Linear A Sign AB011

A catalog label does not reveal the sign’s reading.

AB 11 is a modern sign-list label, not a translation. As of 2026, Linear A remains undeciphered. Researchers infer how signs function from sequences and context—for example, from signs beside logograms (marks for goods), numbers and fractions. An isolated 𐘊 is not automatically a whole word.

Where did Linear A come from?

Its earliest accepted traces come from Crete.

The earliest accepted Linear A attestations fall by the end of the nineteenth century BCE; that dates surviving evidence, not necessarily the script’s invention. As of 2026, no first surviving occurrence of AB 11 has a securely established separate date.

Linear A probably developed locally on Crete, drawing on broader Near Eastern writing practices. It appears in administrative records of goods and transactions and in formulaic inscriptions on offering tables and other objects used in ritual or burial.

Cretan Hieroglyphic is another Bronze Age Cretan script that partly overlaps with Linear A. One proposed shape-history link connects AB 11’s geometric form to the snake-like Cretan Hieroglyphic sign CH 061; this is a hypothesis about form, not evidence that AB 11 means “snake.” Linear B, a later script used for an early form of Greek, reused much of Linear A’s sign repertoire. Cypriot syllabaries show contact with Aegean scripts, and descent is considered probable.