Inventing, Deciphering, and Interpreting Writing Systems

The invention of writing is per force an opaque phenomenon, as are all origins, as are all things remote and detached from the present, embedded in the deepest recesses of time. Yet, it traditionally marks the beginning of what we call history, and as such it signals what is probably one of the most important points of departure and triggers a fundamental pivot of our being modern humans. At the same time, it is an intrinsically human phenomenon, human-made and artificial, with no discernible zero point in time, arguably the result of a progressive and gradual evolution, cultural and cognitive, yet undefined in its contours. If an invention is a process, processing the invention of writing is, thus, a complicated matter. Equally so is decipherment. The history of decoding scripts and identifying their underlying messages in a way showcases the curiosity humans have always shown in enigmas and cryptic codes, the objective difficulties that are inherent in solving them, and the prowess and ingenuity that are necessary to break into them. Much as jigsaw puzzles, crosswords, and all manners of codes retain fascination, so undeciphered scripts carry a general allure shrouded in mystique and a patina of inaccessibility. Research on undeciphered scripts is flourishing today, and rigour and scientific method are part of the equation in this field as much as intuition and a modicum of serendipity