# Lee 2010: Pictish symbols revealed as a written language through application of Shannon entropy

> Rob Lee, Philip Jonathan, Pauline Ziman, 2010. 8 records on Mysteries Department cite it. The main statistical claim that the symbols are language.

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# Pictish symbols revealed as a written language through application of Shannon entropy

Rob Lee, Philip Jonathan, Pauline Ziman, 2010. _Proceedings of the Royal Society A 466(2121), 2545-2560_.

Proposes a two-parameter decision tree, using entropy measures, that classifies small symbol corpora by type of communication system, and finds the Pictish symbols unlikely to be random or heraldic and consistent with writing.

**Pictish symbol stones** Articledoi: **[10.1098/rspa.2010.0041](https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2010.0041)** Checked against the original0

## What it's used for here

The main statistical claim that the symbols are language.

## Cited by on this site 8 records

[A calibrated entropy decision tree can classify small symbol corpora by type, and it shows the Pictish…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/pictish-symbols/answers/ANS0CQHAKFJ689W/a-calibrated-entropy-decision-tree-can-classify-small-symbol)

Answer

ANS

[The 2010 entropy test classed the symbols with writing and not with random or heraldic systems.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/pictish-symbols/evidence/EVD0CQHAH986YQ0/the-2010-entropy-test-classed-the-symbols-with-writing-and)

Evidence

EVD

[The authors' decision tree separated their own calibration corpora of known writing and non-linguistic…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/pictish-symbols/evidence/EVD0CQHAKQC6HA2/the-authors-decision-tree-separated-their-own-calibration)

Evidence

EVD

[Lee, Jonathan and Ziman publish the entropy study](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/pictish-symbols/events/EVT0CQHAF2Y40BZ/lee-jonathan-and-ziman-publish-the-entropy-study)

EVT

[Rob Lee](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/pictish-symbols/people/FIG0CQHADC87GPF/rob-lee)

FIG

[The Pictish symbol stones](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/pictish-symbols)

The mystery article

MYS

[Are the Pictish symbols a writing system?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/pictish-symbols/questions/QST0CQHAG263DNY/are-the-pictish-symbols-a-writing-system)

Question

QST

[Can corpus statistics tell whether a small symbol corpus like the Pictish one is language?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/pictish-symbols/questions/QST0CQHAGA07V40/can-corpus-statistics-tell-whether-a-small-symbol-corpus)

Question

QST

## Cite it

```
Lee, R., Jonathan, P., & Ziman, P. (2010). Pictish symbols revealed as a written language through application of Shannon entropy. Proceedings of the Royal Society A 466(2121), 2545-2560. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2010.0041
```

[Find it at doi.org](https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2010.0041)

Key

**SRC** 0CQHA78Y1Y9C

Kind

Journal article

Rights

The publisher's

Checked

Against the published article

Added by

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The record

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