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A New Approach to the Decipherment of Linear A, Stage 2. Cryptanalysis and Language Deciphering: A “Brute Force Attack” on an Undeciphered Writing System
Loh Jia Sheng Colin ORCID iD icon & Francesco Perono Cacciafoco ORCID iD icon
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Abstract. This paper discusses the attempt of an algorithmic approach to contribute to the decipherment of Linear A. With the assistance of software developed in Python, Linear A clusters can be compared to various dictionaries of languages respecting a certain degree of chronological and geographical compatibility, as a “brute-force attack” for the reconstruction of new clusters of Linear A symbols.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36824/2020-graf-cacc


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Nagy, G. (1963). Greek-like Elements in Linear A. Durham: William H. Willis.

Olivier, J.-P. (1986). “Cretan writing in the second millennium BC.” In: World Archaeology 17.3, pp. 377–389.

Orel, V. (1994). “On the ancient contacts between Hamito-Semitic and north Caucasian.” In: Folia Linguistica Historica 15.1–2.

Owens, G. A. (1999). “The Structure of the Minoan Language.” In: J. Indo-Eur. Stud. 27.1/2, pp. 15–56.

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Revesez, P. (2017). “Establishing the West-Ugric Language Family with Minoan, Hattic and Hungarian by a Decipherment of Linear A.” In: WSEAS Trans. Inf. Sci. Appl. 14, pp. 306–355.

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Loh Jia Sheng Colin & Francesco Perono Cacciafoco (2020), “A New Approach to the Decipherment of Linear A, Stage 2. Cryptanalysis and Language Deciphering: A “Brute Force Attack” on an Undeciphered Writing System,” in Proceedings of Grapholinguistics in the 21st Century, 2020 (Yannis Haralambous, Ed.), Grapholinguistics and Its Applications, Vol. 5, Brest: Fluxus Editions, 927–943.


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   AUTHOR = {Loh Jia Sheng Colin and Francesco Perono Cacciafoco},
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   TITLE = {{A~New Approach to the Decipherment of Linear~A, Stage 2. Cryptanalysis and Language Deciphering: A~“Brute Force Attack” on an Undeciphered Writing System}},
   BOOKTITLE = {{Proceedings of Grapholinguistics in the 21st Century, 2020}},
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