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Decipherment
Decipherment begins with a corpus, sign inventory, archaeological context and repeated patterns. A convincing proposal predicts new readings and survives comparison with independent language evidence. A plausible story about a few signs is not enough.
Decipherment
The corpus
A decipherment proposal needs a documented set of objects: photographs or drawings, provenance, dates, sign sequences, direction and uncertain readings. The sign inventory itself is an analysis when damaged forms may be variants of the same sign. Publish enough data that another scholar can repeat the count and challenge a classification.
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A reading check
Worked question
A proposed decipherment translates five selected inscriptions but publishes no sign list or predictions. What is missing?
Show the analysis
A reproducible corpus, consistent sign values, controls on alternative readings, and successful readings of material not selected to construct the proposal.