Source: CCTV.com
03-03-2009 08:50
Scientists trying to decipher texts on an inscribed stone tablet from the late Bronze Age are still searching for a breakthrough. They've so far been frustrated in their efforts to identify what's believed to be the Iberian peninsula's oldest written language and one of Europe's first. But the enigma remains and they fear that, unless an equivalent of the Rosetta stone is unearthed, their efforts to reconstruct the ancient language may be doomed.
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| Scientists trying to decipher texts on an inscribed stone tablet from the late Bronze Age are still searching for a breakthrough. |
The first findings of stone slates containing Tartessian scriptures date back to the 18th century when the strange symbols aroused the curiosity of a bishop whose diocese encompassed this region.
Since then, scientists have been trying to decipher what's been termed the Southwest Script.
It's believed to be the peninsula's oldest written tongue and, along with Etruscan from modern-day Italy, one of Europe's first examples of text, dating back between 25 and 28-hundred years.
Most experts have concluded they were authored by a people called Tartessians, a tribe of Mediterranean traders who mined for metal in these parts, but disappeared after a few centuries.
Local historian Rui Santana and his colleagues were searching for Roman remains in Meson do Castelinho last year when they turned over a heavy chunk of slate and saw writing not used for more than 2,500 years.
Historian Rui Santana said, "This language existed within the context of a multilingual Iberian peninsula. But it is the region's first written testimony. It appeared before all other languages in the central and eastern parts of the peninsula. Languages like that were probably only orally spoken. So this is the first one to have been graphically written."
