Posted on 08/02/2022 10:12:34 AM PDT by BenLurkin
The paper uses newly examined inscriptions from a set of ancient silver beakers to propose a method for reading the symbols that make up Linear Elamite...
5,000 years ago, in the thriving city of Susa, on the fringe of the great Mesopotamian plain and the edge of the vast Iranian plateau that rises to the east...was at the heart of an urban society spanning much of what is today southwestern Iran. The city’s western neighbors, the Sumerians, dubbed its residents the Elamites.
French archaeologists digging in Susa at the turn of the 20th century uncovered evidence of a writing system that seemed nearly as old as cuneiform but used a different set of symbols. The system apparently fell out of use, as scribes in Susa...turned to cuneiform to write their language. 800 years later, another home-grown system took hold. Scholars dubbed the earlier system Proto-Elamite and the second... Linear Elamite; both were presumed to record the Elamite language, about which little is known.
Over the past century, archaeologists have uncovered more than 1,600 Proto-Elamite inscriptions, but only about 43 in Linear Elamite...
Desset, a French archaeologist... gained access to a private London collection of extraordinary silver vessels with a host of inscriptions in both cuneiform and Linear Elamite. Per the study, the elaborate beakers represent “the oldest and most complete examples of Elamite royal inscriptions in cuneiform.” They belonged to different rulers from two dynasties.
Some proper names written in cuneiform could now be compared with symbols in Linear Elamite—including the names of known Elamite kings, such as Šilhaha. By tracking repeated symbols that were likely proper names, Desset was able to make sense of the script, which comes in an array of geometric shapes. He also translated verbs such as “gave” and “made.”
(Excerpt) Read more at smithsonianmag.com ...
I think it says STAY AWAY FROM MONKEYS
There once was a hermit named Dave..........
Elamite speakers are mentioned in Acts 2.9.
A society having its own script, different from neighbors, would have been part of protecting cultural identity.
An ancient Korean king had a group of scholars create the Korean script, which is a phonetic alphabet designed to be able to match all the sounds in the spoken Korean language. He was working at divorcing Korea from Chinese influence, so he wanted to throw out the use of written Chinese. Once that project was completed he then had a Korean observatory built, had the moon stars and planets plotted in reference to Korea and had a whole astrologocal chart and cAlendar devised, to replace the use of the system borrowed from the Chinese. In the historical record of all this you find the Korean scholarly class up in arms over the king’s
Korea-first cultural projects. There was even rebellion against the king considered. Entrenched elite classes are the same everywhere and in all time peruods - trying to protect their self interest in their own incumbancy.
Being a phonetic alphabet and not 3,000 or so ideograms, and with the Korean script required for all schools to use it and adults get educated with it, in less than generation literacy and writing boomed in Korea. Japan would have been better off if they had either adopted the Korean script or made one of their own.
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Elamites actually conquered Mesopotamia and ruled it for a short time, but they spoke a Indo-European language entirely foreign to the people of the area, as evidenced by the names of their rulers that the Mesopotamians recorded in their king lists.
No, they are entirely different writings systems. The languages they were used to represent are probably distantly related though.
It says they were “royal inscriptions” so I imagine they are praising the exploits of whatever Grand Poobah was ruling at the time.
Usually the problem is that for some languages, we have too small of a sample size for computer analysis to accomplish much.
Even with PIE, we can reconstruct that based on its numerous descendants, but with no intermediate forms living or attested in ancient literature, we can't trace its relation to other language groups because there are too many possible sound change permutations to be able to do more than guess about PIE's links to the Semitic or Turkic language groups.
Send more Chuck Barry
Thanks BenLurkin.
Interesting stuff.
I think I was confused by the term “linear” thinking it was some family of writing. In a very loose way, I guess it is. Looking up the definition I see “linear” seems to refer to a writing composed of simple lines as opposed to a more pictographic form. Although it’s interesting as I remember one of the stumbling blocks to deciphering hieroglyphics is people thought each symbol was a word instead of a sound. So although pictographic looking, the “picture” was only a sound and not a representation of a thing.
“Achmed’s mead is the best.Drink at Achmed’s”
A shot of Horizontal’s teleprompter?
THE KING OF THE ELAMITES!....................
The name "Chedorlaomer" has long been the subject of controversy, that has increased, rather than diminished, since the discovery of native Elamite and Babylonian documents. The first clue to an identification of the name is found in the fact, everywhere now regarded as established, that the name is a correct Elamite compound. Its first half, "Chedor" (= "Kudur," "servant of," or "worshiper of"), is found frequently in Elamite proper names, such as "Kudur-nanḥundi" ("naḥunte" in Susian or Elamite) and "Kudurmabuk." The latter half of the name, "la'omer," (= "lagamaru"), is the name of an Elamite deity, mentioned by Assurbanipal.Chedorlaomer | Jewish Encyclopedia | Morris Jastrow, Jr., Robert W. Rogers
Sounds cheesy....................
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