Linear Elamite | |
---|---|
![]() Regularised Linear Elamite characters as deciphered by Desset et al. in 2022.[1] | |
Script type | [2] |
Time period | c. 2300–1850 BCE |
Status | Extinct |
Direction | left-to-right, right-to-left script ![]() |
Languages | Elamite |
Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Proto-writing
|
Linear Elamite is a largely deciphered semisyllabary script used in Elam during the Bronze Age between c. 2300–1850 BCE, known mainly from a few monumental inscriptions.[1] It is the oldest known purely phonographic writing system.[1] It was used contemporaneously with Elamite cuneiform and records the Elamite language.
There have been multiple attempts to decipher the script. Early efforts by Carl Frank (1912) and Ferdinand Bork (1905, 1924) made limited progress.[3] Later work by Walther Hinz and Piero Meriggi furthered the work.[4][5][6][7] Starting in 2018, French archaeologist François Desset outlined some of his proposed decipherments of the script accomplished with a team of other scholars.[8][9][10] Their near-complete decipherment of the script was published in 2022.[1]
History
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20220705192205im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9b/Development_of_writing.jpg/330px-Development_of_writing.jpg)
It is often argued that Linear Elamite is derived from the older Proto-Elamite writing system.[a] The earliest evidence for the use of Linear Elamite script in Susa has been traditionally associated with the rule of king Puzur-inshushinak. He came to power sometime around 2150 BCE.[13]
There's also evidence that the script was used even earlier, such as in 2300 BCE, but this has not been fully confirmed.[citation needed]
The use of Linear Elamite continued after 2100 BCE, and the death of King Puzur-Shushinak, last ruler of the Awan Dynasty in Susa. After his death, Susa was overrun by the Third dynasty of Ur, while Elam fell under control of the Shimashki dynasty, also Elamite of origin.[14]
In 2018, substantial new Linear Elamite texts became available to scholars,[8] which created improved conditions for decipherment. These are the texts associated with the Sukkalmah Dynasty (1900-1500 BCE).[citation needed]
Known texts
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20220705192205im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/36/Elam_cool.jpg/220px-Elam_cool.jpg)
Three corpora
As of 2021, there are now 51 known texts and fragments written in Linear Elamite.[16] They can be divided into three sub-corpora: the Western Elamite (Lowlands), the Central Elamite (Highlands), and the Eastern Elamite (Elamo-Bactrian).[16]
Western Elamite (Lowlands)
19 texts are on stone and clay objects excavated in the acropolis at Susa (now kept in the Louvre in Paris). These are now classified as belonging to the Western Elamite (Lowlands) group.[16] Other objects are held at the National Museum of Iran.
Central Elamite (Highlands)
The Central Elamite (Highlands) group consists of twenty-four inscriptions or fragments (with 1133 signs in total).[16] In 2016, 10 additional Linear Elamite inscriptions were discovered (and published in 2018), some containing nearly 200 signs.[17] These are now classified as belonging to this group.
Eastern Elamite (Elamo-Bactrian)
And the Eastern Elamite group now consists of only eight short inscriptions, whose length ranges between two and eleven signs.[16]
Older classification
According to an older classification, Elamite texts were identified by letters A-V.[b]
The most important longer texts, partly bilingual, appear in monumental contexts. They are engraved on large stone sculptures, including an alabaster statue of a goddess erroneously identified as Narundi (I), the Table au Lion (A), and large votive boulders (B, D), as well as on a series of steps (F, G, H, U) from a monumental stone stairway, where they possibly alternated with steps bearing texts with Akkadian titles of Puzur-Shushinak. One of the best sources of knowledge regarding the Elamite language is the bilingual monument called the "Table of the Lion" currently in the Louvre museum. The monument is written in both Akkadian, which is a known language, and in Linear Elamite. A unique find is item Q, a silver vase found 1.5 kilometers northwest of Persepolis, with a single line of perfectly executed text, kept in the Tehran Museum.[18] There are also a few texts on baked-clay cones (J, K, L), a clay disk (M), and clay tablets (N, O, R). Some objects (A, I, C) include both Linear Elamite and Akkadian cuneiform inscriptions. The bilingual and bigraphic inscriptions of the monumental stairway as a whole, and the votive boulder B have inspired the first attempts at decipherment of Linear Elamite (Bork, 1905, 1924; Frank, 1912). Nine texts have also been found on silver beakers (X, Y, Z, F', H', I', J', K' and L').[8]
Examples
Clay cone with Linear Elamite text, dated to the reign of Puzur-Inshushinak.[19] Louvre Museum Sb 17830.
Table au Lion with Linear Elamite text, and a proposed reading by Frank (1912, p. 29).
Perforated stone with Linear Elamite text, and a proposed reading by Frank (1912, pp. 32–33).
Suspected forgeries
A few of the short Linear Elamite inscriptions on some unprovenanced objects are suspected of being forgeries.[16][c] In particular, three brick tablets found at Jiroft are thought to be suspect.[21]
Decipherment
A very large Elamite language vocabulary is known from the trilingual Behistun inscription and numerous other bilingual or trilingual inscriptions of the Achaemenid Empire, in which Elamite was written using Elamite cuneiform (c. 400 BCE), which is fully deciphered. An important dictionary of the Elamite language, the Elamisches Wörterbuch was published in 1987 by W. Hinz and H. Koch.[22][23] The Linear Elamite script however, one of the scripts used to transcribe the Elamite language (c. 2000 BCE), had remained elusive.[24] The archaeologist Jacob L. Dahl, who researches the decipherment of Proto-Elamite, has argued that Linear Elamite is not actually a writing system and cannot be deciphered as such, instead suggesting that it is an imitation of writing.[25] However, the recent publication by Desset et al. (2022) renders Dahl's assertion untenable.
Early efforts (1905–1912)
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20220705192205im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Linear_Elamite_first_readings.jpg/260px-Linear_Elamite_first_readings.jpg)
The first readings were determined by the analysis of the bilingual Cuneiform Akkadian-Linear Elamite Table au Lion (Louvre Museum), by Bork (1905) and Frank (1912). Two words with similar endings were identified in the beginning of the inscription in the known Akkadian Cuneiform (the words "Inshushinak" 𒀭𒈹𒂞 dinšušinak and "Puzur-Inshushinak" 𒅤𒊭𒀭𒈹𒂞 puzur4-dinšušinak), and correspondingly similar sets of signs with identical endings were found in the beginning of the Elamite part ( and
), suggesting a match.[24] This permitted a fairly certain determination of about ten signs of Linear Elamite:[24]
Pu-zu-r shu-shi-na-k, King Puzur-Inshushinak.[26]
I-n-shu-shi-na-k, God Inshushinak.[26]
Further efforts were made, but without significant success.[24]
Silver beakers
Additional readings were proposed by CNRS researcher François Desset in 2018, based on his analysis of several silver beakers that were held in a private collection, and only came to light in 2004. Desset identified repetitive sign sequences in the beginning of the inscriptions, and guessed they were names of kings, in a manner somewhat similar to Grotefend's decipherment of Old Persian cuneiform in 1802–1815.[27][28] Using the small set of letters identified in 1905–1912, the number of symbols in each sequence taken as syllables, and in one instance the repetition of a symbol, Desset was able to identify the only two contemporary historical rulers that matched these conditions: Shilhaha and Ebarat, the two earliest kings of the Sukkalmah Dynasty.[8] Another set of signs matched the well-known God of the period: Napirisha. This permitted the determination of several additional signs:[8][2]
Shi-l-ha-ha, Shilhaha, second king of the Sukkalmah Dynasty.[8][2]
E-ba-r-ti, Ebarat II, founder of the Sukkalmah Dynasty.[8][2]
Na-pi-r-ri-sha, God Napirisha.[8][2]
Reading texts
As of 2020, Desset announced that he and his international team had completed a proposed decipherment of all known inscriptions in Linear Elamite, through deductive work based on the confrontation of known Elamite vocabulary and the recently determined additional letters, and through the analysis of the standard contents of known Elamite texts in Cuneiform.[2][10] Their near-complete decipherment of the script was published in 2022.[1]
New readings include:
Writing system
Linear Elamite is an alpha-syllabary, and the oldest known purely phonographic writing system.[1]
Sign inventories
![](https://web.archive.org/web/20220705192205im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/15/List_of_known_Linear_Elamite_characters.jpg/220px-List_of_known_Linear_Elamite_characters.jpg)
An early inventory of Linear Elamite by Carl Frank , published in 1912, listed 64 distinct signs, noting some allographic variations.[26] Since then, more recent discoveries have allowed more signs to be identified. In 2022, Desset and his colleagues published an updated inventory of 348 Linear Elamite glyphs,[31] corresponding to between 80–110 graphemes, including 72 phonographic signs, 4 undeciphered infrequent signs, and 33 hapax legomena.[32]
Relationship to other scripts
Proto-Elamite and Sumerian cuneiform
Some scholars have suggested that Linear Elamite is derived from the older Proto-Elamite writing system. Desset and colleagues found new evidence for this; they argues that Linear Elamite is an evolution of Proto-Elamite, and that Proto-Elamite evolved, in parallel with Sumerian cuneiform, from a common substrate of simple signs and numerals used with accounting tokens and numerical tablets.[2] He outlined some of their discoveries in public lectures,[2][29] and formally published them in July 2022.[1] As members of his research team, Desset lists the following scholars, Kambiz Tabibzadeh, Matthieu Kervran, Gian-Pietro Basello, and Gianni Marchesi[33][1]
Indus script
Scholars have been comparing the Indus script with Linear Elamite, as they were contemporary to each other. On comparing this ancient language to the Indus script, a number of similar symbols have been found.[34]
See also
Notes
- ^ Desset et al. (2022), p. 52: "Here we put forward the hypothesis that Proto-Elamite and Linear Elamite scripts were probably not two different writing systems, but the same system at two different chronological stages of evolution."; with footnote 122: "As has previously been proposed by Gelb (1963, 89: Linear Elamite as a “developed form” of Proto-Elamite), Reiner (1969, 56: “a more developed form of this writing”), Meriggi (1971, 184: “derivate da quella delle tavolette di contabilità”), Steve (2000, 75–78), and Grillot (2008, 9). For an opposite view, see Englund (2004, 143–44, n. 9)."
- ^ See Hinz (1969, pp. 11–44); André & Salvini (1989, pp. 58–61).
- ^ See "Authenticity of the Artifacts" section in Mäder (2021).
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Desset et al. (2022).
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Desset (2020a).
- ^ Hinz (1975).
- ^ Meriggi (1971).
- ^ Meriggi (1974a).
- ^ Meriggi (1974b).
- ^ Hinz (1969).
- ^ a b c d e f g h Desset (2018b).
- ^ Desset (2021).
- ^ a b c Arnaud (2020).
- ^ Barraclough & Stone (1989), p. 53.
- ^ Senner (1991), p. 77.
- ^ Salvini (2011).
- ^ Vallat (2011).
- ^ Desset (2018a), Item Q.
- ^ a b c d e f Mäder (2021), pp. 1–9.
- ^ Mäder (2017).
- ^ Potts (2008).
- ^ Harper, Aruz & Tallon (1992).
- ^ Desset et al. (2022), p. 29.
- ^ Lawler (2007).
- ^ Hinz & Koch (1987a).
- ^ Hinz & Koch (1987b).
- ^ a b c d Desset (2018a), pp. 405–406.
- ^ Dahl (2009), pp. 23–31.
- ^ a b c Frank (1912).
- ^ Desset (2018b), p. 140.
- ^ Desset et al. (2022), p. 12–13.
- ^ a b Desset (2020b).
- ^ Frank (1912), pp. 52–56.
- ^ Desset et al. (2022), p. 19–23.
- ^ Desset et al. (2022), p. 34–35.
- ^ University of Tehran (2021).
- ^ Possehl (2002), p. 131.
Bibliography
- André, B.; Salvini, M. (1989). "Réflexions sur Puzur-Inšušinak". Iranica Antiqua (in French). 24: 53–72. doi:10.2143/IA.24.0.2014028.
- Arnaud, Bernadette (7 December 2020). "Un Français "craque" une écriture non déchiffrée de plus de 4000 ans, remettant en cause la seule invention de l'écriture en Mésopotamie". Sciences et Avenir (in French). Retrieved 7 December 2020.
- Barraclough, Geoffrey; Stone, Norman (1989). The Times Atlas of World History. Hammond Incorporated. ISBN 9780723003045.
- Dahl, Jacob L. (2009). "Early Writing in Iran, a Reappraisal". Iran. Taylor & Francis Ltd. 47: 23–31. doi:10.1080/05786967.2009.11864757. S2CID 163339670.
- Desset, François (2018a). "Linear Elamite Writing". In Álvarez-Mon, Javier; Basello, Gian Pietro; Wicks, Yasmina (eds.). The Elamite World. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. pp. 397–415. ISBN 978-1-315-65803-2.
- Desset, François (2018b). "Nine Linear Elamite Texts Inscribed on Silver "Gunagi" Vessels (X, Y, Z, F', H', I', J', K' and L'): New Data on Linear Elamite Writing and the History of the Sukkalmaḫ Dynasty". Iran. 56 (2): 105–143. doi:10.1080/05786967.2018.1471861. S2CID 193057655.
- Desset, François (2020a). "Breaking the Code: The Decipherment of Linear Elamite, a Forgotten Writing System of Ancient Iran (3rd Millenium BC)". Canal-U.
- Desset, François (2020b). A New History of Writing on The Iranian Plateau – via YouTube.
- Desset, François (1 September 2021). "On The Decipherment Of Linear Elamite Writing". The Postil (Interview). Interviewed by Robert M. Kerr.
- Desset, François; Tabibzadeh, Kambiz; Kervran, Matthieu; Basello, Gian Pietro; Marchesi, Gianni (2022). "The Decipherment of Linear Elamite Writing". Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie. 112 (1): 11–60. doi:10.1515/za-2022-0003. ISSN 0084-5299. S2CID 250118314.
- Frank, Carl (1912). Zur Entzifferung der altelamischen Inschriften (in German). Berlin: Verlag der Königl. Akademie der Wissenschaften.
- Harper, Prudence O.; Aruz, Joan; Tallon, Françoise, eds. (1992). The Royal City of Susa: Ancient Near Eastern Treasures in the Louvre. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 264. ISBN 0-87099-651-7.
- Hinz, Walther (1969). Altiranische Funde und Forschungen (in German). Berlin: De Gruyter.
- Hinz, Walther (1975). "Problems of Linear Elamite". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 107 (2): 106–115. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00132782. JSTOR 25203649.
- Hinz, Walter; Koch, Heidemarie (1987a). Elamisches Wörterbuch (in German). Vol. 1. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.
- Hinz, Walter; Koch, Heidemarie (1987b). Elamisches Wörterbuch (in German). Vol. 2. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.
- Mäder, Michael (2017). "Some New Linear Elamite Inscriptions". BAF-Online: Proceedings of the Berner Altorientalisches Forum. 1. doi:10.22012/baf.2016.18.
- Lawler, A. (2007). "Ancient Writing or Modern Fakery?". Science. 317 (5838): 588–89. doi:10.1126/science.317.5838.588. PMID 17673632. S2CID 191278527.
- Mäder, Michael (28 October 2021). "Linear Elamite". In Potts, Daniel T.; Harkness, Ethan; Neelis, Jason; McIntosh, Roderick J. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Ancient History. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 1–9. doi:10.1002/9781119399919.eahaa00064. ISBN 9781119399919. S2CID 240165903 – via academia.edu.
- Meriggi, Piero (1971). La scritura proto-elamica, Parte Ia: La scritura e il contenuto dei testi (in Italian). Roma: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.
- Meriggi, Piero (1974a). La scritura proto-elamica, Parte IIa: Catalogo dei segni (in Italian). Roma: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.
- Meriggi, Piero (1974b). La scritura proto-elamica, Parte IIIa: Testi (in Italian). Roma: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.
- Possehl, Gregory L. (2002). The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective. Walnut Creek: Altamira Press. ISBN 0-7591-0171-X.
- Potts, Daniel (2008). "Puzur-Inšušinak and the Oxus Civilization (BMAC): Reflections on Šimaški and the geo-political landscape of Iran and Central Asia in the Ur III period" (PDF). Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie. 98 (2): 165–194. doi:10.1515/ZA.2008.010. S2CID 161149124.
- Salvini, Mirjo (2011). "Elam IV: Linear Elamite". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica, Online Edition. Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation.
- Senner, Wayne M. (1991). The Origins of Writing. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 9780803291676.
- Vallat, F. (2011). "Elam I: The History of Elam". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica, Online Edition. Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation.
- Breaking the Code, The Decipherment of Linear Elamite Writing (Media notes). University of Tehran. 26 January 2021. Archived from the original on 28 March 2021.
Further reading
- Bork, F. (1905). "Zur protoelamischen Schrift". Orientalistische Literaturzeitung (in German). 8: 323–330.
- Bork, Ferdinand (1924). Die Strichinschriften von Susa (in German). Königsberg in Preußen.
- Desset, François (2014). "A New Writing System Discovered in 3rd Millennium BCE Iran: The Konar Sandal 'Geometric' Tablets". Iranica Antiqua. 49: 83–109. doi:10.2143/IA.49.0.3009239.
- Englund, Robert K. (1996). "The Proto-Elamite Script" (PDF). In Daniels, Peter T.; Bright, William (eds.). The World's Writing Systems. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 160–164. ISBN 0-19-507993-0.
- Englund, Robert K. (2004). "The state of decipherment of proto-Elamite". In Houston, S. (ed.). The first writing: Script invention as history and process. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 100–49.
- Hinz, Walther (1962). "Zur Entzifferung der elamischen Strichinschrift". Iranica Antiqua (in German). 2: 1–21.
- Gelb, I. J. (1963). A Study of Writing (PDF) (2nd ed.). Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
- Grillot-Susini, Françoise. L'élamite: Éléments de grammaire (in French). Paris: Geuthner.
- Pandey, Anshuman (2021), Preliminary proposal to encode Linear Elamite in Unicode (PDF) – via unicode.org
- Reiner, Erica (1969). "The Elamite language". In Friedrich, J. (ed.). Altkleinasiatische Sprachen. Leiden: BRILL. pp. 54–118.
- Steve, M. J. (2000). "Le syllabaire proto-élamite linéaire". In Viers, Rina (ed.). Des signes pictographiques à l’alphabet. La communication écrite en Méditerranée. Actes du colloque, 14 et 15 mai 1996, villa grecque Kérylos [organisé par la] Fondation Théodore Reinach (Beaulieusur-Mer) (in French). Paris: Éd. Karthala. pp. 73–86. ISBN 2-86537-996-5. OCLC 468142001.
External links
- Linear-Elamite on CDLI Wiki
- Linear Elamite Text Images at CDLI
- Online Corpus of Linear Elamite Inscriptions OCLEI
- Desset, François (2020). "A New History of Writing on the Iranina Plateau". YouTube.
- "Breaking the Code, The Decipherment of Linear Elamite Writing" University of Tehran lecture on 26 January 2021 (video, plus text summary)