When local fishermen went out onto the Bashplemi Lake in 2021, they hoped for a great catch. What they pulled in was incredible, though certainly not what they were expecting.
They found a stone tablet with an ancient inscription. The tablet was, of course, covered in mud and other materials, so the anglers scraped it off using an iron nail until they realized what they had found might be of immense historic value.
Fortunately, they did little damage to the basalt tablet and didn’t damage the script written on it at all.
Once the tablet was brought to a team of experts, the real study could begin. They analyzed the script, comparing it to more than 20 known ancient languages, and while there were some similarities, it didn’t match any of them. This means that this writing is likely from a previously unknown language or dialect.
The study on this tablet was published in the Journal of Ancient History and Archaeology. The authors of the study wrote:
“Generally, the Bashplemi inscription does not repeat any script known to us. However, most of the symbols used therein resemble ones found in the scripts of the Middle East, as well as those of geographically remote countries such as India, Egypt and West Iberia.”
They were able to identify 39 separate symbols on the tablet, with some of them repeating for a total of 60.
The writing took place thousands of years ago, but more precise dating has not yet been conducted.
When analyzing the tablet using a microscope, the authors of the study were able to determine that the markings were made using some type of conic drill for the outlines of each ‘letter’ and some type of round-head tool to complete them.
More study into this incredible find will undoubtedly be done, and it is likely that other people will head out onto this lake in hopes of finding more tablets.
This is an incredible find!
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