Sven Van Haelst of Maaseik in Belgium is an archeologist by training who recently discovered this copper/bronze ring in his backyard. He would like help identifying the script used in the inscription.
From haphazard corridor discussions at the MPI we have arrived at the following:
- It may be a kind of decorative script since there seems to be quite a lot of repetition, but if the signs are purely decorative, why are they on the inside of the ring?
- 3, 5 and 7 are possibly the same character, and this might be modified with a diacritic in 9
- 4 might be a diacritic modification of 1, by the same mechanism
- If it’s not decorative and is representing language, there are higher odds that it is an alphabet or alphasyllabary, given the rate of repetition (albeit in a tiny sample) as opposed to a syllabary
- Not sure 1 is a character at all, people often use this sign as decorations/fillers inside rings.
- This might be some alphabetic rendition of a name, or perhaps a private cipher (possibly recent)
If anyone has any ideas about this please let me know and I will update this post with new theories or information.
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Brave new words 