> mason's marks (isolated signs on building stone, sometimes in pairs or even more in the 'first palaces', harbours and quarries) : the first ones --> EM III / MMIa (ca 2250-1900 BC), the majority --> MMIb / MM II (ca 1900-1700 BC) > about mason's marks

> Proto-Cypro-Minoan (Vounous, Cyprus) : ca 2250-2100 BC (EMIII)

> Proto-Linear A phase 1 (short scripts : Apodoulou, Troy) : ca 2100/ 2000 BC (MMIa1)

> Proto-Linear A phase 2 (longer scripts : Phaistos) : ca 1800-1700 BC (MMIIa/b)

> usual Linear A phase 1 (tablets and libation tables) : ca 1700-1500 (MMIII/LMIa)

> usual Linear A phase 2 (tablets) : ca 1500-1450 (LMIb)

> usual Linear A phase 3 (a few documents under Mycenaean rule and Linear B domination ) : ca 1450-1375 BC (LMII/LMIIIa1)

>more information :

Simon M. Bennett, Gareth A. Owens, 'The dating of the Linear A inscriptions from Thera', in Kadmos, 38-39

Rodney Castleden, Minoans : Life in Bronze Age Crete, Routledge, 1997, p. 183-184

Davina Huxley, 'Cretan quests : 'British explorers, exacavators and historians', British School at Athens, 2000, p. 62, 67

Hubert La Marle, Linéaire A : la première écriture syllabique de Crète, vol. 3, p. 124-125; vol. 4, p. 151-152

Jacques Raison, Maurice Pope, Corpus transnuméré du Linéaire A, Peeters, 1994, p. 5-6, 19

Ilse Schoep, 'The administration of Neopalatial Crete : a critical assessment of the Linear A tablets and their role in the administrative process', in Minos 17, suppl., 2002

(<Inscribed cartouche on the Vounous jug, Archaeological Museum of Nicosia, Cyprus)