Blogger’s Note: The date of this (basalt) stone tablet (discovered by Fisherman in Lake Bashplemi during 2021) is thought to be around the Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age – relevant to the Georgia region of the South Caucasus area (of West Asia). This correlates to around 1500-1200 BCE (Late Bronze Age) – and 1200-700 BCE (Early Iron Age) – but this is highly speculative. Romanian academics state (see above link):
‘At this point, it is impossible to date back the tablet; however, taking into consideration the graphical shapes of the inscription and the artefacts discovered during shallow studies of the area where the tablet was found, the inscrip-tion may be dated back to the Late Bronze/Early Iron Ages.’
At the same time, this Romanian academic assessment states the inscription is “pre-Christian” – which would suggest a pre-fourth century CE date – much nearer to the modern era. Either way, the idea that local (pre-dominantly uneducated) local people would a) produce such a sophisticated tablet (possibly recording a successful military campaign – and all the subsequent loot secured from the defeated enemy), and b) then throw this tablet into a lake. What would be the point of this supposed chain of events? The next idea is that it might be a votive offering created as an act of worship – then thrown into a lake – to placate some type of pre-Christian deity. Of course, Georgia is not a Celtic area – with the (non-Celtic) Pagan Vikings not arriving until in the region until around the 8th-9th century CE (around four centuries after the arrival of Christianity). The problem with this idea is that if the people of Georgia were advanced enough to read, write and technologically produce such a stone tablet (using at least two-types of drill) – why go through all this effort just to throw the finished product into a local body of water? Perhaps the tablet was dropped into the lake by mistake. Either way, the tablet contains 60 discernible characters presented in seven-lines – 21 of which are unique – whilst 39 are repeated. As two the language(s) represented, the Romanian academic paper states:
‘Generally, the Bashplemi inscription does not repeat any script known to us; however, most of the symbols used therein resemble ones found in the scripts of the Middle East, as well as those of geographically remote countries such as India, Egypt and West Iberia. The shape of certain signs is reminiscent of the Proto-Kartvelian script that, according to V. Licheli, appeared in the late fourth millennium BC on Colchian and Iberian territories. Similarity with the seals of the Bronze and Early Iron Ages found in Georgia is also worth mentioning. The histogram summarizing graphical similarities between the Bashplemi inscription and other ancient and actual languages shows that the graphical shapes of the Bashplemi inscription mostly resemble the signs of the Proto-Kartvelian script. There are some similarities with the still-undeciphered symbols on the seals discovered on the territory of pre-Chris-tian Georgia, the so-called Colchian runes, Grakliani Hill signs, and the graphics of Georgian Mrgvlovani/Nuskha-Khutsurialphabet. In Bashplemi signs we can easily see the so-called end-points either at the beginning or at the end of a shape-round, wide notches that could simply be related to the method and style of carving.’
On the face of it, all this seems highly unlikely – but this does not necessarily mean the tablet is fake. Of course, it could be fake and this should not be ignored. Fakery tends to create the improvable narrative that an advanced society also retains primitive (or backward) cultural practices. The Romanian academic paper appears to be translated into US-English – and rather shakily at that. This might make some of the good points it is making seem oddly presented. An observation I would make is that ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics are much more professionally re-produced – and they are not generally thrown into the Nile – at least not on purpose. Such sophisticated scripts were made to be read. ACW (10.4.2025)
The Unknown Language on This Ancient Tablet Continues to Baffle Experts
by Vittoria BenzineDecember 21, 2024
The world is home to approximately 7,111 known languages. New ones get discovered on occasion. Nevertheless, researchers in Georgia have been unable to attribute the script on a recently surfaced rock tablet to any of them. Even after intense analysis, the ancient language on the so-called Bashplemi tablet still evades researchers.
Fishermen in Dmanisi, Georgia discovered the tablet in Lake Bashplemi in 2021. Its eight-by-nine-inch face features 60 characters, 39 of them unique, across seven lines. A bit of the tablet has broken off, leading researchers to believe they’re missing a few words, according to their paper in the Romanian Institute’s Journal of Ancient History and Archaeology.
Before studying the letters, the team had to ensure the tablet wasn’t a fake. Using optical and electronic microscopy, they confirmed that it is made of vesicular basalt, which abounds in the area.
They also determined how the inscriptions were made, since basalt is so hard to carve. The tablet’s creator outlined its characters with a conic drill, then connected them using a smooth, rounded tool. While the Bashplemi tablet’s age remains uncertain, experts believe it dates from the Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age, based on archaeological artifacts uncovered here since excavations began in 1936. Such techniques would have been sophisticated but not impossible for that period.
Although the team noted that they hope someday to use “modern computer methods” to analyze the Bashplemi tablet, their latest efforts to make sense of its text relied solely on comparative analysis. While they found that “the Bashplemi inscription does not repeat any script known to us,” a number of its symbols resemble characters found in scripts of the Middle East, India, Egypt, West Iberia, and, most of all, the Proto-Kartvelian language of the fourth century B.C.E., which predated modern languages including Svan, Mingrelian and Laz.
Little is known, in fact, about the Georgian language’s origins, even though Georgia is one of just three Caucasian nations that developed a language of its own. Evidence of Georgian, Armenian, and Albanian scripts started appearing on the historical ledger only after the proliferation of Christianity.
“There is a reasonable doubt that inscriptions and manuscripts written in the pre-Christian versions of these scripts were destroyed as a result of Christian domination,” the researchers write. But, decades ago, experts found a fragment written in Georgian near Nekresi Church, in eastern Georgia, dating to the third century C.E.—a century before Christian dominance.
The authors of this study appear hopeful that the Bashplemi tablet is related to the fabled “Golden Script,” perfected, per Greek myth, by the Colchians, who previously inhabited western Georgia. But there is no evidence of this script to compare the tablet with—partially because the Colchians purportedly wrote only on organic surfaces like leather, which have since decayed, but also due to insufficient archaeological research thus far into this part of the world.
They also don’t know what direction to read the script, or whether the tablet’s original shape was rectangular, elliptical, or naturally irregular—or, of course, what the tablet says.
For now, they offered ideas. Given the basalt’s sturdiness, and the many repeated symbols (which suggests that they may be numbers) it could be a record of military spoils, a construction project, or a religious offering.
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 