Decipherment 8946 225491479 2008-07-13T23:48:57Z Robertolyra 3971 /* See also */ {{redirect|Decipher}} '''Decipherment''' is the analysis of documents written in ancient [[language]]s, where the language is unknown, or knowledge of the language has been lost. It is closely related to [[cryptanalysis]] — the difference being that the original document was not deliberately written to be difficult to decipher. The term has also been used to describe the analysis of the [[genetic code]] information encoded in [[DNA]] - see the [[Human Genome Project]] article for more on this. Some people have also used the word metaphorically to mean something like 'understanding'. Examples of script decipherment: * [[Cuneiform script]] * [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]] * [[Kharoshthi|Kharoshthi script]] * [[Linear B]] * [[Maya script]] Famous documents that have been the subject of actual or attempted decipherment: * the [[Behistun Inscription]] * the [[Dresden Codex]] * the [[Edicts of Ashoka]] * the [[Phaistos Disc]] * the [[Rohonc Codex]] * the [[Rosetta Stone]] * the [[Voynich Manuscript]] Famous decipherers: * [[Jean-François Champollion]] * [[Georg Friedrich Grotefend]] * [[Yuri Knorozov]] * [[Dhul-Nun al-Misri]] * [[Michael Ventris]] * [[Ibn Wahshiyya]] ==See also== *[[Decipherment of rongorongo]] *[[Indus script]] * Decipherment of [[Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī|Al-Khwārizmī]] numerals [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Robertolyra] ==External links== * [http://www.plu.edu/~ryandp/texts.html Ancient Languages and Scripts] * http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~fsaber1/language/MysteryCuneiform.html *[http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mindusscript.html How come we can't decipher the Indus script?] (from [[The Straight Dope]]) [[Category:Cryptography]] [[Category:Writing systems]] [[de:Entschlüsselung]] [[et:Dešifreerimine]] [[es:Desciframiento]] [[fr:Décrypter]] [[ja:解読]] [[tr:Deşifre]]