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Deciphering from WikiPedia:

Decipherment is the analysis of documents written in ancient languages, where the language is unknown, or knowledge of the language has been lost.

It is closely related to cryptanalysis — the difference being that the original document was not deliberately written to be difficult to decipher.

The term has also been used to describe the analysis of the genetic code information encoded in DNA - see the Human Genome Project article for more on this.

Some people have also used the word metaphorically to mean something like 'understanding'.

Examples of successful script decipherment:

• Cuneiform script
• Egyptian hieroglyphs
• Kharoshthi script
• Linear B
• Maya script

Famous documents that have been the subject of decipherments, successful or failed:

• the Behistun Inscription
• the Dresden Codex
• the Edicts of Ashoka
• the Phaistos Disc
• the Rohonc Codex
• the Rosetta Stone
• the Voynich Manuscript

Read more on WikiPedia