| Kushan script | |
|---|---|
| Script type | |
Period | 600–200 BCE to 700 CE |
| Direction | Right-to-left script |
| Languages | Unknown Middle Iranian language |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | Egyptian
|
Theunknown Kushan script (écriture inconnue in French,neizvestnoe pis’mo in Russian, both meaning unknown lettering[1]) is apartially deciphered writing system andabugida,written from right to left. A 2023 analysis by Bonmann et al. hypothesizes that the language recorded is either: "a missing link betweenBactrian,Sogdian, theSaka languages, ...Alanic and ‘Old Steppe Iranian’," such as a native dialect of northernBactria, that was adopted by theYuezhi after migrating into the area, or; a language has "more affinities with Sakan and perhaps ‘Old Steppe Iranian’," which would "imply that it belongs to a ... steppe-related environment, befitting the original home of the Dà Yuèzhī/Kushans in the grasslands ofGansu."[2]
The script was used in parts of Central Asia between 600 and 200 BCE (depending on the age of theIssyk inscription) and 700 CE, including theKushan Empire along with Greek andKharosthi scripts, associated with theDà Yuèzhī of theEurasian Steppe inancient Bactria.[1] It was discovered by archaeologists in the 1950s. Textual remnants consist ofcave wall carvings and paintedceramics. Most of what was written was probably recorded onpalm leaves orbirch bark which had decomposed.
The script comprises less than 30 signs, and likely around 25. It is possibly anImperial Aramaic-derived script, that has been modified withdiacritics.[1]
Several decipherment attempts were made, mostly focusing on the oldest instance of the script, the Issyk inscription, without success.[1] The partialdecipherment was announced on 1 March 2023 by a team at theUniversity of Cologne, when the consonant values of 15 signs, 2 ligatures, and 4 vowel diacritics had been determined. The corpus is primarily short inscriptions that originate from the territory of today'sTajikistan,Afghanistan, andUzbekistan. A significant discovery that led to progress on decipherment was a bilingual carving found in theAlmosi Gorge in northwestern Tajikistan, which included a section in the Bactrian language andancient Greek writing. It was used in addition to the trilingualGandhari-Bactrian-Kushan inscription discovered in the 1960s at Dašt-i Nāwur,Mount Qarabayu in Afghanistan, as the name of emperorVima Takto and his title King of Kings appears in both texts.[3][4][5][6][7]
Vladimir Livshits originally pointed out that the Issyk inscription bears a resemblance to later, similarly undeciphered inscriptions from the Kushan Empire, dated to the 2nd-3rd centuries CE. This includes texts found at Dašt-i Nāwur,Surkh Kotal,Al-Khanoum, and seven other short inscriptions. He andEdvard Rtveladze suggested calling it the Saka script, because it apparently appeared in the time of theSaka and was used by ones that joined theYuezhi to establish the Kushan Empire.[8][9] Harmatta proposed a decipherement in 1999 based on this hypothesis.[9]
However, due to some deviations,Gérard Fussman hypothesised that they could be attributed to several writing systems.[10] The Sakan hypothesis was also met with skepticism due to the possibility that the Issyk inscription originates from Bactria via trade or loot. As of 2014, the majority of experts considered the script to be undeciphered.[11]
Some researchers have claimed similarities with theOrkhon runes and tried to read them as inscriptions inOld Turkic. However, due to the attempts all widely varying in their attempted decipherments, they have not been considered successful.[12] Liwshits claimed that this is because they shared a common origin in the Imperial Aramaic script.[8][A 2023 analysis by Bonmann et al., identified the Kushan script with a new sub-branch of theEastern Iranian languages, particularly a language "situated in between Bactrian-, Sogdian-, Saka- and Old Steppe Iranian". They also argue "since it is not an ‘unknown script’ anymore, we suggest to call the writing system ‘(Issyk-)Kushan script’ from now on".[1]
Bonmann's analysis primarily focuses on the trilingual Dašt-i Nāwur inscription and bilingual carving found in the Almosi Gorge, using the phrase "king of kings" to find graphemic minimal pairs within the unknown text from a particular language hypothesized to be represented. Following this, a step-by-step phonetic substitution with expected names and then parallel sections was performed.
Initially, Bonmann identifies 25-30 independent signs in the writing system (shown right), indicating that the script does not represent alogo-syllabic system. The hypothesis is rather that the script represents an Indic-typealphasyllabary, with each letter having the basic vocalic value /a/; the vowel quality or quantity can then be changed with additional strokes.
In both the DN (Dašt-i Nāwur inscription) and AG (Almosi Gorge) inscriptions, the phrase "king of kings" followed by the name Vema Takhtu occurs in the Bactrian sections. Given this co-occurrence, Bonmann's decipherment is based on the hypothesis that this phrase occurs in the sections of each inscription written in the Kushan script. Through a distributional analysis, a parallel sequence was found between DN III and AG I.
Bonmann's decipherment begins initially with noticing a sequence in line 1 of AG I with repeating characters.
Then, hypothesizing that the text in the Kushan script contains the same elements as the Bactrian parallel and assuming that the language represented is anIndo-European language, Bonmann identifies the sequence 23-3 as the stem for "king" and the pattern (23-3-)22-22(-23-3) as "king of kings." Additionally, the sequence 16-17-16 is assumed to represent the Takhtu part of "Vema Takhtu,"` with 16-17-16 representing the sequence -TKT. Through further analysis, Bonmann rules out a Tocharian or Sogdian language as possible options for the language of the unknown script. The preliminary reading for the phrase "king of kings" then becomes ⟨Šā-W"-Nā-N'-Šā-W"⟩.
The decipherment has been described by researchers as a significant step toward understanding Kushan-era inscriptions and the region's administrative and cultural history.[13]
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