Script comparison in the investigation of Cypro-Minoan

Valerio, Miguel A.

doi:10.2307/j.ctvh1dr51.13

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…The ‘archaic’ inscription ##001 (23 signs), as it differs significantly from the rest of the corpus in terms of chronology and paleography, and 19 of its signs do not repeat [ 3 , 25 ];…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unsupervised deep learning supports reclassification of Bronze age cypriot writing system

et al. 2022

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Ancient undeciphered scripts present problems of different nature, not just tied to linguistic identification. The undeciphered Cypro-Minoan script from second millennium BCE Cyprus, for instance, currently does not have a standardized, definitive inventory of signs, and, in addition, stands divided into three separate subgroups (CM1, CM2, CM3), which have also been alleged to record different languages. However, this state of the art is not consensually accepted by the experts. In this article, we aim to apply a method that can aid to shed light on the tripartite division, to assess if it holds up against a multi-pronged, multi-disciplinary approach. This involves considerations linked to paleography (shapes of individual signs) and epigraphy (writing style tied to the support used), and crucially, deep learning-based strategies. These automatic methods, which are widely adopted in many fields such as computer vision and computational linguistics, allow us to look from an innovative perspective at the specific issues presented by ancient, poorly understood scripts in general, and Cypro-Minoan in particular. The usage of a state-of-the-art convolutional neural model that is unsupervised, and therefore does not use any prior knowledge of the script, is still underrepresented in the study of undeciphered writing systems, and helps to investigate the tripartite division from a fresh standpoint. The conclusions we reached show that: 1. the use of different media skews to a large extent the uniformity of the sign shapes; 2. the application of several neural techniques confirm this, since they highlight graphic proximity among signs inscribed on similar supports; 3. multi-stranded approaches prove to be a successful tool to investigate ancient scripts whose language is still unidentified. More crucially, these aspects, together, point in the same direction, namely the validation of a unitary, single Cypro-Minoan script, rather than the current division into three subgroups.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unsupervised deep learning supports reclassification of Bronze age cypriot writing system

et al. 2022

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“…The Cypro-Minoan syllabary was the script used by the pre-Greek inhabitants of Cyprus (Davis 2010). Although its name implies that it was used only on Cyprus, it was also used in coastal parts of Syria and Tiryns in Greece (Valério 2016). The script was in use between the 1550 and 1050 BCE (Smith and Hirschfeld 1999), and comes in three varieties that are linked to the places where the inscriptions were discovered (Billigmeier 1976).…”

Section: Cypro-minoan Syllabarymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Cypro-Minoan syllabary is based on Linear A, has around 100 unique symbols, and is still undeciphered (Davis 2011). Nearly 250 inscription in Cypro-Minoan are known to exist, and the total number of syllabograms than can be found in these inscriptions is less than 4000 (Valério 2016).…”

Section: Cypro-minoan Syllabarymentioning

confidence: 99%

A Systematic Review of Computational Approaches to Deciphering Bronze Age Aegean and Cypriot Scripts

Braović,

Krstinić,

Štula

et al. 2024

Computational Linguistics

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This paper provides a detailed insight into computational approaches for deciphering Bronze Age Aegean and Cypriot scripts, namely the Archanes script and the Archanes formula, Phaistos Disk, Cretan hieroglyphic (including the Malia Altar Stone and Arkalochori Axe), Linear A, Linear B, Cypro-Minoan and Cypriot scripts. The unique contributions of this paper are threefold: 1) a thorough review of major Bronze Age Aegean and Cypriot scripts and inscriptions, digital data and corpora associated with them, existing computational decipherment methods developed in order to decipher them, and possible links to other scripts and languages; 2) the definition of 15 major challenges that can be encountered in computational decipherments of ancient scripts; and 3) an outline of a computational model that could possibly be used to simulate traditional decipherment processes of ancient scripts based on palaeography and epigraphy. In the context of this paper the term decipherment denotes the process of discovery of the language and/or the set of symbols behind an unknown script, and the meaning behind it.

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“…This looks like an intriguing link with the Aegean, but it is not obvious how we should interpret it. Cypro-Minoan (and this tablet in particular) pre-dates Linear B and-as a system at least-has to be understood as a development from Linear A (see Valério [39] for a palaeographic discussion). Should we assume that the bladed stylus was an object associated with some sort of Cretan writing in the Minoan period?…”

Section: Impressions Of the Stylusmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, the Linear-Alooking ka sign (composed of a circle with a cross in the middle) in the earliest clay tablet seems to be a precursor to Cypro-Minoan sign 25, usually consisting of two sloping lines meeting at a point at the top, with a cross underneath. Valério sees this development as 'an increasing propensity to open the sign at its lower edge' ( [39] p. 145), a trend that could plausibly be driven by the use of a bladed stylus, with which it is far more difficult to draw a smooth complete circle than with a rounded, narrowly pointed stylus. In the earliest phase of Cypro-Minoan writing, however, there is some evidence to suggest that a bladed implement might have been used to write clay documents at Enkomi.…”

Section: Impressions Of the Stylusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Material Entanglements of Writing Practices in the Bronze Age Aegean and Cyprus

Steele

2020

Sustainability

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The present paper explores theoretical aspects of the study of writing systems and practices. It approaches the mesh that constitutes writing practice through one type of agent: the writing instrument used to write clay documents in the Bronze Age Aegean and Cyprus. On the one hand, this investigation will use types of writing implements and their distribution to think through wider issues concerning the development of writing practices across the Bronze Age Aegean and Cyprus. On the other, it will attempt to establish the place of writing implements within a broader conceptual framework of the people, things and actions that constitute writing practices in this area and period.

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Script comparison in the investigation of Cypro-Minoan

Cited by 12 publications

References 0 publications

Unsupervised deep learning supports reclassification of Bronze age cypriot writing system

Unsupervised deep learning supports reclassification of Bronze age cypriot writing system

A Systematic Review of Computational Approaches to Deciphering Bronze Age Aegean and Cypriot Scripts

Material Entanglements of Writing Practices in the Bronze Age Aegean and Cyprus

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