Linear A sign A528

As of 2026, no secure standalone reading is assigned to A528. A528 is a catalogue identifier for one Linear A sign. Sound values borrowed from Linear B are conventional labels; they do not establish how Linear A was read.

Linear A is attested on Crete from the 18th to 14th centuries BC, with early evidence concentrated at Phaistos. That dates the script, not this individual sign.

Is A528 a composite sign?

Yes—SigLA analyses A528 as AB41 + AB07. The Unicode chart records the same component relationship. This composite analysis describes how the glyph is catalogued, not a pronunciation or translation.

Linear A developed locally on Crete, with some inspiration from wider Near Eastern writing principles. Cretan Hieroglyphic was a neighboring script during part of the same period; Linear B later adapted many Linear A signs. Cypriot syllabaries also show contact and possible descent within this wider writing tradition.

What was Linear A used for?

Surviving records are mainly administrative or religious. Tablets track goods entering and leaving storerooms; offering tables and inscriptions on cultic or funerary objects point to religious settings. Some inscriptions may have been private.

Early evidence clusters at Phaistos; later, Linear A spread across Crete and the Aegean. When Linear B took over administrative writing, Linear A stopped serving that purpose; its last known example dates to about 1350 BC. This shift describes the script's use, not a change in A528's meaning.