A fresh new day, and a fresh set of web searches brings up useful information on the Jabron Cryptogram that so intrigued Alfred Weysel for his (1972) book “L’Île des Veilleurs”. Firstly, as to where it is, this 2011 post by Philippe Mathé helps us improve on “somewhere in the gorges by Jabron”:-
Au lieu-dit “le pont de l’Evescat”, entre Jabron et Le Bourguet, une inscription est gravée sur la falaise bordant l’ancienne piste templière.
Luckily, Google Maps happens to know about Le Pont de l’Evescat, so we can see that it sits between Jabron and the bridge that carries the D252 from Le Bourguet over Le Jabron river. Any Cipher Mysteries reader holidaying in Provence now knows where to point their hire car’s GPS towards. 🙂
Another thing that needed improvement was the quality of the scans: thankfully, the thunting treasure-hunting site has a couple of nice clear photos, though I’m not wholly convinced that their attempt to trace the letters worked out too well. There are lots of lines there, sure: but which are carved and which are natural? 🙁
So… just to prove it’s not easy, here’s my own attempt at tracing them:-
Personally, unless someone sensible can get there and take some properly high-res images of these, as well as others with (e.g.) raking lights shone across them, I don’t think we’ll be able to reliably tell what are merely old cracks and what are really old letters. There’s also a shape below these letters in the thunting tracing which doesn’t appear in the letters, making this all very odd and unsatisfactory (but that’s how it nearly always goes with these things, right?)
Incidentally, the same two websites (which look to have largely come from the same source) also mention some odd cryptograms allegedly found in 1942 in the wall of the chapel at Valcros nearby, and claim that there’s a large body of people investigating these mysteries. I’d be a bit surprised if that’s true, but will go and have a look for these now, and post what I find in a few weary days’ time. 🙂
7^79 =1.2904e13 if that’s any help. It’s 12.9 THz if the W is actually an omega for frequency.
Don: could be… though I have to say that it looks to me to be more of an outright mess than a mathematical notebook. But perhaps it’ll all become clearer with better pictures… 🙂
I can’t believe all these years no one ever conducted serious research in the place. I find it highly unlikely that the rocks have never undergone special photoshooting to get the maximum out of the scramblings’ lines and shapes.
Most likely it’s a naive suggestion, but (as I don’t have a membership on the treasure hunting site), has anyone tried to mesh a little bit with the full resolution pictures’ brightness and contrast, to maybe get a better view of the writing lines?
Nevertheless wall carving analysis is a pretty tedious task, especially when you work with so peculiar characters. Writing style can greatly vary from a paper-written counterpart.
Kaizokugari: the first sensible step with just about any cipher mystery is to get a high resolution image of it. Though the two photos on the thunting website are better than what we initially had, they still aren’t high enough resolution to do any subtle image analysis. Personally, I’d prefer a high-res close-up of every character, but that’s just me. 🙂
I’ve posted up everything I’ve found so far, but please don’t think that’s the whole story – there may well be much more out there (but under a different title or reference).
Sorry to disappoint u Nick — I’m not going there! 🙂
Nick, just this morning, on one of your most recent topic pages, Diane and ThomS are discussing some of the earliest writings of Armenian scribes (in re “boustrephon” writing). In this case, Diane referred us to a sample of earliest Armenian writing (an alphabet) inscribed on a rock/boulder. You might like to compare the Jabron with Diane’s offering (if you haven’t already been there).
“boustrephedon (?) abecedary (?) Something like that. And the resemblance to the Jabron is striking.
bdid1dr
Nick, I’ll try to backtrack to the discussion that ThomS and Diane have been having in re the abecedary carved into a boulder (possible attribution of Armenian alphabet). Fascinating, because it bears a very strong resemblance to the Jabron.
Nag, nag — but really in your interest. 🙂
Nick, I left a reference to a website which displays Jabron type script on rocks. your spam filter system is working on it. in the meantime I left a short note on your email. Anyway, the website is called Written in Stone. You might like to take a look at it. Quite a bit of resemblance with your offerings and the discussion ThomS and Diane are having. Good evening!
Sorry Nick, if I’ve added confusion to this page. I can no longer find the recent discussion that Diane or ThomS were having in re very elderly script which had been carved into desert rocks. The script resembled alphabet characters which basically began at the tip and spiraled inward.
I’m aware that your latest Pirate adventure is impending, so I’ll try to be patient with any feedback from you. No more posts on this page until after Halloween, I promise.
If my translation is correct, this doesn’t have anything to do with treasure…but it is interesting. According to my translation, it says: True King IV, 929 (referencing Louis IV of France). the wobbly line may indicate seas. I am not entirely certain of the second set of numbers and letters on the first line, still trying to decide if certain letters are or are not in use. The second line appears to be an update. It says something akin to the date Louis IV was crowned (19th of June) I don’t know what the 4- – part indicates yet, and there may be some letters that were obscured by the crack.
oops… It says True King IV BE (i accidentally left “be” out).
It does look like a variant of the Phoenician script. Aramaen would be possible. I wish I could read those scripts.
So I looked at the Phoenician alphabet and the Hebrew alphabet and noticed that almost all these characters have near matches. The exception being the last 4 letters, 3 of which highly resemble Aramaic, and the last highly resembling greek/latin.
The multiple scripts created some ambiguity of course but this is what it looks like to me:
(s/eyn) (p/b)rg šln ṣz(ṭ?) l(aleph?)(k/p)l
lḥ(eyn/ṣ)(q/h)(aleph?)ḥ nnṭ(aramaic style)
a(greek/latin style).