47. Signs, Scripts & Silence: Cypro-Minoan with Cassandra Donnelly

Support the Podcast! Nominate The History of Cyprus Podcast for the 2026 CYDIA Award: Cypro-Minoan is an undeciphered syllabic script in use during the Late Bronze Age, offering a rare glimpse into a local writing tradition at the crossroads of Aegean, Levantine, and Anatolian exchange. In this episode, Cassandra Donnelly breaks down what we do know about Cypro-Minoan—from its discovery and visual features to its possible uses in trade and identity. We explore the difference between script and language, discuss the curious appearance of single-sign texts, and examine how writing may have been taught “on the job” by merchants rather than in scribal schools. Donnelly explains how the writing system’s survival during the broader Bronze Age collapse reveals something unique about Cyprus’ decentralized social structure. We also dig into how early 20th-century archaeological ideologies shaped assumptions about ethnicity and literacy on the island.

You can listen to 47. Signs, Scripts & Silence: Cypro-Minoan with Cassandra Donnelly online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

47. Signs, Scripts & Silence: Cypro-Minoan with Cassandra Donnelly is an episode from The History of Cyprus Podcast by cyprusthepodcast.

This episode is 86:43 long.

This episode was published on Feb 2, 2026.

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