Deciphering Linear Elamite: Persistence, Chance, and Controversy

After eleven years of painstaking work, French scholar François Desset achieved the seemingly impossible: deciphering Linear Elamite, a 4,000-year-old writing system. This wasn't merely an academic feat, but a battle against time and chance. The breakthrough came from a set of silver vessels in a private London collection, their inscriptions providing unprecedented clues. Desset's findings challenge conventional narratives, suggesting Linear Elamite might be the world's earliest purely phonetic writing system and highlighting Iran's pivotal role in early writing development. However, this discovery sparked controversy, with some scholars questioning his methodology and the provenance of the artifacts.