Four Astonishing Historical Texts That Remain Undeciphered
To this day, these breathtaking documents continue to leave historians baffled.
Commonly proclaimed is the concept of studying the past to define the future, as dubbed by the Chinese philosopher Confucius. With a myriad of beautiful cultures- past and present- we as a society feverishly seek to obtain as much knowledge as possible. However, despite the immense endeavors to do so, there are some instances where such knowledge cannot be obtained at first sight, as can be seen through these four puzzling artifacts discussed below.
1. The Phaistos Disc
The Phaistos Disc was discovered by the Italian archaeologist Luigi Pernier on July 3, 1908, amongst the ruins of the Minoan palace of Phaistos within the island of Crete. The structure of the Disc is one of fired clay, measuring about 15 cm (roughly 5.91 in) in diameter and layered with a spiral design. What is most fascinating about this artifact is that both the manufactural origin and purpose of the Phaistos Disc have yet to be determined.
As depicted in the photograph above, the Disc has roughly 240 images of humans, animals, and plants, all individually stamped and spirally arranged in a clockwise motion. The controversy behind the icon stems from the question of the object’s reliability within logography, syllabary, or simply a plain hoax. The Disc remains unsolved due to the unfamiliarity of the script. The circumstance of this is strange as the artifact was discovered next to a tablet with a typical language used by Minoans during this period. Due to this fact, some scholars claim that the Phaistos Disc is a forgery, however, because of the sophisticated style of its movable “press style” inscriptions, it is widely regarded as a legitimate find.
The Disc holds physically drawn dashes and slanted lines, which some believe could be a grammatical device such as stanza dividers or sentence starters. However, because of the invariant sizes and shapes of the lines, it is also posturized that they are accidental markings. Some historians have used these shapes as syllables, while others view them as pictographs. Ultimately, both methods have been unfruitful.
Theories about the intent of the Phaistos Disc range from logical hypotheses- such as a relic during rituals- to extraterrestrial speculations- such as alien communication. Regardless, the Phaistos Disk is actively being studied with the hopes of revealing information from a language plagued with dissolution.
2. The Liber Linteus Zagraiensis
The Liber Linteus Zagraiensis was unknowingly discovered by a Hungarian Royal Chancellery Official named Mihajlo Barić when he purchased a sarcophagus containing a female mummy. At his home in Austria, he displayed the mummy once he removed her linen wrapping, deeming it unimportant and thus placing it aside. After Barić’s death, the mummy was donated and analyzed in 1867 by the German Egyptologist Heinrich Brugsch.
Brugsch and his team initially claimed the writing on the linen to be Egyptian hieroglyphics, however, when they reexamined it nearly a decade later, they discovered that it was actually an unknown script that they considered to be an Arabic transliteration of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. In the decades following, numerous linguists have studied the document, finally settling on the claim that the writing stemmed from the Etruscan language.
Due to limited knowledge of this language, the contents of the manuscript have not been able to be translated in its entirety. However, from the bits and pieces deciphered, it was determined that the Liber Linteus was used as a religious calendar.
Due to the inability to completely understand the text, coupled with the strange phenomenon of an Etruscan text being part of an Egyptian burial ritual, many historians continue to study this artifact, hoping to obtain new information from its contents.
3. The Voynich Manuscript
Perhaps one of the most noted literary mysteries of all time, the Voynich Manuscript is a fifteenth-century document discovered by the book dealer Wilfrid Voynich in 1912. With an unknown author, place of origin, and script, the document continues to stump historians and linguists to this date.
Although the language-dubbed as “Voynichese”-remains unknown, a famed aspect of the manuscript is the various illustrations, beautifully drawn and splashed with vibrant colors. These drawings have been separated into six sections: botanical diagrams of obscure and otherworldly plants, astronomical and astrological charts with key figures such as zodiac signs, nude females with intricate bodily designs, a plethora of medicinal herbs, cosmological medallions, and plain texts with star markings in the margins.
With the numerous and arbitrary information, the true purpose of the manuscript is still being determined. Some historians speculate that the Voynich Manuscript was composed by a woman due to the elaborate designs of the female depictions. This theory remains plausible as many upper-class women during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in Central Europe would have been able to record such documents. These documents may have been crafted to maintain secrets about botany, astronomy, and childbirth solely within the feminine population.
4. Rongorongo
Rongorongo was uncovered on Easter Island in the nineteenth century, with various sources being accredited for their discovery. Rongorongo consists of twenty-four wooden artifacts, all irregularly shaped and severely weathered down, that contain the same form of script. To this date, a definite understanding of the contents of Rongorongo has not been concluded, yet it has been determined that it is the only known form of systemized writing in Polynesian history. Many of the characters appear as plants, animals, and human hieroglyphics, as well as individual texts with a single uppercase letter and a name.
Historians have been able to propose certain theories based on oral traditions. It is believed that these texts were principally used by the small literate elite. As stated by priest chanters on Easter Island, the tablets were used as a sacred device to help with ceremonial chants.
Due to the characters themselves, many sources claim that these boards originated from Polynesian stories and legends. However, because no evidence has been found of the script having existed prior to the eighteenth century, others state that the script may have appeared after contact with colonials.
According to a statement by the Swiss anthropologist Alfred Métraux, Rongorongo is:
“… a conventional system of recording communicable traditions … (it) is more evolved than mere pictography and contains ideograms with fixed and variable meanings, different levels of symbolism, and word signs that can be used for noting names.”
