People
625 people in 95 mysteries
Researchers, witnesses, makers and the missing: everyone the mysteries' records name, with what they did in each.
A 3 on this page
AF
Adam FalkensteinAssyriologist; first editor of the Uruk archaic tablets (ATU 1, 1936) · 1906–1966
ADProto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk
Anne Draffkorn KilmerAssyriologist at Berkeley who published CBS 10996 (1960), synthesised the Babylonian theory texts (1971) and read h.6 as dyads with repetiti
AAHurrian songs of Ugarit
Anthony AveniAstronomer and anthropologist, Colgate University; led the 1980s survey · born 1938
Nazca Lines
C 2 on this page
CH
Carl HammerSperry Univac computer scientist; led the Beale Cypher Association · 1914–2004
CHBeale ciphers
Cyrus H. GordonSemitist; read Eteocretan and Linear A as Northwest Semitic · 1908–2001
D 4 on this page
DN
David N. KeightleyBerkeley historian whose Sources of Shang History (1978) made the method of reading the inscriptions available in English and catalogued the
DWDavid WulstanBritish musicologist who analysed the Ur tuning text with Gurney (1968) and published the first realization of h.6 (1971). · 1937–2017
DSHurrian songs of Ugarit
Denise Schmandt-BesseratArchaeologist; author of the token theory of the origin of writing · born 1933
Proto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk
Donald TrumpPresident; ordered the 2026 release · born 1946
US government UAP disclosures
E 3 on this page
EL
Emmanuel LarocheFrench Hittitologist and Hurrian specialist who edited the Hurrian texts from Ugarit (1955, 1968). · 1914–1991
ESHurrian songs of Ugarit
Eric SamsMusicologist; 1970 reading · 1926–2004
EWDorabella cipher
Erik WahlgrenScandinavianist; author of the 1958 study · 1909–1990
Kensington Runestone
G 4 on this page
GU
Gary UrtonAnthropologist; founded the Harvard Khipu Database Project · born 1946
GEInka khipus: the knotted-cord records
George E. MendenhallAmerican biblical scholar and Near Eastern philologist at the University of Michigan (1916 to 2016), author of The Syllabic Inscriptions fro
GHGeorge HourmouziadisGreek prehistorian, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, who excavated the Dispilio lake settlement from 1992 and found the inscribed woode
Gerald HawkinsAstronomer; author of the observatory reading · 1928–2003
Stonehenge
H 4 on this page
HJ
Hans J. NissenArchaeologist of Uruk; co-author of ZATU and Archaic Bookkeeping · born 1935
HHProto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk
Harald HaarmannGerman linguist, the main academic proponent of the "Danube script" as the world's earliest writing and an ancestor of Linear A · born 1946
HRHelmut RixIndo-Europeanist; editor of Etruskische Texte and author of the Tyrsenian hypothesis · 1926–2004
HVEtruscan: the readable language that cannot be fully translated
Henri van EffenterreArchaeologist; excavator of Dreros, publisher of the Dreros bilinguals · 1912–2007
I 1 on this page
J 11 on this page
JA
James A. HarrellGeologist; reply to Schoch, 1994 · born 1948
Great Sphinx of Giza
James P. KennettMarine geologist, University of California, Santa Barbara; leading proponent · born 1940
JBYounger Dryas impact hypothesis
Jan BestDutch ancient historian and protohistorian at the University of Amsterdam (1941 to 2023) who proposed a decipherment of the Byblos bronze ta
JGJean GuilaineFrench Neolithic specialist, professor at the Collège de France, member of the Ministry of Culture's 1983-1990 Glozel team and co-editor wit
JLJean LeclantEgyptologist; directed the REM · 1920–2011
JOMeroitic
Jean-Pierre OlivierEpigraphist; co-editor of CHIC · 1936–2020
JMCretan Hieroglyphic
Jerome M. EisenbergAntiquities dealer and editor of Minerva; hoax claim · 1930–2022
Phaistos Disc
Jimmy CarterUS President, 1977–1981 · 1924–2024
1979 Vela incident
Joe NickellInvestigator; archival and linguistic case for a hoax · 1944–2025
Beale ciphers
Joe NickellSceptical investigator · 1944–2025
JDOak Island money pit
John D. AndersonJPL radio scientist; lead author of the 2008 formula paper · 1912–2000
Earth flyby anomaly
K 2 on this page
KO
Karen O. BruhnsArchaeologist; 2007 critique · born 1941
KBCascajal block and Isthmian writing
Kemal BalkanTurkish Assyriologist whose Kassitenstudien 1 (1954) collected the Kassite language · 1920–1992
Hattic, Kassite and the half-read languages of the cuneiform archives
L 2 on this page
LG
Louis GodartEpigraphist; co-editor of CHIC · born 1945
LPCretan Hieroglyphic
Luigi PernierExcavator of Phaistos; found the disc · 1922–2009
Phaistos Disc
M 7 on this page
MD
Marcelle Duchesne-GuilleminBelgian musicologist who proposed a melodic reading of h.6 (1975, 1980, 1984) and explained its repeated syllables by the tablet's spiral la
MGHurrian songs of Ugarit
Margherita GuarducciEpigraphist; editor of Inscriptiones Creticae, including the Praisos texts · 1902–1999
Maria ReicheMathematician; documented and protected the lines, proposed the calendar reading · 1903–1998
MGNazca Lines
Marija GimbutasLithuanian-American archaeologist who proposed the "Old European script" as the sacred writing of a goddess-centred Neolithic Europe · 1921–
MLMartin Litchfield WestBritish classicist whose 1994 article read the Hurrian texts as melody on a descending scale. · 1937–2015
MPHurrian songs of Ugarit
Massimo PallottinoEtruscologist; editor of TLE and champion of the combinatory method · 1909–1995
MDEtruscan: the readable language that cannot be fully translated
Michael D. CoeMesoamericanist (Yale); co-author of the 2006 paper; critic of the Isthmian decipherment · 1929–2019
Cascajal block and Isthmian writing
N 1 on this page
O 2 on this page
OR
Oliver Robert GurneyOxford Assyriologist who published the Ur tuning text UET VII 74 (1968) and first read the string list Nabnitu XXXII. · 1911–2001
OMHurrian songs of Ugarit
Olivier MassonEpigraphist; corpus of Cypriot syllabic inscriptions (ICS, 1961 and 1983) · 1922–1997
P 2 on this page
PD
Paul-Marie DuvalFrench archaeologist of Roman Gaul · 1912–1997
PDGallo-Roman dodecahedra
Peter DamerowHistorian of science; numerical systems and the proto-writing position · 1939–2011
Proto-cuneiform: the archaic texts of Uruk
Q 1 on this page
R 10 on this page
RG
Raoul Gregory VitaleSyrian physicist and musicologist from Latakia who argued in 1982 that the Babylonian scale and the h.6 notation run downward. · 1928–2003
RBHurrian songs of Ugarit
Richard B. FirestoneNuclear chemist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; first author of the 2007 paper · 1945–2024
RDYounger Dryas impact hypothesis
Richard DumbrillArchaeomusicologist, co-founder of ICONEA, who reads the Babylonian system as nine-note and has published his own transcription of h.6. · bo
Hurrian songs of Ugarit
Richard L. GarwinIBM physicist; Ruina panel member · 1928–2025
1979 Vela incident
Robert BallardOceanographer; led the 2019 Nikumaroro expedition · born 1942
Disappearance of Amelia Earhart
Robert BigelowDeveloper; founder of NIDS and Bigelow Aerospace; owner 1996–2016 · 1908–1978
RDSkinwalker Ranch
Robert D. BiggsOriental Institute Assyriologist who published the Abu Salabikh tablets and the archaic Kesh Temple Hymn. · born 1934
Unread cuneiform: half a million tablets and the limits of Sumerian
Robert H. GrayIndependent astronomer; led most follow-up searches · born 1948
Wow! signal
Robert M. SchochGeologist; author of the rain-erosion redating · born 1949
RSGreat Sphinx of Giza
Robert S. P. BeekesIndo-Europeanist, Leiden; argued the Anatolian origin of the Etruscans (2003) · 1937–2017
Etruscan: the readable language that cannot be fully translated
S 1 on this page
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