I was just reading about ancient India and how the oldest Indus Valley transcriptions have never been deciphered.
Then there is Linear B (is it B or A? I always get them mixed up).
And somewhere along the line I remember reading that there are some Old Norse texts that haven’t been translated (even though we can translate Old Norse).
What other languages haven’t yet been deciphered, and what other languages have texts that haven’t yet been translated?
just curious. 
Despite some claims, Linear A has never been deciphered; it probably never will be, exactly, but even knowing what language it represents would be a tremendous thing.
Old Elamite leaps to mind. It’s in an ideographic script that gives very few clues to the sounds of the language. Is it the same as the later language we call “Elamite” from the 2nd and 1st Millennium? Is Elamite really related to Dravidian? Does the Indus Valley script conceal a Dravidian or proto-Dravidian language? (Brahui is still spoken up in Pakistan.) If we could be sure of that, would that help with its decipherment? Interesting questions, all.
I think many institutions around the world have archives full of stuff that has been rarely if ever read, and of course there are probably things yet to be discovered. The Dead Sea Scrolls are a famous example of texts that have not been fully deciphered yet as well as Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs, there must be many untranslated and undiscovered Egyptian inscriptions.
I was reading myself the other day about the Vindolanda Tablets which are tablets containing Roman Cursive script. It seems they have translated them but there are still misunderstandings and confusion about the script itself, though that is not really deciphering or translation that is more in the area of palaeography, though it is all related and very interesting.
oh, and while we’re on the topic:
I read some thing that said that the Rosetta Stone is the only trilingual artifact of its kind that has been found… but I have pictures of a similar thing from when I was at the Archaeological Museum in Naples. I don’t know what this one is called–but it’s a large column and has three different languages on it (I think it’s also hieroglyphs, coptic, and greek, but I might be wrong… will have to dig out the pics again). Does anyone know?
Here’s some undeciphered languages: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undeciphered_writing_systems
My favorite is probably Mixtec and other Mesoamerican languages. They’re a real treat to look at, and I’d like to learn more about these languages.
As for untranslated stuff, the organizer of my Latin philosophical text reading group says that only about 10% of medieval Latin philosophy has ever been translated. That’s something I’d like to contribute towards once my skills are more solid.
really? 10%??? that seems incredible, considering how popular Latin is. Why is the number so small? Are all the texts hiding in the Vatican or something??
I was quite surprised, too, but I assume it’s true because that’s my professor’s specialty. I think the main reason is that it’s not perceived to have much general interest. Do many people, besides those who can already read Latin, want to read long scholastic treatises on medieval metaphysics, biology, medicine, music, etc.? Obviously there’s a lot of good stuff in there, but I’m guessing they’re like gems that need to be unearthed. For example, we were reading some untranslated sections of William of Ockham, and he’s a big name philosopher. It was a long dry work on natural generation or something, but people like my professor find lots of helpful bits for their general research in philosophy.
I’m really happy about projects like the new I Tatti Renaissance Library that are publishing many important and untranslated works of Latin for a general audience. I think most of the untranslated stuff comes after the Roman empire. I’m also looking at it as an opportunity to do some practical work with my Latin once it’s good enough. It’d be cool to produce the first translations of something important.
I’d be interested to know how the field of Greek compares.
Post-classical Latin got a very bad reputation once large quantities of Cicero were once again available for whatever pleasure it is people who like Cicero get from reading him. 
Vast quantities of Medieval and Renaissance Neo-Latin remain untranslated.
I’m really happy about projects like the new I Tatti Renaissance Library that are publishing many important and untranslated works of Latin for a general audience.
I agree. In some ways I’m more interested in Latin’s zombie-like second life than I am in the classical Latin authors. Of course, I’ve been ruined for Latin by Greek.
I’d be interested to know how the field of Greek compares.
I have no idea what the numbers are. I’d be surprised if it isn’t in the same range, but the Greek situation is more complex. Unlike Latin, which split into different languages which were recognized as such fairly early, there has been a string of related languages, all called “Greek,” for nearly three millennia, each version of Greek drawing on earlier versions for inspiration, vocabulary, etc. Still, I’d guess there’s a lot of Atticist prose which hasn’t been translated. At the very least, much of the vast body of scholia remain untapped for nuggets of useful learning. I doubt, for example, Eustathius’ massive commentary on the Iliad has been translated. A little bit of searching found Latin translations of a few books of the Iliad commentary, and one contemporary person working on a translation of his much smaller Odyssey commentary — but just book one.
so how would one get their hot little hands of some of these untranslated greek and latin texts??
Big, old libraries, for one.
It sometimes seems like I’ve become a PR guy for Google Books. I know they exist only to find new ways to wave ads at my eyeballs, but there really are treasures hiding out in Google Books which can be found with a little judicious searching (hint: use Latin versions of authors’ names). Braving Gallica’s inhuman interface can be wildly rewarding.
Is there something in particular you want to read? Some area of focus? Dickey’s recent Ancient Greek Scholarship has a good discussion of the scholia, including pointing out those that have been under-utilized.
I’ll check it out.
Is there something in particular you want to read? Some area of focus? Dickey’s recent > Ancient Greek Scholarship > has a good discussion of the scholia, including pointing out those that have been under-utilized.
No, I’m just curious… I think it’d be cool to be the first to translate something… or, better, do one’s thesis on an author who hasn’t been done before. Of course I’m a long way off from being able to do either… but I like to daydream sometimes. lol
Annis, I agree, alter Latin often interests me more than classical stuff, if only because the writing is easier and on more accessible topics. I’m really enjoying Vergil Polydore’s “On Discovery.”
For what it’s worth, here is the reference for the untranslated thing I talked about:
Ockham, Summula Philosophiae Naturalis in Opera Philosophica et Theologica, 6, ed. Stephen F. Brown (St. Bonaventure, 1984)
It’s a modern edit, which is fairly surprising.
We’ve also looked at Godfrey of Fontaines’ “Quodlibets,” a bunch of theological questions. As far as I can tell there have only been piecemeal translations made of him as people deem appropriate for whatever research they’re doing. The author that is probably the best translated is Aquinas.
I imagine if you were to look into any medieval author or topic you could unearth loads of this sort of stuff.
Anyone interested in some sort of collaborative textkit open-domain “New Translations” project, for the good of humanity of course? I tried to get involved in one on Patristic authors, but I never heard back…
thesaurus - was the patristic authors one by Roger Pearse? If so, we’ve already started if you’re still interested.
No, it was actually something hosted by Faulkner University. I am interested in this Pearse thing, though. Would you email me about it? thesaurus (at) gmail (dot) com.
Sent.