art to offer their unbiased opinion.

Any contributions to the IP (Intellectual Property) you make earn you a place on the patent, you will also get some shares of founders stock (in my experience usually worthless, but the times it’s not? Oh mamma!)

Money? I don’t anticipate any extraordinary out of pocket expenses, if it’s as viable as I think it, is there will be no shortage of investors and customers.

If you are a person of faith I think you will find the idea especially interesting and worthy. Even if you know nothing about brick making, I’d like your input on one facet of the concept. You’ll still need to sign an NDA as above, and of course contributions to the idea earn a bit of founders stock and patent inclusion as above.

So far, the feedback has been quite positive. I still need a real brick maker, though...

[SunkenCiv]

Hey, I’m a mean guy. :^)

[SunkenCiv]

A friend who went to one of their shows (”Eight a Day for the 80s” in E Lansing, although it was only seven bands because one had to cancel as it was in the process of breaking up or something) said the headliner, the Ramones, did their set about 30 percent faster than on record, with just a “1,2,3,4” in between songs. :^)

[SunkenCiv]

You can say enigma, but you have to get there in an appropriate way — anigma, bnigma, and so forth.

[SunkenCiv]

When some linguist cracks an unknown script without having a bilingual inscription, I’m impressed. :^)

[SunkenCiv]

additional article from 10/6/2020: Decoding Linear A, the Writing System of the Ancient Minoans | Philip Chrysopoulos

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• The Riddle Of The Labyrinth: The Quest To Break An Ancient Code [2013]
• Ancient Tablet Found: Oldest Readable Writing in Europe [2011]
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• Who Invented the Alphabet: The Semites or the Greeks? [2011]
• Computers to translate world's 'lost' languages after program deciphers ancient text [2010]
• Archaeology meets mythology in Mycenean Pylos (King Nestor) [2009]
• Phaistos Disk: Greek or Luwian? [2009]
• Decoding antiquity: Eight scripts that still can't be read [2009]
• Greek treasures unearthed (Minoans, Linear A, Linear B) [2005]
• German Scientists: Europe's Oldest Script Found In Bulgaria (Minoan) [2005]
• East Bulgaria Reveals Minoan Pertainence [2005]
• The Linear B Tablets and Mycenaean Social, Political, and Economic Organization [2004]
• LINGUISTICS: Early Date for the Birth of Indo-European Languages [2003]
• Mother of all Indo-European languages was born in Turkey [2003]
• Who Really Discovered America? [2002]