---
title: "Linguists have not deciphered several ancient writing systems"
url: "https://usubjects.com/article/linguists-have-not-deciphered-several-ancient-writing-systems-3452"
updated: "2026-08-29T16:00:38.500Z"
description: "The article highlights several ancient writing systems that linguists still can’t decipher, including the Phaistos Disc, Linear A, and the Voynich Manuscript. It also notes that AI engineer Tom Di Mino claims to have deciphered Linear A, arguing that its samples may share roots with a later Hebrew prayer."
sources: ["https://discoverwildscience.com/11-writing-systems-linguists-have-now-formally-given-up-trying-to-decipher-1-413078/11"]
licence: "All rights reserved"
---

# Linguists have not deciphered several ancient writing systems

Published: 2026-08-28  
Source: [Anomalist](https://discoverwildscience.com/11-writing-systems-linguists-have-now-formally-given-up-trying-to-decipher-1-413078/11)

### Overview

Despite major advances in computational linguistics and AI-assisted pattern analysis, several ancient writing systems remain stubbornly undeciphered. A recent roundup of “failed” scripts highlights how **missing context, tiny sample sizes, and the absence of bilingual texts** continue to frustrate researchers, even when the artifacts themselves have been studied for more than a century. Among the best-known examples are the **Phaistos Disc**, **Linear A**, and the **Voynich Manuscript** — each famous not only for what it contains, but for what it still refuses to reveal.

### The Phaistos Disc: one artifact, no roadmap

Discovered in **1908 on Crete**, the Phaistos Disc remains one of archaeology’s most enigmatic objects. The clay disc bears a spiraling sequence of symbols impressed into the surface with individual stamps, giving it an almost industrial appearance for the Bronze Age. According to the source, the artifact contains **241 symbols and 45 distinct signs**, yet it is still the **only object of its kind ever found**. That singularity is the problem: without parallel texts, scholars cannot test grammar, compare word forms, or even confidently establish the direction of reading. Some researchers have suggested it may not be a true writing system at all, while others have raised the possibility of forgery. Either way, the disc remains a dead end for mainstream decipherment efforts.

### Linear A and the lure of new claims

If the Phaistos Disc is an isolated mystery, **Linear A** represents a broader civilizational puzzle. Used in Minoan Crete and surrounding regions, the script has resisted decoding for decades because there is no confirmed bilingual inscription and no surviving descendant language to anchor interpretation. That uncertainty has not stopped fresh claims from appearing. The summary notes that **AI engineer Tom Di Mino** says he has deciphered Linear A, arguing that some of the samples may share roots with a **later Hebrew prayer**. Such proposals regularly generate attention, but experts typically treat them with caution unless they can be independently reproduced and supported by multiple inscriptions. In the field of ancient epigraphy, a plausible-sounding reading is not enough; researchers want demonstrable, falsifiable evidence.

### The Voynich Manuscript: still beyond consensus

The **Voynich Manuscript** occupies a different category but faces the same basic problem: no accepted reading, no agreed language, and no consensus on whether it is a cipher, a constructed language, or something else entirely. The illustrated medieval codex has been examined by cryptographers, linguists, historians, and now machine-learning systems, yet it continues to resist explanation. Its plant drawings, astronomical diagrams, and dense script have inspired everything from sober academic theories to elaborate speculative claims, but none has produced a decoding that the scholarly community accepts. That endurance is part of its appeal — and part of the frustration.

### Why these scripts remain unsolved

The common thread across these cases is not a lack of effort, but a lack of **decisive evidence**. Some scripts are represented by too few examples; others may not even be true writing systems; still others may encode languages with no known descendants. AI can help identify patterns, but it cannot invent the missing historical context that makes a decipherment secure. For now, these artifacts stand as reminders that even in an age of rapid technological progress, **some of the oldest written traces of human civilization remain unreadable**.

## Provenance

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