Executive Summary
- Amateur claims to have cracked the Linear A code using Python scripts and the Claude Code.
- The solution could open doors to connecting Indo-European languages with Semitic languages.
- The claim is being reviewed by linguistics experts at Rutgers and Cambridge.
The Buzz Score
The Internet’s Verdict: 70% Hyped, 30% Skeptical
Context and Challenges
Linear A is an ancient script with a limited corpus of text, making it difficult to decipher. As one expert notes:
The corpus is extremely fragmentary, with just a handful of instances of longer text (and even then, the texts are the length of an average sentence in English).
The limited text and lack of a known language to compare it to have hindered previous attempts at deciphering the script.
Methodology and Results
The amateur used Python scripts to query, cross-reference, and organize the digitized Linear A corpus, enabling systematic hypothesis testing. As another expert mentions:
Di Mino used Claude Code to build a suite of Python scripts that query, cross-reference, and organize the digitized Linear A corpus (drawn from the GORILA and SigLA databases), enabling systematic hypothesis testing at a scale that would have been impractical to do manually.
The approach has produced results, with over 300 words translated, and has the potential to solve some problems in Linear B.
Focus Keyword: Linear A
