Packard David W. Minoan Linear A

University of California Press, 1974. — 272 p. — ISBN: 0-520-02580-6.This book does not set out to identify the language of Linear A. Those in search of comprehensive “decipherments” have at least four recent attempts from which to choose, according to whether they prefer to have the Minoans speaking Greek, Hittite, Indic, or North-West Semitic. What languages were used in Crete before the arrival of the Mycenaeans is still a matter for conjecture—some of those named above are possible—but I believe we can make progress in the study of Linear A without basing our argument on a hypothetical identification of the language.
A cogent “etymological” interpretation of the texts would have been decisive, but few believe that this has been achieved. The history of scholarship on Linear B before the decipherment provides guidance as to what sort of research is likely to be productive at the present state of our knowledge. The scholars who contributed most towards Ventris’s eventual success were Bennett and Kober. Bennett did fundamental work in establishing the signary, in editing the tablets, in preparing indices, and in developing a system of classification which groups together tablets dealing with similar subjects. None of this involved any premature claim to have deciphered the script. Raison, Pope, and a few others have been making important recent contributions for Linear A in the first three areas. In Chapter Two of the present work I have tried to develop a preliminary classification of the Hagia Triada archives. In view of the paucity of material, I have no illusions of approaching the admirable elegance and exactness of Bennett’s classification of Linear B; but recognizable divisions exist, and the attempt to find them has been unjustly neglected. I hope at least to have demonstrated that there is enough material to allow some simple conclusions.
In Chapters Three through Five, I have addressed myself to the question of non-etymological evidence for the Linear A phonetic values.
Eight appendices provide various compilations which, I hope, will prove useful to scholars holding diverse views about Linear A. Each appendix is preceded by a brief explanatory introduction.Classification of Tablets.
The Phonetic Values.
Individual Signs.
Hints About the Phonology of the Minoan Langauge.
Appendices.