Linear AResearch by Enrica PatriaSearch

Method

Read it before
you translate it.

This page sets out how the site separates what is observed, what is transcribed by convention, and what Enrica Patria proposes to read or interpret. Two methods are kept apart: the site’s own editorial rules, and Enrica Patria’s method, in her words and with her pages.

Site method · how a reading is built

The layers of reading

From the object outwards. Each layer adds interpretation to the one before it, and none replaces it. The marker says what kind of statement a layer holds.

  1. Object

    What it is
    The clay object itself, as the edition records it.
    What it holds
    Object records: findspot, period, material, edition; facsimile and photograph when supplied.
    Distance from the object
    The object
    Can hold a proposal
    No
    On the tablet pages
    Layer 01 · Original

  2. Signs

    What it is
    Each sign, identified by its catalogue number, in its sign-group and entry.
    What it holds
    Sign identifications and positions; glyphs where a code point is verified.
    Distance from the object
    On the object
    Can hold a proposal
    No
    On the tablet pages
    Layer 02 · Signs

  3. Conventional transcription

    What it is
    The shared convention: conventional sound values and the grouping of the edition.
    What it holds
    Conventional sign-groups such as ku-ro; a sign with no assigned value is written by number (*56).
    Distance from the object
    A shared convention, not yet a reading
    Can hold a proposal
    No
    On the tablet pages
    Layer 03 · Transcription

  4. Segmentation

    What it is
    Where one unit ends and the next begins, when the author divides a group differently.
    What it holds
    Segmentation claims, signed by their author.
    Distance from the object
    The first proposal
    Can hold a proposal
    Yes — always signed by its author
    On the tablet pages
    Layer 04 · Segmentation

  5. Reading

    What it is
    What a unit is read as: a sound value, a word, a personal name.
    What it holds
    Reading claims (“reads as”, “personal name”), signed and sourced.
    Distance from the object
    A proposal
    Can hold a proposal
    Yes — always signed by its author
    On the tablet pages
    Layer 05 · Interpretation

  6. Interpretation

    What it is
    What a unit does or refers to: logogram, phonetic part, an identification.
    What it holds
    Function and identification claims, signed and sourced.
    Distance from the object
    A proposal
    Can hold a proposal
    Yes — always signed by its author
    On the tablet pages
    Layer 05 · Interpretation

  7. Translation

    What it is
    What a unit or a line is proposed to mean.
    What it holds
    Meaning claims, signed and sourced — only ever as a proposal.
    Distance from the object
    Furthest from the object
    Can hold a proposal
    Yes — always signed by its author
    On the tablet pages
    Layer 06 · Translation

Site method · two grounds

The object sits in the vitrine. The reading happens on the page.

Vitrine
Only what is on the object: signs, sign numbers, the layout the edition records. No values, no words, no meaning.
Plaster
What scholars add: the conventional transcription, a segmentation, a reading, an interpretation, a translation — and the sources each rests on.
Vitrine · the object · HT117a · entry I.1

Glyphs and sign numbers only. No values, no words, no meaning.

The object — on the clay The reading — added by scholars

Plaster · the reading

Conventional transcription
ma-ka-ri-te · ki-ro · u-mi-na-si
Enrica Patria · segmentationDisputed
MA | ka-ri-te · ki-ro · u-mi-na-si
Enrica Patria · reading
máter + khárites · khḗroi · úmnēsis
Proposed meaning
“Mother” + “thanksgivings” · “indebted (debtors)” · “hymn of praise / song of praise”

Only now does meaning enter — as a proposal.

Site method · editorial rules, not scientific claims

How this site presents the data

These rules describe the site, not the script. They need no citation, and they apply to every author’s readings alike.

  1. A proposal never wears the clothes of a fact.

    Every proposal is signed, marked and set beside the conventional reading, never in its place.

  2. A sign-group is not a word.

    A conventional sign-group is a sequence of signs as the transcription groups them; calling it a word is a further step.

  3. A missing glyph is not an uncertain sign.

    An identified sign with no verified code point is shown by its number, never with the uncertainty mark.

  4. A conflict between corpus layers is not an uncertain sign.

    When two corpus layers record different signs, both are shown with their sources; each layer is definite.

  5. A data gap is not negative evidence.

    What the site does not have yet is listed as an open issue — never filled in, never read as absence.

  6. A conventional reading is not a proposal by Enrica Patria.

    Conventional values and groupings keep their own marker; Enrica Patria’s readings keep hers.

  7. A proposed translation is not an observed fact.

    Meaning enters last, as a proposal, after the object, the signs and the readings it rests on.

Site method · the markers

Certainty grammar

Shape and colour mark the kind of statement — what it rests on and who makes it — not a degree of truth. A diamond is a proposal by its author, however strong; a square is what the object or the convention gives. Each marker also says its meaning in words.

  • Observed

    What is on the clay, or recorded by the edition: signs and sign numbers.

  • Conventional

    The conventional transcription: shared sound values, largely by correspondence with Linear B.

  • Enrica Patria proposes

    A proposal by Enrica Patria: segmentation, reading or function. Always signed.

  • Proposed translation

    A proposed meaning — only ever as a proposal.

  • Disputed / uncertain

    A warning: the reading is contested, or not settled.

  • Conventional / other reading

    The standard view, set beside a proposal and never mixed with it.

  • Sources

    Each claim names the publication, page and passage it rests on.

  • Data gaps

    What the site does not have yet is shown as an open issue — a gap, never a negative fact.

Enrica Patria proposes · in her own words

Enrica Patria’s method

The principles below are hers, as she sets them out in her publications; each quotation gives its page. The site presents them as her method — not as the method of the discipline. Where she takes it, the language she identifies, is set out on The hypothesis.

  1. Read before translating

    “When faced with an indeciphered language, the first thing to do is to try to read it. […] we must never confuse ‘interpretation’ with ‘decipherment’.”

    Patria, Reading Linear A before translating it, p. 1

  2. Classify every sign

    “The graphic system expressing Linear A is made up of five types of signs: pictograms, ideograms, logograms, phonograms and metrograms, to which ligatures and the dots, as the only diacritical tool, must be added.”

    For Enrica Patria a logogram is a phonetic sign: it indicates a word through the sound of its initial syllable.

    Patria, Reading Linear A before translating it, p. 2Patria, Linear A between sound and meaning, p. 5

  3. Keep the variants

    “Standardising the signs of a language, before deciphering it, is a bad idea because it prevents one from seeing the variants, from understanding whether they represent signs with different values or are mere variations due to the preferences of the scribe.”

    She also asks for attention to the size of signs and to dots, which she reads as the scribe’s only diacritical tool.

    Patria, Reading Linear A before translating it, p. 4Patria, Reading Linear A before translating it, p. 6

  4. Begin with the lists

    “Cryptographically speaking we are faced with a binary system that offers only two possibilities of position: either the heading or the items.”

    She begins with the economic lists, which record repetitive actions and comparable terms.

    Patria, Reading Linear A before translating it, p. 7Patria, Reading Linear A before translating it, p. 8

  5. Position, then context

    “However, position is not enough to identify the role and the presumable meaning of the terms in the lists. Another parameter is needed: the context in which they recur.”

    Patria, Reading Linear A before translating it, p. 11

  6. Congruence and reciprocity

    “A binary system has laws to respect. In our case they are two: the law of the reciprocity and the law of the congruence.”

    A term in the heading must keep a role congruent with the other heading terms and mutual with the items, and the reverse; she uses these laws to check her deductions.

    Patria, Reading Linear A before translating it, p. 15

  7. Compare occurrences and editions

    “The method employed is comparative in nature. Occurrences and co-occurrences of individual signs or groups of signs are examined systematically, with consideration given, in each case, to their position within the textual records and to the nature of the epigraphic and functional context.”

    Her analysis does not rely on a single edition but on a cross-comparison of the principal available editions.

    Patria, Linear A between sound and meaning, p. 2

  8. Linear B, with caution

    “It [the script] cannot be reduced to a simple phonetic code to be deciphered through the mechanical application of values known from Linear B, for such a procedure proves to be a misleading shortcut: it produces non-existent words and traps the language within a graphic system that does not belong to it.”

    She compares with Linear B where possible, and rejects the mechanical application of its values.

    Patria, Linear A between sound and meaning, p. 2Patria, Linear A between sound and meaning, p. 17

Worked example · from HT117a

How an argument proceeds

Not a demonstration that the proposal is right: the steps show how it is argued — from the observed form, through the comparison and the position, to the proposed value — each with its marker and its sources.

Why does Enrica Patria propose jo for AB24?

  1. 01Observation

    HT117a contains the conventional sign-group da-ne-ku-ti. Its second sign is AB24.

    da-ne-ku-tientry II.5
  2. 02Patria segmentation

    da-[AB24]-ku | TI — TI is a logogram placed after the term it refers to.

    Patria, Linear A between sound and meaning, p. 2 (HT117a,8–9)Patria, Reading Linear A before translating it, p. 12 (HT117, line 8)
  3. 03Comparandum

    HT93a,6: de-ju-ku, with AB65 (ju) where HT117a has AB24.

    Patria, Linear A between sound and meaning, p. 2 (HT93a,6)Patria, Reading Linear A before translating it, p. 4 (HT93a,6)
  4. 04Patria's relationship

    de-ju-ku and da-jo-ku are variants of one personal name, Dēíochos (also in the Iliad, XV 341): congruent positions and the a/e, o/u vocalic instability of Linear A.

    Patria, Linear A between sound and meaning, p. 2Patria, Reading Linear A before translating it, p. 4Patria, Reading Linear A before translating it, p. 15
  5. 05Proposed value

    AB24 = jo, giving da-jo-ku.

    Patria, Reading Linear A before translating it, p. 4Patria, Linear A between sound and meaning, p. 4 (summary table)
  6. 06Additional argument

    In the GORILA 5 sign lists AB24 is in final position in 70% of cases, comparable with ju (57%) and ja (37%).

    Patria, Linear A between sound and meaning, p. 2Patria, Linear A between sound and meaning, p. 3
  7. 07Conventional correspondence

    By Linear B correspondence, AB24 conventionally receives the value ne.

    Standard convention; a citable reference is still to be chosen.
  8. 08Status
    Enrica Patria proposesDisputed

    Disputed / proposed sign value. Neither reading is presented here as settled.

  9. 09Sources

    Enrica Patria

    Patria, Reading Linear A before translating it — p. 4 (da-*61-ku (117a,8) / de-ju-ku (HT93a,6)); p. 12 (HT117, line 8); p. 4 (HT93a,6); p. 4; p. 15; p. 4

    Enrica Patria Pugliese

    Patria, Linear A between sound and meaning, 2025 — p. 2 (HT93a,6 / HT117a,8–9); p. 3; p. 4 (summary table); p. 2 (HT117a,8–9); p. 2 (HT93a,6); p. 2; p. 4 (summary table); p. 2; p. 3

    Convention

    Standard convention; a citable reference is still to be chosen.

See it on HT117a Open the AB24 page

Limits

What this method does not claim

The site

  • A proposal stays a proposal, however well argued: the site never promotes it to a fact.
  • Conventional and alternative readings are kept beside the proposal, not replaced by it.
  • Conflicts between corpus layers and open data issues stay visible.
  • Nothing missing is filled in by inference: a gap stays a gap until a source fills it.

Enrica Patria proposes

  • Enrica Patria distinguishes interpretation from decipherment.

    “Only the latter, finding the grammatical links that distinguish words and bind them together, allows the identification of the language and the consistent translation of documents.”

    Patria, Reading Linear A before translating it, p. 1

  • “the quality of the results primarily depends on the philological and methodological accuracy of the data.”

    Patria, Linear A between sound and meaning, p. 17

Sources cited on this page

Enrica Patria

Patria, Reading Linear A before translating it — p. 1; p. 2; p. 4; p. 6; p. 7; p. 8; p. 11; p. 15; p. 4 (da-*61-ku (117a,8) / de-ju-ku (HT93a,6)); p. 12 (HT117, line 8); p. 4 (HT93a,6)

Enrica Patria Pugliese

Patria, Linear A between sound and meaning, 2025 — p. 5; p. 2; p. 17; p. 2 (HT93a,6 / HT117a,8–9); p. 3; p. 4 (summary table); p. 2 (HT117a,8–9); p. 2 (HT93a,6)

Convention

Standard convention; a citable reference is still to be chosen.