The most ancient scripts of Iran: The current situation

Abstract

Abstract Between the second half of the fourth millennium B.C. and the end of the third, three writing systems succeeded one another at Susa and on the Iranian Plateau. Around 3200 B.C. clay bullae and tablets attest the use of an exclusively numerical notation, at a time when relations between Susa and Mesopotamia were extremely close. From around 3100 until about 2700 B.C., proto‐Elamite writing, probably invented on the Plateau, was employed for economic purposes. At first ideographic, this script, as yet undeciphered, became increasingly syllabic, like the Linear Elamite of more than half a millennium later. At the end of the third millennium, at a time when the scribes of Susa had already adopted the Mesopotamian cuneiform characters, an Elamite invader, PUZUR‐Insusinak, imposed the linear script, derived from proto‐Elamite signs. Despite recent efforts, in particular those of W. Hinz and P. Meriggi, these linear inscriptions remain largely incomprehensible. Only the discovery of new inscriptions may...