Researchers have decoded more than half of the characters in the so-called Kushan script by comparing them with inscriptions in a known ancient language called Bactrian
Researchers have partially deciphered the "unknown Kushan script" — a writing system that has puzzled linguists since it was first found in the 1950s.
This Middle Iranian language was likely one of the official languages of the Kushan Empire, which sprawled across Central Asia and northwestern India between 200 B.C. and A.D. 700. At the height of its power, in the second century A.D., the Kushans co-existed with the Roman Empire.
"Researchers have worked on this for decades, mostly in France and Russia, but they were met with little success," Eugen Hill, a professor of comparative linguistics at the University of Cologne who did not participate in the study, said in the video. In this case, the researchers were able to work out the Kushan meaning using parallel inscriptions in Bactrian carved into rocks found at Almosi Gorge and at Dašt-i Nāwur, in Afghanistan, in the 1960s.
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