What is in the database
The site ships a single SQLite file and queries it in your browser. Every number on this page is computed from that file when the site is built, so none of it can drift away from what the site actually holds.
Tables
| table | rows | what it holds |
|---|---|---|
inscriptions | 1,884 | one row per inscribed face, as the upstream corpus gives it |
words | 1,740 | editorial word divisions, where a source supplies them |
runs | 2,886 | mechanical segmentation: maximal runs of syllabic signs |
signs | 402 | the sign inventory, with sound values where Linear B supplies one |
sign_occurrences | 4,936 | per-position sign data from SigLA |
sites | 54 | curated findspot coordinates — see the design doc |
featured | 12 | the texts the home page leads with — a choice of presentation, curated here |
readings | 39 | proposed meanings; competing claims are separate rows |
reading_forms | 44 | every form a reading applies to, including declared variants |
translations | 1 | proposed renderings of a whole text, kept apart from word glosses |
sources | 5 | who proposed what, and whether it was peer-reviewed |
images | 1,042 | facsimile drawings and photographs, where they are published |
meta | 2 | provenance: which upstream commit this was built from |
How much is understood
This is the number that matters, and the one most easily overstated. A word counts as covered if any source proposes a meaning for it or for a sequence inside it.
- word instances
- 134 of 1,740 7.7%
- distinct forms
- 39 of 1,101 3.5%
- faces touched
- 81 of 701 11.6%
- tablets touched
- 52 of 403 12.9%
Linear A is undeciphered. Most of those proposals are contested, and several of them decline to state a meaning at all — recording that a word is a vessel term, or a formula element of unknown sense, is still an honest answer.
Readings by source
| source | readings | forms | kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| Schümann 2026 | 10 | 10 | preprint |
| conventional | 10 | 10 | compilation |
| Salgarella 2025 | 8 | 8 | book |
| HT 31 layout | 7 | 7 | compilation |
| Linear B correspondence | 4 | 4 | compilation |
- established 4
- widely accepted 10
- debated 6
- speculative 19
Signs
A sign has a sound value only where Linear B has the same sign to borrow from. Signs unique to Linear A are written *NNN — a catalogue number, not a sound.
| category | signs | with a sound value |
|---|---|---|
| syllabogram | 164 | 76 |
| logogram | 118 | 0 |
| ligature | 64 | 0 |
| unclassified | 20 | 0 |
| other | 16 | 0 |
| fraction | 14 | 0 |
| compound logogram | 6 | 0 |
Objects and findspots
| object type | faces |
|---|---|
| nodule | 913 |
| tablet | 489 |
| roundel | 194 |
| clay vessel | 64 |
| stone vessel | 63 |
| unknown | 60 |
| metal object | 21 |
| stone object | 16 |
| sealing | 16 |
| pithos | 7 |
| site | faces |
|---|---|
| Haghia Triada | 1167 |
| Khania | 247 |
| Phaistos | 79 |
| Knossos | 65 |
| Zakros | 53 |
| Palaikastro | 25 |
| Mallia | 24 |
| Thera | 18 |
| Iouktas | 16 |
| Syme | 12 |
41 of 54 sites have coordinates, 35 have a Wikipedia article. 1,042 images cover 537 faces — none are published without permission, so a build without them is simply a build without them.
Built from corpus 3a83a327505b.