Indus script

Troy Dayton of Fargo ND asked bibliophage why we haven’t cracked the Indus script (Staff Report: How come we can’t decipher the Indus script?), and bib mentioned several other historic mysteries that we have not been able to solve.

I just wanted to add, that a simple code like Kryptos seems to take forever.

Harappan paper? 'phage, that was awful.

Great job, bib. Eminently readable and thorough. Thanks.

As a lover of linguistics and scripts, I have to say, bibliophage, job well done! An excellent article.

Oh me too! Thanks bibliophage! I enjoyed it thoroughly! :slight_smile:

Just to join in the love pile-on, great job.

I too enjoyed the article. It should serve as a warning, though, not to send in linguistic questions, or risk death by punnage. The “axe” jokes were even worse, but Harappan paper had a greater impact because it was at the end.

The article got me interested in reading more about hieroglyphics. Is the cited book a good read? (The Story of Decipherment: From Egyptian Hieroglyphs to Maya Script)

Another good book on languages is Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World’s Undeciphered Scripts.

It has been a longtime dream of mine to decipher the Indus script.

No, actually, it’s a warning against sending in any question which bibliophage might answer… All of his Reports are full of puns and bad jokes (what, no innuendo this time, bib? You’re slipping). Unfortunately, there’s no telling what books bibliophage might have consumed recently, so pretty much any question conceivable is potentially dangerous.

Thanks for a fascinating article. It occurs to me that I never actually knew what was inscribed on the Rosetta stone. Is it an alphabet or an essay? Something else?

This is one of the books bibliophage cites in the report.

I must admit it took me a bit to get the last one. I was pronouncing Harappan as HAR-a-pan, not ha-RAP-an :slight_smile:

Biblio, you’re lucky you’re in Cyberspace and not near me right now. That was a most evil column - I almost lost my job I groaned so loud while reading it (I was on break luckily). “Joycean” as an undecipherable language - I would have laughed if terrors of English Literature 101 hadn’t flashed through my head.

Great article - I would go so far as to say that I would have no problem if you were to take up the mantle of The Master when Ed…er I mean Cecil finally tires of fighting ignorance and heads for a Tibetan monestary to live out his days.

critter42

Wikipedia is your buddy:

Huh.

Wikipedia: “It is a decree from Ptolemy V, describing various taxes he repealed, and instructing that statues be erected in temples and that the decree be published …”

Now I know.

Just tossing in another “good job!” Enjoyed it a lot, even if it’s starting to annoy me that I still don’t get all the puns. grr

I don’t understand the big deal about undecipherable scripts. My secretary said for years that my script was undecipherable.

Anyhow, great job, bib, as usual.

It’s an excellent book, but make sure you get Pope’s revised 1999 edition, not the original 1975 edition. The first edition unfairly downplays the contributions of Thomas Young. Some other sources unfairly hype his contributions at the expense of Champollion. Pope’s 1999 edition strikes the balance.

Next time all puns will be in Norwegian. Except the blue ones of course, because that’s a Norse of a different color.

That is it. Somebody take away his crayons.

OK, that confirms my suspicions. Bib is The Master in disguise. Not only did he make a pun, he slipped in a Monty Python reference while doing it! Pure genius.

critter42