VMS decryption scenarios

[Emma May Smith]

Consider the Etruscan.  In 400 AD educated men in Rome could still read Etruscan literature and their astronomy influenced Roman astronomy to the extent that they replaced portions of their native astronomy with the Etruscan system because it was superior.  Today there aren't any Etruscan documents known to exist and even if there were no one would be able to read them.  It's not impossible to believe that that is the only instance of a technological civilization being lost through assimilation, even in the same geographic area.

There a few Etruscan documents left! The most famous and longest is the Liber Linteus, a book written on folded linen and later used for mummy wrappings (which is why we still have it today). It's most likely a religious calendar, but you're right that we can't read it. Or rather, we can read it--the script is similar to the Roman script--but we can't understand it. A lot of work has been done to figure out the basics of grammar and a few words, but we're still a long way off having a good understanding of the tongue.

One of the great figures in working out the Etruscan language was Massimo Pallottino, a hero of mine. His combinatorial method is something that should be studied by every Voynich researcher.