In the village of Plougastel - Daoulas in the Finistere region of Brittany , France , there ’s a boulder that ’s only uncover at low tide . When waters recede , a cryptical inscription carve into one side becomes visible , and though it ’s write in the Latin first rudiment , no one has been able-bodied to decode the message . The only scrutable factor are the years 1786 and 1787 — indicate the sculpture is at least 230 years honest-to-god . Now , The Local Francereports that the village is offering € 2000 ( roughly $ 2242 ) to anyone who can go bad the codification .
According to the mayor of Plougastel - Daoulas , the cipher was discover on the town ’s shore a few days ago . The letters , most of which are capitalized , look like they might spell readable actor’s line from far away , but upon unaired inspection they seem to be set in no evident parliamentary law . Lines arrest gimcrack like " DRE AR GRIO SE EVELOH AR VIRIONES BAOAVEL , " and " R I OBBIIE : BRISBVILAR . " There are also moving-picture show of objects like sailing boat etched into the stone .
If the message was compose in the late eighteenth 100 as the dates indicate , various artillery batteries would have been stationed on Brittany ’s seashore , include at Corbeau Fort which is beside the site . Beyond that , town authorities have no clues as to the lettering ’s origins . Some the great unwashed think it ’s written in Basque or old Breton , but the town desire to pick up what a professional code - breaker has to say .
Plougastel - Daoulas is call on linguists , historians , academics , students , and hobbyists to canvas the sculpture and determine its signification . When all the transformation are submitted , a jury will convene to select the most likely possibility and present the computer code - breaker the € 2000 .
In some cases , even age worth of studying ciphers is n’t enough to crack a codification . A code found in the air hole of a murder victimstumped the FBIfor more than a decade , and the centuries - oldVoynich Manuscriptis still undeciphered .
[ h / tThe Local France ]
