ATTENTION: A CALL TO DECIPHER 'MYSTERY' ROCK INSCRIPTIONS!
Also read The Origin of Writing @ajuede.com
A village in France is
offering a reward to anyone who can decipher a mysterious inscription on a
local rock.
Experts in Plougastel-Daoulas, a village in
Brittany, northwest France, have been unable to decrypt the inscription on a
rock outside the village, estimated to be centuries old, the Agence
France-Presse (AFP) news agency reports.
And so the authorities are turning the
mystery over to the public, appealing to historians, academics, linguists,
students and hobbyists to crack the code in exchange for a €2,000 ($2,240)
reward.
There are letters, symbols and dates etched
into the rock.
The inscription comprises letters and
symbols, one depicting a sailing boat. The language has not been identified:
Dominique Cap, mayor of Plougastel-Daoulas, told AFP: "There are people
who tell us that it's Basque and others who say it's Old Breton."
According to AFP, the as-yet impenetrable
inscription reads in parts: "ROC AR B... DRE AR GRIO SE EVELOH AR VIRIONES
BAOAVEL... R I OBBIIE: BRISBVILAR... FROIK...AL."
Local academics have pored over the rock
since its rediscovery three or four years ago. "But we still have not
managed to decipher the text," Cap said.
Michel Paugam, a municipal councilor who
oversees local heritage, told AFP: "There are a lot of words, they're
letters from our alphabet, but we can't read them, we can't make them
out."
Local councilor Michel Paugam told AFP that
local authorities can't make sense of the inscription. Two dates are also etched into the rock: 1786
and 1787. Véronique Martin, a local official who is leading the appeal, told
AFP that the dates "correspond more or less" to the construction of
forts and artillery batteries, including the adjacent Corbeau fort, built to
protect the nearby harbor city of Brest.
After the public submit their suggestions, a
jury will decide on the most likely interpretation of the inscription and award
the €2,000 prize. "This inscription is a mystery and it is for this that
we are launching the appeal," Martin said.
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