streamlined pictographic script

'The Minoans . . . evolved their own distinct script, following the old pattern that had developed thousands of years before: from seals on goods to pictograms, from pictograms to streamlined pictographic script. The earliest form of this script survives on a scattering of tablets and stone engravings across Crete, and is generally called 'Linear A' to distinguish it from its more sophisticated descendent: 'Linear B,' the version of Minoan script which spread north to the Mycenaeans.'

'Susan Wise Bauer, The History of the Ancient World, 2007.