How has the Meroitic script not been deciphered yet?

[kaahin13]

Why is there no interest in deciphering one of the oldest scripts in Africa? It’s clear that ancient kush was a highly literate society so finding ancient texts shouldn’t be that hard. Seems like bio-archaeological studies are increasing in Sudan, but linguistic studies are still lacking.

 

[Step a side]

I think they need to find something similar to the Rosetta Stone.

 

[kaahin13]

I think they need to find something similar to the Rosetta Stone.

That shouldn’t be too hard to find, Sudan was deeply integrated with the rest of the world so finding tablets that have both Coptic and Meroitic or Greek and Meroitic shouldn’t be hard to find. They just don’t do any work in that regard

 

[Step a side]

That shouldn’t be too hard to find, Sudan was deeply integrated with the rest of the world so finding tablets that have both Coptic and Meroitic or Greek and Meroitic shouldn’t be hard to find. They just don’t do any work in that regard

You are right, thru don’t put in as much effort in Sudan compared to Egypt.

 

[Maintainnnin]

The script is not the mystery, but rather the language. They have no problem spelling out what is written, they just don't know what it means because the language isn't well known.

 

[Khaem]

The script is not the mystery, but rather the language. They have no problem spelling out what is written, they just don't know what it means because the language isn't well known.

The damn arabs wiped out all the languages in Sudan.
For some reason I feel a different way to how Sudan lost their language and culture to arabs and other mena people. The north africans look like middle Easterners and so who cares if they assimilate into Arabia. But so many of the sudanese I met looked just like Somalis so it's a bit sad that they lost out to the "Arab world"

 

[Step a side]

The damn arabs wiped out all the languages in Sudan.
For some reason I feel a different way to how Sudan lost their language and culture to arabs and other mena people. The north africans look like middle Easterners and so who cares if they assimilate into Arabia. But so many of the sudanese I met looked just like Somalis so it's a bit sad that they lost out to the "Arab world"

Sudanese have genetically more Arab blood than other North Africans. They actually had Bedouins migrate towards their land on mass.

 

[kaahin13]

The script is not the mystery, but rather the language. They have no problem spelling out what is written, they just don't know what it means because the language isn't well known.

How’s that even possible Sudan wasn’t an isolated waste land in some obscure area of the world. It shouldn’t be that hard to find a Rosetta like stone or papyri that deciphers the language.

 

[Liḥyān]

It’s like the Etruscan language, we can read they wrote but we can’t understand what they have inscribed. It’s very hard to understand when they aren’t other languages out there that are remnants of its older ancestor. Linguists struggled with ancient Egyptian, by the way the earliest Egyptologists were Arabs like Ibn Wa7shiyyah. Until Champollion discovered by using Coptic and the Rosetta Stone they can fully reconstruct the phonology and what it somewhat says.

As for Akkadian, Sumerian and Elamite we have to thank Cyrus’s cylinder, Old Persian gave way to understanding cuneiform. The way they deciphered cuneiform was actually amazing.