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Amazon Warriors' Names Revealed Amid "Gibberish" on Ancien

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Translations reveal Amazons' names such as Don't Fail and Hot Flanks hidden in ancient "nonsense" inscriptions. In the forthcoming study of pottery dating from 550 B.C. to 450 B.C., study lead author Adrienne Mayor and J. Paul Getty Museum assistant curator David Saunders translated Greek inscriptions into their phonetic sounds for 12 ancient vases from Athens. The inscriptions appear next to scenes of Amazons fighting, hunting, or shooting arrows. 

 

They next submitted just the phonetic transcriptions without explanation to linguist John Colarusso of Canada's McMaster University in Hamilton, who is an expert on rare languages of the Caucasus. He translated the inscriptions into names—such as Princess, Don't Fail, and Hot Flanks—without knowing the details of the pictures of Amazons.  The report in the journal Hesperia gives linguists unparalleled insight into languages last spoken more than 2,500 years ago around the Black Sea. This area was the realm of Scythian nomads, who fought and traded with the Greeks...

 

...via National Geographic

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...thanks to Adrienne Mayor who pointed me in the right direction, the whole article for free

 

The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens

Making Sense of Nonsense Inscriptions Associated with Amazons and Scythians on Athenian Vases

http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/Hesperia_83_3_Amazons_Mayor.pdf

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Really interesting article. Love the name "Hot Flanks" - might consider using it when signing up in another discussion board.  :P

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