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Religious Terms Subset

A curated subset of the decipherment datasets, filtered to terms related to religious rites, customs, and practices — broadly defined to include deity names, ritual vocabulary, sacred places, theological concepts, votive formulas, and activities that would have been subjects of prayer (childbirth, harvest, war, healing, sea voyages, etc.).

Files

ugaritic_hebrew_religious.tsv

~170 cognate pairs extracted from the Ugaritic-Hebrew cognate dataset, organized into:

Category Count Examples
Deity names 30+ entries El, Baal, Anat, Dagon, Shamash, Yarikh, Mot, Yam, Kothar, Resheph
Theophoric names 20+ entries Abdibaal, Ilresheph, Servant-of-Anat, Baal-Shalom, etc.
Ritual verbs 35+ entries sacrifice (dbH/zbH), bless (brk), pour libation (nsk), vow (ndr), purify (b<r), atone (kpr)
Ritual nouns 10+ entries altar (mdbH), offering (mnH), incense (qTr), tithe (<$r)
Sacred places 10+ entries temple (hkl), house/temple (bt), grave (qbr), sanctuary (mqd$), high place (bmh)
Theological concepts 30+ entries holy (qd$), soul (np$), spirit (rH), peace ($lm), grace (Hnn), righteousness (Sdq)
High-risk activities 40+ entries birth (yld), harvest (qSr), seed (zr<), vineyard (krm), rain (mTr), war (mlHm), ship (any)

Key sound correspondences visible in the data:

  • Ugaritic d = Hebrew z (e.g., dbH/zbH "sacrifice", dr</zr< "seed")
  • Ugaritic v (theta) = Hebrew $ (e.g., vr/$wr "bull")
  • Ugaritic x = Hebrew H (e.g., xlq/Hlq "portion")
  • Ugaritic $p$ = Hebrew $m$ ("sun/Shamash")

gothic_religious.tsv

~65 terms from the Gothic Bible (Wulfila's 4th-century translation), organized into:

Category Count Examples
Deity terms 7 guþ (God), frauja (Lord), Xristus, ahma (Spirit), aggilus (angel), unhulþo (demon), Satana
Ritual verbs 7 hunsl (sacrifice), bidjan (pray), weihnai (hallow), daupjan (baptize), fastan (fast)
Ritual nouns 12 alh (temple), gaqumþ (assembly), witoþ (law/Torah), giba (offering), hlaifs (bread), wein (wine), stikls (cup)
Sin/salvation 9 frawaurht (sin), lausjan (redeem), nasjan (save), galaubjan (believe), usstass (resurrection)
Sacred concepts 14 saiwala (soul), himins (heaven), halja (hell), þiudangardi (kingdom), wulþus (glory), galga (cross)
High-risk/prayed-for 10 sauhtins (sickness), hailjan (heal), gabaurþs (birth), dauþus (death), asans (harvest), fraistubni (temptation)

iberian_religious.tsv

~40 elements from the Iberian inscription corpus, organized into:

Category Count Examples
Proposed deity names 4 neitin (war deity), iltiŕ, beleś, atin
Votive formula elements 8 iunstir (dedication), ekiar ("made"), ḿi (dedicatory), eban ("gave"), seltar (tomb), śalir (silver/payment)
Onomastic elements 8 ban, bilos, baite, kutuŕ, oŕtin, sakaŕ, saltu, biuŕ
Sanctuary inscriptions 14 Full texts from Ullastret, Liria, Castellón, Alcoy, Valencia, Huesca, Murcia
Structural patterns 5 [name]:ekiar, [name]:seltar:ḿi, neitin+iunstir, [name]:eban, śalir+numeral

IMPORTANT CAVEAT: Iberian is an undeciphered language. All semantic interpretations are scholarly proposals based on archaeological context, find-spots (sanctuaries, necropoleis), and structural analysis — not confirmed translations.

Category Definitions

We use a deliberately broad definition of "religious":

  1. Deity names & epithets — Names of gods, divine titles, celestial beings
  2. Theophoric names — Personal names containing deity references (invoked in prayer)
  3. Ritual verbs — Actions of worship: sacrifice, pray, bless, vow, purify, anoint, fast, pour libations
  4. Ritual nouns — Objects and places of worship: altars, temples, offerings, incense
  5. Theological concepts — Abstract sacred ideas: holiness, sin, grace, righteousness, soul, heaven, hell
  6. Votive formulas — Dedicatory patterns: "X made this", "X gave this to deity Y"
  7. High-risk activities — Domains requiring divine intervention:
    • Fertility: childbirth, firstborn, barrenness
    • Agriculture: harvest, sowing, rain, dew, vineyard, grain, oil
    • Livestock: sacrificial animals (bull, goat, sheep, calf, ox)
    • Conflict: war, battle, enemies
    • Health: sickness, healing
    • Travel: sea voyages, journeys, roads
    • Sustenance: bread, wine, water

Usage Notes

  • All TSV files use tab separation; lines beginning with # are comments
  • The Ugaritic-Hebrew file preserves the original transliteration scheme from the NeuroDecipher cognate dataset
  • The Gothic file includes one example verse reference per term for verification
  • The Iberian file includes Hesperia reference codes (e.g., GI.15.09) that map back to iberian.csv
  • Cross-language comparison is possible via the category and subcategory columns, which use a shared taxonomy

Sources