For the first time in Kazakhstan, a complete specimen of ancient writing was found in Kultobe settlement, Turkistan region. The age of the inscription is almost 2,000 years. The find is a clay brick of three fragments, on which seven lines of 218 characters in the ancient Aramaic alphabet are carved. A great find for paleolinguists was already partially deciphered by Professor Nicholas Sims-Williams at Cambridge University.The inscription is indeed in the ancient Aramaic alphabet, but not in the Aramaic language:
“The piece is about the creation of a city by the leader of the Chach army named Sapadani, who came here to create a city on the area of gardens and tents where nomads lived. ...
The writing is done in the ancient Iranian dialect, which scientists call the Protosogdian or Kangui language, since the city was founded during the Kangui state in the first centuries A.D.There is a good photo of the inscription. The Hebrew/Aramaic script is very clear.
The inscription is a good illustration of the widespread influence of the Aramaic language, which was the diplomatic language of the Persian empire. Its script was still in use many centuries later for an unrelated language.
I'm not sure if "Aramao-Protosogdian" is the right descriptive term. I made it up. But you get the idea.
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