Byblos syllabaryEvidence
Evidence · Byblos syllabary
Every proposed date for the Byblos inscriptions, from about 2400 to about 830 BC, is centuries earlier than the first…
Every proposed date for the Byblos inscriptions, from about 2400 to about 830 BC, is centuries earlier than the first attestation of the Brahmi script, so Brahmi letter values cannot have been the model.
What it means
Key questionWhat language do the Byblos pseudo-hieroglyphic inscriptions record?
6 answers, none ahead yet
Openunchanged
Answer this evidence bears onThe Byblos inscriptions record Sanskrit, written with signs whose values are those of the Brahmi letters they resemble.
Counts againstnone for, 1 against
Still possiblewas No evidence yet
Next steps 3
1
Obtain an export of the GEAS Online Corpus of Byblos Inscriptions ([email protected]) 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
—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
—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
—not judged
Ranked by how likely each is to move the key question, for the time it takes
Sources 3
Cite it
Mysteries Department. (2026). Every proposed date for the Byblos inscriptions, from about 2400 to about 830 BC, is centuries earlier than the first… [Evidence EVD0DEDV4KG6RGK]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/EVD0DEDV4KG6RGK
@misc{mysteriesdept_evd0dedv4kg6rgk,
title = {Every proposed date for the Byblos inscriptions, from about 2400 to about 830 BC, is centuries earlier than the first…},
author = {{Mysteries Department}},
year = {2026},
note = {Evidence, catalog key EVD0DEDV4KG6RGK},
url = {https://mysteriesdept.com/r/EVD0DEDV4KG6RGK}
}