The Proto-Elamite writing in Iran
Résumé
In the Near East, the most ancient writing systems currently known in the world
appeared at the end of the 4th millennium BC: the proto-cuneiform writing in
Southern Mesopotamia and the proto-elamite writing on the Iranian Plateau.
Both used for administrative and accounting purposes, these writing systems displayed
important parallels, such as the numerical systems and the numerical
value signs, and dissimilarities since most of their signs differed from each other.
Because of the apparent break in the scribal tradition on the Iranian Plateau
around 2800 BC, the proto-elamite writing did not give birth to any offspring
which could have helped us in its decipherment, contrary to the proto-cuneiform
writing and its heir, the cuneiform writing. For this reason, although it is known
for more than one century thanks to the French excavations in Susa, the protoelamite
writing remains still largely undeciphered and only the shared elements
with the proto-cuneiform writing (such as the numerical systems) are finally well
understood.
In the mind of the non-specialists, the Near East is usually reduced to (Southern)
Mesopotamia. In order to render all the complexity of the historical context
which witnessed the invention of writing in the Near East, this paper presents
state of the art research on the Iranian Plateau and the important scientific corpus
of the proto-elamite tablets.
Origine : Accord explicite pour ce dépôt