The Bashplemi Tablet

Briefing

In the autumn of 2021, a slab of local vesicular basalt inscribed with unknown characters was recovered near Lake Bashplemi, in the Dmanisi municipality of Georgia [1][3]. The find was reported to have been made by local lake-users — described in coverage as fishermen — and subsequently passed to a team of Georgian scholars for analysis [3].

Three years later, a five-author Georgian team published the sole primary description of the object, tentatively dating it to the Late Bronze / Early Iron Age and arguing for its authenticity [1]. The script it carries has not been deciphered, its dating is indirect, and outside specialists have questioned both its age and whether it is ancient at all [2]. This file sits in the archive’s record of undeciphered manuscripts.

Sequence of events

The find — autumn 2021

• A basalt tablet bearing unknown characters was discovered near Bashplemi Lake, in the Dmanisi municipality of Georgia [1].
• The find was reported to have been made by local people at the lake, and no individual finder is named in the sources reviewed [3].
• The tablet passed to a team of Georgian scholars for analysis [3].

Publication — 2024

• The description appeared in the Journal of Ancient History and Archaeology, Vol. 11, No. 3 (2024), titled “Discovery of Unknown Script Characters in Georgia: The Bashplemi Lake Tablet” (DOI 10.14795/j.v11i3.1035) [1].
• The paper lists five authors: Ramaz Shengelia, Levan Gordeziani, Nikoloz Tushabramishvili, Nodar Poporadze and Othar Zourabichvili [1].
• The article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND) licence [1].

Expert reaction — 12 December 2024

• The sinologist Victor Mair aggregated expert reaction in a Language Log post, in which several linguists set out reservations [2].

Documentary record

The tablet is made of local vesicular basalt and carries sixty inscribed signs, of which thirty-nine are distinct characters, arranged in seven rows and read left to right [1][3]. Its face dimensions are given as approximately 24.1 × 20.1 cm — “roughly the size of an iPad” [3]. The signs were reported to have been produced in two stages: an initial series of holes bored with a cone-shaped drill, then connected into flowing lines and smoothed with a rounded tool — a technique the authors read as evidence of skilled craftsmanship [3].

The 2024 paper is the only primary description of the object [1]. Its abstract states that “the characters … bear some similarities with Semitic, Brahmani, and North Iberian characters” while remaining undeciphered, and notes that the artefact’s meaning and any connection to proto-Georgian origins are unclear [1]. The authors conclude they see “no reason to doubt the authenticity of the artifact,” citing the resemblance of its signs to Middle Eastern and pre-Christian Georgian scripts as making a casual modern forgery unlikely [3].

Open questions

1. What the text says. The script is undeciphered and matches no catalogued writing system [1].
2. A firm date. The Late Bronze / Early Iron Age attribution rests on nearby associated finds — pottery and a stone mortar — rather than on direct dating of the tablet itself; the paper concedes the exact age is uncertain [2][3].
3. Language affiliation. Whether the signs relate to any Kartvelian/proto-Georgian tradition is stated to be unclear [1]. Claims circulating that the script is confirmed proto-Kartvelian have no support in the primary paper [1].
4. Provenance chain. The reviewed sources do not fully document the tablet’s path from lakeside discovery to laboratory, nor a secure stratigraphic context [3].
5. The authenticity dispute. The linguist David Marjanović argued it is “hard to see how the presumed script makes sense as an alphabet or a syllabary,” noting the object “comes out of nothing … and it disappeared into nothing,” with the next attested writing in the region appearing some 1,000–1,500 years later; he held that the cross-script resemblances amount to “simple shapes” of weak evidentiary value [2]. Stephen Goranson stated he suspects forgery, observing that the stone appears shaped by modern tools rather than ancient methods [2].

Status

This file is CONFIDENTIAL — admitted to the archive on the strength of a single peer-reviewed primary description, the 2024 JAHA paper, rather than on any settled reading or secure dating [1]. The authors’ proposed possibilities for the text — a record of military spoils, construction or public-works details, or “a receipt for a gift to the gods” — are explicitly offered as possibilities, not decipherments, and are recorded here as such [3]. The cross-script comparisons the team draws to Semitic, Brahmi, North Iberian, Phoenician, Aramaic, Greek and pre-Christian Georgian traditions are likewise interpretive [1][3]. Outside challenges to the object’s age and authenticity remain unresolved [2]; as Marjanović noted, confidence would rise “if further examples of this presumed script turned up, preferably not pre-cleaned” [2]. Updates pending independent examination.

References

1. Shengelia, R., Gordeziani, L., Tushabramishvili, N., Poporadze, N. & Zourabichvili, O. (2024). “Discovery of Unknown Script Characters in Georgia: The Bashplemi Lake Tablet.” Journal of Ancient History and Archaeology, Vol. 11, No. 3. DOI 10.14795/j.v11i3.1035. Published under CC BY-NC-ND.
2. Mair, Victor (2024). “Enigmatic writing from the Republic of Georgia.” Language Log, University of Pennsylvania, 12th December 2024 — aggregating expert reaction, including comments by David Marjanović and Stephen Goranson.
3. ScienceAlert (2024). “Ancient Tablet Etched With Mysterious Language Found in Georgia.”