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Everything about Kushan script
Partially deciphered writing system
The Kushan script is a partially deciphered writing system, an abugida, which is written from right to left. The script was used in parts of Central Asia between 600 and 200 BCE and 700 CE, including the Kushan Empire, along with Greek and Kharosthi scripts, associated with the Dà Yuèzhī of the Eurasian Steppe in ancient Bactria. Its inscriptions were discovered by archaeologists in the 1950s. Textual remnants consist of cave wall carvings and painted ceramics. Most of what was written was probably recorded on palm leaves or birch bark which had decomposed. Wikipedia →
🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path
- Read the overview: Kushan scriptA 5-minute orientation
- Skim a recent paper: A Kushan royal inscription among the Almosi rock inscriptions recently discovered in TajikistanInfluential work since 2022
- Pick up a classic book: A Heritage of Open Air Square Temple Discovered In RussiaThe most-reprinted book on the subject
- Read the landmark paper: A Partial Decipherment of the Unknown Kushan Script*Cited 5 times
- Go sideways: Issyk inscriptionA closely related topic
- Go sideways: Issyk kurganA closely related topic
📖 Definitions
No dictionary entry for this exact phrase.
🗂️ The subject at a glance
🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)
A Partial Decipherment of the Unknown Kushan Script*
Bactrian in Issyk‐Kushan Script: Additional Readings and Decipherments 1
🆕 Influential since 2022
📚 Books worth reading
A Heritage of Open Air Square Temple Discovered In Russia · 2010
A TOUR OF THE WORLDMalik Mansab Khan, Muhammad Rafique Abdul Aziz · 2025
Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.
🔗 Related topics
- Issyk inscription Issyk inscription The Issyk inscription is a yet undeciphered text, possibly in the Kushan script, found in 1969 on a silver bowl in Issyk kurgan in Kazakhstan…
- Issyk kurgan The Issyk kurgan, in south-eastern Kazakhstan, less than 20 km east from the Talgar alluvial fan, near Issyk, is a burial mound discovered in 1969. It…
- Undeciphered writing systems Undeciphered writing systems are any written or inscribed symbols for which no decipherment has achieved broad acceptance in the specialist literature…
- Kushan Empire The Kushan Empire (c. 30–c. 375 CE) was a syncretic empire formed by the Yuezhi in the early 1st century CE. Initially based in the Bactrian territories…
- Bactrian language Bactrian (Bactrian: Αριαο, romanized: ariao [arjaː], meaning "Aryan"), concurrently referred to as (Bactrian: Παχλό, romanized: Paxlo [paxloː], meaning…
- Kanishka III Ara Samrat Kanishka III (Greco-Bactrian: ΚΑΝΗϷΚΕ Kanēške; Kharosthi: 𐨐𐨞𐨁𐨮𐨿𐨐 Ka-ṇi-ṣka, Kaṇiṣka; Brahmi: Kā-ṇi-ṣka, Kāṇiṣka; Sanskrit: कनिष्क), was…
- Kanishka Kanishka I, also known as Kanishka the Great, was an emperor of the Kushan dynasty, under whose reign (c. 127–150 CE) the empire reached its zenith. He…
- Zeionises Zeionises (Greek: Ζειονίσης Zeionísēs, ΖΕΙΟΝΙϹΟΥ Zeionisou (epigraphic); Kharosthi: 𐨗𐨁𐨱𐨂𐨣𐨁𐨀 Ji-hu-ni-a, Jihunia, 𐨗𐨁𐨱𐨆𐨞𐨁𐨐 Ji-ho-ṇi-ka, Jihoṇika;)…