© Darafsh/Wikimedia/CC 3.0An example of Linear Elamite.
An ancient Iranian mystery has finally been solved, according to a French archaeologist who reports
successfully cracking the code to an enigmatic, undeciphered writing system.Known as Linear Elamite, the
4000-year-old script — once considered impossible to decode — has now been unlocked by François Desset, in an achievement that has drawn comparisons to Jean-François Champollion's famous deciphering of the enigmatic Rosetta Stone.
Desset, a 43-year-old
archaeological researcher based at the University of Liege in Belgium, says the remarkable ancient script is the only truly "local" writing system from the country's early history,
which is currently embattled. Others that have been used there over the millennia — from cuneiform to the Arabic and Greek alphabets — all have Western origins.
The Enigma of Linear ElamiteOriginally discovered more than a century ago during archaeological reconnaissance at the Iranian Susa site, Desset's first encounters with the ancient script occurred two decades ago, while working in the country's southern region.
There, he and other archaeologists participated in discoveries very much like something out of an
Indiana Jones film — the uncovering of ancient tablets covered in an enigmatic,
undeciphered language.Linear Elamite comprises 77 individual characters, including geometric patterns and various other shapes, making it distinct among ancient writing systems.The scripts are attributed by scholars to the 4th millennium Elam civilization, a Bronze Age state for which Susa once served as capital. It was there that, in 1903, French missionaries first uncovered the peculiar script on ancient tablets, which remained the sole examples of what came to be known as Linear Elamite for many decades.
