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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter July 1, 2022

The Decipherment of Linear Elamite Writing

  • François Desset EMAIL logo , Kambiz Tabibzadeh , Matthieu Kervran , Gian Pietro Basello and and Gianni Marchesi

Abstract

Linear Elamite writing was used in southern Iran in the late 3rd/early 2nd millennium BCE (ca. 2300–1880 BCE). First discovered during the French excavations at Susa from 1903 onwards, it has so far resisted decipherment. The publication of eight inscribed silver beakers in 2018 provided the materials and the starting point for a new attempt; its results are presented in this paper. A full description and analysis of Linear Elamite of writing, employed for recording the Elamite language, is given here for the first time, together with a discussion of Elamite phonology and the biscriptualism that characterizes this language in its earliest documented phase.

Published Online: 2022-07-01
Published in Print: 2022-07-26

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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