Writing Systems & Decipherment

New archival and ethnographic evidence reveals that Inka style khipus were used in the Andean community of Santiago de Anchucaya to record contributions to communal labour obligations until the 1940s. Archival testimony from the last khipu specialist in Anchucaya, supplemented by interviews with his grandson, provides the first known expert explanation for how goods, labour obligations, and social groups were indicated on Inka style Andean khipus. This evidence, combined with the analysis of Anchucaya khipus in the Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología y Historia Peruana, furnishes a local model for the relationship between the two most frequent colour patterns (colour banding and seriation) that occur in khipus. In this model, colour banding is associated with individual data whilst seriation is associated with aggregated data. The archival and ethnographic evidence also explain how labour and goods were categorised in uniquely Andean ways as they were represented on khipus.

This article focuses on a linked pair of " documents " from mid-seventeenth-century coastal Peru. The analysis first examines a revisita (an administrative " revisit ") carried out in 1670 in settlements around the town of San Pedro de Corongo, in the lower Santa River Valley. The revisit describes a census of the population of what are described as six pachacas (" one-hundreds ") administrative/census units that usually coincided with ayllus (the Andean clanlike sociopolitical groups). The document identifies 132 tributaries distributed across the six ayllus, all but two of whom are identified by name. Tribute is assessed on this new census count. The information in the revisit is then compared to the organization of a group of six khipus (knotted-string recording devices) that were said to have been recovered from a burial in the Santa Valley. The six khipus are organized into a total of 133 color-coded groups of six cords. The knot values on the first cords of the six-cord groups total the same value as the tribute assessed in the revisit document, and it is argued on these grounds that the khipus and the revisit document pertain to the same administrative procedure. The attachment knots of the first cords of the six-cord groups vary in a binary fashion by attachment type (i.e., tied either " verso " or " recto "). It is argued that this construction feature divides the tributaries identified in the revisit into moieties; therefore, the khipus constitute a gloss on the social organization of the population identified in the revisit document. It is suggested that the names of the tributaries may be signed by color coding in the khipus.

Rjabchikov, Sergei V., 2020. On a Rapanui Song about the Gathering of Nuts. The paper. 3 pages.

The original was first delivered by Sergei V. Rjabchikov as the paper “On a Rapanui Song about the Gathering of Nuts” on the scientific session of the Sergei Rjabchikov Foundation – Research Centre for Studies of Ancient Civilisations and Cultures in Krasnodar on February 11, 2020.

Keywords: Easter Island, Rapanui, Rapa Nui, Polynesia, rongorongo, script, writing, hieroglyphic script, folklore, Austronesian, Proto-Polynesian, PPN

There are more than two dozen Rongorongo texts, all from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in eastern Polynesia. In 2013 I devised a Rongorongo sign list with sound values derived from the first syllable of the Rapa Nui word for the thing depicted by the sign. Recently I corrected and expanded the list, which is here below. RONGORONGO SIGN LIST c. 2014 revised 12/18/20 a1 a2 a3 aka an ana anga ao aohoe aoka ariki atu ature au e ea eoeo fa ha hatu he henua hi hiu hiva ho hoe hotu hu i ia ka kai ke kere ki ko koe kore koro ku ma maanga mai mo na1 na2 nene nga nge ngo ni no nui o pa po1 po2 pu puro ra rake re rei ro1 ro2 rohi rore ru rua ruru ta1 ta2 tahi tapu tara te tere ti to tu ua ura ure va1 va2 varu By using Rongorongo texts from Wikipedia, which have been edited to change the word order from reverse boustrophedon (starting at the bottom of the tablet and reversing direction with each line) to English word order, I have been able to partially decipher a few Rongorongo texts. The deciphered text of Keiti follows…

Rjabchikov, Sergei V., 1999. Utrachenny klyuch k pis’mennosti ostrova Paskhi. In: Y.A. Sorokin and A.M. Kholod (eds.) Versii antropotsentrizma (materialy III mezhdunarodnogo simpoziuma “Chelovek: yazyk, kul’tura, poznanie”, 27-28 aprelya 1999 goda, g. Krivoi Rog, Ukraina).  Moscow – Krivoy  Rog: The Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences; the Saksagani Library, pp. 89-91.

Keywords: Easter Island, Rapanui, Rapa Nui, Polynesia, rongorongo, script, writing, hieroglyphic script, folklore, Austronesian

This dissertation aims to decipher the consonants system of Old Korean in Baekje which is based upon the phonological correspondences of Sinographic readings which can be attested in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese chronicles, epigraphs and wooden tablets.
  Chapter Ⅰ firstly discusses the histrory of phonological studies on Old Korean in Baekje from the late of 19th century to the contemporary era which can be divided into two phases: The Embryonic Phase (1879~1970) and The Development Phase (1971~). The Embryonic Phase started with the toponymy research of Korean Peninsula by Japanese scholars during the Japanese colonial period. The Development Phase (1971~) was initiated by the publications of Baekjemunhwa, Baekjeyeongu, MahanBaekjemunhwa in South Korea, mostly including some short introductory papers, Samguksaki(1145) Jiriji based studies, Nihonshoi(720) based studied, and all chronicles combined studies, epigraphs and wooden tablets based studies.
  Secondly, the detailed methodologies are proposed, which include the background of history studies on Baekje; the background of historical linguistics which is the theoretical basis of the phonological correspondences of Sinographic readings in lexicons of Old Korean in Baekje; the entire sequence of this study including the textual research of all first-hand materials, the collection of all Baekjeic lexicons and phonographic morphemes, the match-made of the phonological correspondences of Sinographic readings in Old Korean in Baekje, based on archaeological, historical, toponymy studies, and the phonological analysis of Sinographic readings.
  In Chapter Ⅱ, textual research was carried out thoroughly. The materials used include all Baekjeic first-hand materials of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Chronicles from the late 3rd century to 13th century, as well as epigraph materials and wooden tablets in both China and Korea. Also, Old Korean Proper Nouns such as place names, personal names, and Kings names were collected to pick out all phonographs of Old Korean in Baekje for phonological analysis in the phonological correspondences of Sinographic readings.
  Moreover, to decipher the consonants system of Old Korean in Baekje, the explanations of all phonographs in Guangyun are based on Yu(2008), the Chinese phonological systems include the Minimal Old Chinese, Late Han, Middle Chinese which are mainly based on the reconstructions in Schuessler(2009). The historical Korean phonological systems include Old Korean, Middle Korean, Middle Sino-Korean which are mainly based on the studies of Park(1971), Lee(1972, 1998, 2011), Lee(1995), Kwon(1997ㄴ, 2005, 2009ㄱ, 2009ㄴ), Ito(2007). The historical Japanese systems include archaic kana orthography studies, Old Japanese and Ko-on, Go-on and Kan-on of Sino-Japanese which are mainly based on ōya(1911), Vovin(2009), Miyake(2003a), Frellesvig(2010), Tsukishima(1995), Numoto(1986, 1997).
  At last in Chapter Ⅱ, there are 7 consonants as initials in a syllable that can be deciphered: voiceless bilabial plosive **p-, voiceless alveolar dental **t-,  voiceless velar **k-,  bilabial nasal **m-, alveolar dental nasal **n-,  voiceless alveolar dental fricative **s-, and voiceless alveolar affricate **ts-. The oppositions of voicing and the oppositions of aspiration cannot be attested. The glottal initial /ʔ/ which is reconstructed in Middle Chinese is deciphered as Zero **Ø in the phonographs of Baekje.
  Chapter Ⅲ deciphers the consonant **-r- as a liquid that can be attested between  syllables, instead of an initial consonant or coda in a word. And the elimination of /-r-/ as a special phonological change is well attested in old Korean lexicons including Baekje’s.
  Chapter Ⅳ deciphers the consonants **-l, **-s, **-n, **-ŋ as coda in a syllable in Old Korean in Baekje. Moreover, the lateral **-l is explained as the elimination of vowel V2 and the unrelease of C2 in a C1V1.C2V2 word structure. And unreleased voiceless alveolar dental fricative **-s is explained as the elimination of vowel V2 and the unrelease of C2 in a C1V1.C2V2 type word or as a genitive case between two words. The change of syllabic structural in C1V1.C2V2 type word is explained as a result of language contact with Chinese and Chinese characters whose syllabic structure is (C)(G)VC.
  Chapter Ⅴ concludes with an appeal for the trilateral cooperation from Chinese, Korean and Japanese historical phonology studies which include the sounds of Old, Late Han, Middle Chinese, Sino-Korean studies, and Sino-Japanese studies, as well as the interdisciplinary work on Archaeology, History, Toponymy to decipher the phonological systems of Old Korean. Meanwhile, the limitations of this study which include recriticizing all first-hand materials, reevaluating and developing the methodology in old Korean phonology studies are reflected. Finally the future research outlook on old Korean studies is put forward reasonably.

Several khipus-Inka knotted-string recording devices-were recently excavated at a storage facility at the Peruvian south coast site of Inkawasi, found buried under agricultural produce (i.e., chili peppers, peanuts, and black beans). These khipus contain a formulaic arrangement of numerical values not encountered on khipus from elsewhere in Tawantinsuyu (the Inka Empire). The formula includes first, a large number, hypothesized to record the sum total of produce included in a deposit, followed by a "fixed number," and then one or more additional numbers. The fixed number plus the additional number(s) sum to the original large number. It is hypothesized that the fixed number represents an amount deducted from the deposit to support storage facility personnel. As such, it represented a tax assessed on deposits, the first evidence we have for a system of taxation on goods in the Inka Empire. It is proposed that the size and complexity of the storage facility at Inkawasi prompted the "invention" of a kind of financing instrument-taxation-not known previously from Inka administration. We also consider , but provisionally set aside, the alternative hypothesis that the fixed values recorded on the Inkawasi khipus could have represented amounts of seeds set aside from deposits for the next year's planting. Durante las excavaciones de un complejo de almacenamiento (Qolqawasi) del sitio de Inkawasi, en la costa sur del Perú, se hallaron varios khipus-instrumentos de registro Inkas empleando cordeles anudados-asociados a diferentes cultivos agrí-colas (e.g., ají, maní y frijoles negros). Estos khipus presentan una disposición de valores numéricos que no se ha encontrado en otras partes del Tawantinsuyo (el Imperio Inka). Esta secuencia incluye un valor alto, el cual correspondería a la cantidad total de un determinado producto depositado en un almacén (qolqa), seguido de un "valor fijo" y uno o más números adicio-nales. Si se suman el valor fijo y los números adicionales, se obtiene al valor alto. Proponemos que el valor fijo representa un monto que era deducido de los productos almacenados en las qolqas para el mantenimiento del personal encargado y el fun-cionamiento de los almacenes. Ante esta evidencia de un posible impuesto a los productos almacenados, estaríamos ante las primeras manifestaciones de un sistema tributario sobre bienes en el Imperio Inka. Proponemos que, ante el tamaño y com-plejidad de las instalaciones de almacenamiento, en Inkawasi existió la necesidad de "inventar" un tipo de instrumento finan-ciero-el impuesto-desconocido previamente en estudios de la administración Inka. También podemos considerar como hipótesis alternativa que los valores fijos de los khipus de Inkawasi representen una cierta cantidad de semillas no depositadas en los almacenes que habrían sido empleadas para la siembra de la siguiente cosecha.

Maya art is a rare combination of linear elegance and naturalism, blended with dazzling symbolic complexity.  Decorated objects, ranging from painted vases and carved jade and shell ornaments to towering stone monuments and building façades, bear the traces of a symbol system that, while fascinating, can make an understanding of these images elusive to the uninitiated.

Presented here for the first time is a compendium of one hundred Classic Mayan hieroglyphs that are also building blocks of much ancient Maya painting and sculpture. The symbols touch on many facets of the Maya world, from the natural environment—animals, plants, the heavens—to the mental landscape of gods, myths, and rituals.

Using hundreds of line drawings and photographs, the authors show how to identify these signs, understand their meaning, and appreciate the novel ways they appear in art. As well as providing a basic introduction, the authors offer many new and exciting interpretations.

Lavishly illustrated, and fully cross-referenced and indexed, this groundbreaking guide will prove an invaluable tool for those wishing to see Maya art, perhaps for the first time, through the eyes of ancient scribes and artists.

Rjabchikov, Sergei V., 2019. The Rapanui Manuscript E Reveals Secrets: The Real Bilingual Key to the Rongorongo has been Found. The paper. 6 pages.

The original was first delivered by Sergei V. Rjabchikov as the paper “The Rapanui Manuscript E Reveals Secrets: The Real Bilingual Key to the Rongorongo has been Found” on the scientific session of the Sergei Rjabchikov Foundation – Research Centre for Studies of Ancient Civilisations and Cultures in Krasnodar on February 6, 2019.

Keywords: Easter Island, Rapanui, Rapa Nui, Rapanui, Polynesia, rongorongo, script, writing, Manuscript E, hieroglyphic script

Rjabchikov, Sergei V., 2019. The Gods Tinirau and Tangaroa in Polynesian Life: A Fresh Portion of Facts. The paper. 15 pages.

The original was first delivered by Sergei V. Rjabchikov as the paper “The Gods Tinirau and Tangaroa in Polynesian Life: A Fresh Portion of Facts” on the scientific session of the Sergei Rjabchikov Foundation – Research Centre for Studies of Ancient Civilisations and Cultures in Krasnodar on September 12, 2019.

Keywords: Easter Island, Rapanui, Rapa Nui, Polynesia, Fiji, Fijian, rongorongo, script, writing, hieroglyphic script, folklore, rock art, petroglyphs, Proto-Polynesian, PPN reconstructions

In the past decades, typography has transitioned from metal type to digital fonts. How well is digital technology serving the various writing systems around the world? How has the digital infrastructure of typography changed in the past 3 decades, and how has it enabled better visual rendering of human writing?

Originally the paper was presented at the 6th European Maya Conference "Recapturing Mayan Memories: Historical Representation in Text, Image and Ritual" (2001, Hamburg) and submitted for publication in 2002. Since then the proceedings have been in press. Here I would like to thank Rogelio Valencia Rivera for his suggestion to publish the text: finally, the original manuscript with minor stylistic changes appeared in 2014. A Russian translation of the paper was published in 2006 and provided with an extended English summary (Символы власти в ранней юго-восточной Мезоамерике: текст и иконография на стеле 5 из Абах-Такалика, Гватемала /А.А. Бородатова и В.А. Тишков (ред.), Власть в аборигенной Америке. Проблемы индеанистики. Москва, C.142-158).

From its first adoption of writing at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age, ancient Cyprus was home to distinctive scripts and writing habits, often setting it apart from other areas of the Mediterranean and Near East. This well-illustrated volume is the first to explore the development and importance of Cypriot writing over a period of more than 1,500 years in the second and first millennia BC. Five themed chapters deal with issues ranging from the acquisition of literacy and the adaptation of new writing systems to the visibility of writing and its role in the marking of identities. The agency of Cypriots in shaping the island's literate landscape is given prominence, and an extended consideration of the social context of writing leads to new insights on Cypriot scripts and their users. Cyprus provides a stimulating case to demonstrate the importance of contextualised approaches to the development of writing systems.

Chapter 1 available with open access here: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/284465

Rjabchikov, Sergei V., 2021. The Forgotten Key to the Easter Island Writing System. Paper. 4 pages.

Abstract. The rongorongo records in the Esteban Atan manuscript are the real clue to the mysterious script of Easter Island (Rapanui).

The original was first delivered by Sergei V. Rjabchikov as the paper “The Forgotten Key to the Easter Island Writing System” on the scientific session of the Sergei Rjabchikov Foundation – Research Centre for Studies of Ancient Civilisations and Cultures in Krasnodar on November 21, 2021.

Keywords: Easter Island, Rapanui, Rapa Nui, Polynesia, rongorongo, script, writing, hieroglyphic script, folklore, Austronesian

Rjabchikov, Sergei V., 2021. The Rongorongo Script as the Faithful Key to Understanding the Easter Island Culture. Krasnodar: The Sergei Rjabchikov Foundation – Research Centre for Studies of Ancient Civilisations and Cultures. 54 pages.

CONTENTS                                                                                                                                       

Chapter 1. About the Rongorongo Record with the Name of King Hata on a Wooden Artifact from Easter Island
Chapter 2. The Rapanui Myth “The Bloody Big Toe”
Chapter 3. On the Genealogy of the Rapanui Kings (The Miru Group)
Chapter 4. New Rongorongo Records on Pendants Tahonga from Easter Island have been Deciphered
Chapter 5. The Rapanui Princess Ua Iri Tai from the Ruling Group Miru in the Drawings by Pierre Loti in 1872
Chapter 6. The Interpretation of the Drawing “Idol Festival in Easter Island” by Pierre Loti
Chapter 7. The Rapanui Mythology and Script: The Moon Goddess Hina Uri at the Ahu Taha Roa
Chapter 8. The Plot about the Fishery and the Full Moon in the Rapanui Rock Art
Chapter 9. On the Solar Cocks on a Panel Located Inland from the Ahu Raai on Easter Island
Chapter 10. On the Calendar Rongorongo Record on the Wall of the Ana o Keke Cave on Easter Island
Chapter 11. On the Legend of Hetereki Written on the Rongorongo Tablet W from Easter Island
Chapter 12. The Rapanui Myth of the God Hiva Kara Rere in the Rongorongo Script
Chapter 13. The Forgotten Key to the Easter Island Writing System
Chapter 14. The Records in the Esteban Atan Manuscript as the Key to the Rongorongo Script: The Continuation of Our Studies
Chapter 15. The Records in the Esteban Atan Manuscript as the Clue to the Rongorongo Script: The Sources in the Local Songs
Chapter 16. About the Rongorongo Inscription on the Paris Snuffbox
Chapter 17. The European Explorers on Easter Island: The Records on the Santiago Staff

Abstract. Sergei V. Rjabchikov continues his investigation of the rongorongo inscriptions which are the reliable key to the ancient Easter Island (Rapanui) culture. In particular, the author has found the records on the Santiago staff which belonged to the famous Rapanui king Nga Ara about the Holland discovery of the island in 1722, about the Spanish expedition of 1770 and about the British expedition of 1774.

Keywords: writing, rongorongo, script, hieroglyphic script, folklore, mythology, rock art, petroglyphs, Rapanui, Rapa Nui, Easter Island, Polynesia, Proto Polynesian, Austronesian

There is no comparable survey written by a top specialist with the purpose of revealing structural similarities in language encoding by
writing systems and dispelling several key misconceptions along the way. Its conclusions are thought-provoking and consequential. This book is a must-have, although its actual audience is somewhat narrower than
intended. As a course textbook, however, it requires contextualization and extra readings

The Indus culture (2600 to 1700 BCE) developed a writing system that still remains mostly undeciphered. The inscriptions found on several artefacts (i.e. seals, tablets, pots, bangles, tags, and other types of artefacts) show a distinct pattern of Indus signs. An Interactive Concordance of Indus Texts (ICIT) has been developed and is accessible through a web-interface. It contains at present 5318 Indus texts on 4351 artefacts and additional 869 artefacts with iconography. The signs are coded according to an extended sign list with 702 distinct signs (Wells 2015). This interactive-searchable database facilitates the study of specific sets of iconographic elements, signs, and artefacts. Several tools allow for the statistical and spatial analysis of inscribed artefacts and Indus signs. The aim is to make all Indus inscriptions accessible to scholars worldwide and to stimulate further research on Indus writing and Indus culture in general.
A detailed study of sign sequences has become possible through the Multivariate Segmentation method. It enables one to perform structural analysis and the identification of segments of Indus inscriptions with similar meaning. The structural analysis focuses on texts with numerical signs and allows to have a better understanding of the economic content of many Indus inscriptions.

Esta investigación es una propuesta sistémica, para la formalización de los siguientes fenómenos del lenguaje: el
proceso de adquisición de significado o semiosis, los sistemas de signos, sus representaciones en la historia
mesoamericana y la modelación de fenómenos simbólicos, a través de la teoría de las redes complejas. Los
fenómenos que se examinan son: (1) la operación de las clases léxicas y funcionales del lenguaje a través de sus
representaciones simbólicas arqueológicas, como una propiedad de los sistemas conscientes; (2) la elaboración de
una metodología sistémica, para identificar el significado de representaciones simbólicas no descifradas, por medio
de patrones de emergencia. La primera parte del trabajo (Capítulos 1-3) expone un contexto histórico, antropológico,
semiótico y sistémico en el cuál se justifica la pertinencia de la investigación, como parte de la ingeniería de
sistemas. La segunda parte del trabajo (Capítulos 4-5) expone la metodología sistémica utilizada para investigar los
patrones emergentes en las representaciones sígnicas mesoamericanas, y finalmente, la validación de la
metodología, modelando un fenómeno simbólico del ritual mesoamericano actual.

Mixtec pictorial manuscripts from Late Postclassic Oaxaca represent textiles as costume but also in relation to both the natural and built environments. This paper relates these apparently anomalous images to accounts of the mythical weaving of sacred landscapes. Weaving metaphors become important for interpreting emic concepts of the sacred landscape and, based on the engendered quality of costume elements and of spinning and weaving as stereotypically female practice, add a gendered world-view to Mixtec ideology. We suggest that by representing the natural landscape as ‘woven,’ the Mixtec brought it into the cultural realm, and therefore claimed control over natural forces.

In this article, see pages 164, 166-168 for Stuart's discussion of the Grolier Codex.  It is highly significant that the Mexican State of Chiapas and the Universidad Autonoma de Chiapas chose to include the Grolier Codex as an authentic ancient Maya book in 1985 and make a fine color facsimile available along with the Dresden, Paris, and Madrid codices for further research. 

This review and essay of "Los Codices Mayas" is being posted as a personal tribute to my friend and colleague, the late George E. Stuart, Ph.D. (1935 - 2014) for his great generosity and many extraordinary contributions promoting world archaeology over several generations.

This article has been posted on Academia.edu as part of the Grolier Codex Project of the Center for Archaeoastronomy under the directorship of John B. Carlson, Ph.D.  The Grolier Codex Project seeks to further advance the study of the Maya Grolier Codex.

Variation in writing is highly frequent at both the visual and the functional levels. However, as of yet, the associated notion of allography has not been systematically described. In this article, two major types of allography are proposed: graphetic allography, conceptually comparable to allophony, depends on visual similarity and captures how concrete units are associated with visual abstractions, i.e., how three graphs in <cabana> are instances of the basic shape |a|. Graphematic allography, conceptually closer to allomorphy, does not depend on visual similarity but groups together units that share the same function, i.e., represent the same linguistic unit (phoneme, syllable, morpheme, etc.) and are complementarily distributed, meaning there exist no contexts in which they contrast. An example is the positionally conditioned alternation between |σ| vs |ς| for the Greek grapheme <σ>. By means of a number of criteria, subtypes of graphetic and graphematic allography are proposed and examples are given from different writing systems. A special case that is discussed is the complex phenomenon of capitalization. Additionally, examples of variation phenomena that are not included in the concept of allography are given, and orthographic variation is addressed as a marginal case of variation dependent on the norm rather than the system.

This is the main body of work connected to my Synoptic Index.  Observations with Paleo-Greek, Ancient Egyptian, and Chinese confirm Paleo-Hebrew was not originally connected with Mesopotamian, but was a later influence from which we get the Acronym Theory and a connection to Proto-Sinaitic.

Writing!  Few human inventions are as pervasive and central to the modern world.  Each and every day, we read thousands of words—whether in traditional formats like books, magazines, or newspapers, or on the increasingly common computers, smartphones, ebooks, and tablets.  But even though writing seems thoroughly modern, it can be traced back more than 5,000 years to Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.

This lecture series and illustrated guidebook begins with a thorough consideration of what writing actually is, and precisely how it differs from other kinds of graphic communication systems, like pictography, rebus, and numerical notation.  Writing always records language, and it does so in surprisingly similar ways in all writing systems, whether ancient or modern.  In this sense, the way humans wrote millennia ago is not radically different from how we write today.  The lectures then turn to an exploration of the origins and development of writing, tracing the birth of our own alphabet, and its connections to the early Germanic Runes.  They also explore the independent invention of writing in China, and its adoption and elaboration in Japan.  In order to more deeply examine the subject of writing, the theory and practice of decipherment is explored.  Not all writing systems can be deciphered, so what are the limitations?  And how can they be overcome?  Several case studies put decipherment to the test, including Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics (Champollion), Old Persian cuneiform (Grotefend), Mycenaean Linear B (Ventris), Mayan hieroglyphs (Knorosov) and Aztec hieroglyphs (Aubin and Lacadena).  Topics explored along the way include: the reasons behind the difficult and still incomplete decipherments of Etruscan and Meroïtic; the urge that numerous invididuals have had to reform writing, or to invent a more ‘perfect’ writing system; and an assessment of Darius the Great's claim that he himself invented the Old Persian (Achaemenid) syllabary.

In comparing the world's writing systems we slip the shackles of parochialism, recognizing that our alphabet is but one of many similar writing systems, all of which capably serve the needs of their users.  Writing is deeply conservative and resistant to change.  It is frequently adapted and altered during borrowing, but a culture rarely abandons or radically modifies its own extant writing system except in the most dire instances of cultural transformation.  An equally important topic is the deeply interdependent relationship of writing and civilization, including the social, political, and economic forces that led to the adoption of new media and technology for writing.  These forces not only shaped the form, function, and distribution of writing, but through it they have transformed civilization itself.  In the concluding lecture, all that has been discussed about the interplay between writing and civilization is used to predict one possible future of writing.

"A contribution, the most detailed study to date, by a specialist on Aztec hieroglyphics to the study of Nahuatl (including Aztec) writing both in regard to its principles and its actual attested usage. The history of work in this area is critically reviewed, with special attention to recent widely publicized claims by several Mayanists (A. Lacadena, M. Zender, C. Helmke, J. Nielsen, H. Kettunen) that the Nahuatl syllabary, like the Maya system, only had CV signs, representing consonant + vowel sequences or simple vowels. It is demonstrated that the Nahuatl system had, on the contrary, V, CV, VC, and CVC signs, as in Mesopotamian cuneiform, and that secondary values were derived from these.

Der vorliegende Beitrag setzt sich mit den Prinzipien – vor allem bezüglich der Zusammensetzung und Verwendungsregeln – eines verhältnismäßig unbekannten Schriftsystems des amerikanischen Erdteils, der Nahuatl-Schrift Zentralmexikos, auseinander. Zunächst wird als Einführung auf das Phänomen Schrift in Zusammenhang mit den verwandten und oft schriftbegleitenden graphischen Kommunikationssystemen Notation und Ikonographie eingegangen, die in Mesoamerika einen erheblichen Einfluß auf die Schrift ausübten. Dabei wird eine schriftsystemneutrale Terminologie vorgestellt, die größtenteils in neueren typologischen Abhandlungen Verwendung findet. Im Hauptteil geht es dann um die in ihren Grundzügen meist mißverstandene Schrift des Aztekenreichs des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts, deren Nachfolgerin in frühkolonialer Zeit eine phonetische Schreibweise nicht nur für indigene, sondern auch für spanische Namen und Titel aufweist. Neue Thesen in Hinblick auf die Grundaspekte dieser Phonetik werden erörtert."

This is a zoom conference I gave on the 23rd of November.
The conference can be seen here
https://www.canal-u.tv/video/archeorient/breaking_the_code_the_decipherment_of_linear_elamite_a_forgotten_writing_system_of_ancient_iran_3rd_millenium_bc.58549
I will report for the first time the successful decipherment of Linear Elamite, one of the three writing systems of the early Bronze age (the others being Linear A at Crete, and the Indus Valley writing system) which so far have escaped every attempt at decryption.
I will illustrate how the key for unlocking Linear Elamite inscriptions was discovered, some examples of decipherment and the extraordinary historical perspectives that are emerging from this discovery.

Rjabchikov, S.V., 2014. The Sea Route from the Marquesas to Mangareva and Then to Easter Island: New Data. Polynesia Newsletter, 3, pp. 2-14.

Keywords: Marquesas Islands, Marquesan, Mangareva, Mangarevan, Easter Island, Rapanui, Rapa Nui, Polynesia, PPN, petroglyphs, pictograms, rock art, rongorongo, script, writing


The original was first read by Sergei V. Rjabchikov as the paper “The Sea Route from the Marquesas to Mangareva and Then to Easter Island: New Data” on the scientific session of the Sergei Rjabchikov Foundation – Research Centre for Studies of Ancient Civilisations and Cultures, November 20, 2014, Krasnodar, Russia.

In this study, I extended input methods for the Japanese language to Egyptian hieroglyphics. There are several systems that capable of inputting Egyptian hieroglyphic writing. However, they do not allow us to directly input hieroglyphs, for instance, into MS Word. The new Egyptian hieroglyphic input system being reported here, developed using technology used for inputting Japanese writing, is quite unique and allows the direct input of hieroglyphs, for example, into MS Word. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and the Japanese writing system (with its mixture of hiragana, katakana and kanji) share basic graphemic characteristics. For instance, Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic logograms are functionally similar to Japanese kanji logograms (Chinese characters), whereas Egyptian hieroglyphic phonograms are functionally similar to Japanese hiragana and katakana syllabic phonograms. The input technology for Japanese makes it possible to input a mixture of logograms and phonograms, and phonetic complements. This technology is a well-organized and handy tool to input Japanese writing into computers, having been used by over 100 million people. I applied this technology to Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic inputting and created a new intuitive hieroglyphic inputting system using Google Japanese Input. Using this method, anyone can directly write Egyptian hieroglyphic writing into software like MS Word. If the transcription of an ancient Egyptian word is entered, the correct hieroglyphs are generated by this system. If there are multiple options for any phonemic combinations that use other combinations of phonetic complements or determinatives, a dropdown window with a list of several combinations of glyphs appears and the user can choose the desired combination.