Arkalochori Axe

Arkalochori Axe - the central portion of the bronze labrys bears inscriptions - circa second millennium B.C.

The bronze Arkalochori Axe is a second millennium B.C. Minoan votive double axe (labrys) excavated by Spyridon Marinatos in 1934 in the Arkalochori cave on Crete,^[1] which is believed to have been used for religious rituals.^[2] The labrys is inscribed with fifteen symbols.

It has been suggested that these symbols might be Linear A, although some scholars disagree.^[3]

The labrys and the Phaistos Disc are conserved in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum. They share some symbols.

The Inscription

Of the fifteen signs, two appear to be unique. The following suggestions for comparison with Linear A and Phaistos Disc glyphs are attributed to Torsten Timm (2004).^[4] Reading right to left, top to bottom, the symbols are:

№	Sign	Comment	Linear A	Phaistos Disc
01			A 304 KA ??
02			AB28 I	D39
03			AB01 DA
04				D02
05
06			AB05 TO ??
07		cf. 04		D02
08			AB80 MA
09			AB04 TE ?	D35
10		cf. 04		D02
11			AB31 SA ??	D19
12		cf. 08	AB80 MA
13			AB06 NA ??	D23
14		Root?
15			A338 ?

References

1. Best, Jan G. P.; Woudhuizen, Fred (31 December 1989). Lost Languages from the Mediterranean. Brill. p. 97. ISBN 978-90-04-08934-1.
2. Whittaker, Helène (2005). "Social and Symbolic Aspects of Minoan writing". European Journal of Archaeology 8 (2): 157–181. doi:10.1177/1461957105058207.
3. Price, Glanville (2000). Encyclopedia of the languages of Europe. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 384. ISBN 978-0-631-22039-8.
4. Timm, Torsten (2004). "Der Diskos von Phaistos - Anmerkungen zur Deutung und Textstruktur". Indogermanische Forschungen (109): 204–231. (PDF 0.5 Mb)