A 4,000-year-old ancient writing system called Linear Elamite might have finally been deciphered, according to a German study published in July.
Only 40 known examples of Linear Elamite exist today, making it one of the most complex scripts to decode, but researchers think they’ve finally nailed it, according to LiveScience. The study, published in the Journal of Assyriology and Near Eastern Archaeology, used the writings on eight silver beakers and compared them to previous attempts to decode other inscriptions.
The team also compared the inscriptions on the beakers to other texts from around the same time period, roughly 2300 B.C. to 1800 B.C., LiveScience continued. A majority of the texts were finally translated into modern tongue, but about 3.7% of the signs remain lost to history, the authors wrote.
Silver cup with Linear Elamite inscription, Iran, ca. 2100 BC pic.twitter.com/v3hC8NpIgI
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One of the texts reportedly translated to: “Puzur-Sušinak, king of Awan, Insušinak [a deity] loves him,” as well as the message that those who rebel against Puzur-Sušinak should “be destroyed,” the authors discovered. More complete translations will be published in the near future, they noted.
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Experts are reportedly not completely convinced by the team’s translation. University of Oxford Assyriology professor Jacob Dahl voiced his concerns over whether the team’s discovery is a successful decipherment. The location of the beaker’s discovery in Iran and suspicious features on the inscriptions suggest the analysis could have used forged artifacts, Live Science continued. (RELATED: New Discovery Suggests Penguins Literally Quit Flying)
Chemical and metallurgical analysis performed on the items in 2018 did not find any evidence of a forgery, but at least one of the pieces come from a much-contested collection held by Norwegian businessman and collector Martin Schøyen, LiveScience noted.
Hundreds of artifacts held by Schøyen were confiscated by Norwegian police in 2021 because he “failed to provide documentation of legal removal from Iran and the evidence on balance otherwise indicates modern looting, smuggling and illicit trading,” according to a statement from the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo.