Cretan hieroglyphs
Jeroglífico cretense
- Date
- c. 1900 BCE · confidence low
- Place
- Knossos, Crete, Greece
- Credited to
- Minoan culture; the corpus was identified and named by British archaeologist Arthur Evans from 1900
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
A hieroglyphic writing system used in early Bronze Age Crete, about a century before Linear A, with which it coexisted for most of its history. It remains undeciphered.
Because it remains undeciphered, its classification as full writing (rather than a marking or sealing system) is still debated among specialists.
What it led to
- Early Minoan seals and administrative record-keeping
- Coexistence with, and possible influence on, Linear A
Built on
- Discovery of Linear A