Cretan hieroglyphs

The Cretan hieroglyphs are a unentziffertes writing system from the Minoan period, which was used in Crete from about the 20th to the 15th century BC. Their use is attested from periods MM I to MM III A of the Minoan culture. From the Cretan hieroglyphs the so-called Linear A script was created, both writing systems have been used for some time in parallel.

As the name suggests, the characters are all pictographic, even if at each character, the interpretation is controversial. The sign inventory consists of 137 characters, 96 of which are found in whole words, 32 are apparently logograms, 9 were interpreted by Olivier and Godart 1996 as " Klasmatogramme ". Here are four numerals are (1, 10, 100, 1000), a word hyphen and a cross, which probably indicates the beginning of the text. Due to the number of word- characters, it was - as in Linear A - certainly a syllabary. The not very numerous texts are very short, it is in them to seal inscriptions and signatures on short Tonbarren.