Boastradamus logoBOASTRADAMUS
← Back to Boastradamus
Computational Epigraphy · Reproducibility · Provenance

Linear A Research Network

An integrated research environment for asking what can actually be learned from Linear A without pretending the script has been deciphered. The project combines structural testing, corpus reconciliation, modern epigraphy, publication monitoring, linked archaeological data, and a strict prospective-evidence firewall.

No decipherment claim H11 structural model selected Sealed predictions remain private Negative results preserved Object-level provenance required

Where the research stands

The strongest result is structural: recurring construction families are highly predictive, but the evidence does not support turning those regularities into claimed meanings or grammar.

43
independently defined H11 families
204
masked-family recovery tests
0.944
shared-chunk mean reciprocal rank
40 / 43
families observed across sites

Current findings

These are project results, not accepted translations. Each statement is deliberately narrower than the data it summarizes.

1. A lexical / construction network currently fits best

Within H11 model selection, the lexical/construction-network model scored 16, compared with 6.5 for a common-chunk/null model and -4 for a limited productive-morphology model. The leader remained stable under leave-one-independent-evidence-out testing.

Interpretation is structural only. It does not identify meanings, morphemes, grammatical categories, sounds, or a historical language family.

2. Recurring chunks predict hidden family members

Across 204 masked tests, the shared-chunk model achieved MRR ≈ 0.944, 100% top-five recovery, and about 89.7% rank-one recovery. Adding family-specific edge information did not improve the model.

This is evidence for stable constructional organization, not proof of productive affixes.

3. The pattern is broadly portable across sites

40 of 43 H11-C families occur across more than one site. That makes a purely local scribal or site-specific explanation less attractive.

At the same time, support specialization was absent and no FDR-significant scribe concentration survived.

4. Several attractive morphology signals failed stronger tests

Exact one-edge density was not exceptional, secure positional slots did not survive FDR control, and a frozen productive-operator transfer test performed 0/18 while the lexical/formula baseline recovered 18/18.

That negative evidence is part of the result. We do not hide failed hypotheses.

Current working interpretation: the corpus looks more like a network of recurring lexical or formulaic constructions than a clean system of reusable edge morphology. That is a model-selection result, not a translation.

Research direction

The next phase moves outward: better objects, better provenance, independent controls, modern images, and automated discovery of genuinely new material.

Live research watch

Recent candidate publications discovered through scholarly metadata APIs. Results are leads for human review, not automatically admitted evidence.

Loading OpenAlex and Crossref…

Research ecosystem: APIs and data infrastructure

These are the services we should actively integrate. The priority labels reflect usefulness to this project, not prestige.

GitHub repositories we should work with

Some are upstream data sources, some are toolkits, and some are competing hypotheses. Those roles must remain distinct.

Prospective-evidence firewall

Network access makes contamination easier, not harder. The web platform therefore separates discovery from admission.

1 · IdentifyCanonical object ID, catalogue number, findspot and physical object.
2 · ReconcileAliases, joins, fragments, faces, sides and doubtful classifications.
3 · AuditDiscovery/publication chronology, prior corpus occurrence and prior project exposure.
4 · AdmitOnly after independence is established may lexical content be inspected for a sealed test.

Immediate priority queue

Evidence acquisition

RILA-S1: obtain and ingest the full object concordance lawfully, metadata first.
Post-2023 objects: continue object-level watch without opening sealed predictions.
Landau 1958 pp. 268–273: obtain lawful access for controlled onomastic/reference work.

Infrastructure

Build canonical object records with authority IDs, publication history, image/3D links, place identifiers, corpus aliases, conflict flags, and a machine-readable contamination state. Add automated literature and dataset monitoring around that object graph.

← Return to the Boastradamus main page