Online resources

Web sites of general interest

1. ASCSA (The American School of Classical Studies at Athens)
   Founded in 1881, it promotes study and research on different aspects of Greek culture. It organizes and finances excavations (many on Crete), congresses, seminars and conferences. It has a very well-furnished library and an important laboratory for archeometric analysis.
   
2. BSA (The British School at Athens)
   Founded in 1886, it promotes studies and research on different aspects of Greek culture. It organizes and finances excavations (among others, Knossos, and Palekastro on Crete), congresses, seminars and conferences. It has a very well-furnished library and an important laboratory for archeological analysis.
   
3. CAC (Centro di archeologia cretese)
   Research group of the University of Catania, Italy, for the prehistory and protohistory of the Island of Crete. Conducts research on the sites of Phaistos and Agia Triada.
   
4. EfA (Ecole française d'Athènes)
   Founded in 1846, it promotes study and research on different aspects of Greek culture. It organizes and finances excavations (including Malia on Crete), congresses, seminars and conferences. It has a large library.
   
5. ISPC (Istituto di Scienze del Patrimonio Culturale - CNR)
   Research institute of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) whose mission is to pursue scientific excellence and encourage innovation in knowledge, conservation and use of cultural heritage. Researchers at the institute include specialists in the fields of Aegean, Anatolian and Ancient Near Eastern epigraphy.
   
6. INSTAP (Institute for Aegean Prehistory)
   Cretan offices of the Institute for Aegean Prehistory, founded in Philadelphia in 1982. Base for American archeological missions in Crete, it also houses researchers from other countries working on the prehistory and protohistory of the island.
   
7. SAIA (Scuola Archeologica Italiana di Atene)
   Founded in 1909, it promotes study and research on different aspects of Greek culture. It organizes and finances digs excavations (many on Crete), congresses, seminars and conferences. It houses an important school for post graduate and specialization studies in archaeology and epigraphy. It has a large library.
   

Institutions, centers for study and research

1. CMS (Corpus der minoischen und mykenischen Siegel)
   Center for the study of Minoan and Mycenaean glyptics, founded in Marburg, Germany in 1958 by F. Matz. It edits and publishes the Corpus of the Minoan and Mycenaean seals and sealings. In 2011, the centre moved to Heidelberg. The archives of the CMS contain about 100,000 negatives and 9,000 moulds.
   
2. DBAS CHS (Databases about Aegean Subjects - Cretan Hieroglyphic Seals)
   Online database of the Corpus of Minoan seals with inscriptions in Cretan Hieroglyphics. Created by the University of Florence, the database contains information about inscriptions, decorative elements, iconographic motifs, the dating, the origins and the material characteristics of the seals.
   
3. PASP (Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory)
   Research center located in Austin, Texas, founded in 1986, it conducts research on Cretan writing in the bronze age (Cretan Hieroglyphics, Linear A and Linear B) and on Cypriot syllabic writing systems (Cypro-Minoan and Classical Cypriot).
   
4. CREWS project (Contexts of and Relations between Early Writing Systems)
   Project funded by the European Research Council and based in Cambridge. The aim of the project is to develop new methodologies for the study of writing systems and their social and material contexts. Case studies include Bronze Age Aegean and Cypriot scripts and their mutual relationships.
   
5. INSCRIBE (Invention of Scripts and Their Beginnings)
   Project funded by the European Research Council and based in Bologna. The project addresses the theme of the invention of writing from a comparative perspective. Among the scripts studied are the Aegean and Cypriot Bronze Age scripts.
   

Academic materials

1. Prehistoric Archaeology of the Aegean
   Introductory course to the archaeology of Aegean prehistory and protohistory, ed. by J. B. Rutter (Dartmouth College, New Hampshire), containing numerous illustrations (see, esp., Lesson 10).
   

Fonts

1. Minos01
   TrueType Font with the signs of the Cretan Hieroglyphics from seals and seal impressions. Created by the research team of the University of Florence for the project DBAS - CHS (Databases About Aegean Subjects - Cretan Hieroglyphic Seals) using the model of Scripta Minoa I, Oxford 1909.
   
2. Minos02
   TrueType Font with the signs of the Cretan Hieroglyphics from various documents, seals and seal impressions. Created by the research team of the University of Florence for the project DBAS - CHS (Databases About Aegean Subjects - Cretan Hieroglyphic Seals) using the model of CHIC, Paris, 1996.
   
3. Minos03
   TrueType Font with the signs of the Cretan Hieroglyphics from seals and seal impressions. Created by the research team of the University of Florence for the project DBAS - CHS (Databases About Aegean Subjects - Cretan Hieroglyphic Seals) using the model of CHIC, Paris, 1996.
   
4. Minos04
   TrueType Font of the decorative signs found on seals (variants of Cretan Hieroglyphic signs or signs not found in CHIC). Created by the research team of the University of Florence for the project DBAS - CHS (Databases About Aegean Subjects - Cretan Hieroglyphic Seals) based on the photos of CHIC and CMS.
   
5. Aegean
   Unicode font designed by George Douros (includes all Cretan "Hieroglyphic" signs).
   

Museums and collections

1. Museum of Herakleion (Crete)
   One of the most important museums of Europe. Its storerooms hold more than half of the inscriptions in Cretan Hieroglyphics.
   

Collections of texts and digital libraries

1. CHIC. Corpus Hieroglyphicarum Inscriptionum Cretae
   The Corpus of Cretan Hieroglyphic inscriptions, ed. by J.-P. Olivier and L. Godart (Paris 1996), published online by the editor, Ecole française d'Athènes, for private use. Each inscription is provided with a photograph, a facsimile, a normalized transcription and the transnumeration. For the archive documents (nodules, cones, medallions, blades, bars, tablets) there is also a tabular transcription, where each row corresponds to one and only one bookkeeping entry.
   
2. The Cretan Hieroglyphic Texts
   The Cretan Hieroglyphic inscriptions, including those after CHIC, ed. by J. Younger (University of Kansas, USA). Each inscription is furnished with a normalized transcription, transnumeration and epigraphic comment. The author also furnishes a transliteration based on personal hypothesis about the phonetic value of the syllabograms and the meaning of the logograms in Cretan Hieroglyphics. These hypotheses are presented in detail in the document "Notes on the signs" and summarized schematically in the document "The hieroglyphic grids". The method used to assign the values is based mostly on real or presumed homomorphisms with the signs of Linear A and Linear B and as such seem to be substantially unreliable. Lastly, in the document "Notes on certain signgroups", some groups of signs are analyzed and hypotheses about their respective functions and meanings are made.
   
3. Scripta minoa (Band 1): The hieroglyphic and primitive linear classes
   On-line version of the monograph by A. Evans, Scripta Minoa I (Oxford 1909), on Cretan "Hieroglyphics" and on Linear A (edited by Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg).
   
4. Cretan Hieroglyphs
   Web site with photos and drawings of Cretan “Hieroglyphic” inscriptions. Each inscription is accompanied by a standard transcription, transnumeration and epigraphic commentary (from John Younger's site, see above). The site allows the filtering of inscriptions according to the text and offers detailed palaeographic tables of the individual signs.
   

People

1. Arthur Evans (1851-1941)
   Biography of the discoverer of the Palace of Knossos, one of the first scholars to study Cretan Hieroglyphics.
   
2. The Arthur Evans archive (Knossos excavations)
   Online archive of the papers of Arthur Evans concerning the Knossos excavation. The original documents are preserved at the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford.
   
3. IDAP (International Directory of Aegean Prehistorians)
   The Directory can be queried by name. The entries contain addresses, telephone and fax numbers, email addresses and a brief profile of the researchers based on their research interests.
   

Bibliography

1. NESTOR. Bibliography of Aegean Prehistory and Related Areas
   Specialized bibliography of research on Aegean prehistory and protohistory. Entries up to 2006 can be consulted online using the internal research engine. Sponsored by the Department of Classics in the University of Cincinnati (Ohio, USA)
   
2. SPHRAGIS. A Bibliography for Aegean Glyptic
   Annotated bibliography about the Minoan and Mycenaean glyptics, ed. by J. Younger (University of Kansas). Contains bibliographic references about inscriptions on seals in Cretan Hieroglyphics.
   
3. Specialized Bibliography on Cretan Hieroglyphics (J. B. Rutter)
   Bibliographic section of Ch. 10 of the introductory Course on the archeology of Aegean prehistory and protohistory, ed. by J. B. Rutter (Dartmouth College, New Hampshire).
   
4. Specialized bibliography of Cretan Hieroglyphics (J. Younger)
   Bibliography ed. by J. Younger (University of Kansas, USA).