Linear A sign A565

It is a catalog label, not a translated word. As of 2026, Linear A remains undeciphered, so A565 has no secure individual meaning. Scholars sometimes use approximate sound values from similar Linear B signs for some sequences; that method does not establish what A565 meant.

Linear A probably developed locally on Crete, drawing broadly on Near Eastern writing principles. Its earliest surviving phase is concentrated at Phaistos, on Crete, during the First Palace period, the era of the island's early palace centers, before use spread across Crete and the Aegean.

What was Linear A used for?

For records and some religious uses. Clay archives tracked goods entering and leaving storerooms. Offering tables and objects from ritual or burial settings show other uses, but those contexts cannot tell us what A565 itself meant.

SigLA catalogs A565 as a composite sign built from two other Linear A signs, labeled AB86 and AB188. Linear B later replaced Linear A in administration and developed from it. Linear A is last attested around 1350 BCE. Cretan Hieroglyphic was a distinct script used in the same broad period; the Cypro-Minoan script and later Cypriot syllabaries, writing systems whose signs represent syllables, show contact with Linear A and probable descent.