Methods of Decipherment1

There are many stories connected with the decipherment of ancient writings and the recovery of forgotten languages, but these stories need not be retold here. Furthermore, they usually deal only with the discovery of the key, that brief moment of insight when some datum is arrived at, which when ins...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland 1975-04, Vol.107 (2), p.95-104
Main Authors: Gelb, I. J., Whiting, R. M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:There are many stories connected with the decipherment of ancient writings and the recovery of forgotten languages, but these stories need not be retold here. Furthermore, they usually deal only with the discovery of the key, that brief moment of insight when some datum is arrived at, which when inserted causes the rest of the puzzle to fall into place. But what we are interested in here is the tremendous amount of work, routine but necessary, which precedes that moment and makes the decipherment possible, and the even more tremendous amount of work which follows that moment and results in the recovery of the language.
ISSN:0035-869X
2051-2066
DOI:10.1017/S0035869X00132769