Glad to see the concept of a possibility is being entertained. Focus on diverse spectrum of the era ands its cultures seems to me our best chance.

That connection as slim as it may be, for one reason or another was my starting point.

Originally posted by IAMTAT

I'm reminded of Abraham Lincoln's reply on hearing the report that U.S. Grant was a heavy whiskey drinker:
“Tell me what brand of whiskey that Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals.”

Thank you for your taking the time to attempt a translation on this; your's appears to be the first success thus far. (I'd be happy to buy you a fine scotch if you can translate this piece.).

Please don't stop if you have the time and inclination to continue a translation. It has been my suspicion throughout this analytical ATS process that what we were dealing with was possibly some form of Tracian or archaic Etruscan.
Regarding your reference to Iasion/Iasius, would you mind pointing out which portion of the script relates to this?
-TAT

i'll see him at the end of march if he gets his permits. success is not assured.

the scotch was glen breton and the only reason we'd drink. to prove a point. the next beverage i will share will probably be this nasty plum schnappes he makes in his kitchen that gets too stinky to drink if you try to fly it somewhere.

there are only a couple of pieces of real dacian text existing and being a young learned man he has seen it in his learning years. he is no expert as noone is but a few things are known. it's allographic meaning if there are 2 o's in one word, they will use a different form of o each time like the maya. they use logograms for places and people. peoples names will usually include a logogram of "i am". he didn't judge it to be allographic, i looked at it on his advise and i believe it is.

it was quite a few minutes before i realized he thought i meant thracian chersonessos not crimean so he went on about kutels which is an ore mortar with two nubs. they can be really huge or fairly small for carefully processing gold. very finely made stone bowls exist in the region from the late neolithic onward and they have survived beautifully. i will find a picture for you.

anyhow the inscription i could remember was the innermost of the concave. i assumed the i was an i and not a crack. if it is a crack then scrap iasio and if its dacian good luck finding someone to send scotch too.

I hope you read this. It seems to be something similar to Dalecarlian Runes. It started in Sweden. A sort of special language for the maker to put on there products. Like furniture and especially stone bowls. This went on from the 16th to 20th century. Not a mystery by a long shot but one hell of a conversational piece. I hope I helped you.

Does anyone know anything about Balkan-Danube Script? I see many similarities.

The problem with speculation on the symbols is that we do not have a region or a time period. Many of these symbols will mean different things in different geographic areas, as well as cultures and societies, and as I said, the particular time.

If it was from China, then it is not likely to be runic, etc...I haven't read through all of the replies, but some symbols look Greek to me, and that was the overall impression I got when first looking at the artifact. But, it doesn't appear to be Greek. I have no clue.