Mystery language on ancient stone tablet stumps archeologists

A basalt stone tablet discovered near Lake Bashplemi in Georgia continues to baffle experts more than three years after its excavation. According to a recent study published in the Journal of Ancient History and Archeology, the book-sized artifact features 60 etched symbols, with 39 of them being unique. While some of the characters bear resemblance to other ancient scripts, the exact meaning of the inscriptions remains a mystery.

Lake Bashplemi, fed by tributaries leading to the Mashavera River, is located on a volcanic plateau surrounded by hills. The region has been a treasure trove of archaeological discoveries, including 1.8 million-year-old hominid skull fragments found in 1999 and 2000. Although the exact age of the tablet is yet to be determined, accompanying items such as pottery shards and a stone mortar suggest it likely dates back to the 1st millennium BCE, during either the Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age.

Dubbed the Bashplemi inscription, the tablet consists of seven horizontal lines with 60 characters, some of which are speculated to be numbers or punctuation marks due to their repetitive nature. The intricate craftsmanship displayed on the basalt tablet is remarkable for the region and era. Basalt, being a hard rock, posed challenges for engraving and cutting. Researchers suggest that the scribe likely used a conic drill to outline each character and then connected them with lines using a smooth, round-head tool.

The enigmatic language of the Bashplemi inscription shares similarities with over 20 known writing systems, yet it cannot be definitively linked to any specific culture. Researchers have observed potential connections to pre-Christian Georgian seals from the fourth millennium BCE, as well as resemblances to early Caucasian, Phoenician, and Proto-Sinaitic languages. With no clear associations established, experts speculate that the inscription might represent a previously undocumented script unique to the region.

[Related: 6,000-year-old Mesopotamian artifacts linked to the dawn of writing.]

The deciphering of the Bashplemi tablet remains a challenge for archaeologists and linguists. The context of the inscription, however, offers clues to its potential meaning.

In their paper, researchers theorize, “Given that the inscription is made on hard-to-work material, and that some frequently repeated symbols may be numbers, [the text] may represent military spoils, an important construction project, or an offering to a deity.”

 

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