Sunday, September 4, 2011

Jordan Lead Codices: The Book*



And now all somebody has to do is write it.

50 points to whomever can decipher the subtitle. It's a toughie. :-)

Peace,
-Steve

*Not available anywhere.

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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 5, 2011 at 12:45 AM

    I give up. I don't have any lexicons with me, and all I could guess was "or, David Elkington takes sleep."

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousSeptember 5, 2011 at 12:46 AM

    There was supposed to be the word "something" between "takes" and "sleep," but I guess putting it in between HTML tags was a mistake.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Steve CarusoSeptember 5, 2011 at 6:42 AM

    You got the first line, so that's 25 points. :-)

    The second line, however is *especially* tricky because it's in actual Old Aramaic. I would have done Old Hebrew, but it was late last night and I was lazy... :-)

    Hints: Think about spelling combinations used in the midst of the shin/taw divide, Haphel forms, and other defective spellings common in Old Aramaic.

    Peace,
    -Steve

    ReplyDelete
  4. Brian Edric CollessSeptember 18, 2011 at 7:17 PM

    Second line reads in Sefire script:
    SB WHSKR PMK
    root nsb 'take' (imperative)
    skr 'deliver' in Sefire, but sakar (Syriac etc) 'close'
    pm 'mouth' k 'thy'

    "Take and close your mouth" or

    "Accept and keep your mouth shut"

    Brian Colless
    http://cryptcracker.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. Steve CarusoSeptember 18, 2011 at 10:07 PM

    Very close, so I'll give you the 25 points anyways. :-)

    The only portion you didn't get was the first word, as it comes from the "classical" root YTB (to sit). However, in Old Aramaic it was spelled either YSB or Y+B. This *seems* to be linked to spirantilization, but there are too few examples to judge conclusively. To tell the truth I probably should have written +B instead... but that would immediately be confused for yet another common word. There's no winning. :-)

    In essence the subtitle was supposed to read, "Or: David Elkington, sit down and shut up." :-)

    Peace,
    -Steve

    ReplyDelete

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