A research team led by Petra M. Goedegebuure from the University of Chicago has presented a groundbreaking study on the word used for “city” in the Luwian language, spoken in ancient Anatolia. This research, published in the academic journal Anatolian Studies, offers not only a detailed linguistic analysis of the word in question but also […]
Hieroglyphs
Posted inArchaeology
A Large Panel with 123 Maya Glyphs Mentioning an Until-Now Unknown King, Discovered in Mexico
The Secretariat of Culture of the Government of Mexico, in collaboration with the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), has announced the discovery of a fascinating panel containing an extensive Maya hieroglyphic text, which was found engraved on the rock of a nearby lagoon to the imposing pyramid structure Nohoch Mul, in the emblematic […]
Posted inAncient Egypt
The Canopus Decree, the Inscription that Attested to the Existence of Ancient Heracleion and Created the Leap Years
The famous Rosetta Stone, which enabled the deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphs, was found by Napoleon’s troops who invaded Egypt in 1799. It wouldn’t be long before many other similar steles and inscriptions began to appear, all with texts in two languages (Egyptian and Greek) and three writing systems (hieroglyphs, demotic, and Greek). The Rosetta Stone […]
Posted inAntiquity, Culture
How the Karatepe bilingual inscription from the 8th century B.C. led to the decipherment of Anatolian hieroglyphs
Just as the Rosetta Stone was fundamental in the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs, other writing systems followed a similar process, sometimes more rugged and convoluted. Some contributed in part to the decipherment of the Anatolian hieroglyphs, in a sort of curious domino effect. In 1694, the Cippi of Melqart, two pedestals bearing bilingual inscriptions, in […]
Posted inAncient Egypt
Ibn Wahshiyya, the Nabataean who could have translated Egyptian hieroglyphs before Champollion
Today we are going to discover an almost unknown individual, a good representative from other times, who may have been the first to decipher the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs almost nine centuries earlier than is believed. We are referring to the Arab scholar Ibn Wahshiyya. In mid-September 1822, Jean-François Champollion managed to finish off the work […]
