Ah That's Not Worth a New Thread News Thread

[billy rubin]

oh the humanity!

[Asmodean]

...Or the explosively-sudden lack thereof

[Recusant]

Time for something completely different. Brings to mind the Phaistos Disc though the disc is much more sophisticated. There is in fact an abundance of undeciphered inscriptions, this is only the most recent to be discovered.

"Ancient Tablet Etched With Mysterious Language Found in Georgia" | Science Alert

Bashplemi Lake tablet (left) with its 60 inscriptions in bold (right).
Image Credit: Shengalia et al., Journal of
Ancient History and Archaeology, 2024

A few years ago, late in the fall of 2021, locals fishing Georgia's Bashplemi Lake in the municipality of Dmanisi came across a long-forgotten piece of history – a small stone tablet inscribed with dozens of mysterious symbols.

Now a team of archaeologists from across Georgia has confirmed the impressions represent samples of a script that has never been documented, raising questions on the spread and preservation of writing across the transcontinental region.

Roughly the size of an iPad, the basalt tablet features just 39 different characters in 60 inscriptions written left to right across seven lines. Each carved symbol began as a series of holes made with a cone-shaped drill, connected into flowing lines with a smooth, round tool.

Who crafted the symbols, or why, is open to speculation. Perhaps they dictate the spoils of a military campaign. Maybe they're details on construction, or even a receipt for a gift to the gods.

An analysis using optical and electronic microscopy and a cursory examination of the surroundings by air and archeological record suggest the tablet's origins lay amid the surrounding basalt, possibly during the region's Bronze Age.

[Continues . . .]

The paper is open access via a PDF at the link.

"Discovery of Unknown Script Characters in Georgia: The Bashplemi Lake Tablet" | Journal of Ancient History and Archaeology

Abstract:

In Georgia, numerous sites date back to the Bronze Age. Nearby Bashplemi Lake, the site of the discovery of a basalt tablet bearing an inscription with unknown characters, is the site where the skull of a 1.8-million-year-old hominin, the first European, was discovered.

This tablet, which bears 60 signs, 39 of them different, raises the question of the origin of the Georgian script, proto-Georgian. While the basalt on which it is based is known to be of local origin, its meaning is unknown and there remains a long way to go to decipher it. An initial comparative analysis conducted with over 20 languages shows that the characters, which could belong to an aboriginal Caucasian population, beside proto-Georgian and Albanian writing signs, bear some similarities with Semitic, Brahmani, and North Iberian characters.