PaganSquare


PaganSquare is a community blog space where Pagans can discuss topics relevant to the life and spiritual practice of all Pagans.

  • Home
    Home This is where you can find all the blog posts throughout the site.
  • Tags
    Tags Displays a list of tags that have been used in the blog.
  • Bloggers
    Bloggers Search for your favorite blogger from this site.
  • Login
    Login Login form
Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in linear a

Posted by on in Paths Blogs
The Linear A Conundrum

One of the reasons we don't call Modern Minoan Paganism (MMP) a reconstructionist tradition is that we don't have any texts from Minoan times that we can read to learn how the people of ancient Crete worshiped. Reference texts are a fundamental part of the reconstruction process in many traditions. Why don't we have that resource for MMP?

The Minoans were a literate people; we just can't read what they wrote.

...
Last modified on

Posted by on in Paths Blogs
What can we know about Linear A?

It’s a challenge to figure out what the ancient Minoans believed and practiced in their religion because we can’t read anything they wrote. They were a literate culture, to be sure. They had both a hieroglyphic script and a syllabary. But we can’t read either one of them. There are clues, though.

The Cretan syllabary is commonly known as Linear A. It was used to write the native language of the ancient Minoans, which may have survived the collapse of Minoan civilization in the second millennium BCE. There's a tantalizing possibility that Eteocretan, which is attested as late as the 3rd century BCE, is either the native Minoan language or a direct descendant of it. Languages do change over time - a brief glance at any Shakespeare play will demonstrate that point. But so far, linguists haven't had a lot of luck connecting the two.

...
Last modified on
Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Anthony Gresham
    Anthony Gresham says #
    Wouldn't it be ironic if "from the East" was originally "too the East" and the Minoan Linear A turns out to be a variant of Basque
  • Laura Perry
    Laura Perry says #
    Stranger things have happened! However, DNA testing on the human remains from several of the Minoan cemeteries shows that they are

Additional information