Tag: language

Accountant Takes An Accurate Shot At Cracking Bronze Age Script, Linear A

The enigmatic script Linear A has long been one of antiquity’s most enduring mysteries. Emanating from Bronze Age Crete, its undecipherable cryptic symbols have frustrated researchers, historians, and archaeologists for over a century, but now, a British accountant in what has been called a “bold new theory” claims to have cracked the code and lifted the veil of mystery that has long hung over the script.

Mark Cook, a British forensic accountant realized the Linear A Tablets are partially complete accounting and argues that Linear A is a form of ancient Egyptian shorthand, similar in form to later Graeco-Roman shorthand (which evidently derived from the earlier Egyptian form). “ It actually seemed odd to me that an accountant had never looked at the Linear A tablets before. Linguists had pored over them, but numbers formed a large proportion of what was written, as well as the characters of whatever language was being conveyed, and it seemed that a large proportion of the information on the tablets was almost being ignored ,” says Cook.

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9 Mysterious Undeciphered Codes and Inscriptions in History

From Neolithic tablets containing the oldest known system of writing, to a series of letters scrawled on the back of a dead man’s book, some of the most legendary undeciphered codes and texts remain a challenge for even the world’s best cryptographers, code breakers and linguists. Yet unravelling these mysterious puzzles remains as important as ever, since many of these enigmatic inscriptions could hold the keys to understanding civilizations that have long since faded into historic oblivion. Here we feature nine of the most fascinating undeciphered codes and inscriptions throughout history.

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Previously Unknown Language Found on Ancient Hittite Tablets in Turkey

In the midst of artificial intelligence and cutting-edge language models, a significant archaeological discovery has unfolded in Boğazköy-Hattusha ( Hattusa), the old Hittite capital in Turkey. Archaeologists have unearthed a previously unknown ancient language in a cultic ritual text, adding a fresh dimension to our understanding of Late Bronze Age Anatolia.

The Hattusa archaeological site in north-central Turkey is an ancient Hittite rock sanctuary and open-air shrine. Boasting impressive rock reliefs depicting deities and mythological scenes, the earliest settlement dates back to the Late Bronze Age (1650 to 1200 BC), when the Hittite Empire dominated the region.

Hattusa was an ancient capital of the Hittite Empire , and until now, among the most impressive discoveries at this UNESCO World Heritage Site, was a representation of the Storm God “Tarhunt,” who symbolized the Hittite pantheon’s strength and power. However, a recent excavation has unearthed a hitherto unknown Indo-European language.

Excavations at Hattusa have been undertaken for over a century, mostly under the direction of the German Archaeological Institute . Under the watch of the current site director, Professor Andreas Schachner of the Istanbul Department of the German Archaeological Institute, numerous cuneiform tablets have been unearthed.

In total, around 30,000 clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform writing have been recovered from this site. While these tablets offer archaeologists insights into Hittite cultural traditions, Professor Daniel Schwemer, head of the Chair of Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg in Germany, said the recent discovery of “a previously unknown Indo-European language,” reaches new archaeological heights.

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What Does “Far-Right” Even Mean Anymore?

“Far right” is basically anything that contests the Establishment narrative.

Anybody taking the legacy, corporate media at face value these days is likely under the impression that the entire world is being overrun with “far-right” extremists, after all, anything orthogonal to the current WEF-inspired world order seems to be, by definition, far right.

If it wasn’t apparent already, it became obvious during the pandemic how establishment narratives are promulgated by corporate media cartels to enshrine elite-approved canon.  For that to work, it was key to neutralize non-conforming impulses, and the way to do that, it seemed, was to label it all as “far right”.

The term has now been so misplaced and over-used that it becomes impossible to differentiate between fast rising maverick politicians from skinheads with swastika tattoos. Make no mistake, this is deliberate.

The standard playbook is to cast anything gaining momentum as “populist” – which is always implicated as being  wrong-headed and retrograde, even though a literal definition of the word simply connotes that large swaths of the population are feeling strongly about something (usually some manner of getting screwed by the elites).

In an era where confidence and credibility of our incumbent institutions is in secular decline – given their stunning incompetence, not to mention self-serving hypocrisy and corruption, the public is becoming increasingly fed up with their betters. That means whatever appeals to them has to be repackaged as “far-right”, lest the movement gain momentum.

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Is 8,000-year-old Damaidi Rock Art the Origin of Chinese Writing?

The Chinese writing system is by far one of the most complex in the world, and its origins are truly ancient. In fact, ​​Chinese characters are the oldest continuously used system of writing in the world, a fact that alone makes them very, very special. It is thus only natural to ask the question: where did these characters originate? A system of writing that is so complex and unique surely has to have a special place of provenance. Some scholars believe that the characters first came to existence amongst the Damaidi petroglyphs – ancient drawings carved in stone that reach far, far back in time. Are they the key to the riddle?

Damaidi rock art, also known as the Damaidi petroglyphs, are a collection of stunning ancient rock carvings found in China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. They are situated close to the village of Damaidi, which is set amid the Weining Mountains on the north bend of the famed Yellow River . These carvings have been dated to between 6,000 and 8,000 years before present and depict a wide variety of images, including animals, humans, and abstract symbols . The images are carved into local cliffs, and in total there are 3,172 sets of early Chinese petroglyphs , all of which feature 8,453 individual figures. These are stunning numbers, indicating that the site was filled with art over many generations.

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2,000-Year-Old Unknown Kushan Language Is Finally Deciphered

Since the 1960s, archaeologists in Central Asia have found rocks carved with a mysterious unknown language. Now, a team from the University of Cologne has deciphered the unknown script, revealing it emerged among traders on the Silk Road.

Founded by the Kushan tribe, the Kushan Empire flourished from the 1st to 3rd centuries AD. Spanning Central Asia and parts of South Asia, Kushan religion was influenced by Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and Hinduism, which all penetrated Kushan culture via trade along the Silk Road .

Cologne University was founded in 1388 AD by Pope Urban VI, focusing on theology, philosophy and linguistics. Now, keeping in alignment with the institute’s original traditions, a research team from the University’s Department of Linguistics has decoded 60% of the ancient Kushan writing system known as the “Unknown Kushan Script.”

According to UNESCO, both Sanskrit and Prakrit languages pre-date the Kushan Empire, and Bactrian and Sogdian were spoken by the merchants who engaged in Silk Road trading across Central Asia. However, while much is known about these language systems, until now there remained much to be discovered about the languages of the Kushan Empire.

The so-called “unknown Kushan script” was first identified by archaeologists in the 1960s, but now, Professor’s Svenja Bonmann, Jakob Halfmann and Natalie Korobzow have examined sections of the unknown script found on cave walls, clay pots and bowls in several Central Asian countries.

The team initially announced their “partial” decipherment of the language on 1 March 2023, during an online conference organized by the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan . Now, a new study about their work has been published in the journal Transactions of the Philological Society under the title “A Partial Decipherment of the Unknown Kushan Script.”

According to the new paper, the team have successfully deciphered about 60% of the characters of the unknown Kushan language script that was widely used in Central Asia between about 200 BC and 700 AD.

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Johns Hopkins pulls ‘lesbian’ definition after uproar over use of ‘non-men’ instead of ‘women’

Johns Hopkins University removed an online glossary of LGBTQ terms and identities this week after its definition of the word “lesbian” used the term “non-men” to refer to women and some nonbinary people and fueled an online uproar.

Screenshots of the glossary before it was taken down showed that the university defined the word “lesbian” as a “non-man attracted to non-men.” It added that while past definitions have referred to lesbians as women who are sexually attracted to other women, the “updated definition” is intended to include nonbinary people who may identify with the label.

“The LGBTQ Glossary serves as an introduction to the range of identities and terms that are used within LGBTQ communities, and is not intended to serve as the definitive answers as to how all people understand or use these terms,” Megan Christin, the university’s director of strategic communications, said in a statement Wednesday. “While the glossary is a resource posted on the website of the Johns Hopkins University Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI), the definitions were not reviewed or approved by ODI leadership and the language in question has been removed pending review.”

Christin did not respond to questions regarding when the online glossary was first uploaded.

Screenshots of the glossary sparked an online firestorm in recent days, with many women, including some lesbians, calling the definition “misogynistic” and noting that the definition for “gay man” did not use comparable language, such as “non-women.”

“Lesbian was literally the only word in English language that is not tied to man- as in male- feMALE, man- woMAN,” tennis star Martina Navratilova, who is a lesbian, tweeted Monday. “And now lesbians are non men?!? Wtf?!?”

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FBI documents associate internet slang like ‘based’ and ‘red pill’ with ‘extremism’

New documents released Monday warned that common internet lingo is being associated with “Violent Extremism” by the FBI.

The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project said it used a Freedom of Information Act request to expose FBI documents that include glossaries showing that common internet slang has been flagged as an indication of “Involuntary Celibate Violent Extremism” or “Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremism.”

Part of the document refers specifically to “incels,” or those “involuntary celibate,” whom the “threat overview” describes as possibly seeking to “commit violence in support of their beliefs that society unjustly denies them sexual or romantic attention, to which they believe they are entitled.”

The assessment notes, “While most incels do not engage in violence,” some have been involved in “at least five lethal attacks in the United States and Canada.”

Many of the terms mentioned in the FBI’s list of incel terminology are either widely used across the internet or innocuous in nature.

The one term in the glossary is “Red Pill,” which comes from the 1999 film “The Matrix” and has been used a metaphor for seeing hidden or politically incorrect truths about the modern world, particularly when it comes to politics or dating.

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