Cypro-Minoan syllabary

Cypro-Minoan
Script type	Syllabary
Time period	ca. 1550-1050 BC
Status	Extinct
Direction	Left-to-right
Languages	unknown
Related scripts
Parent systems	Linear A Cypro-Minoan
Child systems	Cypriot syllabary

The Cypro-Minoan (CM) syllabary is an undeciphered syllabic script used on the island of Cyprus during the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1550-1050 BC). The term "Cypro-Minoan" was coined by Sir Arthur Evans in 1909 based on its visual similarity to Linear A on Minoan Crete, from which CM is thought to be derived. Approximately 250 objects--such as clay balls, cylinders, and tablets and votive stands--which bear Cypro-Minoan inscriptions, have been found. Discoveries have been made at various sites around Cyprus, as well as in the ancient city of Ugarit on the Syrian coast.

Although some scholars disagree with this classification, the inscriptions have been classified by Emilia Masson into four closely related groups: archaic CM, CM1 (also known as Linear C), CM2, and CM3. Little is known about how this script originated or about the underlying language. However, its use continued into the Early Iron Age, forming a link to the Cypriot syllabary, which has been deciphered as Greek.

Cypro-Minoan tablet from Enkomi in the Louvre.

Artifacts

The earliest known CM inscription found in Europe was a clay tablet discovered in 1955 at the ancient site of Enkomi, near the east coast of Cyprus. It was dated to ca. 1500 BC, and bore three lines of writing. Other fragments of clay tablets have been found at Enkomi and Ugarit.

Clay balls

Dozens of small clay balls, each bearing 3-5 signs in CM1, have been uncovered at Enkomi and Kition.

Cypro-Minoan clay ball in the Louvre.

Clay cylinders

Clay cylinder seals have been uncovered at Enkomi and Kalavassos-Ayios Dimitrios, some of which bear lengthy texts (more than 100 characters). It is likely that the balls and cylinder seals are related to the keeping of economic records on Minoan Cyprus, considering the large number of cross-references between the texts.

Decipherment

The extant corpus of Cypro-Minoan is not large enough to allow for the isolated use of a cryptographic solution to decipherment. Currently, the total number of signs on formal Cypro-Minoan inscriptions (approx. 2,500) compares unfavorably with the number known from the undeciphered Linear A documents (over 7,000) and the number available in Linear B when it was deciphered (approx. 30,000). Furthermore, different languages may have been represented by the same Cypro-Minoan subsystem, and without the discovery of bilingual texts or many more texts in each subsystem, decipherment is extremely unlikely. According to Thomas G. Palaima, "all past and current schemes of decipherment of Cypro-Minoan are improbable".

Recent developments

• In 1998, Joanna S. Smith and Nicolle Hirshfeld received the 1998 Best of Show Poster Award at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America for their work on the Cypro-Minoan Corpus project, which aims to create a complete and accurate corpus of CM inscriptions, and archaeological and epigraphical discussions of all the evidence.

See also

• Eteocypriot
• Cypriot syllabary
• Prehistoric Cyprus
• Idalion Tablet

Sources

• Best, Jan; Woudhuizen, Fred (1988). Ancient Scripts from Crete and Cyprus. Leiden: E.J. Brill. pp. 98–131. ISBN 90-04-08431-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Chadwick, John (1987). Linear B and Related Scripts. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 50–56. ISBN 0-520-06019-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Palaima, Thomas G. (1989). "Cypro-Minoan Scripts: Problems of Historical Context". Problems in Decipherment. Louvain-La-Neuve: Peeters. pp. 121–188. ISBN 90-6831-177-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |editors= ignored (|editor= suggested) (help)
• Faucounau, Jean (2007). Les Inscriptions Chypro-Minoennes (in French). Paris.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Ferrara S. (2012_ Cypro-Minoan Inscriptions. Vol. 1: Analysis. Oxford University Press.
• Masson, Emilia (1971). Studies in Cypro-Minoan Scripts. Part 1. Göteborg: Astrom Editions. ISBN 978-91-85058-42-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "CAARI News Number 18" (PDF). Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute. June 1999. p. 5. Retrieved 2009-05-09. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Woudhuizen, Fred (1992). The Language of the Sea Peoples. Amsterdam: Najade Press. pp. 81–153. ISBN 90-73835-02-X. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)