| Linear Elamite | |
|---|---|
 Linear Elamite characters inventoried by 1912.[1] | |
| Script type | [a] or logosyllabic[b] |
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 was a writing system used in Elam during the Bronze Age between c. 2300 and 1850 BCE, and known mainly from a few extant monumental inscriptions.[5] It was used contemporaneously with Elamite cuneiform and records the Elamite language.[5] The French archaeologist François Desset and his colleagues have argued that it is the oldest known purely phonographic writing system,[5] although others, such as the linguist Michael Mäder, have argued that it is partly logographic.[2][3]
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 Carl Frank (1912) and Ferdinand Bork (1905, 1924) made limited progress.[6] Later work by Walther Hinz and Piero Meriggi furthered the work.[7][8] Starting in 2018, Desset outlined some of his proposed decipherments of the script accomplished with a team of other scholars.[4][9][10] Their proposed near-complete decipherment was published in 2022,[5] being received positively by some researchers[c] while others[d] remain sceptical until detailed translations of texts have been published.[11][3]
- ^ Frank (1912), pp. 52–56.
- ^ a b c Desset (2018a).
- ^ a b c Ewert (2022).
- ^ a b Desset (2018b).
- ^ a b c d Desset et al. (2022).
- ^ Hinz (1975).
- ^ Meriggi (1971), Meriggi (1974a), and Meriggi (1974b)
- ^ Hinz (1969).
- ^ Desset (2021).
- ^ Arnaud (2020).
- ^ Lawler (2022).
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).