Mysterious medieval inscription from Vilnius

Thanks to the redoubtable Dr. Weevil for passing this along:

Dear Colleagues,
a few days ago an inscribed copper plate has been excavated in Vilnius, Lithuania. Part of the inscription could be in Latin.
You can see a picture of the plate by clicking this link:
http://www.flf.vu.lt/strockis/lentele.jpg

The plate was found in an archeological excavation site in the historical centre of the city of Vilnius. According to the archaeologists, it was found in a layer dated 13th century AD, though other sources assess the age of the tablet variously, from 12th to even 16th century AD. Although the possibility of a hoax is not fully excluded, it is generally agreed that the plate is genuinely several centuries old.

The inscription on the plate is not clear. The first line is written in an unknown alphabet. There is a possibility of a pre-Christian Lithuanian alphabet, but no other writings in this script have been found. You can also see that some characters bear remarkable similarity to alchemy or astrology symbols. So it could perhaps be an alchemical recipe or a piece of cryptography of some kind. The second line, consisting of three 'words', is written in what seems the Latin alphabet. It could be a Latin transliteration or translation of the first line, or it could be not. Yet the text is not comprehensible . . .

I should very much appreciate any suggestions from you in reading the inscription on the plate. If by chance you participate in mailing lists more appropriate for this query, such as mediaeval Latin, mediaevalist, alchemy or astrology notation, runic script, or other, or if you know people possibly interested in this question, I would like to ask you to kindly forward them this message . . .

Thank you in advance for your help.

Mindaugas Strockis
University of Vilnius, Lithuania

If any readers have anything to contribute, comments will be forwarded to Dr. Strockis.

Posted by David on June 9, 2003 12:12 PM