Language & Linguistics
Undeciphered scripts
Ancient writing no one can read, like Linear A. Are these lost voices gone for good?
What makes this fascinating
Lost voices — Ancient scripts like Linear A and the Indus seals have never been read.
No Rosetta Stone — Without a bilingual key or a known related language, decipherment may be impossible.
AI joins the hunt — Machine learning is now used to find patterns and guess at meanings in these ancient symbols.
Frequently asked questions
- What are undeciphered scripts?
- Ancient writing systems we still can't read, such as Linear A, the Indus script, and Rongorongo — surviving records whose language or meaning has been lost.
- Why can't we decipher them?
- Decipherment usually needs a known related language, a bilingual text (like the Rosetta Stone), or enough samples to find patterns. Many lost scripts have none of these.
- Can AI help decipher ancient scripts?
- Machine learning can spot statistical patterns and propose readings, and has aided work on some scripts, but without a linguistic anchor it can't conclusively crack a truly unknown language on its own.
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