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Many undeciphered writing systems exist today; most date back several thousand years, although some more modern examples do exist. The term "
writing systems" is used here loosely to refer to groups of glyphs which appear to have representational symbolic meaning, but which may include "systems" that are largely
artistic in nature and are thus not examples of actual
writing.
The difficulty in
deciphering these systems can arise from a lack of known language descendants or from the languages being
entirely isolated, from insufficient examples of text having been found and even (such as in the case of
Vinča) from the question of whether the symbols actually constitute a writing system at all. Some researchers have claimed to be able to decipher certain writing systems, such as those of
Epi-Olmec, Phaistos and Indus texts; but to date, these claims have not been widely accepted within the scientific community, or confirmed by independent researchers, for the writing systems listed here (unless otherwise specified).
Proto-writing
Certain forms of
proto-writing remain undeciphered and, because of a lack of evidence and linguistic descendants, it is quite likely that they will never be deciphered.
Linear A and Cretan hieroglyphs are both believed to be an example of the
Minoan language.[citation needed] Several words have been decoded from the scripts, but no definite conclusions on the meanings of the words have been made.
Ancient inscriptions in Somalia, According to the Ministry of Information and National Guidance of Somalia, inscriptions can be found on various old Taalo Tiiriyaad structures. These are enormous stone mounds found especially in northeastern Somalia. Among the main sites where these Taalo are located are Xabaalo Ambiyad in
Alula District, Baar Madhere in Beledweyne District, and Harti Yimid in
Las Anod District.[5]
American scripts
Andean South America
Quipu –
Inka Empire and predecessor states, like the
Wari Empire or the
Caral-Supe Civilization, c. 2600 BC - 18th century, with some variants still in use today; it could possibly be a writing system or a set of writing systems.
Teotihuacan, c. 100 BC - 700 AD, possibly a logosyllabary. Possibly descended from the Zapotec script, and itself being the probable ancestor of the
Post-classic Mixtec and
Aztec scripts.
Mixtec –
Mixtec, 12th - 14th century, the pictographic elements which accompany the script are well-understood, but semantic and linguistic components of the script proper are less well known. The glyphs proper which accompany the pictographs are logosyllabic.
There were other scripts in several areas of Postclassic Mesoamerica descended from the Teotihuacan script and siblings of the Aztec and Mixtec scripts, but they are very poorly attested in some colonial period
codices.
Another similar concept is that of undeciphered
cryptograms, or
cipher messages. These are not writing systems per se, but a disguised form of another text. Of course any cryptogram is intended to be undecipherable by anyone except the intended recipient so vast numbers of these exist, but a few examples have become famous and are listed in
list of ciphertexts.
References
^"MS 73525". British Library. Retrieved 20 June 2023.