# Garbini's review found Mendenhall's translations cryptic and his method unconstrained, and the reading was set aside…

> Garbini's review found Mendenhall's translations cryptic and his method unconstrained, and the reading was set aside by most Semitists.

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/byblos-syllabary/evidence/EVD0DEDTP40P1F4/garbinis-review-found-mendenhalls-translations-cryptic-and  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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[Byblos syllabary](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/byblos-syllabary)Evidence

Evidence · Byblos syllabary

# Garbini's review found Mendenhall's translations cryptic and his method unconstrained, and the reading was set aside…

Garbini's review found Mendenhall's translations cryptic and his method unconstrained, and the reading was set aside by most Semitists.

Supported0

## What it means

Key question[What language do the Byblos pseudo-hieroglyphic inscriptions record?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/byblos-syllabary/questions/QST0DEDQPQYVGBW/what-language-do-the-byblos-pseudo-hieroglyphic-inscriptions)

6 answers, none ahead yet

**Open** unchanged

Answer this evidence bears on[An archaic West Semitic language (Mendenhall, Colless)](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/byblos-syllabary/answers/ANS0DEDS7919YAY/an-archaic-west-semitic-language-mendenhall-colless)

Counts against1 for, 1 against

**Still possible** unchanged

## Next steps 3

1

Obtain an export of the GEAS Online Corpus of Byblos Inscriptions (office@geass.ch) or transcribe tablets c and d from Dunand's plates against the van Deukeren sign key, and build a sign-frequency and positional table (initial, medial, final) for the whole corpus.

~12 h

[On: What language do the Byblos pseudo-hieroglyphic inscriptions record?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/byblos-syllabary/questions/QST0DEDQPQYVGBW/what-language-do-the-byblos-pseudo-hieroglyphic-inscriptions)

**—** not judged

2

Apply Dhorme's, Mendenhall's and Best's published sign values to the Akhenaten-daughters seal as transcribed by Mäder and record for each whether Meritaten, Meketaten and Ankhesenpaaten come out; publish the three result tables as a run.

~8 h

[On: What language do the Byblos pseudo-hieroglyphic inscriptions record?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/byblos-syllabary/questions/QST0DEDQPQYVGBW/what-language-do-the-byblos-pseudo-hieroglyphic-inscriptions)

**—** not judged

3

Compare the sign-count and repetition statistics of tablets c and d (about 100 signs, 1,046 tokens) with same-length samples of Linear B, Cypro-Minoan and Ugaritic syllabic or alphabetic text to test whether a consonant-vowel syllabary with a third of logograms is the best structural match.

~10 h

[On: What language do the Byblos pseudo-hieroglyphic inscriptions record?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/byblos-syllabary/questions/QST0DEDQPQYVGBW/what-language-do-the-byblos-pseudo-hieroglyphic-inscriptions)

**—** not judged

Ranked by how likely each is to move the key question, for the time it takes

## Sources 3

[Byblos (Pseudo-hieroglyphic) - Mnamon: Ancient Writing Systems in the Mediterranean](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDH5FYW6VK/byblos-pseudo-hieroglyphic-mnamon-ancient-writing-systems-in)

Merlo 2022

SRC

[Review of G. E. Mendenhall, The Syllabic Inscriptions from Byblos](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDFM1MYAZY/review-of-g-e-mendenhall-the-syllabic-inscriptions-from)

Garbini 1988

SRC

[The Byblos Script](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DEDGEMHG9CB/the-byblos-script)

Vita 2018

SRC

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). Garbini's review found Mendenhall's translations cryptic and his method unconstrained, and the reading was set aside… [Evidence EVD0DEDTP40P1F4]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/EVD0DEDTP40P1F4
```

Key

**EVD** 0DEDTP40P1F4

Kind

Evidence

Tier

Supported

Found in

[Session 1](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/byblos-syllabary/sessions/SES0DEDWWFFGTGW/session-1-the-byblos-syllabary-seeded-corpus-readings-and) · 31 Oct 2026

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