Uncracked Ancient CodesLinear A, undeciphered, tantalizes, because about 80 percent of its signs resemble those of Linear B. Its system of numerals seems to be fairly clear: On several tablets, a term for "total" appears at the bottom of a tablet that includes a series of numbers. The numbers add up to the total given, instilling confidence that we understand at least these units. Attempts to show that Linear A represents a known language of the Aegean world, however, have not been successful. All but a few scholars agree that the language of Linear A cannot be Greek, and the idea that it represents a Semitic language has been rejected by nearly everyone. An Anatolian language (perhaps Lycian) remains a possibility... Robinson's descriptions of such analysis, and his accounts of both successful and unsuccessful decoding attempts, are clear, provocative and stimulating.
(Lost Languages reviewed)
by William C. West
Lost Languages:
The Enigma Of The World's Undeciphered Scripts
by Andrew Robinson
I've read that book; it's a good layman survey. Robinson mentions that one of the experts in epigraphy gets hundreds of supposed solutions to the Phaistos disk sent to him every year.
Those supposed decipherments highlight the problem of decipherment of an unknown language. How would you know if the decipherment is accurate? So far, there are no claimed decipherments of Linear A or the Phaistos disk or Rongo-Rongo that are taken seriously "in the field." But probably a different word than decipherment needs to be used if the language is not known, and the solution cannot be verified.
There were of course comical early "decipherments" of glyphs that have since been largely cracked, such as Egyptian and Mayan.
see also messaage 32.Crete: isle of the dead?Linear A and B are two scripts of Crete. The newer Linear B was deciphered in 1953 by Michael Ventras and turned out to be Greek. In 1971, Dutch archaeologist and historian Jan Best claimed he had deciphered Linear A and had found a connection between Minoan Crete and the Hyksos. Linear A, he argued, was Semitic, related to the languages of Ugarit and Alalach in Syria.
by Philip Coppens