Undeciphered writing systems

This list includes writing systems and sign systems that are commonly described in reliable secondary sources as undeciphered, not fully deciphered, or of uncertain decipherment. Items of disputed authenticity or disputed status as writing are explicitly identified as such. ==Proto-writing==

Certain forms of proto-writing remain undeciphered and, because of limited evidence and uncertain linguistic affiliation, may never be deciphered. Neolithic signs in China Yellow River civilization • Jiahu symbols – Peiligang culture, China, . • Damaidi symbols – Damaidi, China; earliest estimated dates range from the Paleolithic to approximately 3000 years ago. • Dadiwan symbols – Dadiwan, China, . • Banpo symbols – Yangshao culture, China, 5th millennium BCE. • Jiangzhai symbols – Yangshao culture, China, 4th millennium BCE. • Dawenkou symbols – Dawenkou culture, . • Longshan symbols – Longshan culture, China, . Yangtze civilization • Wucheng symbols – Wucheng culture, China, . Other areas • Sawveh – Guangxi, China; reported as possible proto-writing or writing in some local traditions and secondary sources; status as a historical writing system is uncertain. File:Vinca vessel.png|Vinča symbols ==Asian scripts==

South Asia • Indus script – . • Pushkarasari script – Gandhara, 3rd century BCE to 8th century CE. • Shankhalipi – century CE. File:Indus script.jpg|Indus script File:Bikramkhol .jpg|Vikramkhol inscription File:Kohi or Pushkarasari M Nasim Khan.jpg|Pushkarasari script File:Inscr detail.jpg|Shankhalipi West Asia • Proto-Elamite script – . • Jiroft script – . • Byblos syllabary – Byblos, . • Trojan script – Troy (Early Bronze Age); status disputed and it is unclear whether the marks constitute a single writing system or writing at all. File:Proto-Elamite tablet.jpg|Proto-Elamite script File:Byblos syll spat e.png|Byblos syllabary East Asia • Ba–Shu scripts – 5th to 4th century BCE. • Khitan large script and Khitan small script – Khitan, 10th century; partially understood but not fully deciphered. File:Mao spearhead with Ba symbols.jpg|Ba script File:Liao Shangjing Khitan Large Script Fragment.jpg|Khitan large script File:Khitan Small Script Bronze Mirror.JPG|Khitan small script • Singapore Stone – fragment of a sandstone slab inscribed with an ancient Southeast Asian script, possibly Old Javanese or Sanskrit; at least 13th century, possibly as early as 10th–11th century. File:SingaporeStone-bwphoto.jpg|Singapore Stone Central Asia • Oxus script – . • Issyk inscription – Kazakhstan, . • Kushan script – ; partially deciphered, with recent proposals identifying a substantial portion of the sign inventory and phonetic values in the scholarly literature. File:Issyk inscription.png|Issyk inscription ==European scripts==

, a medieval manuscript written with an undeciphered writing system • Cretan hieroglyphs – . • Linear A – ; the sign values are often transcribed using correspondences with Linear B, but the underlying language remains unknown and most texts are not understood. • Phaistos Disc – ; no consensus decipherment, though numerous proposals exist. • Cypro-Minoan syllabary – . • Grakliani Hill script – Grakliani Hill, . • Paleohispanic scripts – several scripts are partly deciphered (sign values largely known), but many inscriptions and underlying languages remain only partly understood; inclusion and degree of decipherment vary by script. • Southwest Paleohispanic script – from . • Sitovo inscription – . • Alekanovo inscription – . • Rohonc Codex – 17th–19th centuries. • Voynich manuscript – radiocarbon dated (parchment) to the early 15th century. • An inscription in the Pisa Baptistery – a short medieval religious inscription attested in Tuscany; the script/language and interpretation remain debated in the literature. File:Pini-plombe-orig-II2 316d 3.2.jpg|Cretan hieroglyphs File:Crete - Phaistos disk - side A.JPG|Phaistos disc File:0726 La Canée musée linéaire A.JPG|Linear A File:Tablet cypro-minoan 2 Louvre AM2336.jpg|Cypro-Minoan syllabary File:Southwest Iberian script (Valerio 2008).png|Southwest Paleohispanic script File:Sitovski nadpis.JPG|Sitovo inscription ==African scripts==

North Africa • The Starving of Saqqara – a privately held sculpture claimed to be ancient and bearing an unidentified inscription; provenance and authenticity have been questioned, and the markings are not securely established as an ancient writing system. • Wadi el-Hol inscriptions – Egypt; early alphabetic inscriptions (often dated to the late Middle Kingdom, roughly early 2nd millennium BCE) with proposed readings but no universally accepted full decipherment; frequently discussed in relation to Proto-Sinaitic script. Sub-Saharan Africa • Eghap script – Cameroon, ; partially deciphered. • Ancient inscriptions in Somalia – inscriptions reported on Taalo Tiiriyaad structures; independent archaeological verification and interpretation vary in the literature. ==American scripts==

Andean region • Quipu – Knotted-cord recording devices used in the Inca Empire and by several earlier Andean societies such as the Wari. Possible Proto-Quipus have been found in Paracas and Caral-Supe, though these remain controversial. Quipus continued to be used in certain regions during the early colonial period and, in limited contexts, into the modern era. They are widely accepted as record-keeping devices; whether they constitute “writing” (and what kind) remains debated. Some recent scholarship argues that particular colonial-period quipu assemblages display features consistent with logosyllabic encoding and proposes tentative readings of specific elements; however, these claims remain controversial and do not represent a broadly accepted decipherment. In another case, six early colonial quipus from the Santa Valley, Peru, have been correlated with a contemporaneous Spanish administrative document, making the connection a possible test case for linking quipus to alphabetic texts. File:Inca Quipu.jpg|Quipu Mesoamerica • Olmec hieroglyphs – ; sometimes proposed as a “mother script” in broader origin theories, though the evidence and relationships remain debated. • Zapotec hieroglyphs – ; often described as logosyllabic, with varying degrees of interpretation. • Ñuiñe hieroglyphs – ; similar to Zapotec and possibly an offshoot in the Mixteca Baja; often described as logosyllabic. • Isthmian (Epi-Olmec) hieroglyphs – ; partial readings have been proposed, but the overall decipherment remains disputed. • Izapan hieroglyphs – Late Preclassic; often proposed as related to Isthmian traditions and later Lowland Maya developments; status remains uncertain. • Teotihuacan hieroglyphs – ; sometimes described as partially logosyllabary and partially a pictography; its relationship to earlier traditions is debated. Descendants include the Mixteca-Puebla Postclassic tradition.'''' • Classic Gulf Coast hieroglyphs – Early Classic to Early Postclassic; often discussed as related to central Mexican traditions. • Cotzumalhuapa hieroglyphs – ; sometimes discussed as influenced by Teotihuacan and Lowland Maya traditions; seemingly of autonomous local development, though ultimately related to all other mesoamerican writing systems. Interpretation remains limited. • Epiclassic/Early Postclassic hieroglyphs of Xochicalco, Cacaxtla, Teotenango, Tula and Chichén Itzá – generally treated as part of broader regional glyphic traditions; many elements remain only partially understood. Intermediary between the Teotihuacan Classic Period hieroglyphs and their Mixteca-Puebla descendants of the Middle and Late Postclassic. Many Mesoamerican glyphic traditions remain only partly understood, with the Classic/Lowland Maya script being the best-attested and most extensively deciphered. Other regional traditions (including those often grouped under “Mixteca-Puebla” or pictorial-historical codex traditions ultimately descended from the Teotihuacan tradition, most notably represented by Aztec hieroglyphs and Mixtec hieroglyphs ) have been interpreted in the literature to varying extents, but are not universally recognised as a writing system, with some researchers considering it a mostly non-linguistic form of expression. Yet, in recent years new research has appeared confirming the existence of logosyllabic elements ("glyphs") intermixed with pictorial images. Thus, Mixteca-Puebla writing would constitute a form of non-linear writing. File:La Venta Stele 19 (Delange).jpg|La Venta Stele 19 File:Olmeca head in Villahermosa.jpg|Olmec colossal head in La Venta (possible name glyph on forehead) File:Oaxaca de Juárez, Monte Albán 05.jpg|Zapotec script File:La Mojarra Inscription and Long Count date.jpg|Isthmian/Epi-Olmec inscription File:Abaj Takalik Stela 5.illus.jpg|Izapan tradition (Tak'alik Ab'aj) File:El Baúl 17.jpg|Cotzumalhuapa tradition ==Oceanian scripts==

• Kōhau Rongorongo – Rapa Nui. Attested by the 19th century; often hypothesized to encode language but remains undeciphered. File:Rongorongo_B-v_Aruku-Kurenga_(color)_edit1.jpg|Kōhau Rongorongo ==Texts that are not writing systems==

A related concept is that of false writing systems, which appear to be writing but are not. False writing cannot be deciphered because it has no stable semantic meaning. This includes many forms of asemic writing created for artistic purposes. A prominent example is the Codex Seraphinianus. Another related concept is that of undeciphered cryptograms or cipher messages. These are not writing systems per se, but enciphered forms of texts written in known systems. Some have become famous and are listed in list of ciphertexts. ==References==