The Decipherment of Linear Elamite Writing
François Desset, Kambiz Tabibzadeh, Matthieu Kervran, Gian Pietro Basello,
and Gianni Marchesi
Abstract:
Linear Elamite writing was used in southern Iran in the late 3rd/early
2nd millennium BCE (ca. 2300–1880 BCE). First discovered during the
French excavations at Susa from 1903 onwards, it has so far resisted
decipherment. The publication of eight inscribed silver beakers in 2018
provided the materials and the starting point for a new attempt; its
results are presented in this paper. A full description and analysis of
Linear Elamite of writing, employed for recording the Elamite language,
is given here for the first time, together with a discussion of Elamite
phonology and the biscriptualism that characterizes this language in its
earliest documented phase.
