Linear A Sign A563

The sign has no securely deciphered word value.

A563 is a scholarly catalog label, not a translated Minoan word. Its cataloged form combines AB080 with itself; that construction does not prove a reading such as “ma-ma.”

Linear A was probably developed on Crete and used chiefly for records of goods and transactions on clay, as well as on objects with cultic uses. Its earliest attestation is placed in Middle Minoan IIA, with more consistent evidence in Middle Minoan IIB.

Does A563 mean “ma-ma”?

No; a repeated shape does not prove a spoken value.

A563 appears in the Phaistos inscription PH 3a among AB080-containing signs discussed in possible commodity notation. A textile study proposes that a different sign, A559 (AB080+AB026), denotes wool; that proposal does not establish A563’s meaning.

Linear B adapted much of Linear A’s graphic repertoire, and the Cypro-Minoan script shows contact with Linear A. These are connections between script histories, not evidence for a reading of this individual sign.

Linear A’s underlying language remains undeciphered, so there is no reliable account of A563 changing from one known word to another across periods or places.