The Meroitic language

The following transcript includes both the text from the captions and a text version of the audio descriptions.

NARRATOR: The key to understanding any culture, past or present, is understanding its language. One of the greatest mysteries yet to be solved is that of the Kushite language called Meroitic, after the city of Meroe. Scholars have been striving to decode this ancient language for many years, but still they have not found the key.

MAN: We know a little bit about the language, but...

Subtitles: ³We don't understand the text. It makes things difficult. Because the language is not comparable with another known language. And we have no bilingual text up to now.

NARRATOR: The Kushites wrote their inscriptions in the Meroitic language from the third century B.C. until the fifth century A.D. While short texts written in Egyptian hieroglyphics and Meroitic script have enabled linguists to decipher the letters and pronounce the words, they still do not know what most of them mean.

MAN: See here a K, an E. The next letter could be a "te" or an I, which they look quite... very similar.

NARRATOR: To unlock the secrets of ancient Meroitic, archaeologists need to find an inscription written both in Meroitic and a language they can translate that is long enough for them to decode how the words are used and arranged. Scholars are also seeking to discover a modern African language that might be related to Meroitic, in order to make word associations and usage comparisons.

WOMAN: With all of the computer technology that is available at the moment, do you think that it would be possible that some kind of software, some kind of program could be used to decipher this language?

MAN: At this stage, I would believe, actually, no, and for the reason, if you want to write a program which is able to decipher or to understand a language, you need to know the rules of the language. You have to program it. If you do not know the rules of it, you cannot write such a program.

NARRATOR: Until scientists and scholars are able to decipher the rules of the Meroitic language, just what the Kushites had to say about themselves remains unknown to the world.

DESCRIPTION: On an ancient block wall, a large carving depicts two Kushites reaching toward each other.