Linear Elamite was a
writing system
A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable form ...
used in
Elam
Elam (; Linear Elamite: ''hatamti''; Cuneiform Elamite: ; Sumerian: ; Akkadian: ; he, עֵילָם ''ʿēlām''; peo, 𐎢𐎺𐎩 ''hūja'') was an ancient civilization centered in the far west and southwest of modern-day Iran, stretc ...
during the
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
between , and known mainly from a few
extant
Extant is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to:
* Extant hereditary titles
* Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English
* Extant taxon, a taxon which is not extinct, ...
monumental inscriptions. It was used contemporaneously with
Elamite cuneiform
Elamite cuneiform was a logo-syllabic script used to write the Elamite language. The complete corpus of Elamite cuneiform consists of over 30,000 tablets and fragments. The majority belong to the Achaemenid era, and contain primarily economic rec ...
and records the
Elamite language
Elamite, also known as Hatamtite and formerly as Susian, is an extinct language that was spoken by the ancient Elamites. It was used in what is now southwestern Iran from 2600 BC to 330 BC. Elamite works disappear from the archeological record ...
. The French archaeologist and his colleagues have argued that it the oldest known purely
phonographic
A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...
writing system, although others, such as the linguist Michael Mäder, have argued that it is partly
logographic
In a written language, a logogram, logograph, or lexigraph is a written character that represents a word or morpheme. Chinese characters (pronounced '' hanzi'' in Mandarin, ''kanji'' in Japanese, ''hanja'' in Korean) are generally logograms, a ...
.
There have been multiple attempts to decipher the script, aided by the discovery of a limited number of
multilingual and bigraphic inscriptions. Early efforts by (1912) and Ferdinand Bork (1905, 1924) made limited progress. Later work by and furthered the work.
[, , and ] Starting in 2018, Desset outlined some of his proposed decipherments of the script accomplished with a team of other scholars. Their proposed near-complete decipherment was published in 2022, being received positively by some researchers while others remain sceptical until detailed translations of texts have been published.
History
![Development of writing](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Development_of_writing.jpg)
It is often argued that Linear Elamite is derived from the older
Proto-Elamite
The Proto-Elamite period, also known as Susa III, is a chronological era in the ancient history of the area of Elam, dating from . In archaeological terms this corresponds to the late Banesh period. Proto-Elamite sites are recognized as the oldest ...
writing system. The earliest evidence for the use of Linear Elamite script in
Susa
Susa ( ; Middle elx, 𒀸𒋗𒊺𒂗, translit=Šušen; Middle and Neo- elx, 𒋢𒋢𒌦, translit=Šušun; Neo-Elamite and Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼𒀭, translit=Šušán; Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼, translit=Šušá; fa, شوش ...
has been traditionally associated with the rule of king
Puzur-inshushinak
Puzur-Inshushinak (Linear Elamite: ''Puzur Šušinak'', Akkadian: , ''puzur3- dinšušinak'', also , ''puzur4- dinšušinak'' "Calling Inshushinak"), also sometimes thought to read Kutik-Inshushinak in Elamite, was king of Elam, around 2100 BC, ...
. He came to power sometime around 2150 BCE.
There's also evidence that the script was used even earlier, such as in 2300 BCE, but this has not been fully confirmed.
The use of Linear Elamite continued after 2100 BCE, and the death of King Puzur-Shushinak, last ruler of the
Awan Dynasty
The Awan Dynasty ( Sumerian: ''lugal-e-ne a-wa-anki'', "Kings of Awan") was the first dynasty of Elam of which very little of anything is known today, appearing at the dawn of historical record. The Dynasty corresponds to the early part of the Ol ...
in Susa. After his death, Susa was overrun by the
Third dynasty of Ur
The Third Dynasty of Ur, also called the Neo-Sumerian Empire, refers to a 22nd to 21st century Common Era, BC (middle chronology) Sumerian ruling dynasty based in the city of Ur and a short-lived territorial-political state which some historians c ...
, while Elam fell under control of the
Shimashki dynasty
The Shimashki or Simashki dynasty (, ''lugal-ene si-mash-giki'' "Kings of the country of Simashgi"), was an early dynasty of the ancient region of Elam, to the southeast of Babylonia, in approximately 2100-1900 BCE. A list of twelve kings of Shim ...
, also Elamite of origin.
In 2018, substantial new Linear Elamite texts became available to scholars, which created improved conditions for decipherment. These are the texts associated with the
Sukkalmah Dynasty
The Sukkalmah Dynasty (c. 1900-1500 BCE), also Epartid Dynasty after the founder Eparti/Ebarat, was an early dynasty of West Asia in the ancient region of Elam, to the southeast of Babylonia. It corresponds to the latest part of the Old Elamite pe ...
(1900–1500 BCE).
Known texts
Three corpora
, there are now 51 known texts and fragments written in Linear Elamite. They can be divided into three sub-corpora: the Western Elamite (Lowlands), the Central Elamite (Highlands), and the Eastern Elamite (Elamo-Bactrian).
Western Elamite (Lowlands)
19 texts are on stone and clay objects excavated in the acropolis at
Susa
Susa ( ; Middle elx, 𒀸𒋗𒊺𒂗, translit=Šušen; Middle and Neo- elx, 𒋢𒋢𒌦, translit=Šušun; Neo-Elamite and Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼𒀭, translit=Šušán; Achaemenid elx, 𒀸𒋗𒐼, translit=Šušá; fa, شوش ...
(now kept in the
Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
in Paris). These are now classified as belonging to the Western Elamite (Lowlands) group. Other objects are held at the
National Museum of Iran
The National Museum of Iran ( fa, موزهٔ ملی ایران ) is located in Tehran, Iran. It is an institution formed of two complexes; the Museum of Ancient Iran and the Museum of Islamic Archaeology and Art of Iran, which were opened in 1937 ...
.
Central Elamite (Highlands)
The Central Elamite (Highlands) group consists of twenty-four inscriptions or fragments (with 1133 signs in total). In 2016, 10 additional Linear Elamite inscriptions were discovered (and published in 2018), some containing nearly 200 signs. These are now classified as belonging to this group.
Eastern Elamite (Elamo-Bactrian)
The Eastern Elamite group consists of eight short inscriptions, whose lengths range from two and eleven signs.
Older classification
According to an older classification, Elamite texts were identified by letters A-V.
The most important longer texts, partly
bilingual
Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...
, appear in monumental contexts. They are engraved on large stone sculptures, including an alabaster statue of a goddess identified as
Narundi
Narundi ( dna-ru-ti) or Narunde was an Elamite goddess worshiped in Susa. She is attested there roughly between 2250 BCE and 1800 BCE. Multiple inscriptions mention her, and it assumed she was a popular deity at the time. In later periods, she oc ...
(I), the (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 Akkadian or Accadian may refer to:
* Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire
* Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language
* Akkadian literature, literature in this language
* Akkadian cuneiform
Cuneiform is a logo- syllabi ...
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 Akkadian or Accadian may refer to:
* Akkadians, inhabitants of the Akkadian Empire
* Akkadian language, an extinct Eastern Semitic language
* Akkadian literature, literature in this language
* Akkadian cuneiform
Cuneiform is a logo- syllabi ...
, 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. 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
Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sha ...
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').
Examples
Suspected forgeries
A few of the short Linear Elamite inscriptions on some
unprovenanced objects are suspected of being forgeries. In particular, three brick tablets found at Jiroft are thought to be suspect.
Decipherment
A very large
Elamite language
Elamite, also known as Hatamtite and formerly as Susian, is an extinct language that was spoken by the ancient Elamites. It was used in what is now southwestern Iran from 2600 BC to 330 BC. Elamite works disappear from the archeological record ...
vocabulary is known from the trilingual
Behistun inscription and numerous other bilingual or trilingual inscriptions of the
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Based in Western Asia, it was contemporarily the largest em ...
, in which Elamite was written using
Elamite cuneiform
Elamite cuneiform was a logo-syllabic script used to write the Elamite language. The complete corpus of Elamite cuneiform consists of over 30,000 tablets and fragments. The majority belong to the Achaemenid era, and contain primarily economic rec ...
(), which is fully deciphered. An important dictionary of the Elamite language, the was published in 1987 by W. Hinz and H. Koch. The Linear Elamite script however, one of the scripts used to write the
Elamite language
Elamite, also known as Hatamtite and formerly as Susian, is an extinct language that was spoken by the ancient Elamites. It was used in what is now southwestern Iran from 2600 BC to 330 BC. Elamite works disappear from the archeological record ...
(), had remained largely elusive.
Early efforts (1905–1912)
![Linear Elamite first readings](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/Linear_Elamite_first_readings.jpg)
The first readings were determined by the analysis of the bilingual cuneiform Akkadian-Linear Elamite (
Louvre Museum
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
), by and . Two words with similar endings were identified in the beginning of the inscription in the known
Akkadian cuneiform
Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sha ...
(the words "
Inshushinak
Inshushinak (Linear Elamite: ''Inšušnak'', Cuneiform: , ''dinšušinakki''; possibly from Sumerian '' en-šušin-a ', "lord of Susa") was one of the major gods of the Elamites and the protector deity of Susa. He was called ''rišar napappa ...
" and "
Puzur-Inshushinak
Puzur-Inshushinak (Linear Elamite: ''Puzur Šušinak'', Akkadian: , ''puzur3- dinšušinak'', also , ''puzur4- dinšušinak'' "Calling Inshushinak"), also sometimes thought to read Kutik-Inshushinak in Elamite, was king of Elam, around 2100 BC, ...
" ), and correspondingly similar sets of signs with identical endings were found in the beginning of the Elamite part (
![Inshushinak (Linear Elamite)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Inshushinak_%28Linear_Elamite%29.jpg)
and
![Puzur-Shushinak](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Puzur-Shushinak.jpg)
), suggesting a match. This permitted a fairly certain determination of about ten signs of Linear Elamite:
*
![Puzur-Shushinak](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Puzur-Shushinak.jpg)
''Pu-zu-r shu-shi-na-k'', King
Puzur-Inshushinak
Puzur-Inshushinak (Linear Elamite: ''Puzur Šušinak'', Akkadian: , ''puzur3- dinšušinak'', also , ''puzur4- dinšušinak'' "Calling Inshushinak"), also sometimes thought to read Kutik-Inshushinak in Elamite, was king of Elam, around 2100 BC, ...
.
*
![Inshushinak (Linear Elamite)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Inshushinak_%28Linear_Elamite%29.jpg)
''I-n-shu-shi-na-k'', God
Inshushinak
Inshushinak (Linear Elamite: ''Inšušnak'', Cuneiform: , ''dinšušinakki''; possibly from Sumerian '' en-šušin-a ', "lord of Susa") was one of the major gods of the Elamites and the protector deity of Susa. He was called ''rišar napappa ...
.
Further efforts were made, but without significant success.
Silver beakers
Additional readings were proposed by CNRS associate 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
Georg Friedrich Grotefend (9 June 1775 – 15 December 1853) was a German epigraphist and philologist. He is known mostly for his contributions toward the decipherment of cuneiform.
Georg Friedrich Grotefend had a son, named Carl Ludwig Grot ...
's decipherment of
Old Persian cuneiform
Old Persian cuneiform is a semi-alphabetic cuneiform script that was the primary script for Old Persian. Texts written in this cuneiform have been found in Iran (Persepolis, Susa, Hamadan, Kharg Island), Armenia, Romania (Gherla), Turkey ( Van Fo ...
in 1802–1815. 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
The Sukkalmah Dynasty (c. 1900-1500 BCE), also Epartid Dynasty after the founder Eparti/Ebarat, was an early dynasty of West Asia in the ancient region of Elam, to the southeast of Babylonia. It corresponds to the latest part of the Old Elamite pe ...
. Another set of signs matched the well-known God of the period:
Napirisha
Napirisha (Linear Elamite: ''Napirriša'') was an Elamite deity from the region of Anshan, and was the main deity of the kingdom from at least the late 3rd millennium BCE. In Elamite, his name means "Great (-''ša'') God (''napir'')"; in cuneiform ...
. This permitted the determination of several additional signs:
*
![Shilhaha (Shi-il-ha-ha, Linear Elamite)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Shilhaha_%28Shi-il-ha-ha%2C_Linear_Elamite%29.jpg)
''Shi-l-ha-ha'', Shilhaha, second king of the
Sukkalmah Dynasty
The Sukkalmah Dynasty (c. 1900-1500 BCE), also Epartid Dynasty after the founder Eparti/Ebarat, was an early dynasty of West Asia in the ancient region of Elam, to the southeast of Babylonia. It corresponds to the latest part of the Old Elamite pe ...
.
*
![Ebarat (E-b-r-t in Linear Elamite)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/28/Ebarat_%28E-b-r-t_in_Linear_Elamite%29.jpg)
''E-ba-r-ti'', Ebarat II, founder of the
Sukkalmah Dynasty
The Sukkalmah Dynasty (c. 1900-1500 BCE), also Epartid Dynasty after the founder Eparti/Ebarat, was an early dynasty of West Asia in the ancient region of Elam, to the southeast of Babylonia. It corresponds to the latest part of the Old Elamite pe ...
.
*
![Napirrisha](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Napirrisha.jpg)
''Na-pi-r-ri-sha'', God
Napirisha
Napirisha (Linear Elamite: ''Napirriša'') was an Elamite deity from the region of Anshan, and was the main deity of the kingdom from at least the late 3rd millennium BCE. In Elamite, his name means "Great (-''ša'') God (''napir'')"; in cuneiform ...
.
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. Their near-complete decipherment of the script was published in 2022.
New readings include:
*
![Ha-ta-m-ti](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Ha-ta-m-ti.jpg)
''Ha-ta-m-ti'',
endonym
An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
for
Elam
Elam (; Linear Elamite: ''hatamti''; Cuneiform Elamite: ; Sumerian: ; Akkadian: ; he, עֵילָם ''ʿēlām''; peo, 𐎢𐎺𐎩 ''hūja'') was an ancient civilization centered in the far west and southwest of modern-day Iran, stretc ...
.
Writing system
Classification
argue that Linear Elamite is an
alpha-syllabary, which would make it the oldest known purely
phonograph
A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...
ic writing system. However, they admit that some
logogram
In a written language, a logogram, logograph, or lexigraph is a written character that represents a word or morpheme. Chinese characters (pronounced ''hanzi'' in Mandarin, ''kanji'' in Japanese, ''hanja'' in Korean) are generally logograms, as ...
s may have been used, although only rarely and not systematically, arguing that Elamite scribes rejected logographic writing in the 3rd millennium BCE. Other researchers, such as the linguist Michael Mäder, dispute this, arguing that only around 70 percent of Linear Elamite characters are likely to be purely phonographic and that the remainder are logograms, as evidenced by mathematical analyses of Linear Elamite inscriptions. 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.
Sign inventories
An early inventory of Linear Elamite by , published in 1912, listed 64 distinct signs, noting some
allograph
Allography, from the Greek for "other writing", has several meanings which all relate to how words and sounds are written down.
Authorship
An allograph may be the opposite of an autograph – i.e. a person's words or name (signature) written by so ...
ic variations. 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, corresponding to between 80–110
grapheme
In linguistics, a grapheme is the smallest functional unit of a writing system.
The word ''grapheme'' is derived and the suffix ''-eme'' by analogy with ''phoneme'' and other names of emic units. The study of graphemes is called ''graphemics' ...
s, including 72 phonographic signs and their
allograph
Allography, from the Greek for "other writing", has several meanings which all relate to how words and sounds are written down.
Authorship
An allograph may be the opposite of an autograph – i.e. a person's words or name (signature) written by so ...
ic variants, 4 undeciphered infrequent signs, and 33
hapax legomena
In corpus linguistics, a ''hapax legomenon'' ( also or ; ''hapax legomena''; sometimes abbreviated to ''hapax'', plural ''hapaxes'') is a word or an expression that occurs only once within a context: either in the written record of an entire ...
.
Relationship to other scripts
Some scholars have suggested that Linear Elamite is derived from the older
Proto-Elamite
The Proto-Elamite period, also known as Susa III, is a chronological era in the ancient history of the area of Elam, dating from . In archaeological terms this corresponds to the late Banesh period. Proto-Elamite sites are recognized as the oldest ...
writing system. Desset and colleagues found new evidence for this; they argue that Linear Elamite is an evolution of
Proto-Elamite
The Proto-Elamite period, also known as Susa III, is a chronological era in the ancient history of the area of Elam, dating from . In archaeological terms this corresponds to the late Banesh period. Proto-Elamite sites are recognized as the oldest ...
, and that Proto-Elamite evolved, in parallel with
Sumerian cuneiform
Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sha ...
, from a common substrate of simple signs and numerals used with
accounting token
Number systems have progressed from the use of fingers and tally marks, perhaps more than 40,000 years ago, to the use of sets of glyphs able to represent any conceivable number efficiently. The earliest known unambiguous notations for number ...
s and
numerical tablets. He outlined some of their discoveries in public lectures, and formally published them in July 2022. As members of his research team, Desset lists the following scholars: Kambiz Tabibzadeh, Matthieu Kervran, Gian-Pietro Basello, and Gianni Marchesi.
See also
*
Linear A
Linear A is a writing system that was used by the Minoans of Crete from 1800 to 1450 BC to write the hypothesized Minoan language or languages. Linear A was the primary script used in palace and religious writings of the Minoan civil ...
and
Linear B
Linear B was a syllabic script used for writing in Mycenaean Greek, the earliest attested form of Greek. The script predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries. The oldest Mycenaean writing dates to about 1400 BC. It is descended from ...
*
Trojan script
Trojan script is a series of signs of unknown origin found on vessels from Troy excavated by Heinrich Schliemann's expedition. Their status is disputed.
Analysis
A Soviet historian of antiquity found them much similar to Linear B signs, while ...
Notes
References
Bibliography
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Further reading
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External links
''Linear-Elamite''on
CDLI The Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI) is an international digital library project aimed at putting text and images of an estimated 500,000 recovered cuneiform tablets created from between roughly 3350 BC and the end of the pre-Christian er ...
Wiki
Linear Elamite Text Images at CDLIOnline Corpus of Linear Elamite Inscriptions OCLEI*
"Breaking the Code, The Decipherment of Linear Elamite Writing"University of Tehran lecture on 26 January 2021 (video, plus text summary)
Cryptic 4,000-year-old writing system may finally be deciphered Owen Jarus LiveScience 30 August 22
{{list of writing systems
Bronze Age writing systems
Elamite language
Obsolete writing systems
Syllabary writing systems