Secret History
This is no small discovery: it was more than a century, in other words since the discovery in 1901 of the first tablets, that this writing system was known. But no one, despite all the attempts in 119 years, has ever found the key. No one, until François Desset, 38, associate researcher at CNRS Archaeorient from Lyon and specialist in the Bronze Age and the Neolithic in Iran.
The archaeologist did not just dream ahead Indiana Jones. Ten years of studies, a thesis, a move to Iran, more than fourteen years of work, and finally a click, in 2017, while studying a series of texts found on a silver funeral vase. He identifies repetitions, sequences of perfectly identical signs and understands that it is a proper name. So he finds the names of two rulers, then that of the local goddess, Napirisha, and from there, decodes the rest, syllable after syllable, finding a prayer.
"I did not wake up one morning telling myself that I had deciphered the linear elamite, he said to Science and the Future, it really took me ten years (...) but thanks to this work, I can now affirm that writing did not first appear in Mesopotamia alone but that two writings appeared at the same time in two different regions. " This is the other revolution, since until now, the world cradle of writing was Mesopotamia, present-day Iraq, formerly Babylon. With his 4,400-year-old tablets, François Desset has changed everything.
These Elamite writings are contemporary with the Mesopotamian writings equally. Enough to show that the story is always more subtle and complex than a simple chronology. But whatever, in 2020, Elamite writing finally has a reader. A decryptor who will publish all of his work on the subject next year, in 2021.
Comment: See also:
- Archaeologists find 7,000-year-old example of one of the world's earliest writing systems
- Mysterious egalitarian 'megasites' could rewrite history of world's first cities
- 5,000 year old cultic area for warrior-god uncovered in Iraq
- Cuneiform clay tablet translated for the first time, Describes Asteroid Impact
Reader Comments
BFM Bundesamt für Migration (French: Federal Office for Migration; Switzerland)I think you're gonna have to help me out there a bit.
BFM Basic Fatigue Management (transportation; Australia)
BFM Boyfriend Material
BFM Brazing Filler Metal
BFM Berlin-Frankfurt-Münster (study group)
BFM Banque Fédérale Mutualiste (French: Mutual Federal Bank; est. 1986)
BFM Brasserie des Franches-Montagnes (French: Franches-Montagnes Brewery; Franches-Montagnes, Switzerland)
BFM Bonded Fiber Matrix (soil stabilization for erosion control)
BFM British Furniture Manufacturers (UK)
BFM Bus Functional Model
BFM Body Fat Mass
BFM Basic Fighter Maneuvers
What it's doing in The British Museum is anyone's guess.
As re the BFM, as I wrote at elsewhere, G15b, I believe, uses the term deadstream media which I like.
For most of our lives, the MSM's primary way of controlling the information flow was by, simply delaying and/or burying it on page C-37.
But in these BFM times, they've taken to making it up out of whole cloth.
Thus I thought 'Back Flow Media' meaning that not only are they delaying and hiding it - more than ever they are also affirmatively changing it / overtly lying, (like sending fresh effluent into the 'stream' of information.)
Also, I liked the humor because the instant thought is that they, the media, are, to us, doing a BF.
LG, BTW, I think you meant to end with 'KOT'.
RC
MAYBE THE ROMANS DIDN'T A GO A BVNDLE ON NVANCE.
THE THING THAT HAS ALWAYS MADE ME LAVGH IS PEOPLE ON THE INTERNET USING MAX CAPITALS BEING ACCVSED OF 'SHOVTING'.
MVCHO SYNAESTHESIA, WOT?
..
"There! Look!
What does it say? What language is that?
Brother Maynard, you're our scholar.
It is Aramaic!
Of course. Joseph of Arimathea!
-Of course.
-What does it say?
It reads, "Here may be found...
"...the last words of Joseph of Arimathea:
"'He who is valiant and pure of spirit...
"'...may find the Holy Grail...
"'...in the Castle of Aaargh."'
What?
"The Castle of Aaargh."
What is that?
He must have died while carving it.
-Come on!
-That's what it says.
Look, if he was dying,
he wouldn't bother to carve "Aaargh."
-He'd just say it.
-That's what's carved in the rock.
-Perhaps he was dictating it.
-Shut up!
-Does it say anything else?
-No!
Just "Aaargh."
Aaargh.
Do you suppose he meant the Camargue?
-Where's that?
-ln France, I think.
-lsn't there a St. Aaargh's in Cornwall?
-No, that's St. Ives.
St. Ives.
No, "Aaargh." At the back of the throat.
No, in surprise and alarm!
-You mean a sort of a "Ah!"
-Yes, that's right.
My God!
It's the Legendary Black Beast of Aaargh!
That's it! Run away!
We've lost him.
As the horrendous Black Beast
lunged forward...
...escape for Arthur
and his knights seemed hopeless.
When, suddenly, the animator
suffered a fatal heart attack.
The cartoon peril was no more.
The quest for the Holy Grail
could continue..."
I'm with H.F.L. - I'm dying to know what it says.
Jeezus, what's the point?