Famous Decoded Scripts
Famous Decoded Scripts is a structured history dataset with 9 entries. Its fields include Script, Decoded, Decipherer. The source values are preserved as a structured reference table.
Every row is shown below and is also available as CSV, JSON, or Excel.
Dataset details
- Table scope
- All 9 rows
- Fields
- 6 columns
- Source
- Community curated
- Data updated
- Apr 9, 2026
Included fields: Script, Decoded, Decipherer, Underlying Language, Key Find, and 1 more.
The table contains every record in this dataset; the same records are available in each download format.
Preview observations
- Decoded span
- 1822 to 1952
- Across 7 preview rows
Useful for
- Comparing Script, Decoded, and Decipherer across history entries
- Building reference tables, charts, or analyses from 9 downloadable records
Script↕ | Decoded↕ | Decipherer↕ | Underlying Language↕ | Key Find↕ | Known For↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Egyptian Hieroglyphs | 1822 | Jean-Francois Champollion | Ancient Egyptian | Rosetta Stone (1799) | Trilingual decree in Greek, Demotic, and hieroglyphs unlocked 3,000 years of Egyptian history |
Linear B | 1952 | Michael Ventris | Mycenaean Greek | Knossos and Pylos tablets | Amateur architect proved Linear B was early Greek, 500 years before classical Greek |
Maya Glyphs | 1950s-1990s | Yuri Knorozov, Linda Schele, David Stuart | Classic Mayan | Dresden Codex and stelae | Revealed Mayan kings, wars, and dates after Thompson's wrong iconographic theory collapsed |
Cuneiform (Akkadian) | 1857 | Rawlinson, Hincks, Oppert, Talbot | Akkadian, Sumerian | Behistun Inscription | Royal Asiatic Society test confirmed decipherment, unlocked Mesopotamian civilization |
Old Persian Cuneiform | 1836 | Henry Rawlinson | Old Persian | Behistun rock inscription | Rawlinson scaled cliff to copy trilingual text of Darius the Great |
Ugaritic | 1930 | Hans Bauer, Edouard Dhorme, Charles Virolleaud | Ugaritic (Semitic) | Ras Shamra tablets | 30-character alphabetic cuneiform decoded in months, shed light on Canaanite religion |
Hittite | 1915 | Bedrich Hrozny | Hittite (Indo-European) | Hattusa archives | First known Indo-European language, revealed forgotten Hittite Empire rival to Egypt |
Luwian Hieroglyphs | 1930s-1970s | Piero Meriggi, Emmanuel Laroche, J.D. Hawkins | Luwian (Indo-European) | Karatepe bilingual | Anatolian script, bilingual Phoenician-Luwian text at Karatepe unlocked final readings |
Elamite Cuneiform | 1850 | Edwin Norris | Elamite (isolate) | Behistun Inscription (column 3) | Third column of Behistun, still a language isolate with unknown relatives |
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