Ancient Mediterranean alphabets

I have always been slightly fascinated by the way a language can move from oral tradition to a written system. Ancient civilizations developed some quite interesting alphabets (because we partially recognize or understand them).

One of them appears to be well understood even today: The Greek alphabet evolved with technology around the Mediterranean sea.

However, It was clearly preceded by older scripts and some of them have not even been translated as of today. From the Bronze Age in Southern Europe and the “interior sea”, you would find:

• Linear A script: Used by the Minoan civilization in Crete around 1500 BCE to 1200 BCE.

• Linear B script: Used by the Mycenaean civilization in Crete around 1850 BCE to 1450 BCE.

I invite you to follow the links to the World Histroy Encyclopedia, which contain very useful information about all these (and other historical data).