Early Writing in Iran, a Reappraisal

The initial import of preliterate accounting tools into Iran from southern Iraq during the period of Uruk expansion in the middle of the fourth millennium BC, led to the invention in Iran of a short-lived, and indigenous writing system conventionally called proto-Elamite. A second, seemingly unique writing system, traditionally called linear Elamite, was invented in the same area approximately one thousand years later. In this article it will be demonstrated that whereas proto-Elamite can be deciphered, since it is a true proto-writing system, linear Elamite cannot. It will be shown that linear Elamite is unlikely to represent a true writing system, but rather a mixed bag of pseudo-texts with a non-standardised signary, haphazardly grouped together due to origin, but not necessarily date.