Linear A Sign AB023

It is catalogued as bovine, but its Linear A word is unknown.

Unicode’s encoding proposal labels AB023 “bovine” as an ideographic identification, not a decoded Linear A word for cow or cattle. Linear A remains undeciphered. The proposal also cross-references Linear B sign B023, read as the syllable “mu”; that comparison does not establish AB023’s pronunciation.

AB023 is also listed as a component in the complex signs A521 and A545. These are historical sign compositions, so the surrounding signs and inscription matter.

Where did Linear A develop?

It developed on Crete from local writing traditions.

Early evidence includes a precursor called Proto-Linear A at Phaistos and the Archanes script. The local Cretan script was partly inspired by Near Eastern writing principles. Its use is attested from the 18th–14th centuries BC: early evidence clusters at Phaistos, then appears across Crete and the Aegean.

Linear B is a later descendant that reused much of Linear A’s syllabary for Mycenaean Greek. Cypriot syllabaries probably derive from Linear A. Cretan Hieroglyphic was a partly contemporary neighboring script; their limited overlap does not establish that one descended from the other.

Why was Linear A written?

It served palace record-keeping and also appeared in ritual and status settings.

Palace documents from Phaistos, Malia and Knossos mostly tracked goods. Archives record goods entering and leaving storerooms, while marks and numbers on storage vessels point to accounting.

The setting matters: offering tables and objects from cult or burial contexts suggest ritual use; pins and rings could display status. These contexts do not give AB023 a fixed religious meaning. Linear B later took over administration; a terracotta figurine bears a later Linear A inscription around 1350 BCE.