Experts are still baffled by the basalt slab more than three years after it was discovered near Lake Bashpremy in Georgia. According to their recent study published in Journal of Ancient History and Archeologythe book-sized artifact unearthed in 2021 has 60 etched symbols, 39 of which are different from each other. Also, some of the characters resemble characters that exist in other ancient scripts, but the research team is still unsure what the author’s text actually says.
as Archeo News As explained on December 5, Lake Bashpremi flows through a tributary that connects to the Mashabela River and is located on a volcanic plateau surrounded by hills. Many archaeological discoveries have been discovered in this area in the past, including ruins dating back 1.8 million years. Hominid skull fragment Archaeologists have not yet determined the exact date of the tablet, but associated items such as pottery shards and a millstone found nearby suggest it probably dates from the late Bronze Age or early Iron Age, around the 1st millennium BC. It shows that.
This tablet, called the Bashpremy Inscription, contains seven horizontal lines containing 60 characters, some of which may be numbers or punctuation marks due to their frequency of use. The details also show a level of craft sophistication that is remarkable for the region and period. Researchers say basalt is a particularly hard rock that is difficult to carve or cut. Archaeologists believe that scribes likely first used a conical drill to draw the notched outline of each letter, then used a “smooth, round-headed tool” to connect them with lines. are.
The mysterious language of the Bashpremi inscriptions also seems to share similarities with perhaps 20 or more writing systems so far, but its messages are not directly tied to any particular culture. The researchers found that it may overlap with the pre-Christian Georgian seal, which dates back to the 4th millennium BC, and that other shapes resemble both early Caucasian, Phoenician, and Proto-Sinaic languages. pointed out. Since no direct link has been established, experts believe the inscription may contain more local, previously undocumented scripts.
[Related: 6,000-year-old Mesopotamian artifacts linked to the dawn of writing.]
It remains to be seen whether archaeologists and linguists will decipher the Bashpremi tablet, but until then, its context may suggest its translated content.
“Given that the inscription is made of materials that are difficult to work with and that some of the frequently repeated symbols may be numbers; [the text] “It could represent military spoils, an important construction project, or an offering to the gods,” the researchers theorize in their paper.
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