proto-Elamiteadj.n.
/ˌprəʊtəʊ ˈiːləmʌɪt/, U.S. /ˌproʊdoʊ ˈiləˌmaɪt/ A. adj.
Designating or relating to the earliest indigenous writing system known from Iran; designating or relating to the period during which this script was in use or the culture associated with it.The proto-Elamite script is thought to have been in use over a wide geographical area for a brief period around 3000 b.c. It remains largely undeciphered, however, and the relationship between proto-Elamite and the later Elamite language and culture is disputed.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > writing > system of writing > [adjective] > others
pasigraphic1797
pasigraphical1806
palaeotypic1866
proto-Elamite1906
Pascuan1940
1906 Amer. Jrnl. Archeol. 10 183 On the assumption that the Babylonian text is parallel to one of the proto-Elamite texts he attempts a translation of one of the tablets.
1942 Jrnl. Near Eastern Stud. 1 444 A transitional period..suggests infiltration rather than invasion by force. Yet..the end of the proto-Elamite settlement at Siyalk implies the latter.
2002 Jrnl. Field Archaeol. 29 246/1 No links between the Proto-Elamite system of accounting and later Elamite texts have yet been established.
B. n.
The earliest indigenous writing system known from Iran; a member of the people or culture associated with this.
ΚΠ
1909 N.E.D. at Proto- Proto-Elamite.
1915 Harvard Theol. Rev. 8 87 The discovery..of numerous inscriptions, the so-called proto Elamite, of the period before and about the time of the Babylonian Sargon.
1948 G. R. Driver Semitic Writing iii. 131 The proto-Elamites in the East and the Hittites and the Mitanni in the north devised their own systems of pictographic and cuneiform writing.
1989 J. P. Mallory In Search of Indo-Europeans ii. 44 For those requiring an exterior high culture to explain the origins of the Indus civilization.., Proto-Elamite can always serve as a popular candidate.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1906