Linear A sign AB082

AB082 is a catalog label, not a known word. GORILA is the published catalog of Linear A signs; its number helps readers locate this sign in a sign list. The label does not tell you how to pronounce it.

Linear B shares some sign forms with Linear A. Researchers use those comparisons to propose conventional sound values for some Linear A signs.

When did Linear A first appear?

The surviving record begins on Crete in the 18th century BCE. Linear A is generally understood as a local Cretan development.

It appears on palace tablets, small clay disks called roundels, and clay sealings—impressions used to mark or secure goods—in records of goods and transactions. Inscriptions on offering tables, vessels, figurines, and metal objects point to religious, funerary, and possible private uses. Finds also come from Aegean islands, mainland Greece, and Asia Minor.

Cretan Hieroglyphic was another Cretan writing system in use at the same time. Linear B later adapted many Linear A sign forms to write Mycenaean Greek, an early form of Greek, and took over palace record keeping.

What does 𐙃 mean when someone sends it?

On its own, it is an unexplained Linear A sign. If someone sends it as a reference, AB082 identifies the sign in a catalog.

Linear B later used related sign forms to write Mycenaean Greek, but that history does not make 𐙃 a Greek alphabet letter. If the sender means a particular reading, ask which inscription or sign list they are using.