// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did Archanes script say? It's an old write.
The Archanes script is a (possible) writing system attested on seals first found at Archanes on Crete and on a few other archaeological sites. The writing system dates around 2200 to 1800 BC and is often regarded as the first European script.
Discovery
[edit]First examples of the script were discovered in the 1960s at excavations at Archanes [1] and appear on seals only. Paul Alan Yule who conducted a proper research and catalogue of early Minoan seals coined the term Archanes script, as he observed that on several seals from Archanes appear what might be called a script. [2]
However, the nature of the script is under discussion as the number of seals with that script is very limited. Therefore the number of known signs is also very small.[3] Some researchers see it as an early form of the Cretan hieroglyphs and regard it as a syllabic writing system. Some signs of the Archanes script appear in the Cretan hieroglyphs too. Other see these signs as decorative or just as symbols.
References
[edit]- ↑ Sakellarakis , Y. (1967): Minoan cemeteries at Arkhanes. in Archaeology 20:4, pp. 276–81
- ↑ Yule, P. (1980): Early Cretan Seals: A Study of Chronology Mainz, Marburger Studien zur Vor- und Frühgeschichte 4; p. 170.
- ↑ Decorte, R. P.-J. E. (2018a). The first ‘European’ writing: Redefining the Archanes script. Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 37(4), 341-372 online