TEXT RIDDLE
Mystery of 14,000-year-old stone tablet written in language NEVER seen before…so ‘important message’ may be lost FOREVER
The tablet contains ancient script that is unlike anything scientists have seen before
A MYSTERIOUS stone tablet has been found that's 14,000 years old, containing traces of a lost ancient language unknown to scientists.
Archaeologists have dated the find from Georgia that doesn't use any recorded language back to the late Bronze or Early Iron Age.
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The stone was found in the historical region of Dbaniskhevi, in the area around Bashplemi Lake.
The tablet shows 60 characters that seem to have been made with a surprisingly advanced technique for its time of creation.
Several theories have been offered as to what the inscription says, but experts have suggested it could have been something important.
If some of the repeated figures are numbers, the researchers suggest that this could be a record of military spoils, an important construction project, or an offering to a deity.
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To carve the unknowable text, an ancient writer would have had to first drilled a series of notches to outline each symbol.
They then would of smoothed out the pattern with a rounded tool.
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What has shocked experts the most is that the text bears no resemblance to even the most exotic of the known languages.
In their paper on the discovery, the archaeologists write: "Generally, the Bashplemi inscription does not repeat any script known to us; however, most of the symbols used therein resemble ones found in the scripts of the Middle East, as well as those of geographically remote countries such as India, Egypt and West Iberia."
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As the scientists have no clue what the writing says, there is no way to find out the tablet's purpose.
Reports to not note whether this code will become possible to decipher in the future.
AN EARLY BRONZE AGE DISCOVERY?
Dbaniskhevi was once home to a thriving civilization stretching as far back as the early Bronze Age.
The prevailing evidence does point the tablet towards this time period, reports confrim.
Previous digs of the area have revealed found stone and obsidian tools for processing hides which suggests a long period of settlement.
Drone footage has also sets of regular circles that could be burial mounds.
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Geometrical shapes were also uncovered, that could be the remains of houses, defence structures and places of worship.
There is also a theory that connects the tablet to Greek mythology.
In the myth of Jason and the Argonauts, the captain Jason must travel to the land of Colchis to find the Golden Fleece.
While Colchis was often seen as a mythical land of riches, it was actually a real region bordering the Black Sea in what is now Georgia.
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According to ancient Greek sources, the people Colchis had knowledge of a way of writing called the "Golden Script".
This link alludes to an even deeper history behind the tablet, supporting the suggestion that it was used for an important reason.
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