Computational methods for undeciphered scripts

The study of ancient, undeciphered scripts through computational means presents unique challenges that depend both on the nature of the problem and on the peculiarities of each writing system. This volume presents two computational approaches that were successfully applied to two writing systems from the Aegean and Cyprus; the success of these endeavors paves the way for new discoveries and methods. The first part features a discussion of the Linear A and Cypro-Minoan writing systems, as well as a background of the computational approaches used. The description of the paleographic and technical aspects is aimed at scholars of both disciplines and provides an extensive background, which is crucial to understanding the goals and methods of this study. The second part is a discussion of the experimental results, which includes a proposed decipherment of the Linear A fractions. Further, the experiments on Cypro-Minoan demonstrate that, contrary to previous hypotheses, it is a single writing system, rather than comprising three separate systems.