[Article] Cheshire at it again: "Palaeographic Instruction for the Ischia Manuscript"

[bt2901]

I don't want to create a new thread for it, but I think I should link to this new creation of GE Cheshire: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (October 2024).

Unassumingly named MEDICINAL USES FOR A TOXIC PLANT IN THE MEDIEVAL MEDITERRANEAN and published in a Turkish archeological journal, it gives some decodings and a letter correspondence chart with a possible "origin" of symbols (which is intriguing but ultimately implausible: mixing Greek, Phoenican and Arabic letterforms? Really?)

But the real jewel of this paper is the way he describes the previous research. I thought you guys will find it amusing.

The key difficulty in discovering the language and writing system of the manuscript was that they required solving simultaneously. This was achieved by a combination of experimentation and lateral thinking (Cheshire, 2021) in combination with a framework of informed logic based on historical research (Cheshire, 2023 & 2023b, pp.22-55). Thus, the language and writing system systematically emerged by trial and error, until it became possible to positively identify the script alphabet symbols and the intended words and phrases

As mentioned, in addition to the phonetic spelling, other attempts to decrypt the manuscript reached an impasse because they always focused on either the language or the writing system, never both, in union. Nor had a hybrid language been considered. Therefore, there was never a correlation initiated, that would allow for a successful outcome by working the one against the other (Turing, 2020). In fact, knowing that past attempts must have exhausted all conventional approaches, such as variations on symbol frequency analysis, it indicated that an innovative approach would be required (Landini, 2001, pp.275-295; Amancio et al, 2013; Montemurro & Zanette, 2013; Timm & Schinner, 2020, pp.1-19; Zandbergen, 2022). It also meant that it would be logical to dismiss other theories as they had served their purpose by demonstrating that conventional approaches were incorrect strategies. The correct strategy required a new methodology, applied from scratch and in isolation, away from specious influence (Williams, 1999, pp.305-319; Amancio et al, 2013; Herrmann, 2017; Acedo 2019, pp. 14; Layfield et al 2020, pp.74-78; Zelinka & Dao, 2020, pp.15-22; Bowern & Lindemann, 2021, pp.285-308; Matlach et al 2022; Parmentier, 2022, pp.461-484)

That's certainly an innovative way to say "I didn't bother reading anything about VM but I'll cite something to prevent crackpot accusations".