The Ro-Zeta Stone

The SpecGram Puzzle Elves™

While excavating the site of an abandoned mid-to-late 20th century linguistics department, avant garde linguistic archaeologist Sheilakathryn Emilianakaterina Ro and bleeding-edge linguistic performance artist Zenia Zaira Zeta discovered what they claimed was a multi-lingual engraving made by the inhabitants of the department.

Zeta and Ro made a number of extraordinary claims for the engraving, including an extraterrestrial origin, a negative radio-carbon dated age, and a clear imprint of Chomsky’s teeth. None of these claims have been substantiated, and neither Zeta—who disappeared after leaving a note that she was being repatriated to the moon—nor Ro—who disappeared after leaving a note that she had taken a commission as an Ensign in Star Fleet—left much in the way of evidence.

Our own radio-carbon dating puts the origin of the engraving at August 13, 1987 (plus or minus 42.7 days). Unfortunately, shortly after we took the sample for the radio-carbon dating, the engraving was knocked off the table. When it hit the floor, it shattered. We were able to take a picture of it where it fell, but the only camera we could get to before the Vroomba High-Speed Lab Cleaning Robot “tidied up” was a thermal imaging camera. The result is at shown here.

While the odd false color (indicating internal temperatures ranging from 44.4°F to 44.4°C) makes the “aliens” explanation seem a bit more plausible, it seems there is a pattern here. If you can figure out what it is, you could win a valuable SpecGram magnet! Send in your solution by April 15, 2013. Winners will be announced and the solution provided in the upcoming May issue.

A couple of additional notes: (1) It seems likely that some of the pieces may have been jostled in the fall; sorry about that. (2) Our AutoGrammatikon™ AI, M.A.Y.N.A.R.D., claims she has a solution, and that she might start providing better translations if enough solutions are sent in; please help!

The solution to last month’s Move-αnαgrαms puzzle is shown here. Several puzzlemeisters correctly completed the puzzle.

Three winners will receive a SpecGram magnet of their choosing:

Adam Hesterberg • Berit Johannsen • Moritz Rathgeber

Two additional puzzle-warriors completed the puzzle correctly, but we’ve only budgeted for so many “free” magnets, so they will receive the dreaded prestigious Honorable Mention:

Tanjam Jacobson • Siva Kalyan

Thanks to all our participants, and congratulations to the winners!

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	SpecGram Vol CLXVII, No 1 Contents