Sims-Williams, N. (2025), ‘‘Bactrian in Two Scripts: Greek and Kushan,’’ Indo-Iranian Journal, 68(3), 185-214.
The discovery at Almosi Gorge in Tajikistan of a group of inscriptions, one in the wellknown Graeco-Bactrian script and the others in a so-called “unknown” script (hereafter referred to as the “Kushan” script), quickly led to the partial decipherment of the latter as well as to a renewed interest in the triscript inscriptions of Dasht-i Nawur in southern Afghanistan. In this article the Graeco-Bactrian and Kushan versions of these and other inscriptions are re-examined. New readings are proposed for several unidentified or wrongly identified characters of the Kushan script, leading to an improved understanding of the texts and the overall conclusion that the language of the texts in this script is Bactrian (as proposed by Harry Falk) rather than a more or less closely related Iranian language (as proposed by others).
