Cuneiform2 minBehistun Inscription Decipherment: How Cuneiform Was Read
How the multilingual Behistun Inscription gave scholars a comparative key for reading Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian cuneiform.
Research cluster · 6 articles
Undeciphered Scripts
Writing systems, inscriptions and the hard limits of decipherment, from Linear A to Rongorongo.
Cuneiform2 min
Rongorongo6 minRongorongo: Can Easter Island’s Mysterious Signs Be Deciphered?
Rongorongo survives on a small number of wooden objects from Rapa Nui. Loss of cultural context and an uncertain writing system make decipherment exceptionally difficult.
Linear A6 minLinear A: Why the Minoan Script Remains Undeciphered
Linear A can partly be sounded out by comparison with Linear B, but the underlying language remains unknown and the texts are short.
Sumerian6 minHow Are Sumerian Tablets Read? From Broken Clay to Modern Translation
Reading a Sumerian tablet requires excavation context, sign identification, transliteration, grammar and comparison with duplicate manuscripts.
Indus Civilization6 minThe Indus Script: Why Thousands of Signs Still Resist Decipherment
Indus inscriptions are numerous but extremely short, and the language behind them is unknown. That combination prevents a secure translation.
Phaistos Disc6 minThe Phaistos Disc: Crete’s Unsolved Message Written in 45 Symbols
The Phaistos Disc carries a spiral sequence of stamped signs, but its language, purpose and reading direction remain unresolved.