Tom Stevenson on the deciphering of Linear Elamite

by eynshamon 2/26/2025, 9:39 PMwith 24 comments

by lolcon 2/27/2025, 12:00 PM

You can look at the transcribed Linear Elam corpus at https://center-for-decipherment.ch/tool/#script=elam

By enabling phonetic replacement, you can read the text of these old fragments of human writing: https://center-for-decipherment.ch/tool/#script=elam&dir=LTR...

The site grew out of an independent effort to decipher Linear Elam but these days we pretty much track what Desset is publishing. The glyphs are mapped in the Unicode private use range and strings can be copied into text documents as long as you use the provided fonts.

by yannison 2/27/2025, 12:19 AM

A very well written article. Of interest also is the story of the Mahoubian collection, see http://mahboubiancollection.com/life-and-works/art-robbery-i... its confiscation in New York and following trials.

by canjobearon 2/27/2025, 7:08 AM

The academic paper is here https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361675439_The_Decip...

It looks convincing to me. It's exactly the same method used to decipher cuneiform, starting with proper names in certain inscriptions and then figuring out the content of other inscriptions somewhat like a crossword puzzle. The fact that one of the tablets turns out to record the syllabary in order is especially compelling.

by IncreasePostson 2/27/2025, 7:46 PM

Why can't I find any reference to the 11th century Arabic book "The Book of Mad Desire for the Knowledge of Written Symbols" referenced in the article?

by msravion 2/27/2025, 12:17 AM

Related; A cryptanalytic decipherment of the Indus Script

https://www.academia.edu/78867798/A_cryptanalytic_decipherme...

by dieseleratoron 2/27/2025, 4:04 AM

The article was interesting.

Can someone explain:

Why is it called "linear" Elamite?

Is there unicode for linear Elamite yet?

by selimthegrimon 2/26/2025, 10:16 PM

No mention of the hypothesis about Dravidian being descended from Elamite?