Archaeologists have uncovered a mysterious stone tablet which contains traces of an ancient lost language.
The basalt slab was discovered by accident in 2021 by a group of local fishermen who spotted it in the silt of Bashplemi Lake, Georgia.
Carved into the surface are 60 characters arranged in seven rows – 39 of which are unique.
Archaeologists say that these strange symbols aren’t found in any language known to science.
While there are similarities to scripts ranging from India, Egypt and Western Iberia, archaeologists say the Bashplemi inscription doesn’t use any recorded language.
It has not been possible to chemically date the tablet but, based on the area it was found, the carvings could be from the late Bronze or Early Iron Age around 14,000 years ago.
The researchers say there is no way of knowing what message the ancient writer was trying to convey but they believe it may 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.
Archaeologists have found an ancient stone tablet (pictured) that contains a lost language completely unknown to science
The tablet was discovered by chance in 2021 when a group of fishermen spotted it buried in the silt of Bashplemi Lake, Georgia, during a particularly dry season
The tablet’s 60 characters appear to have been made with a surprisingly ‘developed and refined’ technique for its time of creation.
An ancient writer would have first drilled a series of notches to outline each symbol before smoothing out the pattern with a rounded tool.
The result is a series of curving shapes, lines, and dots quite unlike anything seen before.
The closest symbols to those found on the Bashplemi tablet are found in Proto-Kartvelian, an ancestor of modern Georgian which was spoken in the fourth millennium BC.
Likewise, there are some similar shapes found in ancient seals used in pre-Christian Georgia throughout the early Iron Age.
Archaeologists think that these simple bone stamps were probably used by officials like tax collectors to mark quantities of wine and other goods.
Additionally, in their paper published in the Journal of Ancient History and Archaeology, the researchers note similarities with even more exotic scripts.
They 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.’
The tablet contains 60 characters, 39 of which are unique, arranged in seven rows. They were carved by drilling into the stone (shown by the small circles) before smoothing out the shapes with a rounded tool
The tablet was buried in the silt of Bashplemi Lake, Georgia which experts think has been inhabited since at least the Early Bronze Age
However, no ancient language contains a perfect match for any known language, making its origins a complete mystery.
The Mansi municipality where the tablet was found, in the historical region of Dbaniskhevi, was once home to a thriving civilisation which stretches back as far as the early Bronze Age.
Digs have even found stone and obsidian tools for processing hides which suggests a long period of settlement.
In the area around Bashplemi Lake, drone surveys have revealed sets of regular circles that could be burial mounds and geometrical shapes that could be the remains of houses, defence structures and places of worship.
Interestingly, the researchers say there could be some connection to a lost language referenced in Greek mythology.
In the myth of Jason and the Argonauts, the legendary 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.
According to ancient Greek sources, the people Colchis had knowledge of a way of writing called the ‘Golden Script’.
The most similar script is that found on seals (pictured) used by officials in pre-Christian Georgia around the fourth millennium BC. The authors say this could connect the table to the lost language known as Colchian runes
In 1115 AD, the Byzantine scholar St Eustathius of Thessalonica even wrote: ‘The purpose of the Argonautic expedition was to learn the method of the Golden Script.’
Yet all traces of this ancient language, now known as the Colchian runes, have been lost to time.
This is possibly because the original people of Colchis used organic writing materials like bone or wood which have long since decayed.
But the researchers now suggest that the Bashplemi tablet could be related in some way to the Colchian runes.
However, without further archaeological digs in the area, there is no way to know for certain what the tablet says or who its makers were.
The researchers conclude: ‘Deciphering the inscription discovered in historical Dbaniskhevi can become a remarkably interesting and significant event and this can possibly change the stereotypes about certain historical phenomena, as well as key aspects of the origination and development of the scripts in Caucasus.
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