Discovery of New 'Labyrinthine' Writing System

Reuters has broken some fascinating news:

"Discovery of New 'Labyrinthine' Language Shakes Up Understanding of Writing"

By KIRK BILLINGHOUSE
Published: December 6, 2008

KNOSSOS, CRETE — In an excavation outside the palace at Knossos, the center of the ancient Minoan civilization on the island of Crete, Danish archaeolinguist Jorgen Rosencrans has identified proto-Cretan symbols that are revolutionizing current theories on the development of writing. Rosencrans discovered the symbols on massive basalt stone ruins which many historians and archaeologists purport to be the remains of the Minotaur's Labyrinth of lore. According to Rosencrans, the symbols manifest a typographical structure never before observed in the variegated history of writing systems.

"What we are looking at is an entirely non-linear graphemic structure," Rosencrans said. "I have never seen anything like this before. The entire field of archaeolinguistics is equally riveted and puzzled."

Puzzled indeed, for Rosencrans describes the symbols as "labyrinthine" — and he means this quite literally. "The symbols consist of no orthogonal lines, only various concentric and unicursal lines," Rosencrans explained. "A lot of the symbols also include nodes at different points on the curves. Each symbol, moreover, has an aperture on the circumference, which you can trace to a center chamber, if you will. What you have, in effect, is a labyrinth."

Rosencrans and his crew were the not the first to find these symbols. Previous excavators and researchers concluded the engravings were ornamental in nature, but Rosencrans studied them from a different point of a view.

"What struck me was the arrangement of the symbols," Rosencrans said. "The symbols, themselves small self-contained circles, are arrayed such that they form one larger circle. Some of the symbols are repeated, some have the same unicursal construction but with distinct node patterns. Others are entirely unique."

Rosencrans parses the circular arrangement as an alternative to left-to-right ordering conventions common in Western writing systems, right-to-left ordering conventions seen in various Middle Eastern typographies, and to the vertical conventions utilized in traditional Asian writing.

"I believe we are beholding a whole new kind of syntax, actually, not just a whole new, though antediluvian, writing system." Rosencrans added. "With these proto-Cretan symbols, you have directional optionality. You can begin at any point on the larger circle and read to the left or the right. The syntactical permutations really multiply when you consider the extensive possibilities of movement inward and outward within the greater circle. This is a phenomenally complex system."

The nodes may also have functioned as a primitive form of diacritics, the team speculates.

The team is still searching for explanations for the historical and typographical distinctness of the language. The isolation resulting from island geography may illuminate some of the mystery, but historians have well-substantiated evidence for Cretan navigation — including trade with Phoenicians, whose early alphabet archaeolinguists conclude birthed the Greek alphabet, which then fathered Western writing systems. But historians note that much about the Minoan civilization, which flourished between 2700 to 1450 BC to its sudden catastrophic collapse, is still shrouded in uncertainty.

Rosencrans does assert that the symbols, due, in part, to their labyrinthine complexity, were likely the exclusive domain of Minoan royalty, and perhaps even of a priestly labyrinth cult.

"We still have a lot more to learn. But this is a very exciting time," said Rosencrans.

Rosencrans' findings will be published in the spring edition of the archaeolinguistics quarterly Language & Time, as well as in the monthly La Société Internationale des Disciples de Labyrinthe.