Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

3.1
the oldest (supposedly 4th century AD) Bactrian manuscript was the ‘London’ or
‘Loulan fragment’ found by Sir Aurel Stein in Xinjiang and since lost.
Seven manuscript fragments, known as the ‘Berlin Hephthalite fragments’, date
from the 8th–9th centuries AD.
Evidently, discoveries at Kampyrtepa put back the date of the Bactrian manuscripts
by several centuries and indicate that the use of Bactrian cursive script for writing
documents perhaps began at the same time as the inscriptions on coins, stone slabs
and potsherds.
Archaeological research in recent years has led to the discovery of a new script
known as the ‘unknown script’. It came to the attention of scholars after G. Fussman
determined that the trilingual inscription from Dasht-i Navur included writing in an
unidentified script along with Kharoshthi and Bactrian. He also identified similar
inscriptions on a limestone slab from Surkh Kotal and a potsherd from Khalchayan.
Later, V. Livshits noted the presence of inscriptions in a similar script on ostraca
from Fayaztepa and Old Merv. He believed a more archaic version of the same script
appeared on a silver cup from the 5th century BC found at Issyk Kurgan. In 1980
P. Bernard produced an inscription on a silver ingot from Ai Khanum with characters
similar to those of the Issyk inscription and the unknown script.
V. Vertogradova published several inscriptions on clay fragments from Karatepa
and Khatyn-Rabad. New inscriptions in the unknown script from Koshtepa,
Kampyrtepa and Old Termez were published in 1998 by E. Rtveladze.
Several hypotheses have been made about the language of this script. For example,
based on the Dasht-i Navur inscription, G. Fussman believed that the inscription
reflected the language of the ancient peoples of Jaguda (Zabul) – Kamboji, perhaps
even akin to proto-Ormuri. However, the discovery of this script far beyond the
areas where these languages were used makes it difficult to accept this assumption.
P. Bernard believed that the language of the Ai Khanum inscription is Bactrian, and
this hypothesis is more plausible.
V. Livshits suggested that the Issyk inscription was a more archaic variant of this
script. Having compiled the data from all these different findings, V. Vertogradova
came to the conclusion that we could now speak of two types of unknown script: an
early one, represented by the Issyk and Ai Khanum inscriptions, and a more complex
one consisting of several variants, and that later versions of this writing system evolved
at the very beginning of the Christian era. She believed that the overall structure of
the unknown script is close to Aramaic and Kharoshthi.
More than ten specimens of this script have been found in Bactria, which was
the main area where this script was used. Only three inscriptions have been found
outside Bactria: at Issyk Kurgan (the archaic version), Dasht-i Navur and Old Merv.
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