} ?
}
2053 2020 2082 2083 2025 2053 }

2021 2091 2092 { 2025 2094 2095
{
3000 2023 2034 { 2053 2033 3005
^-----------^
^-----------^

3010 2083 3012 2024 3014 2091

2053 3021 2023 2020 3024 2024

{ 2024 2025 2021 3033 { 2025 2034*
? { ^-----------^ { ^----
{ {
{ 2053* 3021 3042 3043 { 2035 3045
----^

3050 2083 { 2025 2034 3054 3055
_See_ 2082 {
^-----------^ {
{
2024 2020 { 2035 3063 2024 2025
^-----------^

2021 2031 2020 2021 2035 3045
^-----------^

3080 3081 2091 2093 2020 2021
^-----------^

14 cases of horizontal pairs; 4 cases of vertical pairs; 102 characters
in all, of which 51 appear more than once, so that there are but 51
independent hieroglyphs.

Here the first two lines are unchanged. In the third line we find that
2043 is the same as 2025, 2044=2020, 2045=2021, and so on, and we write
the smallest number in each case.

After this is done, connect like pairs by braces whenever they are
consecutive, either vertical or horizontal. Take the pair 2020 and 2021
for example; 2020 occurs eight times in the tablet, viz, as 2020, 2044,
2072, 2081, 3023, 3061, 3072, 3084. In five out of the eight cases, it
is followed by 2021, viz, as 2021, 2045, 2073, 3073, 3085.

It is clear this is not the result of accident. The pair 2020 and 2021
means something, and when the two characters occur together they must be
read together. There is no point of punctuation between them. We also
learn that they are not inseparable. 2020 will make sense with 2082,
3024 and 3062. Here it looks as if the writing must be read in _lines_
horizontally. We do not know yet in which direction.

We must examine other cases. This is to be noticed: If the reading is in
horizontal lines from left to right, then the progress is from top to
bottom in columns, as the case of 3035 and 3040 shows. This oc