is just me that cannot accept this idea?

[Cisse78]

how is it that a nation once known for being the hot spot of trade during ancient times, with some of the biggest empires interacting with us freaquently, and were one of the first people to domesticate the camel, not have had a written language? There's just no way that our people interacted with a variety of kingdoms who had a written language on multiple occasions didn't think to write down anything. I pray for day where we will be able to heavily research and excavate our historical sites.

 

[Ashraf]

Probably got lost somewhere after a big war. Amharic only survived because its protected by Ethiopians mountainous terrain

 

[SixthAbdi]

Scholars wrote in Arabic

 

[gasara]

Evidence of Ancient Somali Writing Systems

I've been struggling to come across documented images of the sites noted to contain undeciphered symbols or scripts in Somalia. There is a paragraph commenting on some sites and artifacts which contain an ancient Somali script published by the Somali Ministry of Information in 1974 below. "An...

www.somalispot.com

 

[Xassan]

Theres ancient writing that hasnt been deciphered because of lack of funding i believe, mostly in caves. We also used far wadaad which basically was aaf soomali with the arabic script (and extra letters)

 

[gasara]

I've seen some of these writings back in galbeed. I remember an Awoowe told me the whole history and everything when I was a kid I forgot everything. I was planning to go back to ask him when I graduated but he passed away AUN. I'm mad he was one of the few people who knew my family history and everything about the history of ancient somalis in my region. Idk if anyone else knows as most of the people who knew died in the 1977 war as intellectuals/teachers were targeted and killed first (what my parent told me). That Awoowe survived it since he left galbeed many years prior to the war.

 

[Maintainnnin]

We didn't domesticate the camel; it was domesticated in Asia and later introduced to Africa. Our ancestors domesticated the donkey and arguably independently domesticated cattle, but not the camel. It's a narrative we need to let go of.

 

[Aseer]

I think It was all razed to the ground by oromo migrations and when somalis switched over to nomadism we had no need for such systems and it slowly faded away, only remaining intact in the cities that survived the oromo onslaught and even then that has also faded and theres lack of archaeological research.

 

[therandomone]

Somalia thousands of ancient sites, they are mostly covered up and Somalis don't approach it, I remember my dad used to play around ancient foundation to some old buildings.

 

[Aseer]

Somalia thousands of ancient sites, they are mostly covered up and Somalis don't approach it, I remember my dad used to play around ancient foundation to some old buildings.

Theres a theory that many ancient cities along somalias coast got swallowed up by the tide

 

[Idilinaa]

how is it that a nation once known for being the hot spot of trade during ancient times, with some of the biggest empires interacting with us freaquently, and were one of the first people to domesticate the camel, not have had a written language? There's just no way that our people interacted with a variety of kingdoms who had a written language on multiple occasions didn't think to write down anything. I pray for day where we will be able to heavily research and excavate our historical sites.

I'm almost certain that Somalis did use written language during our pre-islamic history.

Spoke about it briefly before but it requires more research and archeological investigation.

We know thanks to a Greek document like The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea that there was extensive commerical activity along the Somali coast and multiple port towns. And writing is needed for record keeping for trade ,business, and to keep lists, inventory etc . And we soon get a confirmation on this by a Roman writer about one of the port towns:

Ten days rowing , further south , is the port of Isis , near which are stone pillars , with unknown letters upon them

We also know through archeological observations there are inscriptions across the interior of the region. In Laas Gaal, near Hargeysa, there are as many as 600 inscriptions in the scene; and in the Lag Oda, near Dirir Dhabe, there are about 800 of them. But these are only a few places that are investigated.

They are also all over the different place inside Somaliland & Puntland found on different Taalos(Stone mounds) , rocks and ancient burials etc , and in other caves.

Wouldn't be surprising if they wrote on some earlier Musnad script, as some inscriptions have been found but i'm uncertain if these are the same ones. It makes sense considering the geography and their neighbors. But we don't know the language content of it

Some more research and investigations need to be done on this, to know more.