The Bashplemi Lake Tablet was found near Lake Bashplemi in the

Dmanisi Dmanisi ( ka, დმანისი, tr, , ) is a town and archaeological site in the Kvemo Kartli region of Georgia (country), Georgia approximately 93 km southwest of the nation’s capital Tbilisi in the river valley of Mashavera. Abandoned i ...

region of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. Made of

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

and thought to date to around the first millennium BCE, it is inscribed with a previously unknown writing system, at least 60 characters in length.

Discovery

The tablet was found in 2021 by a group of local fishermen. The tablet's archaeological context suggests it dates back to the

Late Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

or Early Iron Age.

Description

The tablet measures and seems to be made from locally sourced vesicular basalt. The carving was made with a conical drill and then smoothed.

Symbols

There are 39 unique characters in seven horizontal lines. They show some similarities with other early scripts, particularly the proto-Kartvelian script, but also the Colchian runes, the Grakliani Hill script and

Asomtavruli The Georgian scripts are the three writing systems used to write the Georgian language: Asomtavruli, Nuskhuri and Mkhedruli. Although the systems differ in appearance, their letters share the same names and alphabetical order and are written ...

References

{{reflist 1st-millennium BC inscriptions 2021 archaeological discoveries Archaeological artifacts Inscriptions in undeciphered writing systems Inscriptions in unknown languages Bronze Age in Georgia Prehistoric sites in Georgia (country)