8 - PROSPECTS

Summary

The Linear B script is deciphered; what remains? What is the task that Michael Ventris has left to us, his friends and colleagues? There is a great deal still to do, and with the methods he taught us we have high hopes of further, if less spectacular, successes.

The decipherment has already triggered off a fresh series of attacks on the other two unknown scripts of the Aegean world: Linear A, the Cretan script, and Cypro-Minoan, the Bronze Age script of Cyprus. Linear A is obviously a close relative of Linear B, if not its immediate ancestor, so it would appear a reasonable working hypothesis to assume that the values of the signs which are closely similar in the two systems should be approximately the same. This provides a starting-point; but the application of phonetic values does not immediately yield recognizable words. It would be a great stroke of luck if the language proved to be akin to one already known; but failing this, it will be necessary to proceed by the steps laid down by Miss Kober and followed by Ventris: the texts must be analysed, the meanings of words or formulas deduced, the structure of the language worked out, and eventually a grid prepared by which to check the values transferred from Linear B.